Can Marketing Cloud Connector User be an API user instead of System Admin?

Question

1. Can MCC user in CRM be set as anything other than System Admin?
2. Is it possible to tailor the MCC user permissions to restrict Marketing Cloud from accessing specific Objects and/or fields?

e.g.1 we want to give Marketing Cloud access to Accounts but not to Leads

e.g.2 we want to give Marketing Cloud access to a custom object but read only

e.g.2 we want to give Marketing Cloud access to a custom object with read only permission on 3 fields and write to 5 fields

Answer 1

There is no official guidance on this, so this list comes with no guarantees. However it is the closest I got to enabling MCC without forcing an admin role on connector user in SC. You will need:

• Access activities
• Allow view knowledge
• Mass email
• Send email
• Author Apex
• Run Flow
• Manage Flow
• View Setup and Configuration
• View All Data
• Modify Metadata through Metadata API Functions
• Customize Application
• Manage Territories
• Manage Custom Preferences

So far, according to my testing I can use these permissions with a Standard System Users and get Journeys Activated.

Above permissions are in addition to standard MCC permissions: ConnectedApp, Marketing Cloud for AppExchange User/Admin