Question from user:
Hey Everyone,
Bit stumped here, we are engaging in Native Linkedin Ad Lead Gen forms, currently, we have the native LinkedIn/Salesforce connector active and all new leads are being sent to Salesforce but not being assigned to any specific campaign, so we are having to export each Linkedin campaign via CSV and then Salesforce import anyone who downloaded our content through manual imports/exports to assign them to their specific Salesforce campaigns for tracking and nurture follow up.
Question is, is there anyway through hidden Linkedin form fields can we have any leads that are sent over via the native connector automatically get added into specific Salesforce campaigns or do we need to acquire a 3rd party connector to handle something like this?
We tried doing hidden field “Campaign Member: Member” with the specific Salesforce Campaign ID as the value, but that didn’t work.
Trying to eliminate manual imports for this to build an “always on drip funnel” with under 24 hours from download to first nurture email via Pardot.
Thanks!
Answer from Nabil:
I see your struggle, that manual import/export loop is a real time-killer and a huge roadblock to your “always on drip funnel” goal.
Short summary is that the native LinkedIn/Salesforce connector often lacks the granularity to auto-assign a campaign member, and the hidden field approach you tried isn’t designed to create a Campaign Member record directly upon lead creation, even if it could pass the ID.
To reliably and instantly route leads into a specific Salesforce Campaign and trigger a Pardot nurture journey, you absolutely need a more robust integration, likely a third-party solution or a custom-built API connection.
The reason your hidden field attempt failed is that while you can use hidden fields in the LinkedIn Lead Gen form to pass data to a Lead or Contact field in Salesforce (like a custom text field for LinkedIn Campaign ID), the act of creating the Campaign Member record is a separate process in Salesforce, not a simple field mapping on lead creation.
The native connector usually only maps lead/contact fields and sets the Lead Source.
A much better, more flexible, and fully automated solution for your use case involves using the Salesforce API, Salesforce Account Engagement (Pardot) API, LinkedIn Conversions API, Google Tag Manager (GTM), and a server-side tagging solution like Stape or Google Cloud Platform (GCP).
This stack provides two main advantages: real-time processing and complete control over the data payload.
When a lead submits the form, the LinkedIn Conversions API can fire an event.
That event is captured and processed through your GTM container, which you can set up to run server-side using Stape or GCP.
This server container then uses the Salesforce API to not just create the Lead/Contact record, but crucially, to execute a second API call to create the Campaign Member record with the correct Salesforce Campaign ID and member status in near real-time.
Simultaneously, you use the Salesforce Account Engagement API to ensure the new prospect is created or updated and enrolled in the relevant Engagement Studio program, which is your “always on drip funnel.”
This bypasses the limitations of the native connector’s mapping and gives you the sub-24-hour lead-to-nurture window you’re looking for, allowing you to use automation rules or completion actions in Pardot based on the campaign member status.
This whole process is more complex to set up initially, but it completely eliminates the manual CSV imports and exports, providing a true, instantaneous “download to first nurture email” automation.
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