Overview
Once you connect Salesforce to Apollo, you can configure how Apollo pushes data from Apollo into Salesforce. Push settings refer to customizing how you push this data to Salesforce.
Once push sync is enabled, your records will be pushed in real-time as soon as they're requested from Apollo or whenever your saved records are updated.
Check out the following sections to configure push settings for the Salesforce integration.
Configure Push Settings
Did you know? After you enable the Salesforce integration on a paid Apollo plan, there's a 6-hour window to configure push and pull settings and map fields. This gives you time to properly configure the integration. During this time, you can't manually pull records. After 6 hours, Apollo automatically enables syncing.
To configure the Salesforce integration push settings:
- Launch Apollo and click Settings > Integrations > Salesforce.
- Click Contacts, Leads, Accounts, Deals, or Activities, then click Sync.
On Apollo, activities are engagement records you can sync to Salesforce, including emails, tasks, notes, meeting summaries, and phone calls. Configure each activity type separately to control what Apollo pushes to Salesforce.
Salesforce integration push settings only affect net new contacts saved in Apollo or contacts imported to Apollo from a CSV file. Apollo pushes any updates to your existing contacts automatically, regardless of push settings.
If you use leads in Salesforce, you can only associate contacts with leads and not accounts. However, you can let Apollo infer accounts for you in pull settings, as well as push all Apollo contacts to Salesforce leads at any time.
- Check Push contact to push any newly created or updated contacts to Salesforce. When you push a new or updated contact, Apollo also pushes its account, if it isn't already in Salesforce.
Important: When you request a net new contact in Apollo and push it to Salesforce, Apollo always creates or updates the linked account if it doesn't already exist, even if Push accounts is off. Salesforce requires every contact to be linked to an account, so Apollo can't push a contact without one.
If the contact matches multiple existing accounts in Salesforce, Apollo randomly assigns an account. To avoid duplicates, use consistent account naming or push only contacts whose accounts already exist.
Any auto-created account is owned by the Apollo integration user by default. To change ownership, update it directly in Salesforce after the push.
- Choose how you want to push new records. You can automatically push all contacts, or push new contacts based on certain stages. If you choose to push at certain stages, select the stages.
When Push based on certain stages is enabled for contacts, only Apollo contacts whose contact stage is in the selected list are pushed to Salesforce. Contacts in other stages aren't pushed. Contacts with no stage aren't pushed unless you explicitly include No stage in your selection.
Stage-based push is available for contacts. If you choose to create records as leads, Apollo still uses the selected Apollo contact stages to determine which records are eligible to be pushed, and then your push setting determines whether those eligible records are created as leads or contacts in Salesforce.
Salesforce push settings don't support filtering beyond stage, like with custom field values.
- Next, choose whether to sync eligible Apollo records as leads or contacts in Salesforce.
Changing whether Apollo creates leads or contacts in Salesforce only affects new records. Records already created in Salesforce aren't changed. Existing Salesforce records continue to be updated in their current record type.
- Existing leads remain leads. Apollo continues to update those lead records when you push changes. Apollo doesn't convert them to contacts or create duplicate contacts for them.
- Existing contacts remain contacts. Apollo continues to update those contact records. Apollo doesn't convert them to leads.
If you switch from pushing as leads to pushing as contacts, new Apollo contacts are created as contacts in Salesforce, but any Apollo contacts previously pushed as leads are still updated in Salesforce as leads.
Need to convert leads to contacts in Salesforce? Use Salesforce's built-in lead conversion process. Converting a contact back to a lead isn't supported in Salesforce.
- Set a source for contacts synced from Apollo to Salesforce. The default source is Apollo. If the source field you select is a picklist field, select a value for the field.
- (Optional) Check Push unverified emails for contacts and leads. Contacts in Apollo may have verified or unverified email address statuses. This setting only affects pushing a contact's unverified email — not the contact itself.
- If you already synced duplicate records from Salesforce to Apollo, there are two sync settings to remove them:
- Contacts deletion sync: Check to delete duplicate records in either Apollo or Salesforce. When enabled, Apollo automatically deletes any Apollo records linked to deleted Salesforce records, and vice versa.
- Contacts merge sync: Check to merge duplicate records in Salesforce. When enabled, Apollo automatically merges any Apollo records linked to merged records in Salesforce.
- When finished, click Save.
You have now configured Salesforce integration push settings for contacts or leads.
- By default, Apollo pushes new accounts to Salesforce. Uncheck Push account to change this setting.
- Choose how you want to push new records. You can automatically push all new accounts, or push new accounts based on certain stages. If you choose to push at certain stages, select the stages.
When Push based on certain stages is enabled for accounts, only accounts whose account stage is in the selected list are pushed to Salesforce. Accounts in other stages aren't pushed. Accounts with no stage are also not pushed unless you explicitly include "No stage" in your selection.
- Select a source field for accounts, and enter a value. The default value is
Apollo.
- If you've already synced duplicate records from Salesforce to Apollo, there are two sync settings to remove them:
- Account deletion sync: Check to delete duplicate records in either Apollo or Salesforce. When enabled, Apollo automatically deletes any Apollo records linked to deleted Salesforce records, and vice versa.
- Account merge sync: Check to merge duplicate records in Salesforce. When enabled, Apollo automatically merges any Apollo records linked to merged records in Salesforce.
- When finished, click Save.
You have now configured Salesforce integration push settings for accounts.
To configure push settings for deals:
- Check Sync Salesforce deals with Apollo to actively sync pipeline and deal information bidirectionally when Apollo detects a change in either platform.
- When enabled, Apollo pulls all Salesforce deal information and uses Salesforce as the source of truth for any previously synced deals.
- If you deactivate this setting at any point, Salesforce deal information remains in Apollo, but Apollo no longer actively syncs with Salesforce.
- (Optional) If you prefer not to use bidirectional sync, check only Pull opportunities to sync only Salesforce opportunities into Apollo.
- (Optional) If you prefer not to use bidirectional sync, check only Push deals to only push new and updated deals from Apollo to Salesforce.
- (Optional) Check Hide my deals to hide deals pulled from Salesforce to Apollo. When enabled, synced deals won't appear in Apollo, but automations could still update deals in Salesforce.
- When finished, click Save.
You have now configured push settings for deals.
You can push the following activities from Apollo to Salesforce:
Use caution with Push emails even if the sender or recipient doesn't exist, Push all calendar events, or customizing title templates for push events. Enabling these features may result in the creation of contacts in Salesforce that you don't expect to see.
Emails
- Check Push emails then select the type of email to push:
- Push outgoing emails sent within Apollo
- Push outgoing emails not sent within Apollo
- Push incoming emails that are replies to emails sent within Apollo
- Push incoming emails from all other sources
- Push internal emails
- Push emails even if sender or recipient doesn't exist in Salesforce
What's an internal email? Internal emails are communications between the domains of the connected mailboxes on your Apollo account. Non-corporate domains, such as gmail.com, aren't considered to be internal.
- (Optional) Click Email advanced settings to customize the email title template.
- (Optional) Click Email push exclusion filter to filter the emails that are synced to Salesforce.
The email push exclusion filter may be useful to filter out email communications with external contacts that are sensitive or irrelevant, such as with board members or third-party contractors.
- Enter specific email domains, email addresses, or subject line keywords to create email exclusion rules. You can create incoming or outgoing email exclusions by setting From and To rules.
Each email domain, email address, and subject line you add on a rule works with AND logic. If you filter emails from "ymail.org" with the subject line "Confidential," Apollo only filters emails from ymail.org — and not emails from other domains with the subject line keyword "Confidential."
Apollo doesn't filter by CC or BCC in emails.
Toggle AND or OR to control how a rule applies to both the From and To values:
-
AND: Only emails that match both from and to criteria will be filtered. -
OR: Emails that match either from or to criteria will be filtered.
- Click Confirm.
- When finished, click Save.
You have now configured push settings for emails.
Notes
- Check Push notes to push notes from Apollo to Salesforce.
- When finished, click Save.
Tasks
- Check Push tasks to push notes from Apollo to Salesforce.
- (Optional) Click Tasks Advanced Settings to customize the title template you use when you push tasks data to Salesforce.
- When finished, click Save.
Calls
- Check Push calls to push calls made in Apollo to Salesforce.
- Click View Advanced Settings to customize the title template you use when you push call data to Salesforce.
- When finished, click Save.
Meetings / Events
- Check Push meetings to push meetings scheduled in Apollo to Salesforce.
- (Optional) Check Push all calendar events to push events where participants don't exist in Salesforce.
- When finished, click Save.
Conversations
- Check Push meeting summaries to push conversation summaries as an activity / note to an associated deal or opportunity.
- When finished, click Save.
To push meeting summaries to Salesforce, enable and use deals on Apollo.
You have now configured Salesforce integration push settings for activities.
Push Records Manually
If you manually push individual records, you override any sync settings configured. This means that Apollo pushes a record to Salesforce regardless of contact stage restrictions or other limits you enabled in the push settings.
You can manually push records to Salesforce during a people search or company search.
Manual push may be unavailable in the following cases:
- If your team hasn't connected Salesforce, you can't push to Salesforce.
- If Salesforce is connected but push isn't enabled in sync settings, you can't push to Salesforce.
- If your team is still in the initial data pull after connecting Salesforce, the option to manually push appears, but you can't use it yet. Once push is enabled and the initial pull completes, manual push works as expected.
To manually push records to Salesforce:
- Launch Apollo and click People or Companies.
- Check one or more prospects or companies, then click Salesforce > Push to Salesforce.
- Apollo pushes the record in real-time to Salesforce.
You have now manually pushed a record.
FAQs
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Frequently asked questions |
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| What does not synced mean on the synced to Salesforce filter? | Why don't I see push to Salesforce campaign? | Why are there fewer contacts in Salesforce than I pushed? |
| Where can I find contacts that failed to push to Salesforce? | Why did Apollo create an account when I only pushed a contact? | How do stage-based push settings work for Salesforce contacts? |
| Why is my contact not appearing in Salesforce when push is enabled? | ||
What does not synced mean on the synced to Salesforce filter?
When you use the synced to Salesforce filter while prospecting on Apollo and select No, it means the contact doesn't have a Salesforce CRM ID in Apollo. This includes both contacts that were never pushed because they didn't meet your push rules and contacts that Apollo attempted to push but failed.
This is why the filter may show more records than the Salesforce integration error log. The filter includes all contacts without a CRM ID, while error logs only show records that Apollo tried to push but Salesforce rejected.
Why don't I see push to Salesforce campaign?
This option is under Push to Salesforce > Push to campaign. If you don't see the option, check the following:
- Plan: Your Apollo plan must include Salesforce campaign functionality.
-
Permissions: Your Salesforce user profile must have access to the
Campaignobject and permission to add campaign members. - Campaign setup: The campaign must already exist in Salesforce before you can add contacts to it from Apollo.
- Check the process: The campaign option appears under Push to Salesforce and may vary depending on whether you're pushing from search, a contact, or bulk actions.
Why are there fewer contacts in Salesforce than I pushed?
If you pushed a large number of contacts but see fewer in Salesforce, some records were likely skipped due to errors. Apollo doesn't create invalid or duplicate records in Salesforce, and failed records are logged in your Salesforce integration error log.
Common causes include duplicate records, validation errors, missing required fields, or conflicts with existing accounts or contacts.
Where can I find contacts that failed to push to Salesforce?
To review failed pushes, go to Settings > Integrations > Salesforce > Error logs. These logs show only records that Apollo attempted to push but Salesforce rejected.
Open a log entry to view the error message and identify what needs to be fixed before retrying the push.
Why did Apollo create an account when I only pushed a contact?
Salesforce requires every contact to be associated with an account. Because of this, when you push a contact from Apollo, Apollo creates or updates the linked account in Salesforce if it doesn't already exist, even if account push is turned off.
This behavior ensures the contact can be created in Salesforce, but it can also lead to duplicate accounts if naming and mapping are inconsistent.
How do stage-based push settings work for Salesforce contacts?
When you enable push based on stages, Apollo only pushes contacts whose Apollo contact stage matches the selected list. Contacts outside those stages aren't pushed.
This filtering happens before record creation. After filtering, your push setting determines whether records are created as leads or contacts in Salesforce. Stage mapping is separate and only controls the value written to Salesforce fields like lead status.
Why is my contact not appearing in Salesforce when push is enabled?
Check whether the contact meets your push criteria. If stage-based push is enabled, the contact must be in one of the selected stages for Apollo to create it as a new Salesforce record.
If the contact already exists in Salesforce, Apollo may still update that existing CRM record even if the contact's current stage isn't in the selected list. The stage filter blocks new creates, not updates. If Apollo attempted the push and it failed, review the integration error log to identify and resolve the issue.
Next Steps
Want to tighten up the rest of your Salesforce setup? These related resources can help your team keep the sync clean, predictable, and easier to manage.
| Integrate Salesforce with Apollo | Need to double-check the foundation first? Connect Salesforce to Apollo to make sure your team starts from the right integration setup before records begin moving between systems. |
|---|---|
| Configure Salesforce Pull Settings | Pair your push rules with Salesforce pull settings to control what comes back into Apollo and keep both sides of the sync aligned. |
| Map Default Apollo Fields to Salesforce | Before your team pushes data at scale, map default Apollo fields to Salesforce to make sure core contact, lead, account, and deal data lands where it should. |
| Automatically Create and Map Stages Between Salesforce and Apollo | Working with stage-based push rules? Automatically create and map stages between Salesforce and Apollo to keep lifecycle changes consistent across both platforms. |
| Link Custom Salesforce Fields to Custom Apollo Fields | If you're using custom properties in your workflow, link custom Salesforce fields to custom Apollo fields to keep your unique data points synced instead of stranded in one system. |