Marketo vs Salesforce Marketing Cloud comparison

Adobe and Salesforce are both solutions in the Marketing Automation category. Adobe is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.3, while Salesforce is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.7. Adobe holds a 14.4% mindshare in MA, compared to Salesforce’s 22.8% mindshare. Additionally, 96% of Adobe users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 98% of Salesforce users who would recommend it.

Marketo

Read 26 Marketo reviews

1,951 Views
1,554 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

Salesforce Marketing Cloud

Read 55 Salesforce Marketing Cloud reviews

3,862 Views
2,342 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: March 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Marketo vs. Salesforce Marketing Cloud

March 2025

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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

2nd

Ranking in Marketing Management

4th

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 April 2025, in the Marketing Automation category, the mindshare of Marketo is 14.4%, down from 16.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Salesforce Marketing Cloud is 22.8%, down from 25.1% 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.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable features of Marketo are its ease of use and flexibility."

"It's pretty good at handling customization and templates. We can put in different variables, so even someone without coding knowledge can create and develop emails that look good on different browsers."

"The valuable features are list uploads, email campaigns, generating reports,source tracking, and lead attribution."

"The most valuable feature of this solution is Smart Campaigns."

"The most valuable feature is the scoring."

"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."

"The product has been stable."

"I like that the solution is flexible."

More Marketo pros

"It is easy to send emails and SMS's."

"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 most valuable feature of Salesforce Marketing Cloud is the reporting engine. Reports are very good and easy to build."

"It is very easy to use from a marketing standpoint."

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

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

"Marketing Cloud offers a 360 customers experience as it integrates with Service Cloud and Sales Cloud, the CRM portion of Salesforce. The different platforms integrate easily which makes it easy to manage customer communication using a single point of truth."

"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."

More Salesforce Marketing Cloud pros

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."

"For the moment, we migrated some of our processes to Marketo and implemented them there. We had some difficulties related to this."

"There is a bit of room for improvement in the level-one support team. It relies too much on documentation."

"The user interface could be improved."

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

"Revenue management, attribution, and ABM can all be improved."

"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."

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

More Marketo cons

"The quality of support for this solution has been decreasing over time and the support team are sometimes more focused on closing tickets that resolving issues. Often the support team is not well trained or aware of the new features or products released by Salesforce."

"Technical support is good but could be faster, maybe more knowledgeable, and more customer friendly."

"I've noticed on one-to-one leads, the customer objection option is not available."

"The UA could be better designed for a mobile connection."

"The encryption and decryption have room for improvement."

"There could be easier tools to configure the product and to create landing pages to better handle large data sets."

"When you use your iPhone or Android phone, Salesforce is not as user-friendly as it could be. That UX needs to be improved."

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

More Salesforce Marketing Cloud cons

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."

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

"It is expensive. We have a yearly license."

"The solution is expensive compared to others."

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

"The initial pricing was excellent, but the pricing for renewals is not as good."

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

"The licensing cost usually depends on the users."

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."

"This is a low cost solution suited to larger organizations."

"This solution is priced in the medium to high price range."

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

"We have two types of licensing. We have a yearly license for end users and we have a concurrent login for selling."

"It is a license per user."

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

"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."

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?

The user interface could be improved. I would like to see an updated UI for 2025.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Marketo?

As a seasoned Marketo Expert with a decade of experience and a deep understanding of Adobe's ecosystem, I can confidently say that the primary use case for Marketo lies in empowering businesses wit...

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

HubSpot Marketing Hub vs Marketo

Compared 19% of the time

Oracle Eloqua vs Marketo

Compared 16% of the time

SAP Marketing Cloud vs Marketo

Compared 10% of the time

Microsoft Dynamics CRM vs Marketo

Compared 6% of the time

Teradata vs Marketo

Compared 5% of the time

More Marketo Competitors

SAP Marketing Cloud vs Salesforce Marketing Cloud

Compared 14% of the time

Oracle Eloqua 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 9% of the time

Adobe Campaign vs Salesforce Marketing Cloud

Compared 5% of the time

More Salesforce Marketing Cloud Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Marketo

March 2025

Download Marketo product report

Buyer's Guide

Salesforce Marketing Cloud

March 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

March 2025

Free Report: Marketo vs. Salesforce Marketing Cloud

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