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Account Engagement (Pardot) is now a dwindling skillset as Salesforce has shown its strongest signal that the platform is no longer a part of the roadmap. The certification is being phased out, which means a 'Pardot consultant' could instead become an Agentforce marketer.
5 mins
I founded MarCloud as a Pardot consultancy back in December 2017, travelling the world and helping businesses get the most out of the platform. Recently, I received an email from Salesforce telling me that the Pardot Consultant certification is being retired and potentially replaced with an Agentforce marketing consultant certification. So, I wanted to write an article reflecting on the platform that built my business.
For everyone's benefit, when I say Pardot throughout this blog I also mean MCAE / Marketing Cloud Account Engagement. These names all mean the same thing and are often used interchangeably.
All opinions are my own.
Pardot as a platform is still alive. However, 16 certifications have been renamed and 24 have been retired. The renaming is another move towards Agentforce and the retirement suggests it doesn't fit in with the Agentforce vision. The Pardot certification was within the latter.
It makes sense. Pardot as a platform hasn't been developed or improved in such a long time and has been collecting digital dust. In my view, the announcement that the Pardot Consultant certification is being retired comes as no shock but instead acts as another sign that the end is coming for Pardot. I stand by my prediction back in January 2026 where I said "This year, my opinion is Account Engagement (Pardot) will be added to the retirement list as Salesforce continues to build Agentforce Marketing (Marketing Cloud Advanced)".
To give reassurance to my Pardot consultant friends - Salesforce taking the certification away does not mean the skillset or demand has disappeared. In fact, there are still a lot of companies frustrated with:
An archaic email builder that requires a developer to build templates
A clunky integration with Salesforce and regular sync errors
A lack of UTM tracking and campaign attribution insights
Bot clicks interfering with reports and falsely conveying opens/clicks
Confusing scoring models and neglected automations
A lot of our clients are still on Pardot and support is needed, even if the badge no longer exists!
The actual retirement confirmation can be seen here alongside the full list of retired certifications, here.
Pardot had a simple architecture with its own database and close alignment with Leads, Contacts, Accounts and Opportunities in Salesforce. This is very simple to understand and the real skillset of a good Pardot Consultant has always been in understanding business problems and processes. They would then create a solution and translate this into the Pardot platform.
Nowadays, it's not as straightforward.
Introducing Marketing Cloud Next aka Marketing Cloud Advanced aka Marketing Cloud On-Core which is built on Data Cloud aka Data360 (Salesforce loves multiple names for products).
Data360 is a CDP (customer data platform) which is not owned by marketing teams, it is owned mostly by Data Analytics or IT teams because of its highly technical, data-driven environment.
So what, Tom?
For marketing teams who have traditional marketing skillsets, MC Next may be a little too technical to manage. Especially because every single automation, including campaigns, are managed in Salesforce Flow.
In Pardot today, a marketer can create a dynamic list and send a campaign.
In MC Next, you need to trust that the Identity Resolution match rates are correct so that the unified profile set up in Data360 is working correctly.
Marketing teams who want to adjust or manage the data will need a level of Data360 (Data Cloud) permission that some companies won't allow.
What I am saying here, is that there's a steep learning curve for B2B marketers and the shape of the team may need to change to align with the technology.
Pardot uses a connector with permissions to sync with Salesforce.
The HubSpot Salesforce integration is built the same way and can be configured to behave however needed. Custom objects can integrate and records can be created/edited/updated as required.
For B2B marketers using Pardot, the move from Pardot to HubSpot is often a smoother and easier transition than Pardot to Marketing Cloud Next, largely due to the architectural similarities.
Watch the Pardot vs HubSpot webinar.
See 13 features you gain in HubSpot that you do not get in Pardot.
It's a subtle message that Pardot has reached the end of the road and it's only a matter of time.
The question for your business is, are you aligned to Salesforce's vision of a CDP with Marketing Cloud on top?
Whether that's a yes or a no, you need to be thinking about your next steps today.
I speak with businesses every week about which direction they should go: HubSpot or Marketing Cloud Advanced (Next).
If you are unsure about whether to stabilise Pardot, migrate to HubSpot or converge into Marketing Cloud Next, book a Pardot consultation with me to talk about your direction of travel and I'll help you navigate.
Founder & CEO of MarCloud, Tom has been on both sides of the fence, client-side and agency, working with Salesforce platforms for the best part of a decade. He's a Salesforce Marketing Champion and certified consultant who loves to co-host webinars and pen original guides and articles. A regular contributor to online business and marketing publications, he's passionate about marketing automation and, along with the team, is rapidly making MarCloud the go-to place for Marketing Cloud and Salesforce expertise. He unapologetically uses the terms Pardot, Account Engagement and MCAE interchangeably.
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When marketing ROI is under scrutiny, our instinct is to do more. We launch more HubSpot campaigns, set up more automations, and get more contacts flowing into the funnel. Obviously, this is logical, but the answer is not always more activity; it is better foundations. In particular, it’s having better HubSpot database foundations.
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MarCloud is a team of certified Pardot, HubSpot, Marketing Cloud, and Salesforce specialists. We help businesses to unlock the potential of marketing automation. Join 2,000+ professionals who receive actionable insights to boost their automation performance.
Sign up to the newsletterGet your hands on the exact migration process MarCloud follows for Marketing Cloud and HubSpot, plus tips for integrating your new account with Salesforce CRM.
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