Marketo vs Salesforce Marketing Cloud comparison

Adobe and Salesforce are both solutions in the Marketing Automation category. Adobe is ranked #3 with an average rating of 8.3, while Salesforce is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.5. Adobe holds a 15.2% mindshare in MA, compared to Salesforce’s 22.1% mindshare. Additionally, 96% of Adobe users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 98% of Salesforce users who would recommend it.

Marketo

Read 25 Marketo reviews

2,134 Views
1,689 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

Salesforce Marketing Cloud

Read 55 Salesforce Marketing Cloud reviews

4,299 Views
2,527 Comparison Views

98% willing to recommend

Marketo

Salesforce Marketing Cloud

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 6, 2025

Salesforce Marketing Cloud and Marketo are leading platforms in marketing automation, often compared by businesses for their features and capabilities. Salesforce Marketing Cloud stands out for its advanced functionalities like lead conversion and multi-channel campaigns. However, many choose Marketo for integration strengths and detailed analytics, with mid-sized businesses finding it more cost-effective.

Features: Salesforce Marketing Cloud boasts Journey Builder for multi-channel campaigns, Content Builder for centralized content management, and Advertising Studio for syncing customer data across platforms. Its users benefit from rich automation and customizations. Marketo offers Smart Campaigns, seamless third-party integrations, and detailed tracking via analytics, all of which enhance its campaign flexibility and user engagement.

Room for Improvement: Salesforce users often call for advancements in real-time analytics, user interface simplicity, and more straightforward setup documentation. Marketo users seek better reporting features, speed enhancements, and more intuitive campaign modification processes.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Both platforms utilize the public cloud for deployment, while Marketo offers some on-premises options. Salesforce's customer support receives mixed reviews with quicker responses for premium plans, while Marketo users report challenges during renewal but generally find their support satisfactory.

Pricing and ROI: Salesforce Marketing Cloud is positioned at the higher end of the pricing spectrum but promises substantial ROI for larger enterprises due to its sophisticated features. Marketo is priced more affordably for mid-sized businesses and offers scalable packages with proven ROI, though users face challenges with pricing renewals.

To learn more, read our detailed Marketo vs. Salesforce Marketing Cloud Report (Updated: January 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Marketo vs. Salesforce Marketing Cloud

January 2025

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Helped 837,501 peers since 2012

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Marketo

Ranking in Marketing Automation

3rd

Ranking in Marketing Management

5th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Salesforce Marketing Cloud

Ranking in Marketing Automation

1st

Ranking in Marketing Management

1st

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Social CRM (2nd), Social Media Management Solutions (2nd)

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2025, in the Marketing Automation category, the mindshare of Marketo is 15.2%, down from 17.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Salesforce Marketing Cloud is 22.1%, down from 25.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Marketing Automation

Featured Reviews

PradeepKumar25

Associate Manager at Tech Mahindra Limited

Useful for lead capture and engagement across social media platforms

Before Marketo, I worked on the Oracle Eloqua platform, both B2B-based. Currently, I'm working on Salesforce Marketing Cloud. So, these are the three platforms on which I have good hands-on expertise. One key reason platforms like Salesforce Marketing Cloud are gaining traction is that they invest in marketing campaigns. They conduct many virtual and live events, aggressively marketing their products. This strategy convinces C-suite executives to buy into and implement the Salesforce platform, something that other bigger platforms lack. Most companies are migrating to Salesforce. I've migrated one of my projects from Marketo to Salesforce and encountered many opportunities where companies want to migrate from Marketo, HubSpot, or Oracle Eloqua to Salesforce. I've worked on Oracle Eloqua, which is also a B2B platform, and I've also worked on Marketo. The lead scoring, table structure, and rules we apply are quite straightforward compared to Marketo. In Marketo, it's a bit clumsy. Regarding lead scoring or moving leads through the sales funnel, Oracle Eloqua is better, but it's a bit pricey. So, Marketo ranks second in lead scoring or managing leads, and it highly depends on the respective CRM. The tool tracks significant events, such as form fills on websites or social media handles. All this data is captured and stored in Marketo for analysis. Marketo Analytics is connected with Adobe Analytics. This integration offers detailed reports on total clicks, views, form fills, subscriptions, lead conversions, and more. It's straightforward compared to Oracle Eloqua, which has its own Oracle Business Intelligence suite.Marketo's reporting tools are easy to use, making it a plug-and-play solution for anyone.

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SantoshKrishna

Director at BMO Financial

Easy to deploy, stable, and scalable

The encryption and decryption have room for improvement. We need to be confident that the customer's data is secure when shared outside of the organization. I would like to request additional mobile app features that go beyond push notifications. As the mobile development industry continues to advance with new technologies, such as AI components, it is important to consider these advancements when setting up campaigns. Currently, campaigns are scheduled to be sent to customers at a prescribed time, but they may not be relevant to the customer unless they see them as valuable. For example, if I want to run a campaign offering loans, I would need to consider the customer's needs and balance. In the future, I hope Salesforce can incorporate an AI component that utilizes the shared data, rather than just scheduling campaigns.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"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."

"The main feature of Marketo is sending out emails, so that would be the most valuable feature."

"The most valuable features are the Marketo emails, both sending and tracking."

"The product has been stable."

"I like that the solution is flexible."

"We are scoring based on behavior without pressure, and it keeps producing excellent results."

"One feature I like is the user interface. Compared to other tools I've used, it's much more friendly and easy to navigate. Additionally, it offers a wide range of features, which makes tasks like segmenting data much simpler."

"Marketo is excellent in terms of hands-on usability and lead database management."

More Marketo pros

"The solution is very, very scalable."

"Offers many great features and is intuitive."

"Salesforce allows for the integration of different data sources."

"I think the product's best feature is its analytics, as that's where customers derive value. The second thing is its ease of implementation."

"In Salesforce Marketing Cloud, the ability to send emails effectively is very valuable."

"The most valuable feature of Salesforce Marketing Cloud is the seamless conversion of lead to opportunity, in relation to orders is good. That seamless connection is beneficial and simple."

"Salesforce Marketing Cloud's integrations are seamless since it is a native application. It helps us with B2B and B2C send-outs and can handle large columns."

"The most valuable part of the solution are the selling features."

More Salesforce Marketing Cloud pros

Cons

"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."

"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."

"Its APIs need to be more flexible because there are some things that are not available in the API."

"Segmentation in Marketo is limited to a maximum of 20 segments. Depending on the company's specific needs, these segments can be based on various attributes such as company, industry, or other values. Sometimes, there's a lag when sending data from Marketo to any CRM. It can take around five to fifteen minutes for the report to sync."

"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."

"Marketo's reporting and dashboarding features could be better. Compared to other tools, the visualization options with charts and graphs seem somewhat limited."

"Based on my clients ' comments, there is room for improvement in Marketo. For instance, Oracle's Eloqua had much larger databases than Marketo a few years ago, handling millions of records. Marketo has been catching up but doesn't hold the most extensive possible databases. This is less of an issue for B2B, but for B2C customers, who have millions of records, It also lacks features of HubSpot, which should be incorporated. Marketo could benefit from supporting more extensive databases and incorporating some of HubSpot's features. HubSpot is cheaper, and while Marketo is not the most expensive, it's not the least. They would be a better competitor to HubSpot if their pricing were lower. These products are typically priced per user per month."

"Customer support could be more helpful."

More Marketo cons

"There is a lot of room for improvement in Salesforce Marketing Cloud's dashboards and the visualization of information in each journey."

"We would like an improvement to the 'Einstein Engagement Frequency'; the optimal range of emails that our subscribers will engage with."

"Clarity around new features could be improved when they are released."

"The processing speed, the way information displays, and scrolling options can be improved."

"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."

"The customization of Salesforce, a generic CRM software, has room for improvement."

"I found that the tool is more complex than expected. It requires a deeper understanding to utilize its capabilities thoroughly."

"In the SMS area, it is not up to the mark, compared to what has been developed for email."

More Salesforce Marketing Cloud cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The fee for Marketo includes the number of users and the database size. If we ask for a unique feature, it will cost extra."

"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."

"The licensing cost usually depends on the users."

"Marketo is used a lot because it's cheaper and preferred by many firms."

"The pricing is not cheap, but it's not that expensive either."

"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."

"Marketo is too expensive for a small-sized company but more affordable for a larger-sized company."

"The solution is expensive compared to others."

More Marketo pricing and cost advice

"It's normal pricing."

"On a scale where one is the lowest and ten is the most expensive, I rate the solution an eight out of ten."

"Salesforce Marketing Cloud is affordable, considering the significant improvements it brings to our campaign results."

"My company pays to use this solution."

"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."

"Salesforce Marketing Cloud is a highly expensive solution, it needs to be less expensive. We are on an annual license to use the solution."

"The solution's pricing is very high and should be more flexible for smaller companies."

"Licensing fees are paid on a yearly basis."

More Salesforce Marketing Cloud pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

21%

Financial Services Firm

13%

Manufacturing Company

Insurance Company

Educational Organization

60%

Computer Software Company

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Marketo?

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...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Marketo?

Some modern Marketo features could be improved. I'm quite good with the filters, and in the admin section, I can build it with many more third parties. This allows me to integrate some additional p...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Marketo?

My use case is very similar to how we push emails and run notes of contents. The application includes late scoring and late licensing management as well. Marketo is an advanced solution. I am not f...

See all answers

What do you like most about Salesforce Marketing Cloud?

Datorama is part of Salesforce Marketing Cloud, which is quite a valuable feature that provides customer analytics.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Salesforce Marketing Cloud?

The cost is cheaper compared to other tools.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Salesforce Marketing Cloud?

In the SMS area, it is not up to the mark, compared to what has been developed for email.

See all answers

Comparisons

Oracle Eloqua vs Marketo

Compared 18% of the time

HubSpot Marketing Hub vs Marketo

Compared 17% of the time

SAP Marketing Cloud vs Marketo

Compared 9% of the time

Microsoft Dynamics CRM vs Marketo

Compared 6% of the time

Teradata vs Marketo

Compared 6% of the time

More Marketo Competitors

Oracle Eloqua vs Salesforce Marketing Cloud

Compared 13% of the time

SAP Marketing Cloud vs Salesforce Marketing Cloud

Compared 11% of the time

HubSpot Marketing Hub vs Salesforce Marketing Cloud

Compared 10% of the time

Zeta Marketing Platform vs Salesforce Marketing Cloud

Compared 7% of the time

Amazon Pinpoint vs Salesforce Marketing Cloud

Compared 6% of the time

More Salesforce Marketing Cloud Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Marketo

February 2025

Download Marketo product report

Buyer's Guide

Salesforce Marketing Cloud

January 2025

Download Salesforce Marketing Cloud product report

Also Known As

No data available

ExactTarget

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.

Adobe

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.

Salesforce

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

Buyer's Guide

Marketo vs. Salesforce Marketing Cloud

January 2025

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