Overview
Integrating Salesforce with Apollo enables you to access and keep your data synchronized within both platforms.
Before you integrate Salesforce with Apollo, there are several important details to remember that can help you streamline the setup process and reduce the risk of unnecessary errors when integrating Salesforce.
Check out the following sections to learn more about the Salesforce integration.
How It Works
Once you connect Salesforce to Apollo, the integration keeps your data aligned by pulling records from Salesforce into Apollo and pushing updates from Apollo back to Salesforce based on your sync settings.
- Timing: Most push and pull syncs for contacts and companies complete within 15-30 minutes after you create or update a record, especially for small batches. However, large bulk syncs or the initial sync can take longer.
- Pulling from Salesforce: Apollo automatically pulls leads, contacts, and accounts from Salesforce on a recurring basis so your team can see existing CRM records while prospecting in Apollo and avoid accidentally working records that already exist in Salesforce. You can also manually pull records after setup, and Apollo continues syncing new or updated Salesforce records on a recurring schedule. When Apollo identifies a lead and a contact for the same person in Salesforce, Apollo always pulls the contact, not the lead. This is the only form of deduplication that Apollo runs against Salesforce. Apollo uses available profile details to match each Salesforce record to the right Apollo record. Apollo checks contact ID, Salesforce lead ID, Salesforce contact ID, and previously merged CRM IDs first. If there's no direct match, Apollo uses other signals like verified email, LinkedIn URL, and name, plus company context. For accounts, Apollo checks direct company or account IDs first, then CRM account IDs, Apollo organization ID, company domain, and company name.
- Pushing to Salesforce: Push settings control how Apollo sends data back to Salesforce. You can choose whether Apollo creates new people as leads or contacts and define when new contacts or accounts should push based on stages or other settings. Apollo pushes updates to existing synced records automatically in real time when changes occur so your contact information is constantly enriched by Apollo. Apollo can also push activity data, including emails, notes, tasks, calls, meetings, and conversation summaries. Apollo recommends enabling contact, account, or deal sync first to avoid activity sync failures.
Email activities are logged as tasks in Salesforce. They always appear on the matched contact or lead and may also appear on the account when the contact is linked to an account and no opportunity ID is associated with the activity. Emails only appear on an opportunity when Apollo has an associated opportunity ID for that activity, such as when the email is logged using the Apollo Chrome extension and a deal or opportunity is selected. Learn more about email activity logging.
When Apollo creates or syncs records and activities in Salesforce, the Created By field usually reflects the connected Salesforce user or team sync user for the integration. This is expected behavior and aligns with common Salesforce integration patterns.
If your Salesforce admin enables audit-field permissions, you can map the created_by field to Salesforce's CreatedById for new contacts, leads, accounts, or deals / opportunities created in Apollo so the Apollo user who created the record is synced as the created by. This mapping only applies when Apollo creates a new Salesforce record. Existing records aren't backfilled, and updates to existing records don't change Created By.
For ownership, assignment rules, routing, reporting, and downstream Salesforce logic, Apollo still recommends using the Owner field unless your team intentionally configures native Created By attribution for new records.
- Data mapping: Field mapping and data writing rules define how information is structured between both systems. Mapping ensures Apollo fields match the correct Salesforce fields, while auto-fill and overwrite settings determine whether Apollo fills empty CRM fields or updates existing Salesforce values during enrichment.
When a contact's country changes from the United States to a non-US country, Apollo sends only the country field to Salesforce. Salesforce updates only the fields included in the sync, so the previous US city and state remain unchanged. This results in a combined address, such as a US city and state displayed alongside a non-US country.
If you need a clean address after a country change, update the city and state directly in Salesforce, or update the contact in Apollo with the correct address values and sync again.
Get Started
- Connect the integration: Connect Salesforce in Apollo via integrations. Once connected, Apollo begins preparing your workspace for sync, including pulling your existing Salesforce data and initializing default settings.
- Data mapping: Next, map Apollo fields to Salesforce fields so your data syncs correctly. You can also configure data writing rules like auto-fill or overwrite to control how Apollo enriches and updates your Salesforce records. If you have custom fields, map custom fields from Salesforce to Apollo. Learn more about stages and fields.
- Pull settings: Apollo automatically pulls records on a recurring basis, but you can adjust visibility and control how specific objects appear in Apollo. Configure how Apollo pulls leads, contacts, accounts, and opportunities from Salesforce. Learn more about sync settings.
- Push settings: Configure how Apollo pushes data back to Salesforce. Choose whether new records are created as leads or contacts, define when records sync, and control how updates are sent in real time. Learn more about sync settings.
For paid Apollo plans, after you enable the Salesforce integration there's a 6-hour window of time to configure pull settings, push settings, and field mapping. This gives your team time to properly configure the integration.
During this time, you can't manually pull records. After 6 hours, syncing is automatically enabled.
Missed the window? You can still adjust sync settings at any time. Go to Settings > Integrations >
Salesforce to review or update sync settings. Records already imported aren't automatically re-pulled if you tighten conditions. Instead, use Pull all to re-pull with new settings.
FAQs
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Frequently asked questions |
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| What data can I sync with Salesforce? | How does contact or account ownership work when pushing records to Salesforce? | Why are my activities not syncing to Salesforce? |
| How does push vs pull work for Salesforce? | Why don't my emails appear on the opportunity in Salesforce? | Why do meetings appear multiple times in Salesforce? |
| How do I avoid duplicates between Apollo and Salesforce? | How do I troubleshoot Salesforce sync errors? | |
What data can I sync with Salesforce?
Apollo pulls leads, contacts, accounts, and opportunities from Salesforce into Apollo. Apollo can also push contacts, leads, accounts, deals, and activities from Apollo to Salesforce, depending on your sync settings.
Activities include emails, notes, tasks, calls, meetings, and conversation summaries. You can configure each activity type separately in Salesforce push settings.
How does contact or account ownership work when pushing records to Salesforce?
When you push contacts, leads, or accounts to Salesforce, ownership depends on whether you have linked your personal Salesforce credentials in Apollo. If you have linked your personal Salesforce account, pushed records are assigned to you in Salesforce. If you haven't linked your personal credentials, records are assigned to the team sync user instead.
To connect your personal credentials, go to Settings > Integrations > Salesforce, then connect your Salesforce user. Learn more in Manage Salesforce Integration Credentials.
Why are my activities not syncing to Salesforce?
Activity sync needs to be enabled. Activities may not sync if the related contact, lead, account, or deal doesn't exist in Salesforce.
To sync activities, configure push settings for the specific activity types you want to push, such as emails, notes, tasks, calls, meetings, or conversation summaries.
For activity sync to work reliably, Apollo recommends enabling contact, account, or deal sync first. If email activities still don't sync, check whether exclusion filters are blocking them, or whether the sender or recipient doesn't exist in Salesforce and the setting to push those emails isn't enabled.
When Apollo syncs meetings to Salesforce, Apollo creates one Salesforce event record per attendee, contact or lead, that's linked to the meeting in Apollo and exists in Salesforce. For example, a single meeting in Apollo that has three external contact attendees, appears in Salesforce as three separate event records, one per attendee. Each event has the same subject, date, time, and location, but is linked to a different contact or lead. This way, the meeting appears on each attendee's activity timeline in Salesforce.
How does push vs pull work for Salesforce?
- Push sends data from Apollo to Salesforce when push settings are enabled and rules are met.
- Pull imports data from Salesforce into Apollo so your team can see existing CRM records while prospecting in Apollo.
Apollo pulls Salesforce records on a recurring basis. After push settings are enabled, Apollo pushes saved records and updates to Salesforce in real time.
Why don't my emails appear on the opportunity in Salesforce?
Emails pushed from Apollo to Salesforce are logged as tasks. They always appear on the matched contact or lead, and they may also appear on the account when the contact is linked to an account and no opportunity ID is associated with the activity.
Emails only appear on the opportunity when Apollo has an associated opportunity ID for that activity, such as when the email is logged using the Apollo Chrome extension and a deal or opportunity is selected. If the Salesforce record is still a lead, the email can't be linked to an opportunity.
Why do meetings appear multiple times in Salesforce?
When Apollo syncs meetings to Salesforce, Apollo creates one Salesforce event record per attendee that's linked to the meeting in Apollo and exists in Salesforce.
For example, if one Apollo meeting has three external contact attendees that exist in Salesforce, Salesforce shows three event records. Each event has the same subject, date, time, and location, but is linked to a different contact or lead so the meeting appears on each attendee's activity timeline.
How do I troubleshoot Salesforce sync errors?
If a record fails to sync from Apollo to Salesforce, check the Salesforce integration error log. The error log displays the response returned by Salesforce, including validation rule failures, missing required fields, restricted picklist values, permission errors, and other Salesforce-specific validation messages.
Review the error details, update the affected record or your Salesforce configuration as needed, then retry the sync. For common validation errors, such as INVALID_OR_NULL_FOR_RESTRICTED_PICKLIST, confirm the value exists in Salesforce and is available for the record type being used.
How do I avoid duplicates between Apollo and Salesforce?
Apollo mirrors the data in Salesforce. If Salesforce has duplicate leads, contacts, or accounts, those duplicates also appear in Apollo. To reduce duplicates, clean and deduplicate Salesforce before you connect or sync the integration.
If duplicate records already synced from Salesforce to Apollo, you can use Salesforce merge or deletion sync settings to help keep both systems aligned. Learn more in Avoid Duplicates with the Salesforce Integration.
Next Steps
Here are a few solid next steps to keep your Salesforce integration running smoothly.
| Integrate Salesforce With Apollo | You can connect your Salesforce account to Apollo to keep contacts, accounts, and activities flowing cleanly between both systems without surprises. |
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| Configure Salesforce Pull Settings | Make sure your team gets the freshest CRM data by configuring Salesforce pull settings to control how Apollo brings contacts, accounts, and opportunities into your workspace. |
| Configure Salesforce Push Settings | Avoid data drift by configuring push settings to send updates from Apollo back into Salesforce exactly the way your CRM workflows expect. |
| Map Apollo Deals to Salesforce Opportunities | You can map Apollo deals to Salesforce opportunities to keep stages, fields, and deal activity aligned for cleaner reporting on both sides. |
| Access the Salesforce Error Log in Apollo | If something feels off, quickly troubleshoot by checking the Salesforce error log to pinpoint sync conflicts before they disrupt your workflows. |