Marketo
The enterprise marketing automation beast from Adobe — infinitely powerful, infinitely complex, and you'll need a full-time admin to run it
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The Verdict
“Marketo (Adobe Marketo Engage) is the enterprise gold standard for B2B marketing automation. Incredibly powerful but complex and expensive — best for organizations with dedicated marketing ops teams.”
Best For
Enterprise marketing teams with 100K+ contacts, complex multi-touch nurture programs, and budget for a dedicated Marketo admin
Not Great For
Any company without a dedicated marketing ops person — Marketo without an admin is like buying a race car without a driver
Overview
Adobe Marketo Engage is an enterprise marketing automation platform for lead management, email marketing, multi-channel campaign orchestration, account-based marketing, and revenue attribution. Part of Adobe Experience Cloud, it serves mid-market to enterprise B2B organizations with sophisticated demand generation needs.
Marketing Ops, Demand Gen, CMOs at mid-market to enterprise
50-10000+
Capabilities
Key Features
- Email marketing and nurture campaigns
- Lead scoring and lifecycle management
- Account-based marketing (ABM)
- Multi-channel campaign orchestration
- Revenue attribution and analytics
- Predictive content and audiences
- Forms, landing pages, and web personalization
- CRM integration (deep Salesforce, MS Dynamics)
- Advanced journey analytics
Benefits
- Enterprise-grade marketing automation at scale
- Deep Salesforce integration for sales-marketing alignment
- Multi-touch revenue attribution for proving ROI
- Part of Adobe Experience Cloud ecosystem
Pros & Cons
Pros
- +Most powerful B2B marketing automation platform
- +Best-in-class Salesforce integration
- +Comprehensive ABM and attribution
- +Part of Adobe ecosystem (CDP, analytics, personalization)
- +Massive ecosystem of partners and integrations
Cons
- -Very expensive (starts ~$895/mo, typically $30K-100K+/year)
- -Steep learning curve — needs dedicated admin
- -Complex implementation (months)
- -UI can feel dated compared to modern tools
- -Overkill for smaller organizations
Outbound Use Cases
Financials & Scale
| Plan | Price | Limits | Features |
|---|---|---|---|
| Growth | Custom (~$895/mo) | — | Email marketing, Lead management, Forms/landing pages, Basic reporting |
| Select | Custom (~$1,795/mo) | — | Everything in Growth, ABM, Advanced analytics, Revenue attribution |
| Prime | Custom (~$2,495/mo) | — | Everything in Select, Predictive content, Advanced journey analytics |
| Ultimate | Custom (~$3,195/mo) | — | Everything in Prime, Premium support, Sandbox, Advanced customization |
Marketo starts at $895/mo and easily hits $3,195/mo+ for enterprise features. HubSpot Marketing Pro is $800/mo. ActiveCampaign is $29/mo for similar (not identical) automation. You need to factor in $80K-120K/year for a Marketo admin — the platform doesn't run itself.
The Reddit Pulse
Community Pros
- +Enterprise-grade marketing automation capabilities
- +Extremely powerful for complex nurture workflows
- +Strong Salesforce integration
- +Robust lead scoring and attribution
Community Cons
- -Sales teams 'drowning in complexity' - requires technical expertise
- -Needs dedicated Marketo admin or consultant
- -Very expensive - Adobe pricing model
- -UI is outdated and clunky compared to HubSpot
Reddit Questions
- ? Is Marketo worth the complexity and cost for mid-market companies?
- ? What are the best Marketo alternatives that don't need a dedicated admin?
- ? Should we switch from Marketo to HubSpot?
Thinking of Switching?
Competitive Landscape
Technical Stack
Integrations
Head-to-Head Comparisons
Company Intel
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