3D eBook cover with text Mastering Pardot Engagement Studio
Free ResourceDownload now

This blog was written before Pardot was renamed to Marketing Cloud Account Engagement. You can read more about the name change and what it means here.

Don’t you just hate it when you want to quickly find a sentence from the Pardot documentation that validates what you thought, but what you thought would take 2 minutes eventually turns into an endless pit of searching, worse than any YouTube hole you’ve ever gone through? Before you know it you’ve spent at least half an hour looking at the same articles…

Basically, this happened to me today and I found myself amending such minor keywords on my Google search to find the information I wanted.

It went like this:

  • Tom Search 1: Is the Pardot criteria greater than inclusive or exclusive’
  • Tom Search 2: Pardot automation criteria greater than exclusive inclusive’
  • Tom Search 3: Pardot number field automation inclusive or exclusive’
  • Tom Search 4: Pardot greater than less than number field includes value or’
  • Tom Search 5: Did Pardot leave this out of the documentation as part of a big joke on me lol thought so’

Hence this blog. I think I wrote it more for me as I know I’ll be referring back to it at some point, but if I can save just 1 person from that time spent on Google, then I’ll be content with that.

The Logic

Pardot automation rule criteria

Is empty

Translation: Is your field value empty aka it has literally nothing in it.

Is not empty

Translation: Does your field have something in it.

It’s all going well so far…

Is

Translation: Needs to be a perfect match (even upper/lower case)

Isn’t

Translation: Anything other than what you chose.

Here we go, the part that cost me 30-60 minutes of my day. Writing this feels like I’m playing a game for the 2nd time through and I’ve got to the final boss. I’ve already beat this boss before, but it still makes me nervous…

Exclusive = the number you type in will be excluded

Inclusive = the number you type in will be included

Greater than (EXCLUSIVE)

Translation: This is an exclusive field which means if you say greater than 2’, then 2’ is not included. It’s like saying anything more than 2, but not 2’.

Less than (EXCLUSIVE)

Translation: Also exclusive. It’s like saying Less than 2, but not 2. So basically 0 or 1’.

Is between (INCLUSIVE)

Translation: This one is inclusive which means if you say is between 1 and 9’ it means 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 and 9’

Date Fields

Pardot date field automation criteria

For some reason, date fields have been labeled a lot clearer. So much so, that I don’t really even need to write anything about it! Three simple words that can save someone 30-60 mins of their life (+ the time it took to write this blog).

I’m sure there are other Pardot details that you might be dealing with too, so drop me a message. Let’s work through it together.

Tom Ryan headshot

Tom Ryan

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.

More by Tom Ryan

Featured resource

3D eBook cover with text Mastering Pardot Engagement Studio

Mastering Pardot Engagement Studio

Want to become a master user of Engagement Studio? We’ve saved you the blood, sweat and tears of learning how to make the most of Engagement Studio so you can jump right in and start building logical, effective engagement programs faster.

Download now
View all resources

More recent posts

View all articles
B2BMA Nirvana by MarCloud logo and illustrated characters

Ready to reach marketing nirvana?

Our market-leading framework, 'B2BMA Nirvana by MarCloud', addresses every part of Account Engagement (Pardot) and your Salesforce ecosystem. Using this framework, MarCloud experts have the wisdom and experience to guide you on the path to complete marketing and reporting clarity.

Reach the highest state of Salesforce marketing so you can save time, deliver quality leads, and generate more revenue using Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (Pardot) and other Salesforce platforms. Whatever your current circumstance, we'll get you to a place where everything works.

B2BMA Nirvana by MarCloud
Illustrated characters holding a MarCloud banner

Sign up to the MarCloud Newsletter

MarCloud is a team of certified Pardot, Marketing Cloud, and Salesforce specialists. We help businesses to unlock the potential of marketing automation. Sign up to receive regular Marketing Cloud content to help you align your technology with your business goals.

Sign up to the newsletter

Free Engagement Studio Guide

We’ve saved you the blood, sweat and tears of learning how to make the most of Engagement Studio so you can jump right in and start building logical, effective engagement programs faster.

Download now