If you’re running B2B marketing or sales ops, you’ve probably thought: “Why can’t I see what our best accounts are doing on our website, right inside Salesforce?” Or maybe you want your sales team to know which prospects are actually engaging with your new content or product demos. Integrating Salesforce with Optimizely can help you get there—but it’s not a magic bullet, and it’s not always plug-and-play.
This guide cuts through the fluff and tells you, step by step, how to connect these tools to get real, usable customer insights. No buzzwords, no pie-in-the-sky promises—just what works, what doesn’t, and how not to waste your time.
Why bother connecting Salesforce and Optimizely?
Let’s be honest: these integrations aren’t about dashboards for the sake of dashboards. The real win is seeing how actual people from target accounts are behaving on your site, and then making that data useful for sales, marketing, or customer success. When you do it right, you get:
- Richer profiles: See what your contacts and accounts do online—not just what they say in meetings.
- Smarter sales triggers: Alert reps when a prospect visits key pages (like pricing or case studies).
- Better segmentation: Build audiences and campaigns based on what people actually care about.
But there are gotchas: mismatched data, privacy headaches, and vendor promises that sound better than the reality. So let’s get specific.
Step 1: Get clear on what you actually want to track and why
Before you touch any settings, nail down your goals. Most failed integrations come from teams saying “let’s connect everything!” and then drowning in useless data.
Ask yourself:
- Which Optimizely events (page visits, content downloads, A/B test participation) do I want in Salesforce?
- Who needs this data—sales, marketing, support? And what will they do with it?
- Do I care about individual leads, or just account-level activity?
- What’s the simplest thing we can start with, and expand later?
Pro tip: Write user stories. For example: “When a target account downloads our eBook, create a Salesforce task for their account owner.” If you can’t write a sentence like that, you’re not ready to integrate.
Step 2: Check what’s possible (and what’s a pain) with your current tech stack
Here’s the reality: Salesforce and Optimizely don’t have a one-click native integration for B2B use cases. You’ll need to use APIs, middleware, or (sometimes) third-party tools.
You’ve got a few main options:
- Manual exports/imports: Export Optimizely data, massage it in Excel, and import to Salesforce. Not scalable, but works for proof of concept.
- Middleware (Zapier, Tray.io, Workato): These can move data between tools, but may hit limits with volume, custom objects, or complex matching.
- Custom API integration: Write your own scripts or use a developer to call Optimizely’s APIs and push to Salesforce. Most flexible, but takes the most work.
- Third-party connectors: Some vendors promise out-of-the-box connectors. Double-check if they support the exact Optimizely and Salesforce features you need (many don’t).
What usually works: Most B2B teams use middleware or custom API scripts. Manual methods are fine to test your ideas but break down fast at scale.
Step 3: Map your data—don’t skip this
You need to figure out how Optimizely’s data lines up with Salesforce’s objects. If you skip this, you’ll end up with a mess of mismatched records and frustrated users.
Common mapping questions:
- Are you matching visitors by email, account domain, or something else? (Hint: B2B often uses domain matching.)
- Which Optimizely events map to Salesforce Leads, Contacts, Opportunities, or Accounts?
- Do you need to create new custom fields or objects in Salesforce to store Optimizely data?
- How will you handle anonymous visitors or people who haven’t filled out a form yet?
Pro tip: Start small. Map one or two critical events (like “Demo Requested” or “Visited Pricing Page”) before you try to sync everything.
Step 4: Set up the data sync (with real-world examples)
Let’s walk through a practical setup using middleware (the most common approach). If you’re going full custom API, the big picture is similar—just more code.
Option A: Using middleware (like Zapier or Workato)
- Connect accounts: Authenticate both your Salesforce and Optimizely accounts in your middleware tool.
- Trigger: Set up the middleware to watch for specific Optimizely events (e.g., “Contact Downloaded Whitepaper”).
- Find or create Salesforce record: Use email or domain to find the matching Contact or Account in Salesforce. If none exists, decide if you want to create one.
- Update or create record: Log the Optimizely event as a custom field, activity, or task in Salesforce.
- Test and validate: Try a few real examples. Check that data comes through as expected, and that sales/marketing teams actually see it where they work.
Common hiccups:
- Identity resolution: If visitors are anonymous, you can’t match them to Salesforce. You’ll need some way to tie web activity to known users (e.g., after a form fill or login).
- API rate limits: Salesforce and Optimizely both have API limits. Middleware may slow down or fail if you try to sync too much at once.
- Field mismatches: Double-check your field types (text vs. picklist, etc.) or you’ll get errors.
Option B: Manual import (for pilot projects)
- Export Optimizely event data as CSV.
- Clean up and match to Salesforce records by email or domain.
- Use Salesforce’s import tools (like Data Loader) to update records or add activities.
This is clunky and easy to get wrong, but fine for a one-off proof of concept.
Option C: Custom API integration
If you’ve got dev resources and need full control:
- Use Optimizely’s REST APIs to pull event data regularly.
- Use Salesforce’s APIs (REST or Bulk) to push data in.
- Build logic to match visitors to Salesforce objects, handle deduplication, and deal with failures.
- Log errors and monitor for sync issues.
Don’t build this unless you can justify the maintenance and cost. Middleware covers most needs for less pain.
Step 5: Make the data actually useful in Salesforce
Dumping raw web events into Salesforce helps no one. You need to surface data where it matters.
Tips:
- Create reports and dashboards that show web engagement by account, not just by individual.
- Trigger alerts or tasks for sales reps when a target account hits a “high intent” signal (like multiple visits to the pricing page).
- Segment lists for marketing based on recent Optimizely activity (e.g., contacts who engaged with a specific campaign).
What to skip: Don’t try to sync every click or page view. Focus on meaningful events—otherwise, you’ll flood Salesforce and everyone will ignore it.
Step 6: Handle privacy and compliance (don’t skip this)
B2B data might seem less risky than B2C, but you still need to avoid legal headaches.
- Make sure you’re not pushing personally identifiable info (PII) without consent.
- Document what gets synced and why.
- If you operate in Europe or California, double-check GDPR/CCPA compliance.
If your legal team doesn’t know what’s being synced, you’re asking for trouble.
Step 7: Test, get feedback, and adjust
No integration is perfect out of the gate. Roll it out to a small group, ask them what’s actually useful, and cut the rest.
- Are sales reps seeing value, or is it just noise?
- Is anyone using the reports you built?
- Is the sync reliable, or are there errors piling up in the background?
Iterate ruthlessly. If something isn’t used, kill it.
Honest takes: What works, what doesn’t, and what to ignore
Works well:
- Syncing high-intent events tied to known users (e.g., demo requests, logins)
- Account-level activity rollups for ABM teams
- Simple middleware setups for 80% of use cases
Pain points:
- Matching anonymous web traffic to Salesforce records (you mostly can’t)
- Overly granular data dumps—nobody wants to see every page view
- Custom integrations with no ongoing owner (these break quietly and often)
Ignore:
- Shiny dashboards nobody asked for
- “Integrate everything” pitches from vendors
- Pushing unqualified, low-value events (it just adds noise)
Keep it simple and grow from there
Connecting Salesforce and Optimizely can give you real, actionable B2B insights—if you keep it focused and practical. Start with one or two high-value signals, use middleware unless you have a strong reason not to, and always check if people are actually using the data. Don’t try to boil the ocean on day one. Iterate, prune what doesn’t help, and keep your setup honest and lightweight. That’s how you actually get value from your integration—and keep your sanity.