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Marketo vs SAP 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

Marketo
Ranking in Marketing Automation
2nd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
26
Ranking in other categories
Marketing Management (4th)
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 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 SAP Marketing Cloud is 5.9%, up from 2.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Marketing Automation
 

Featured Reviews

PradeepKumar25 - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
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

"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 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."
"I like that the solution is flexible."
"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."
"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."
"We are scoring based on behavior without pressure, and it keeps producing excellent results."
"The most valuable feature is the scoring."
"Segmentation and campaigning are very important features."
 

Cons

"The user interface could be improved."
"For the moment, we migrated some of our processes to Marketo and implemented them there. We had some difficulties related to this."
"Customer support could be more helpful."
"It could be more scalable."
"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."
"Its APIs need to be more flexible because there are some things that are not available in the API."
"Adobe, the parent company, needs to improve on getting more information published to allow users to educate themselves on how to use the solution."
"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."
"Email response could be improved."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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 fee for Marketo includes the number of users and the database size. If we ask for a unique feature, it will cost extra."
"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."
"It is expensive. We have a yearly license."
"The initial pricing was excellent, but the pricing for renewals is not as good."
"The licensing cost usually depends on the users."
"The solution is expensive compared to others."
Information not available
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
21%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Insurance Company
5%
Financial Services Firm
18%
Manufacturing Company
13%
Computer Software Company
13%
Healthcare Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

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...
What needs improvement with Marketo?
The user interface could be improved. I would like to see an updated UI for 2025.
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...
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

No data available
SAP Hybris Marketing Cloud
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Marketo has a customer base of thousands of companies, including Sony, Citrix, BrightTALK, Curves International, HootSuite, Hyundai, SanDisk, and Samsung Electronics.
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, Adobe, HubSpot and others in Marketing Automation. Updated: March 2025.
845,564 professionals have used our research since 2012.