Marketo vs Salesforce Marketing Cloud comparison

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2,944 views|2,344 comparisons
95% willing to recommend
Salesforce Logo
6,723 views|4,047 comparisons
98% willing to recommend
Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Marketo and Salesforce Marketing Cloud based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Marketing Automation solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.
To learn more, read our detailed Marketo vs. Salesforce Marketing Cloud Report (Updated: May 2024).
771,170 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"The main highlights of Marketo are its support structure, the documentation available, and the features mainly related to forms, landing pages, and leads. Although other platforms like Oracle Eloqua have similar features, Marketo's support structure, lead generation, and segmentation features are easier than those of different platforms.""The most valuable feature of this solution is Smart Campaigns.""It is a very user-friendly solution. I'm mainly working on Design Studio, which is useful for companies in tracking repeat users. The progressive proofing is also useful. It is not available in other solutions.""The most valuable features are the Marketo emails, both sending and tracking.""The most valuable feature is the scoring.""The product has been stable.""The smart campaign looks quite interesting and useful.""One of the most important things about Marketo is its focus on GDPR compliance. It helps you follow GDPR and CAN-SPAM rules. For example, with Marketo, I won't accidentally target audiences without their consent. Firstly, the Marketo Insights system will highlight new customer segments that I should engage with."

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"The most valuable features of Salesforce Marketing Cloud are that it performs well and gives me what I need. It's the most friendly interface system for CRM I've worked with. Additionally, it integrates fairly well with different kinds of AI and ML to allow you to receive more out of your application.""The solution is very, very scalable.""We haven't had any issues with integration.""If you want to be able to communicate with your client using email, WhatsApp, and push notifications, know if the client opened the communication or not, and create and automate their journey, Marketing Cloud is very good.""The Journey and CloudPages and automation are all great.""Salesforce Marketing Cloud's journey builder is very easy to handle and quickly sets up a journey for clients who use a lot of communication.""Datorama is part of Salesforce Marketing Cloud, which is quite a valuable feature that provides customer analytics.""It is easy to send emails and SMS's."

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Cons
"I had an issue while integrating JavaScript with forms. When you embed JavaScript, you can either embed it in a landing page or some other self-contained management system like WordPress. Currently, it provides you access to CSS, where you can customize your form design, but there is no option for JavaScript modification for a particular form. This area needs to be improved where you can integrate JavaScript, and it has the JavaScript functions for that particular form. There are a lot of other areas of improvement. In the design area, they can give us more testing options instead of relying on email testing alone. It would be great if they can provide responsive testing where email clients can be tested within Marketo. It would be also helpful if they can implement some in-built options for users or forms for blocking a generic email ID such as Yahoo or Gmail. Similarly, it would be helpful to have JavaScript features and forms as well as the option to add Google analytics and a header and footer for the landing pages.""Marketo's reporting and dashboarding features could be better. Compared to other tools, the visualization options with charts and graphs seem somewhat limited.""Its APIs need to be more flexible because there are some things that are not available in the API.""The user experience needs improvement, particularly in terms of ease of use and navigation between projects.""I have encountered issues when I had to use filters repeatedly. It would have been helpful if I could duplicate them directly, instead of dragging them. Also, having an option to save filters for future use would have saved a lot of time, especially when dealing with multiple filters.""One limitation is the user limit. For bigger organizations with large audience sizes exceeding, let's say, 500k, the solution may not be as efficient as larger enterprise platforms like Salesforce or Oracle Eloqua. However, Marketo is one of the best platforms for mid-scale and small-scale organisations.""Adobe, the parent company, needs to improve on getting more information published to allow users to educate themselves on how to use the solution.""For the moment, we migrated some of our processes to Marketo and implemented them there. We had some difficulties related to this."

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"It should contain artificial intelligence, in my opinion.""The UA could be better designed for a mobile connection.""The cost is always a concern for anyone using a SaaS product.""The encryption and decryption have room for improvement.""The majority of my clients are happy, but when it comes to the CDP of Salesforce, the client gets confused. They have no clue that Salesforce has a CDP platform too. If my clients want to go ahead with the same vendor, Salesforce, they get confused about the different marketing suites which are available. There is no clear marketing done for the suites available for the clients, this is where the client is facing the real challenges.""They can perhaps simplify the dashboards. In my opinion as an end-user, reports could also be simplified, but it also depends on how your company is set up. It depends on how the processes are set up within your company natively. It is linked to the way you do business. So, it varies.""Salesforce Marketing Cloud could improve by having more graphical options because a lot of tables are now only numbers and percentages and data. I prefer graphs, lines, and pie charts. I know there are ways to receive this from Salesforce Marketing Cloud. It doesn't play a huge role in my daily work to invest the time to figure it out. I feel that it would be time wasted. They could make the graphical options easier to find and use in the future.""In a future release, adding end-user personalization would be a benefit."

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Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "I'm not sure about the cost because I don't get into this aspect. Clients normally take care of that. I only know that it is costly, and I don't think there are any additional costs to the licensing."
  • "The licensing cost usually depends on the users."
  • "The solution is expensive compared to others."
  • "It is expensive. We have a yearly license."
  • "The initial pricing was excellent, but the pricing for renewals is not as good."
  • "Marketo is too expensive for a small-sized company but more affordable for a larger-sized company."
  • "Marketo is used a lot because it's cheaper and preferred by many firms."
  • "Marketo's pricing depends on the number of contacts and the level of features you need. Compared to other platforms like Oracle Eloqua and Salesforce Marketing Cloud, Marketo is generally more affordable. Like other platforms, it offers different packages based on your needs."
  • More Marketo Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "Its licensing is on an annual basis. Customers are okay with its licensing cost, and they don't find it expensive."
  • "We did a yearly license. We negotiated and got a great deal. I don't think we would have gotten far with the regular price, but they negotiated, so it was worth that."
  • "The licensing cost for the solution is on a yearly basis."
  • "Salesforce has different versions of the solution and some are more suitable for smaller clients. However, Salesforce is expensive."
  • "The solution is paid for monthly."
  • "It is a license per user."
  • "My company pays to use this solution."
  • "This solution is priced in the medium to high price range."
  • More Salesforce Marketing Cloud Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:I like that the solution is flexible.
    Top Answer:The user experience needs improvement, particularly in terms of ease of use and navigation between projects.
    Top Answer:The use cases for the solution involve project management tools, planning, and collaboration with team members.
    Top Answer:Datorama is part of Salesforce Marketing Cloud, which is quite a valuable feature that provides customer analytics.
    Top Answer:The price is expensive. When comparing available products, such as those on Amazon, it's evident that AWS components are significantly cheaper. This is especially true since our systems run on the AWS… more »
    Top Answer:Salesforce Marketing Cloud should include more point-and-click functionality. Currently, you need help from a technical developer to design email templates. Most people using Salesforce Marketing… more »
    Ranking
    4th
    Views
    2,944
    Comparisons
    2,344
    Reviews
    2
    Average Words per Review
    391
    Rating
    8.5
    1st
    Views
    6,723
    Comparisons
    4,047
    Reviews
    30
    Average Words per Review
    379
    Rating
    8.1
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    ExactTarget
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    Salesforce
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    Overview

    Marketo is an all-in-one marketing solution that was created by marketers for marketers. Founded in 2007, Marketo is branded as marketing software that is easy, powerful and complete.

    Organizations have access to multiple marketing and sales tools when they use this solution, such as Marketing Automation, Consumer Engagement Marketing, Real-Time Personalization, and Marketing Management.

    Salesforce Marketing Cloud is a comprehensive marketing automation platform that enables businesses to create personalized and targeted marketing campaigns across multiple channels. 

    With its robust set of tools and features, marketers can easily manage and automate their email marketing, social media advertising, mobile messaging, and customer journey mapping. 

    The platform offers advanced segmentation capabilities, allowing marketers to segment their audience based on various criteria and deliver tailored messages to each segment. 

    Additionally, Salesforce Marketing Cloud provides powerful analytics and reporting features, enabling marketers to track the performance of their campaigns and make data-driven decisions. 

    With its user-friendly interface and seamless integration with other Salesforce products, Marketing Cloud offers a seamless and efficient marketing automation solution for businesses of all sizes.

    Sample Customers
    Marketo has a customer base of thousands of companies, including Sony, Citrix, BrightTALK, Curves International, HootSuite, Hyundai, SanDisk, and Samsung Electronics.
    American Express, Financial Conduct Authority, KPN, Merck KGaA, Peterborough City Council, The Chapar, ADP, Financial Times, Stanley Black & Decker, SureFlap, Western Union, Philips
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Hospitality Company29%
    Marketing Services Firm29%
    Financial Services Firm14%
    Comms Service Provider14%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company21%
    Financial Services Firm13%
    Healthcare Company7%
    Manufacturing Company6%
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company38%
    Financial Services Firm15%
    Non Profit8%
    Marketing Services Firm8%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Educational Organization46%
    Computer Software Company10%
    Financial Services Firm7%
    Manufacturing Company4%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business41%
    Midsize Enterprise23%
    Large Enterprise36%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business25%
    Midsize Enterprise19%
    Large Enterprise56%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business30%
    Midsize Enterprise24%
    Large Enterprise46%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business13%
    Midsize Enterprise52%
    Large Enterprise35%
    Buyer's Guide
    Marketo vs. Salesforce Marketing Cloud
    May 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about Marketo vs. Salesforce Marketing Cloud and other solutions. Updated: May 2024.
    771,170 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Marketo is ranked 4th in Marketing Automation with 20 reviews while Salesforce Marketing Cloud is ranked 1st in Marketing Automation with 51 reviews. Marketo is rated 8.4, while Salesforce Marketing Cloud is rated 8.4. The top reviewer of Marketo writes "Useful for lead capture and engagement across social media platforms". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Salesforce Marketing Cloud writes "Easy to deploy, stable, and scalable". Marketo is most compared with Oracle Eloqua, HubSpot Marketing Hub, Pardot, Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Teradata Customer Interaction Manager, whereas Salesforce Marketing Cloud is most compared with Oracle Eloqua, HubSpot Marketing Hub, Amazon Pinpoint, SAP Marketing Cloud and SAS Marketing Automation. See our Marketo vs. Salesforce Marketing Cloud report.

    See our list of best Marketing Automation vendors and best Marketing Management vendors.

    We monitor all Marketing Automation reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.