Salesforce Marketing Cloud Administrator key terms

A separate working space inside an Enterprise account with its own users, assets, and subscriber data, identified by its own Member ID. Organizations use business units to isolate brands, regions, or departments while operating under one contract.

The unique numeric identifier assigned to each Marketing Cloud account and business unit. It appears in the account menu and in many API calls, and is used to target the correct account when working across business units.

A named bundle of permissions that controls which apps, tabs, and actions a user can access in Marketing Cloud. A user can hold multiple roles, and roles are managed in Setup under Users.

A Setup feature that lets users log in to Marketing Cloud through an external identity provider instead of a Marketing Cloud password. Administrators supply identity provider metadata and certificate details to enable it.

A container of API components and permissions that allows an external system to call Marketing Cloud APIs. It holds credentials such as a client ID and secret plus the scopes the integration may use.

The SFTP account provided with a Marketing Cloud account for exchanging files. Imports, extracts, and file-drop automations read and write here, and each business unit has its own folder path.

A setting that labels a send as commercial or transactional and attaches a sender profile and a delivery profile. It determines CAN-SPAM handling and how the message is routed and tracked.

The record that supplies the From name, From address, and reply-to address for an email send. Values can be fixed or generated with AMPscript at send time.

A service that authenticates your sending domain by publishing SPF, Sender ID, and DKIM records. Mailbox providers use these records to verify that messages claiming to come from your domain are legitimate.

The practice of gradually increasing send volume on a new dedicated IP address so mailbox providers build trust in the sending reputation instead of throttling or blocking a sudden large volume.

Settings that control how a send is transmitted, such as which IP address is used and whether sending is throttled. Send classifications reference a delivery profile.

A Setup feature that processes replies to your emails, handling auto-replies, forwarding replies to a real inbox, and honoring unsubscribe requests so responses are not missed.

A unique identifier stored with each subscriber that links a person to their email address, attributes, and tracking history. It can be an email address or a CRM ID and should not change once assigned.

The identifier that represents one person across channels inside Contact Builder. It ties together email addresses, mobile numbers, and app device IDs so a single contact is messaged consistently.

The master list holding every contact and their status (active, held, bounced, unsubscribed) for each channel address in a business unit. Unsubscribes recorded here apply to all sends.

A table-like store of sendable or non-sendable data with defined fields, primary keys, and retention settings. It is the main storage object used for targeting, personalization, and journey entry.

A configuration on a sendable data extension that names which field holds the subscriber key and which holds the email address, telling Marketing Cloud how each row maps to a subscriber.

A list of addresses or domains that Marketing Cloud excludes from sends regardless of audience selection, used to honor complaints, legal holds, or internal do-not-contact rules.

A list used to manage opt-in and opt-out for a category of communications, such as a newsletter. Subscription to it drives unsubscribe links and preference choices for that content type.

A saved configuration describing where a file comes from, how columns map to fields, and where the data lands. It can be run manually or scheduled from Automation Studio.

The visual map of attribute groups and data extensions connected by key relationships within a business unit. It defines how a contact's data is linked across the account.

A container in Contact Builder that stores profile attributes for contacts, such as name, city, or loyalty tier, and can be linked into the data model for segmentation and personalization.

A hosted page where subscribers choose which publication lists they receive and opt out of specific communication types, separate from the Profile Center where they update their own attributes.

A setting that defines how long stored data, such as data extension rows or tracking records, is kept before Marketing Cloud deletes it automatically.

The asset library where emails, images, blocks, and templates are created and stored. Assets can be reused across sends and channels and organized in folders with shared permissions.

A saved send that fires automatically when an API call or event requests it rather than on a schedule. It must be published before use and can be paused or stopped.

A reusable send definition that stores the audience, email, and send options for on-demand use. Automation Studio, the API, or a guided send can run it later.

The application for building multi-step customer journeys that start on a schedule or an event, then send messages and wait based on contact activity and defined goals.

The application for building scheduled or file-triggered workflows assembled from activities such as imports, queries, extracts, script, and sends.

The SMS channel application used to send text messages through long codes, short codes, or toll-free numbers, with keyword-based opt-in and opt-out handling.

The mobile app channel that delivers push notifications to devices registered through the Marketing Cloud SDK, targeted by attributes and tags stored in MobilePush.

Content in a message that changes at send time based on a subscriber attribute or data value, letting one email show different offers, images, or copy to different audiences.

A scripting language used inside emails, landing pages, and SMS messages to personalize content, look up data extension values, and run conditional logic at send time.

A data extension that records one row per recipient per send, capturing values used at send time so teams can audit what was sent and troubleshoot personalization problems.

A record of administrative and user actions in the account, such as logins and settings changes, kept for compliance reviews and investigations into unexpected changes.

A tool for comparing components between business units and moving them, for example copying a data extension or journey from a test unit into production.

An Automation Studio activity that writes the contents of a data extension or a tracking extract to a file on the Enhanced FTP so it can be downloaded or processed elsewhere.

An extract configuration that pulls send, open, click, bounce, and unsubscribe tracking data out of Marketing Cloud into files on the FTP for analysis.

A view that renders a message using a chosen subscriber's attributes; the related test send delivers a proof to a real address so links and rendering can be checked before launch.