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reviewer1140438 - PeerSpot reviewer
Global Product Marketing & Operations Lead at a hospitality company with 201-500 employees
Real User
Feb 27, 2022
Good initial pricing, but renewal fees could be lower, and technical support could be better
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable feature is the scoring."
  • "With the scoring and how we deploy it, we have a greater integration between Marketo and Salesforce, which allows our sales team to focus on people we believe are ready for conversations, rather than everyone they had to talk to before."
  • "Revenue management, attribution, and ABM can all be improved."
  • "Technical support is not good. I would rate them a two out of five."

What is our primary use case?

We use Marketo to send emails, score leads for our sales team, run nurture campaigns, and help us upsell products across the board.

How has it helped my organization?

With the scoring and how we deploy it, we have a greater integration between Marketo and Salesforce, which allows our sales team to focus on people we believe are ready for conversations, rather than everyone they had to talk to before.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature is the scoring.

What needs improvement?

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

Buyer's Guide
Marketo
June 2026
Learn what your peers think about Marketo. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: June 2026.
902,456 professionals have used our research since 2012.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have used Marketo in the last 12 months.

We are using what we purchased in 2019, and there are releases every month.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Marketo is a stable solution. I don't have any issues with the stability of Marketo.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability of Marketo is good.

We have 18 people in the system. Those are 18 people in the organization with various roles for sending emails, but this is our only email tool. It is used pervasively at some level throughout the organization.

How are customer service and support?

Technical support is not good. I would rate them a two out of five.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Previously, we used an association tool called higher logic. We switched because it didn't meet our needs.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was complex.

My initial experience with the initial setup was good, but once we started using it, we realized that the setup had not been completed correctly. 

We have two people who are dedicated to the maintenance of Marketo.

What about the implementation team?

We received assistance from a Marketo consultant.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The initial pricing was excellent, but the pricing for renewals is not as good. I would give their initial pricing a four out of five, and their renewal fee is a one out of five.

Upsells are available. The various components, such as attribution modeling and the calendar function. They simply have a lot of upselling pieces to it.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Before choosing Marketo, we evaluated Sales Cloud and Eloqua.

What other advice do I have?

One of the issues we had was that we were initially brought on a system, we didn't have much work on how to look at scalability and how much it would cost to scale. If it would be less expensive to charge per contact, as Marketo does. We could have doubled or tripled our contacts with the initial purchase rather than having to add contacts as our business grew. People should consider the cost of scaling and whether it should be factored into the initial contract or added later.

I would rate Marketo a six out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
it_user1694730 - PeerSpot reviewer
Head of Digital Marketing Operations at a marketing services firm with 501-1,000 employees
Real User
Oct 20, 2021
Stable and good for sending out emails
Pros and Cons
  • "The main feature of Marketo is sending out emails, so that would be the most valuable feature."
  • "It could be more scalable."

What is our primary use case?

We use it in our company, which is a market research company. In terms of the version, I don't think there are multiple versions, so it's the latest one that I have.

What is most valuable?

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

What needs improvement?

It could be more scalable.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution for six years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

So far, it looks stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It could be more scalable. Currently, 20 people are using it in my company. We are definitely going to expand its usage in the future.

How are customer service and support?

Their technical support is all right.

How was the initial setup?

I was not a part of it, but from what I've heard, it was complex.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

It is expensive. We have a yearly license.

What other advice do I have?

I would advise others to ask for expert services from an agency. I would rate Marketo an eight out of 10.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Marketo
June 2026
Learn what your peers think about Marketo. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: June 2026.
902,456 professionals have used our research since 2012.
reviewer1493613 - PeerSpot reviewer
Digital Transformation specialist at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
Real User
Feb 4, 2021
Useful features, drives sales, gives qualified leads, and reliable
Pros and Cons
  • "The smart campaign looks quite interesting and useful."
  • "This solution gives me a qualified lead, it will drive your sales even faster."
  • "Adobe, the parent company, needs to improve on getting more information published to allow users to educate themselves on how to use the solution."

What is our primary use case?

We use the solution for marketing automation such as email marketing and lead aggregation.

What is most valuable?

The smart campaign looks quite interesting and useful. My experience is in sales, though we use Marketo for marketing it has more strength for sales. They have a very good lead force system when somebody views our website or clicks on something, I notice a strong interest. I am able to understand what is the customer is looking for and what is the feature, or function that they care about. This solution gives me a qualified lead, it will drive your sales even faster. This is the beauty I found out about Marketo.

What needs improvement?

Adobe, the parent company, needs to improve on getting more information published to allow users to educate themselves on how to use the solution. You cannot find much information about Marketo on the Adobe website. I had to Google around and go to websites to get familiar with the system. 

For an upcoming release, the UI could improve.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the solution for four months.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We have not had any issues with the stability of the solution.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution has shown to be scalable. We have several users using the solution on a daily basis.

How are customer service and technical support?

We did not have issues to use the support.

What about the implementation team?

The maintenance of the solution is done internally.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The solution is expensive compared to others.

What other advice do I have?

When it comes to sales I think this solution is more suitable but if you want a solution for marketing I believe Salesforce is better. Look at your companies culture, and into the teams to see which one has more influence, the sales, or the marketing team, then decide from there.

I rate Marketo an eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Reseller
PeerSpot user
Founder at Kav Interactive
Real User
Nov 30, 2020
Detailed email tracking that is stable and has good support
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable features are the Marketo emails, both sending and tracking."
  • "Its APIs need to be more flexible because there are some things that are not available in the API."

What is our primary use case?

We are service providers for different customers. We provide them with our services such as managing their campaigns, creating email templates, and lining page templates.

We are using this solution for email templates, API-based work, custom integrations, and campaign management.

We are also using it for live events, webinars, roadshows, and life cycle management as well.

What is most valuable?

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

Marketo provides detailed tracking. For example, it shows you who has clicked on which link, who has opened the email, and when it was received. 

They are improving it and have launched a new version, called Micro Sky, and it seems very good.

What needs improvement?

Its APIs need to be more flexible because there are some things that are not available in the API. They should work in that area and improve it.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Marketo for approximately five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

This solution is stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We have not yet scaled this solution. We have approximately five users in our organization who are using it.

We have approximately 2000 customers at this time.

How are customer service and technical support?

Technical support is good. 

We can call our technical support and we can open our case in the community.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is straightforward and it is quick to deploy.

We have a team in our organization who install the service and the Marketo team to maintain this solution.

What about the implementation team?

We get the log-in details, we set up a domain for the emails and pages. Then we set it up so that our emails are whitelisted.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The licensing cost usually depends on the users. There are different factors to it. For example, how much of a database do you need, and which features do you want to have enabled. 

You can contact the customer relationship manager to provide you with the cost.

There are no additional costs for this solution.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We evaluated Pardot and HubSpot, but Marketo seems much better.

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend Marketo to others who are interested in using this solution.

I would rate this product a nine out of ten.                                                   

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Marketo Consultant at Webtech software servies
Real User
Nov 29, 2020
Helpful in converting leads to customers and has good integration with CRM
Pros and Cons
  • "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."
  • "Considering the features it offers, it provides value for money."
  • "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."
  • "I had an issue while integrating JavaScript with forms."

What is our primary use case?

Marketo is used for creating landing pages and sending email newsletters. It is mostly used for engaging the leads more and sending invitations and offers. There is also a program where region-wise, people get a notification whenever there is a new lead. I work with Salesforce integration with customs fields in the backend.

I mainly work on the entire thing, that is, from designing to coding to implementation. I have one or two members who provide support in designing assets just in case if I need support. I focus on the designing aspects through Design Studio of Marketo, where I plan for the design of the email that will get us more leads and fills ups of the forms. I also use it for tracking customers from social media such as Facebook, setting up UTM parameters, customizing forms, and customizing designs for the landing pages, emails, variables, etc.

I work on the latest as well as the earlier versions of this solution. Some of my clients are using the earlier versions, and some of them are using the latest version. Most of my clients are global enterprises, and it is deployed in the cloud.

How has it helped my organization?

You can hold up to your leads and customers and send them offers. You can get the repeating leads. It has definitely been helpful in holding up the leads and converting them to customers.

What is most valuable?

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.

What needs improvement?

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 how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Marketo for eight years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is stable. The only issue is that it is slow because it has a lot of features. Other than that, it is a very stable automation process.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is definitely scalable. After Adobe acquired it, they have scaled it and implemented a lot of features in it. It is definitely more scalable now. Most of my clients are global companies.

How are customer service and technical support?

Their technical support gives you just the basic support. If you need more or in-depth information, you can approach the community. The community is great, and a lot of solutions are available in the community forum.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I used a lot of other solutions before using Marketo. MailChimp was the first product that I used. I then moved to ActiveCampaign and a lot of other solutions and started learning Marketo. I prefer working on Marketo because it has a lot of features and a lot of value for money. It is a niche solution, and many people will not get the opportunity to work on it. 

Marketo differs from ActiveCampaign in terms of how it integrates with CRM such as Salesforce and how you create programs. It is very unique and different from ActiveCampaign. I would give a ten out of ten for Marketo and a three out of ten for ActiveCampaign.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was mostly straightforward. You just need to know the steps and follow the procedure. It was easy for me because of my experience in working with a lot of projects. The deployment took a couple of hours. It was quick.

What was our ROI?

My clients have definitely seen a return on investments by using Marketo. Their product's growth has definitely increased.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

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.

What other advice do I have?

I would definitely recommend this solution. The confidence that I got from working on Marketo is tremendous. Many people do not get the opportunity to work on it. It is a very important solution for any developer where your competition is less, and you learn new things. You will not be able to get out without purchasing the software.

We plan to increase its usage. It is the most used automation software in global MNCs. The cost could be the only issue why some small companies move away to some other software, but considering the features it offers, it provides value for money.

I would rate Marketo a ten out of ten. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Real User
Feb 3, 2020
Smart Campaigns and other features form the backbone of our digital marketing operations
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable feature of this solution is Smart Campaigns."
  • "With Marketo as the core strength, I have led numerous Marketing Automation projects from end to end."
  • "Marketo should give more power to the users for data manipulation."

What is our primary use case?

With Marketo as the core strength, I have led numerous Marketing Automation projects from end to end. I have analyzed business requirements for MAP implementation, configured database setup, worked on SSL implementation, handled system integration, coded Email and Landing Page Templates, configured analytics setup, and led more than five hundred campaign projects.

How has it helped my organization?

Marketo is the backbone for our company's Digital Marketing operations.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature of this solution is Smart Campaigns. It is very easy to use and very powerful too.

What needs improvement?

Marketo should give more power to the users for data manipulation. Marketo sees data in terms of Leads and Campaigns, which is fine, but there are other perspectives of data too that can and should actually be utilized. I compare this to Adobe Campaign which allows the manipulation of data from different angles.

For how long have I used the solution?

My organization uses Marketo since around 2013 - 2019, 6 years in total. I myself contributed since 2016, so that's around 3.5 years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Very stable and solid.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Very scalable and easy to use.

How are customer service and technical support?

They are very helpful and supportive, but at times I found some communication troubles.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
Marketing Campaign Manager with 51-200 employees
Real User
Jul 17, 2017
The ability to build and automate complex scenarios is valuable.
Pros and Cons
  • "Marketo makes it easy to stay in contact with our base of customers, prospective customers, and partners."
  • "Our experience with the renewal process has been frustrating. Marketo bakes a substantial price increase into each contract which has required renegotiation every year."

What is most valuable?

Marketo makes it easy to stay in contact with our base of customers, prospective customers, and partners. The ability to quickly build and automate complex scenarios, create dynamic lists, and analyze campaign results is invaluable.

What needs improvement?

With the increasing sophistication of anti-phishing and filtering software, we have seen a number of messages that return link clicks – even though links were not actually clicked.  A simple indicator of this, is when Marketo analytics show that every individual at a particular company has clicked on a link (usually the same one) in an email.  These “phantom clicks” can make it difficult to estimate the effectiveness of a particular email or piece of content.

This issue has been discussed extensively in the Marketo community, and the larger ESP community as well.  While there are several temporary works arounds, I would like to see a more proactive attempt at a long-term solution.  I do recognize that this problem is not limited to Marketo, and it certainly has not been a deal-breaker for our continued use of the platform.

For how long have I used the solution?

Three years

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

I joined the organization after deployment, but am told it was a relatively smooth process. As with any automation solution, the real hurdle isn't in the deployment, it's in optimizing processes to take advantage of the product's unique capabilities.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Marketo is a solid automation platform with fantastic stability.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability of the solution is virtually unmatched. We've expanded our operations (and database) greatly over the past few years without a hitch.

How is customer service and technical support?

Customer service is prompt, friendly, and generally helpful.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Pricing depends on the size of your database and feature set.  Our experience with the renewal process has been frustrating.  Marketo bakes a substantial price increase into each contract which has required renegotiation every year.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
it_user264924 - PeerSpot reviewer
it_user264924Marketing Campaign Manager with 51-200 employees
Real User

There are certainly more budget-friendly platforms out there, but the pricing is within the range of what I would expect for an enterprise solution. The renewal process has proven challenging. We've had a new rep every year, and Marketo generally requests a substantial price increase.

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PeerSpot user
Growth Strategies and Demand Generation Consultant at a marketing services firm with self employed
Vendor
Jun 30, 2017
I like the integration with Salesforce. I would like to see attribution reporting.
Pros and Cons
  • "We have a better alignment of sales and marketing."
  • "In terms of scalability, the more leads you have, the longer it takes to sync with Salesforce."

What is most valuable?

I like the integration with Salesforce.

How has it helped my organization?

We have a better alignment of sales and marketing. It allows me to do things in Salesforce without an admin.

What needs improvement?

  • Speed to sync if you have lots of leads
  • Attribution reporting

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using this solution for six years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

In terms of stability, it takes longer to sync with Salesforce than it should at times.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

In terms of scalability, the more leads you have, the longer it takes to sync with Salesforce.

How are customer service and technical support?

I would give technical support a rating of 5/10.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I have used Act-On, HubSpot, and Infusionsoft. Many clients switch due to cost.

How was the initial setup?

To make the initial setup better, brush up on best practices and come up with a naming convention that starts with the year, month, and date in order to keep things consistent.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We evaluated Pardot, HubSpot, and Act-On.

What other advice do I have?

Map out your processes and customer journey before you start building.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
Marketing at Kenes Group
Vendor
Jun 21, 2017
Allows us to build marketing flows that send automated emails based on user actions.
Pros and Cons
  • "Marketo helps us easily segment and target the appropriate users for the relevant events."
  • "Marketo is still very slow."

What is most valuable?

  • Can segment the database in a number of ways. We can target leads based on where they came from, what they did in the emails, and what they did on the website.
  • Automation ability: Allows us to build marketing flows that send automated emails based on user actions.
  • Lead scoring: Helps us find the most relevant leads based on source and behavior.

How has it helped my organization?

We have a large database that targets many different types of users for many different types of events. Marketo helps us easily segment and target the appropriate users for the relevant events. Automation also helps us to instantly send relevant offers to registered participants.

What needs improvement?

  • Marketo is still very slow. Despite promises over the years to improve this, we are still waiting for a reality when it takes a few seconds to load large lists of data.
  • The landing page building is still a very non-intuitive and a non-user friendly process. Marketo would be wise to adopt an easier approach, similar to what unbounce offers.
  • More proactive support from account managers would be nice, especially in problem-solving.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using this solution for three years.

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

There were no issues with deployment.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

There were no issues with stability.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

There were no issues with scalability.

How is customer service and technical support?

Customer Service:

I would give customer service a rating of three out of 10.

Technical Support:

I would give technical support a rating eight out of 10.

How was the initial setup?

I was not involved in the initial setup.

What was our ROI?

We have found it very challenging to measure our ROI through Marketo.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
Marketing Campaign Manager at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Jan 10, 2017
Enables the use of templated landing pages and emails to make it easy to create messages and landing pages. The available analytics are sub-par.
Pros and Cons
  • "Great ease of use creation for campaigns."
  • "Customer Service: This is where Marketo falls short. Their customer service is awful."

How has it helped my organization?

Great ease of use creation for campaigns. Marketo enables the use of templated landing pages and emails to make it easy to create messages and landing pages.

What needs improvement?

The available analytics are sub-par.

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

No.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

No.

How are customer service and technical support?

Customer Service:

This is where Marketo falls short. Their customer service is awful.

Technical Support:

OK>

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Yes. Switched with a new company.

How was the initial setup?

Straightforward.

What about the implementation team?

In-house and vendor.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Yes.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
it_user670116 - PeerSpot reviewer
it_user670116Growth Strategies and Demand Generation Consultant at a marketing services firm with self employed
Vendor

I have used Marketo, Pardot, Acton and Infusionsoft in the last year. None of them are "easy" to use. I have not used clickfunnels yet but looking at it as I hear itvis much easier to build landing pages on.

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