Marketo Engage is a powerful marketing automation software offered as an individual product or within a suite of Adobe tools. While it is not standalone CRM software itself, Marketo can integrate with the top CRM providers for additional marketing features and support.

Marketo is a singular solution that can generate, segment, and even nurture new leads and customers — all features that closely align with most marketing CRM software. I will highlight the top features and compare Marketo to similar marketing CRM tools to help you decide if it’s worth investing in as a separate tool for advanced lead generation.

Marketo pricing

Marketo’s pricing structure is slightly different from typical CRM pricing, with each plan having a max number of users available. Marketo can be purchased through the Adobe Suite or as an individual product. All plan tiers listed below require contacting them for a price quote.

Here are the tiers for Marketo as a standalone solution:

• Growth: For up to 10 users and 20,000 calls per day. Offers core email marketing and segmentation features with limited automations.
• Select: For up to 25 users and 50,000 calls per day. Offers essential marketing automations and measurement tools.
• Prime: For up to 25 users and 50,000 calls per day. Offers lead and account-based marketing with advanced journey analytics and AI personalization.
• Ultimate: For up to 25 users and 50,000 calls per day. Includes Marketo’s most advanced marketing automations with premium attributions and Marketo Measure.

Marketo features

Engagement map

An engagement map is a built-in visualization of all customer interactions and engagement. They’re used to manage, evaluate, and adjust interconnected and multi-channel campaigns. Marketo’s engagement map shows out-of-the-box visuals, campaign settings, workflow evaluations, and even sharing capabilities. An advanced feature like this allows teams to validate and expand successful smart campaigns.

Email marketing

Adobe Marketo Engage email marketing can help craft the email itself and also build and update leads segments in real time. Once that is done, the email marketing feature can then send personalized communications to leads based on their activity in other channels. Real-time triggers will automatically send emails and also generate performance metrics and data reports.

Generative AI

Marketo Engage users can also use Adobe Sensei GenAI. This generative AI tool can be used in chatbots, turning it into a brand ambassador for your company with relevant answers and tone. This tool can also compile conversation summaries that help sales reps prepare for client meetings. A third benefit of the tool is the conversation and dialogue assist that generates a full library of topics, questions, and responses for your generative chat or reps and during live chat conversations.

Marketing analytics

Marketo’s marketing analytics tracker will automatically connect and organize data from all customer touchpoints across channels and campaigns. Users can select pre-built tiles and dashboards that report on specific channels, campaigns, and even individual pieces of content. With these advanced analytics and data analysis, businesses can enhance strategy and campaigns at every stage of the funnel.

Marketo pros

• Integrates with popular CRM providers.
• Users report highly customizable templates.
• Advanced lead scoring and segmentation tools.

Marketo cons

• Real users report an outdated UX/UI.
• Marketo Measure reporting only available in the highest paid tier.
• No upfront pricing information.

Alternatives to Marketo

HubSpot

HubSpot is a top free CRM and a great solution for small businesses. It also offers a suite of marketing tools such as email campaigns, web forms, ad management, and more. Compared to Marketo, HubSpot also has a sales and service solution. This makes it a fully-functioning marketing CRM and not just a marketing automation tool.

Mailchimp

Mailchimp is an email marketing and automation platform similar to Marketo. Mailchimp also has social media, SMS, and website marketing, but its main service is email marketing. Compared to Mailchimp, Marketo has more advanced predictive analytics and reporting.

ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign also has all the key marketing automation tools like webforms, email campaigns, A/B testing, and generative content. Unlike Marketo, ActiveCampaign has a CRM built into the tool that can further track all of these marketing campaigns. This pipeline and engagement CRM add-on is only available in the Plus, Pro, or Enterprise plans. Otherwise, it can integrate with Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, and others.

Review methodology

To review Marketo as a lead generation and marketing solution, I reviewed the platform’s top offers, pricing, and more against industry standards. I referenced online material from Adobe, my own CRM experience, and real user reviews. All of this helped me identify standout features and ideal use cases for the software.

Below is the criteria I used to score Marketo:

• Cost: Weighted 25% of the total score.
• Core features: Weighted 25% of the total score.
• Customizations: Weighted 15% of the total score.
• Integrations: Weighted 15% of the total score.
• Ease of use: Weighted 10% of the total score.
• Customer support: Weighted 10% of the total score.

Frequently asked questions (FAQs)

Can you use Marketo as a CRM?

Marketo cannot be used as CRM software itself but instead as a marketing automation tool. Marketo can integrate with a CRM to share data, campaign results, and funnel in generated leads. The two CRMs it can integrate directly into are Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics.

Is Marketo worth it?

If your business is searching for a strong marketing automation tool to ramp up marketing efforts, is already a user of Salesforce or Microsoft Dynamics, and can accommodate the budget, Marketo is worth it. If all of those factors are met, it can be a great addition to your sales tech stack. In the case you’re seeking a more straightforward CRM with these features built in, there are other options like Freshsales, HubSpot, or Zoho CRM.