Pardot (aka Account Engagement) Creating Form Handler & Adding in a Form

Creating Form Handler & Adding in a Form in Pardot (aka Account Engagement)

ByMarTech Notes MarTech and Automation

What is a Form Handler in Pardot (aka Salesforce Account Engagement) ?

Whenever I’m working with a team that already has their own website forms, I almost always bring up Pardot Form Handlers. They’re basically the “bridge” that lets us keep using our own forms—same design, same layout, same user experience—while still sending all the data into Account Engagement.

Instead of switching to Pardot’s hosted forms, we just create a Form Handler inside AE, choose which fields we want to capture, and Pardot gives us a unique endpoint URL. Our form submits to that URL, and Pardot takes it from there: scoring, automation, completion actions—everything fires the way it normally would.

So in simple terms: a Form Handler lets us keep the forms we already like, and still get all the marketing automation benefits behind the scenes. It keeps things flexible, clean, and easy to maintain without making the website team redo anything.
Custom HTML Form
Form Handler
Pardot (aka Salesforce Account Engagement)

Why Use Form Handler in Pardot (aka Salesforce Account Engagement) ?

  • Design & Control: Use any form builder or custom code for complete control over look, feel, and user experience (UX).
  • Data Routing: Send prospect data to multiple destinations simultaneously (e.g., both Salesforce and Account Engagement).
  • No iFrames: Avoid iFrame interference with other tracking scripts (like Google Analytics).
  • Seamless Integration: Connect existing web forms (not built in the platform) directly to your marketing automation tool.
  • Custom Validation: Pair with third-party tools for advanced client-side validation before data reaches the system.

Lets Begin Now – The Whole Process

  1. Open the Form Handlers page.
    • In Account Engagement, select Marketing | Forms | Form Handlers.
    • In the Lightning app, select Content and then select Form Handlers.
  2. Click + Add Form Handler.
  3. Name the form handler.
  4. Select a folder.
  5. Select a campaign.
  6. If the data from the form is forwarded to another service, enable data forwarding to success location.
  7. From the Success Location dropdown, select where to redirect prospects after form submission.
    • To return prospects to the page that contains the form handler, select Referring URL.
    • To enter another web page or to forward the prospect data to another database, select Specific URL.
  8. From the Error Location dropdown, select where to redirect prospects if an error occurs.
  9. Add completion actions.
  10. Add and map form fields.
    1. Click + Add New Field.
    2. For External Field Name, enter the “name" attribute from your external form field’s input tag.
    3. Repeat for each field on your form.The external field name is case-sensitive.
    4. Select the related prospect field, and select a data format.
    5. Save your changes.
  11. Click Create form handler.

What You’ll Need

  • Account Engagement Administrator or Marketing role
  • Obviously, hands-on experience on HTML CSS and a text editor.

That’s it!

Now, Add a Form Handler with your HTML Form

  1. Open the Form Handlers page.
    • In Account Engagement, select Marketing | Forms | Form Handlers.
    • In the Lightning app, select Content and then select Form Handlers.
  2. Open the form handler you want to edit.
  3. Click View form handler code and copy the URL look like below
  4. In your form’s HTML Code, change the post URL to your form handler URL.
<form method="post" action="https://go.pardot.com/l/XXXX/2025-01-01/XXXXX">
  <label>First name
    <input type="text" name="first_name" required>
  </label>

  <label>Last name
    <input type="text" name="last_name" required>
  </label>

  <label>Email
    <input type="email" name="email" required>
  </label>

  <!-- Any other fields must match field names you've added to the Form Handler mapping -->
  <input type="hidden" name="campaign_id" value="12345"> <!-- optional -->

  <button type="submit">Download</button>
</form>

Still many teams struggle with

  • Bot/spam submissions
  • Send the same data to multiple systems (AE + CRM + internal DB + webhook)
  • Validation before pushing to Pardot

If you also need a solution which you want validation, anti-spam, and multi-system posting before sending data to Pardot.

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