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SAP Marketing Cloud vs Salesforce Marketing Cloud comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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

Salesforce Marketing Cloud
Ranking in Marketing Automation
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
55
Ranking in other categories
Social CRM (2nd), Marketing Management (1st), Social Media Management Solutions (2nd)
SAP Marketing Cloud
Ranking in Marketing Automation
7th
Average Rating
7.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
Marketing Resource Management (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2025, in the Marketing Automation category, the mindshare of Salesforce Marketing Cloud is 22.1%, down from 25.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP Marketing Cloud is 5.2%, up from 3.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Marketing Automation
 

Featured Reviews

SantoshKrishna - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
Srini-Dhanaraj - PeerSpot reviewer
Used for customer segmentation and campaign management but have slow email response
Deployment is not complex and takes six to eight weeks. You need to understand what exactly it entails. The customer is the client, the business that will use and benefit from the software. We need to understand their business processes, particularly how they want to build the customer profile. Once we understand that, we may need to integrate with various source systems where interactions occur. For example, a customer may purchase many products through Amazon, and the client may want to integrate data from these Amazon transactions to understand the customer's buying patterns. This is a typical e-commerce scenario, not limited to Amazon. So, you connect to a third-party system to extract data and capture it in the Marketing Cloud. You create a customer profile to analyze behavior, such as if a person buys expensive items when they get their salary or during promotional periods. Based on this profiling, you can push targeted marketing campaigns to customers, such as promotions during a long weekend or Easter holiday. Understanding the customer profile is crucial for effective marketing.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It has excellent lead and opportunity tracking."
"Email Studio is one of the core parts of Salesforce Marketing Cloud."
"The most valuable features of Salesforce are the automation and the ability to create dashboards which provide a wider picture of what is going on."
"The ability to automate processes is one of the most valuable features of Salesforce. This sets it part from other systems. We use the journey builder to design a fully automated journey."
"It's a software-as-a-service solution. Everything is managed centrally from the cloud. As far as I can tell, installation is relatively simple."
"The most valuable of Salesforce Marketing Cloud is seeing the customer's journey."
"We have found the solution to be scalable."
"I like the user interface it has a nice look and feel."
"Segmentation and campaigning are very important features."
 

Cons

"If you want to use advanced features in Salesforce Marketing Cloud, they are extremely difficult to use."
"I would like to see more ways to accomplish specific tasks."
"The performance is sometimes sluggish, but I think that's to be expected with a heavy CRM tool because they're running reports in real-time on the data that you have entered."
"There could be easier tools to configure the product and to create landing pages to better handle large data sets."
"There is a lot of room for improvement in Salesforce Marketing Cloud's dashboards and the visualization of information in each journey."
"Marketing Cloud should change the script language that it uses because it's not good. It's tricky and difficult to develop."
"An additional feature needed would be better capacity for personalization."
"I found that the tool is more complex than expected. It requires a deeper understanding to utilize its capabilities thoroughly."
"Email response could be improved."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"This solution is priced in the medium to high price range."
"The solution is paid for monthly."
"Licensing fees are paid on a yearly basis."
"Salesforce Marketing Cloud is affordable, considering the significant improvements it brings to our campaign results."
"This is a low cost solution suited to larger organizations."
"The solution is a bit expensive."
"The solution's pricing is very high and should be more flexible for smaller companies."
"Salesforce has different versions of the solution and some are more suitable for smaller clients. However, Salesforce is expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
60%
Computer Software Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
5%
Manufacturing Company
4%
Financial Services Firm
18%
Computer Software Company
15%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Wholesaler/Distributor
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

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.
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.
What needs improvement with SAP Marketing Cloud?
Email response could be improved. SAP Marketing Cloud may be difficult to sell to a sports club. Sports fans can be numerous, often in the millions or even billions. If you want to reach them, this...
What is your primary use case for SAP Marketing Cloud?
We use the solution for customer segmentation and campaign management. It allows us to capture customer information in a single system.
 

Also Known As

ExactTarget
SAP Hybris Marketing Cloud
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

American Express, Financial Conduct Authority, KPN, Merck KGaA, Peterborough City Council, The Chapar, ADP, Financial Times, Stanley Black & Decker, SureFlap, Western Union, Philips
PT XL Axiata Tbk, Lenovo, Molson Coors Brewing Company, Sailing Team Germany, CHIO Aachen, Danone, Evoshield, Mohawk Industries, FC Bayern Munchen AG, D. SWAROVSKI KG, WeissBeerger, Groupe SAMSE, Cox Communications Inc.
Find out what your peers are saying about Salesforce, HubSpot, Adobe and others in Marketing Automation. Updated: February 2025.
837,501 professionals have used our research since 2012.