Option 1: Journey Builder object activity

1. Create the journey. Build a simple journey with one activity: drag the Object Activity from the activity list onto the canvas.

   

2. Select the object. Click the Object Activity to start configuring it. On the Select Object step, search for the "Message Bucket" object and select it.

   

3. Choose the action. This activity only creates a Message Bucket record in Sales Cloud, so choose Create New as the action.

   

4. Open the field mapping. On the Map Fields step, select the fields to map for the new Message Bucket record. This step lists every available field on the Message Bucket object.

   

5. Map the phone number. Select the Number (To Phone) field: this is the message recipient's phone number. From the panel on the right, choose the phone number field from the journey's data extension (in this example, that field is Mobile_Phone__c).

   

6. Map the account. Map the Account field the same way, linking it to the corresponding field in the data extension.

   

7. Map the remaining fields. Repeat the mapping until all six fields are set:
   • Sender ID (From): the sending mobile number. You can also type this value in manually instead of mapping it to a data extension field.
   • Template ID: enter the WhatsApp template ID manually.
   • Related To: the ID of the related object record.
   • Requested Channel: enter this manually as "WhatsApp".

   

8. Confirm the journey. The result is a single-step journey. The data extension needs to contain the target customer records with every field the mapping requires.

   

Notes:

• Journey Builder's object activity does not use the Bulk API.
• It processes records slowly, in cycles of about a few hundred records per minute.
• It's easy to configure and works well for low volumes of Message Bucket creation.
• The object activity uses Marketing Cloud Connect to update Salesforce, so it does not consume Salesforce API limits.

Option 2: SFMC scripts with Bulk API 2.0

Using Salesforce Bulk API 2.0 with custom SSJS scripts in Automation Studio, you call Salesforce directly to insert Message Bucket records.

Notes:

• A Bulk API 2.0 request can send up to 150,000,000 records (150 million) in a 24 hour period, with a maximum data size of 150MB per request.
• Each batch processes up to 10,000 records. That counts as one API call.
• This does consume API calls outside of the connector's Connected App authentication.
• For one million updates, that's roughly 100 calls (plus a couple more for authentication and opening or closing the batch job).

Bulk API flow:

1. Create the job. Define a job for the creation of records.
2. Push the batches. Send data into the job in batches for Salesforce to process.
3. Repeat as needed. Continue in batches of up to 10,000 records.
4. Close the job. Close the job once every batch has been processed.

Option 3: Journey Builder custom activity (Salesforce Bulk/REST API)

The custom activity currently calls the external WhatsApp vendor API. It can be updated to call the Salesforce endpoint instead.

Using the Salesforce REST API, you can create a Message Bucket record in Salesforce by calling the Salesforce endpoint directly.

Salesforce REST endpoint URL

Request to create a Message Bucket record in Salesforce

{
  "Sender_ID__c": "XXXXX",
  "Number (To Phone)": "XXXXX",
  "Related_To__c": "002XXXXXXX",
  "Requested_Channel__c": "WhatsApp",
  "Account": "002XXXXXXX",
  "Template_ID__c": "T0012"
}

Response

{
  "id": "001D000000IqhXXXXX",
  "errors": [],
  "success": true
}

Option 4: After the custom activity (Salesforce Bulk/REST API)

Amend the current custom activity to fetch the Template ID and store it in a data extension. This is slightly more complex to set up. Then use the Object Activity to create the Message Bucket record, the same as in Option 1.