by Kyle Blacker 
When hearing “API” (application programming interface) crop up, you might think to go straight to your development team and leave it with them. You’re right in thinking the mechanics of how this works is very much a developer task, but it’s important as a Consultant or Account Engagement (Pardot) admin to understand the capabilities that it provides. At least from a high-level perspective, making you feel empowered to spot potential use cases where the API could come into play and leverage your use of Account Engagement (Pardot).
Let’s break it down:
What is an API?
To put it simply; an API allows different systems to talk to each other and share information where they may natively otherwise be unable to do so.
Example:
It’s that time of year again when you need to renew your car insurance. You go to a comparison site, enter your details and it magically returns dozens of quotes from different companies in mere seconds. This is thanks to API’s!
The comparison site takes your information, uses the API to send it to all of these different insurance companies’ systems and says to them “hey, with this information can you give me quotes for the customer?”, those external systems then return relevant data via the API back to the comparison site in the form of quotes.
What does Account Engagement’s API do?
As of writing, Account Engagement has 3 API versions; V3, V4, and V5. Each version has its own capabilities based on your org’s settings and what it is you’d like to do. All API versions give you access to; Prospects, visitors, activities, opportunities, and other data.
So why are there 3 versions and what are the differences, I hear you ask?
Well to get a better understanding of what each version does we highly recommend you to take a glance at the objects these versions can interact with via the official API documentation.
That being said, the key differences are:
- V3 – Available for accounts with AMPSEA disabled
- V4 – Available for accounts with AMPSEA enabled
- V5 – Available for all accounts
Why use V3 or V4 if all accounts have access to V5?
Good question! The reason for this is because there are some objects that V5 can’t talk to but V3 or V4 can. You can find more information about their capabilities in the API documentation mentioned above. Each API version can be used interchangeably. So don’t think your devs will only be able to use one for a particular integration.
There are 3 key features that the API allows you to make use of:
Object API:
Work with Pardot Salesforce objects like Campaigns, Opportunities, Prospects, and more.
Export API:
Retrieve large sets of data when you don’t need synchronous completion responses or when query limitations are too restrictive.
Import API:
Insert or update large amounts of data e.g. import a CSV file of prospects.
Zoe Fisher
Principal Marketing Automation Consultant
Looking for help with Account Engagement?
To put those points into perspective, some common use cases are:
- Data Augmentation; Mass cleaning data, Integrations.
Mass update picklist values using the API to normalise data or update prospect name fields that are in all uppercase to standardise data. - Segmentation; Complex queries, Customer Data Platforms
Have another system with the majority of your prospect data? Use the Pardot API to get the data you need from Pardot and segment in the other system. - Advanced Reporting; External tools such as PowerBI, Really cool apps (Enhanced Engagement History)
Leverage the API to push data to your external reporting tools to keep your dashboards accurate and up to date. - Bespoke solutions; Querying Prospect data, external process happens involving a decision, updating data, Business Unit custom sync solutions
Hopefully, you now have a general understanding of what an API is and what the Account Engagement API can do. But before you go, it is important to remember that the API does have limitations to what it can and cannot do so it is always best to refer to official documentation before recommending/ suggesting use cases. Another thing to take into consideration is that depending on the edition your account is, you will have daily limits to the amount of times you can call upon the API. This means there is a limit to the number of times systems can talk to each other in a day.