Integrating LinkedIn Ads with Pardot (Account Engagement) – From Lead Gen to ROI
By Valeriu Moraru — Salesforce Consultant | Data-Informed Strategies Advocate
Executive Summary
B2B marketers increasingly rely on LinkedIn Ads to generate high-quality leads. Pardot (Account Engagement) offers a connector for LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms, but this only solves the “top of funnel” problem — bringing leads into Salesforce quickly.
When it comes to measuring ROI (Ad Spend vs. Revenue), marketers often discover that Pardot alone is not enough. This white paper explores three architectural options:
- Marketing Cloud Intelligence (Datorama) — the end-to-end solution,
- Salesforce Campaigns + Ad Spend integration — the Salesforce-native approach,
- UTM tracking + Pardot — the lightweight starting point.
The Challenge: From Clicks to Closed Revenue
Marketers need more than lead capture. They must connect three different data domains:
- Ad spend & performance metrics (impressions, clicks, conversions from LinkedIn).
- Lead & opportunity data (from Salesforce CRM and Pardot).
- Revenue outcomes (Closed Won opportunities).
Without linking these datasets, ROI calculations remain incomplete — leaving leadership blind to Cost per Lead (CPL), Cost per Opportunity (CPO), Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC), and Return on Ad Spend (ROAS).
Option A — Marketing Cloud Intelligence
Marketing Cloud Intelligence is Salesforce’s purpose-built platform for media data ingestion and harmonization.
How it works:
- Connect LinkedIn Ads via pre-built connectors.
- Pull daily metrics (spend, impressions, clicks, conversions).
- Join with Salesforce CRM data (Leads, Campaign Members, Opportunities).
- Generate dashboards: CPL, CPO, CAC, ROAS.
- Optionally, write back aggregated costs into Salesforce Campaigns for visibility.
Pros
- Fastest to value, with robust connectors and governance.
- Multi-channel, multi-currency, executive-ready dashboards.
Cons
- Additional license cost.
- Requires integration if you want data pushed back into Salesforce.
Best for: organizations with multi-channel media spend and executive demand for unified ROI reporting.
Option B — Salesforce Campaigns + Ad Spend Object
For teams without Intelligence, Salesforce Campaigns can become the “ROI hub” by adding a custom Ad Spend object.
Design
- Campaigns remain the master marketing hierarchy.
- Ad_Spend__c object (daily grain) tracks spend, impressions, clicks, conversions.
- Link each record to the Campaign via LinkedIn Campaign ID.
Data Ingestion
- Manual: export LinkedIn Ads reports and import via Data Loader.
- Automated: use LinkedIn Marketing API (
/adAnalyticsV2) with middleware (MuleSoft, Make.com, AWS/Azure jobs).
Reporting
- CRM Analytics or B2B Marketing Analytics (B2BMA) joins Campaign spend ↔ Leads/Opportunities ↔ Revenue.
- Enables metrics like CPC, CPL, CAC, ROAS directly in Salesforce.
Pros
- 100% Salesforce-native.
- Works with existing Campaign Influence models.
Cons
- You own the ETL process (API tokens, currency conversion, error handling).
- Higher maintenance overhead.
Best for: Salesforce-centric organizations with IT resources to build and maintain integrations.
Option C — UTMs + Pardot + Campaigns
A lean approach: use UTMs to track attribution in Pardot, without importing spend initially.
How it works:
- Enforce strict UTM standards in LinkedIn ads (
utm_source=linkedin,utm_medium=paid-social, etc.). - Pardot captures UTMs via forms and landing pages.
- Leads and Campaign Members inherit UTMs for attribution.
- ROI reporting remains incomplete unless spend is later imported (Option B).
Pros
- Quickest to deploy.
- Clean attribution for source, medium, campaign.
Cons
- No ROI until spend is imported.
- Risk of inconsistent UTMs without governance.
Best for: companies starting their journey, focused first on attribution.
Comparing the Three Approaches
| Approach | ROI Capability | Setup Effort | Maintenance | Best Fit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence | Full ROI (Spend → Revenue) | Medium | Low (managed connectors) | Multi-channel orgs, exec dashboards |
| Campaigns + Ad Spend | Full ROI (if spend imported) | High | Medium/High | Salesforce-centric teams with dev capacity |
| UTMs only | Attribution, no ROI | Low | Low | Starting point, attribution focus |
Role of B2BMA and Data Cloud
- B2BMA (B2B Marketing Analytics): excellent for Salesforce data visualization, but requires spend data first imported into Salesforce (Option B).
- Data Cloud: powerful for identity resolution and segmentation, but not a media ETL tool. Use it once spend and lead data are already harmonized.
- Intelligence: purpose-built for marketing data harmonization.
Best Practices
- Currency & FX: convert LinkedIn account currency to org currency daily.
- Time zones: normalize to UTC for daily grains.
- Campaign hierarchy: use parent/child Campaigns (Brand ► Region ► Platform ► Campaign).
- UTM governance: enforce naming standards to ensure clean attribution.
- QA & reconciliation: compare LinkedIn totals vs. Salesforce totals weekly.
Conclusion
Pardot alone cannot deliver full ROI tracking for LinkedIn Ads. Marketers must choose between:
- a purpose-built solution (Marketing Cloud Intelligence),
- a Salesforce-native build (Campaigns + Ad Spend object), or
- a lightweight attribution approach (UTMs only).
The right path depends on maturity, resources, and executive reporting needs.
Whatever the choice, the goal remains the same: close the loop from spend to revenue, and prove marketing’s impact on growth.
