Salesforce Marketing Cloud integration with AID

Audience: Technical Marketers, Marketing and Lifecycle Teams

This guide will walk you through:

Setting up SFMC as a destination in Hightouch
Enabling supported channels (email, SMS, push, in-app)
Configuring message templates and variable mappings
Testing your messages across SFMC entry points

Overview

Hightouch’s AI Decisioning (AID) helps you deliver real-time, personalized messages based on live customer context and predictions. By connecting AID with Salesforce Marketing Cloud (SFMC), you can automatically send tailored messages—like product recommendations or abandoned cart nudges—through your existing SFMC email, SMS, push, and in-app channels.

With this integration, you can:

Automatically trigger messages from AID Agents via SFMC Triggered Sends or Journeys
Personalize SFMC templates using dynamic variables from Hightouch—no custom code required
Manage messaging and targeting logic in one place: Hightouch

1. Set up SFMC as a Destination

Already configured SFMC? Even if you’ve previously set SFMC up as a destination, you’ll still need to apply the specific permissions and scopes outlined below.

Why these permissions matter

To send messages through SFMC using AID, Hightouch needs access to certain channels, content, and user data. These permissions allow Hightouch to:

Trigger messages via Triggered Send and Journey Builder
Read and update subscriber data
Access and personalize email, SMS, push, and in-app templates

Connect SFMC and grant permissions

In SFMC:

Create an installed package in SFMC until you reach Set Server-to-Server Properties
Under Channels, enable the permissions for each message type you want Hightouch to use (read, write, send, publish, or post)

Click Save

In Hightouch:

Continue setting up the SFMC destination until you reach the the Custom Scopes step
Under Advanced permissions > Custom Scopes, paste in the following:

email_read email_write email_send accounts_read data_extensions_read data_extensions_write journeys_read journeys_write journeys_aspr journeys_execute list_and_subscribers_write list_and_subscribers_read push_read push_write push_send

Click Test Connection to verify that setup is complete.

2. Add channels in AI Decisioning

Channels define the type of message you want to send—like email,SMS, push, or in-app—and how Hightouch delivers it through SFMC.

By enabling a channel, you’re telling Hightouch how to send the output of your AID Agent (e.g., a product recommendation or promotional message) and where to send it.

Shared steps for adding a channel

Go to AI Decisioning > Configuration
In Channels, click Add Channel
Select the channel type: Email, SMS, Push, or In-App
Choose Salesforce Marketing Cloud as the destination
Select a Sync Type
- Triggered Send: Sends a 1:1 message in real time
- Journey Entry: Sends as part of a journey workflow
Choose an Identifier
- This should match the Subscriber Key field in SFMC (e.g. email or user ID)
- This is how SFMC matches each message to the right recipient
Click Add Channel, then Save changes

Sync type comparison

The Sync Type determines how Hightouch sends messages through SFMC. Here’s a breakdown of the available options:

Channel	Triggered Send	Journey
Email	✅	✅
SMS	✅	✅
Push	✅	✅
In-App	❌	✅

Sync type	Best for	Set up notes
Triggered send	Real-time, event-based sends where each message is tied to a single user action	Requires send classification: - Use Commercial for marketing content (users can opt out) - Use Transactional for system notifications (users can’t opt out)
Journey entry	Automated, multi-step campaigns (e.g. onboarding, reminders, retargeting)	Select the Synced user columns (e.g. email, name, product interest) you want to sync. These fields will be available inside the journey’s data extension and can be used for personalization or decision splits.
Data Extension (advanced)	Batch sends and advanced setups	Requires managing delivery logic and scheduling within SFMC (outside of Hightouch).

3. Add Actions

Once channels are configured, you can add AID actions that trigger SFMC messages. Each action links an AID Agent decision to a specific template in SFMC.

Shared steps for adding an action

Go to AI Decisioning > Agents and select an agent
Go to the Configuration tab
Click Add Actions
Choose your configured SFMC channel (e.g., Email - SFMC Trigger)
Select the appropriate template or event identifier from SFMC
Name your action and click Create Action

You can repeat this process for any channel (email, SMS, push, in-app) and any sync type.

Continue the set up process in the following sections:

4. Link AID actions to SFMC templates

Send emails via Triggered Send

Follow the steps to add channels. Make sure the selected Sync Type is Triggered Send

Follow the steps to add an action.

Close out the window that opens for now and return to the Configuration view
Click the link in your newly created action under Destination Resource
This will prompt you to log in to SFMC, and should open the Email Studio > Interactions page.
Click Triggered Sends

Select the send name that corresponds with your newly created action
Click Start/Restart

Return to Hightouch, and select your action once again
In the content tab, set the variables and click Send Test

Send emails via Journey

Follow the steps to add channels. Make sure the selected Sync Type is Journey entry

Follow the steps to add an action

In the content tab that opens, set the variables and click Send Test

Send SMS text messages via Triggered Send

Follow the steps to add channels. Make sure the selected Sync Type is Triggered Send

Follow the steps to add an action.

In the content tab that opens, set the variables and click Send Test

Send SMS text messages via Journey

Follow the steps to add channels. Make sure the selected Sync Type is Journey entry

Follow the steps to add an action.

In the Content tab that opens, set the variables and click Send Test

Send push (outbound) notifications via Triggered Send

Enable the in-app channel

Follow the steps to add channels. Make sure the selected Sync Type is Triggered Send

Configure your push template in SFMC

In SFMC:

Go to Mobile Studio > MobilePush
Click Create Message

Select the Outbound template and click Next
Name your message and select your app
Select API Triggered as the Send Method
Select Alert as the Push Method and click Next

You can only trigger Alert Only, or Inbox Only messages, and not Alert + Inbox.

Create the template for your push alert
Save your message

Click Send in the top right-hand corner
An activation window should pop up with an API key. Copy/save this API key to make it easier to find the template in Hightouch in a later step

Create an action in Hightouch

In Hightouch:

Follow the steps to add an action.

Preview content

Hightouch automatically creates the variables for push notifications title, subtitle, and body, for the users to configure, the values supplied here can are then used directly in the push without any need for code snippets being pasted in the template. If these are left blank then Hightouch will use the default values in the template.

Note: Hightouch uses the override capabilities in the API and so the default values in the template for everything get overrode if even one of the variables has a value supplied for it, so make sure to supply at least the default value for all the variables even if you only want AID varying one variable.

Send tests

To test push notifications, paste whatever you use as the contact key in your contacts in SFMC.

Personalization strings can be supplied directly in the values for the variables without any need for code snippets being pasted into the template either.