Link Custom Salesforce Fields to Custom Apollo Fields

Article author
Paige York
Updated

Overview

While Salesforce provides many out-of-the-box fields that you can use to sync your data back and forth between Apollo, there may be data that is important to your business that you can't track with traditional metrics. For this reason, Salesforce and Apollo allow you to create custom fields to store that data.

In order to leverage bidirectional syncing between Apollo and Salesforce, you need to create a custom field in Salesforce and then link that field to a custom field in Apollo.

 
Custom Fields in Salesforce

Please note, you need to create custom fields in Salesforce for each object type (Contacts, Leads, Accounts, or Opportunities) before you can link them to to the corresponding object and field type in Apollo.

Refer to the sections below for detailed instructions about each part of the process.

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Create a Custom Salesforce Field

 
Salesforce Development

Please note, Salesforce provides a software suite that is under constant active development. For the most up-to-date explanation of how to create a custom field in Salesforce, please see the Create a Custom Field article on the Salesforce Trailhead knowledge base.

To create a custom field in Salesforce:

  1. Launch Salesforce and then click Quick Settings > Open Advanced Setup.

Advanced setup button highlighted

  1. Click Object Manager.

Object Manager tab highlighted

  1. Apollo supports custom fields for Account, Contact, Lead, and Opportunity fields. Select one of these options to create a custom field for that object type.

Account or Contact

  1. Within the object, click Fields & Relationships.
  2. Click New to create a new custom field.

Fields & Relationships

  1. Select the Data Type you want to use for your custom field, then click Next.
 
Corresponding Types

Select the same (or similar) data type in both Salesforce and Apollo to prevent data sync errors.

Data Type

  1. Fill in the required and optional fields for your new custom field, then click Next.

Field Details

  1. Configure the security details for your custom field, then click Next.

Security Details

  1. Select the page layouts that should include your new custom field, then click Save.

Page Layouts

You've created a new custom field in Salesforce. Your new field appears in Fields & Relationships. You're now ready to link this field to a custom Apollo field.

New custom Salesforce field highlighted on Fields page

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Link a Custom Apollo Field to a Custom Salesforce Field

 
Create an Apollo Custom Field First

The steps below assume you already created a custom field in Apollo. For additional information about creating custom fields, check out Create Custom Contact Fields or Create Custom Account Fields.

To link your custom Salesforce field to a custom field in Apollo:

  1. Launch Apollo and navigate to Settings. Go to the objects page for contacts, accounts, or fields (depending on the type of custom field you created in Salesforce), then click Fields.
  2. Locate the Apollo custom field that you want to sync with your Salesforce custom field, then click ... > Edit field.

Edit field button for custom field

  1. Click Map to Salesforce, then select the Salesforce custom field you created earlier. If you're linking a contact field, you can map your custom field to a contact or lead field in Salesforce.
  2. Use the Edit permission settings checkbox to make this field read-only. This setting means that Apollo pulls the field from Salesforce but can't update field data.
  3. Click Save.

Map to Salesforce settings for custom fields in Apollo

 
Salesforce Contact Field vs. Salesforce Lead Field

Apollo supports linking custom contact fields to either a Salesforce Contact Field or Salesforce Lead Field, depending on which option makes the most sense for your integration. You can also sync to both object types at the same time. If you decide to sync to both object types, the Apollo custom contact field automatically becomes read-only.

Your Apollo custom field is now linked to your Salesforce custom field. Both fields will begin bidirectional syncing.

 
Bidirectional Syncing 101

Check out Bidirectional Sync Overview to learn more about how syncing works between Apollo and your CRM.

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