What’s coming in Einstein Analytics for B2B marketers
People that know me… and maybe read my blog… would know that I work a lot with Pardot and Einstein Analytics. So the joined solution is definitely interesting. I’ve been looking into this project since it was launched and this month I attended the Pardot Partner Summit, where this solution was discussed. I am very keen on the direction the product is taking and thought I would give some of the insights I gained during the roadmap session. Remember that most of what I will cover in this blog is not yet available, hence Salesforce’s forward-looking statement that we have come to know very well applies.
Pardot is becoming native
This might not mean so much for the regular Einstein Analytics user, but it’s huge for the Pardot user. Why? Well, data is stored in Pardot, not Salesforce and therefore not accessible for Einstein Analytics using the standard dataset builder and data flow. Dataset is currently updated in a “hidden” connection that we mortals cannot touch. With Pardot being native in Salesforce – including activities, yes that’s correct – we can pretty much access anything we want with the standard Einstein Analytics tool, and better yet combine it all with any Salesforce data. So if you wanted to create a dataset with Pardot data as well as opportunity data then knock yourself out. And the cool thing is this is all coming without you having to worry about storage limits.
It’s an app!
Another thing you might have noticed about the B2B marketing dashboards is that they just appear in Einstein Analytics after you have enabled it outside of Einstein Analytics. But if you want to use the Sales and Service dashboards you will create a new app and it will generate the dashboards with your customizations. My understanding is this is the direction for the B2B marketing dashboards as well. It will be great because I can only assume that is will allow for more customization of the dashboards through the app creation which can only be a benefit to you.
Flow of data
Pardot being native to Salesforce also means that Einstein Analytics can use the regular data flow. It also means you have 100% insight into any transformation done to your dataset and if you wanted to modify your flow of data you can. As it is now it’s a little hard to understand how data has been modified before it appears in Einstein Analytics and there are certain calculations or structure of dataset you may not agree with. I know this has been the case for me especially in the velocity calculation. But with the switch to native Salesforce data and dashboard creation via the app we get more control over the flow of data.
Multi-touch attribution
This feature is actually here, or so I have been told! And it is pretty cool. We as Pardot peeps have often had the issue of first-touch vs. multi-touch campaigns (Pardot campaigns vs. Salesforce campaigns). The fact is that marketers want to not only know first-touch but also last-touch campaigns and thereby be able to measure the effectiveness of all campaigns in different scenarios. Well, Pardot and Salesforce has acknowledged this and has introduced not only first-touch and last-touch campaigns but also even-touch campaigns. It demands a little setup in Salesforce, but I definitely find this new functionality highly useful for marketers.
When, when, when?
This all sounds great! But you are probably asking yourself, when will we see it? Some of it will be available from Spring18 where other elements are coming in Summer18 and onwards. It’s really hard to say what will come when and of course there is the forward-looking statement but we should really see some cool changes soon-ish. So thanks to Danielle Grau and her team for working on this!
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