Mastering Marketing Cloud Integration with Salesforce [Webinar]

David Spelman, Senior Lead Consultant , and Tom Ryan, MarCloud Consulting founder and Salesforce-certified consultant, hosted the ‘Marketing Cloud Journeys & Salesforce Campaign Integration’ webinar. 

Between them, they’ve worked with organisations across industries to streamline how Salesforce and Marketing Cloud work together. It’s not surprising, then, that the session was packed with practical insights into making Marketing Cloud integration with Salesforce easier, smarter, and more impactful.

If you missed it, don’t worry. Hit play on the recording below, or read on for a full recap covering everything from real-life use cases to AI tools and integration tips.

First up, we touched on how versatile Marketing Cloud Engagement is. It’s not just for one type of marketing team. Whether you’re B2B, B2C, or both, and whether you rely on email, mobile, advertising, or all of the above, Marketing Cloud Engagement can handle it. The challenge is in the setup.

One myth we hear time and again is that Marketing Cloud Engagement is “just for emails.” This couldn’t be further from the truth.

Journey Builder gives you access to a range of channels, including email, SMS, WhatsApp, app push notifications, and advertising platforms. And when connected with Salesforce Campaigns, the possibilities grow.

In the webinar, we explored several practical use cases:

• Triggering sales tasks when a lead reaches a certain stage in a journey

• Sending automated emails based on behaviour or status changes

• Updating prospect profiles in real time as contacts engage

• Syncing campaign statuses to keep the CRM team in the loop

In short, Marketing Cloud becomes a lot more powerful when your journeys and campaigns are connected and speaking the same language.

A highlight of the webinar was a live walkthrough of how Salesforce Campaigns and Journey Builder work together. Key moments included:

• Using Salesforce Campaigns as entry sources for journeys

• Configuring campaign member data so leads and contacts follow the correct path

• Syncing results with Marketing Cloud Connect, either in real time or every 15 minutes

Our team stressed the importance of ticking the MC Connect checkbox to capture individual email results in Salesforce. Without it, your reporting won’t show what happened - only that something was sent.

We also showed how you can automatically update campaign member statuses. For example, from “New ” to “Sent Email” based on real engagement.

Of course, integration is just the beginning. What matters next is building journeys that convert.

The team shared several building blocks for a strong customer engagement journey:

• Start with your goals. What does success look like before you start dragging journey steps?

• Use Contact Builder to map out your data structure - rushing this step causes headaches later.

• Segment effectively. Data Extensions and SQL in Automation Studio give you power and flexibility.

• Personalise with dynamic content and AMPScript to boost relevance without manual effort.

• Always test. Journey testing, A/B testing, and Path Optimizer should be part of your standard process.

Done right, you’ll spend less time fixing issues post-send and more time scaling your successes.

As we said in the webinar, Marketing Cloud does not replace Salesforce CRM, it complements it.

MC Connect is the ‘glue’ between the two. But like any adhesive, how you apply it matters. We discussed:

• How often to sync - and why syncing everything is a mistake (it eats up contacts and costs)

• Only syncing consented contacts to avoid compliance and cost issues

• Using Object Activity to update lead records and campaign information based on interactions

• Creating custom Salesforce reports to track campaign ROI and prove marketing value

We also covered common pitfalls, like syncing too many contacts or not mapping campaign member statuses, which can quickly snowball into inaccurate data and internal frustration.

Next up: making your customer journey efforts go further with the help of Salesforce AI.

The webinar covered several useful Einstein features:

• Send Time Optimisation to improve engagement  rates

• Engagement Scoring to focus on  hot leads or win back cold ones

• Engagement Frequency to avoid over-communicating

We also touched on generative AI. You can now use built-in tools to draft subject lines, preview text, and even body copy, all aligned to your brand tone.

It’s not about replacing marketers, it’s about helping us move faster, test more, and refine as we go. The best marketers are learning how to feed in prompt structure, tone of voice, and past performance data for the best results.

We wrapped up with a fast-paced Q&A session. Some of the best advice shared:

• Set clear journey goals before building

• Avoid an email-only mindset - multi-channel always wins

• Don’t skip CRM integration if you want meaningful ROI reporting

• Use Einstein AI to work smarter, not just harder

• No, you can’t use multiple journey entry sources, but segment your data into one final audience 

Exporting contacts for reporting is fine, just watch consent and contact limits

If you’ve ever felt that Marketing Cloud is too complex or too disconnected from Salesforce to be useful, you’re not alone. But with the right technical setup, the platform becomes a powerhouse for automated, personalised, and measurable campaigns.

Our webinar proves that Marketing Cloud integration with Salesforce doesn’t have to be overwhelming; it just needs structure, strategy, and the right support.

Struggling to make Marketing Cloud and Salesforce work together? Contact MarCloud to learn how our specialists can help you deliver real marketing ROI.