# Page 2 | Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement Reviews 2026. Verified Reviews, Pros & Cons | Capterra > Page 2 - Is Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement the right Email Marketing solution for you? Explore 649 verified user reviews from people in industries like yours to make a confident choice. Source: https://www.capterra.com/p/134593/Pardot/reviews/?page=2 --- Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement 4.1 (649) [View alternatives](https://www.capterra.com/p/134593/Pardot/alternatives/) Provider data verified by our Software Research team, and reviews moderated by our Reviews Verification team. [Learn more](https://www.capterra.com/our-story/) * * * Last updated March 13th, 2026 # Page 2 - Reviews of Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement ## Showing most helpful reviews Showing 26-50 of 649 Reviews Sort by: Most Helpful Rating Company Size Reviewer's Role Length of Use Frequency of Use VR Verified Reviewer Marketing Automation Specialist Financial Services Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "Only for big companies" March 26, 2024 4.0 Pros You can build everything you dream of in Salesforce Marketing Cloud. The Journey module is amazing and Automation Studio is very powerful. Rest assure, you will be able to build any user story. Cons Ver expensive. It's not just the tool, but the launch, implementation, and Salesforce partner (or an in-house team of 4-5 experts) to get the most of the tool. Not for new or small companies that can't afford a learning curve of 4-6 months to launch and keep the Salesforce partner or dedicated in-house team to implementation and maintenance. Switched from [Campaign Monitor by Marigold](https://www.capterra.com/p/76928/Campaign-Monitor/) Needed a more powerful solution for B2B company. Review Source VD Vatsal D. App developer Information Technology and Services Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "Increase Your Marketing Potential with Salesforce Marketing Cloud" March 1, 2023 5.0 All things considered, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement is a complete solution for companies looking to organize their marketing initiatives and engage with customers more successfully. Pros Mobile-friendly, personalized emails can be created and sent using powerful email campaign management tools. It helps you segment and target your audience effectively. Can-Spam compliance features to ensure that all emails adhere to legal requirements. Access control and permission features to manage user roles and permissions. Collaboration tools to help teams work together more effectively.Integration with other Salesforce products for seamless data exchange and cross-functional visibility. Cons This platform reuires training or expertise to fully utilise its features. Review Source Garrett G. Marketing Manager - Technology Computer Software Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Fast, Easy, and Powerful Marketing Automation" August 7, 2018 5.0 I have used Pardot at three different companies now and I love it. It's been one of my most reliable and useful tools in my Marketing Stack over the years and it's continued to get better thanks to the aggressive roadmap put in place by Salesforce. Great for business ranging from small business up to Enterprise. Pros The number one thing that I love about Pardot is how easy it is to use. If you're on a small marketing team, one person can easily handle the system. If you have a larger team, the functionality scales extremely well - and you can bring in as many users as you need into the system without needing to pay for any additional seats. The software is extremely consistent and reliable. Pages load quickly and properly. The WYSIWYG editor for emails is awesome! The amount of automation you can do in Pardot is fantastic - especially with their more recent addition of repeating automations and drip programs. Awesome update releases thanks to being a Salesforce product. Cons The positioning of all of the various functionality can be a little confusing at times. There are a LOT of menu items that lead to the various different features. Some cleanup/re-organization of these might help new users. The out-of-the-box Marketing templates, while serviceable, could use a reboot. For a startup they're likely sufficient, but if you're running a lot of email campaigns you might want to invest in having a developer custom-build a modular email template for your ongoing use. The built-in mail testing using Litmus is terrible. Often half of the renderings fail to load, and a number of the renderings included are not super relevant any more. I actually never use this feature any more as I prefer to send test emails to an actual mail client rather than trust the renderings. Review Source Erik V. Sr. Manager, Strategic Development Marketing and Advertising Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Pardot - A Simple Marketing Automation Platform by Salesforce" July 16, 2021 5.0 Overall, Pardot has been a great tool for running segmentations, building lists, and crafting simple and sometimes complex drip programs for our prospective clients. Pros One of the best thing about Pardot is the bi-directional communication between the Pardot platform and our Salesforce CRM. I am able to send a one-to-one email, leveraging a pre-built Pardot template, directly from our Salesforce CRM. Conversely, Pardot allows me to segment specific prospects based of the criteria I specify—allowing me to create segmented lists that can be leveraged in list email sends or be part of an Engagement Studio program (Drip Campaign). Cons I find it very difficult to build landing pages in Pardot. Where most things are pretty intuitive and easy to learn, I find that creating a landing page and dealing with the code is very confusing. I often leverage an internal development resource to assist me when creating a Pardot landing page. Review Source NF Nik F. Director of Marketing Computer Software Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Salesforce integration oversold, but excellent in its own right" December 9, 2018 4.0 Pros Pardot is one of the better marketing automation/nurturing product aimed at mid-sized businesses. It's greatest strength is its integration with Salesforce (which will be discussed more in "cons"). With relative simplicity, it can be connected to the CRM, so that contacts can easily sync two-ways, and even custom objects can be brought through for segmentation purposes with just a couple of clicks. Tracking and automation is very well thought out and easy to use. The product has a straightforward method of tracking campaign results and attribution, all of which can then be pushed into Salesforce for comprehensive reporting on prospect-to-purchase management and measurement. Pardot's greatest strength lies in its ease of use. No marketing automation software is going to be SIMPLE, but Pardot shines in the consistency between its many functions. Nothing feels tacked-on or different from other tools. If you can create a campaign, you can create a complex segmentation rule, and you can manage your social media posts, as it all works identically. The marketing automation function, Engagement Studio, has gone through substantial recent updates and I consider it best-in-class for ease of use and functionality. If true automation is your #1 concern, this is a great choice. Lastly, support is excellent. Salesforce Trailblazer is fantastic for self-guided-training, the documentation is up-to-date and accurate, and support tickets are answered promptly and knowledgeably. If you are experienced in systems of these sorts, you will quite likely not need to take advantage of any external training (or SF's accelerator options). Cons Pardot is a Salesforce product, and its integration is excellent, but it is just that - an integration. Pardot works like a third party service connected with Salesforce, as opposed to a native extension. Lists are synchronized, along with the sort of bugs and frustrations that come with bi-directional synchronization, and some Salesforce functions (notably custom objects) are not as fully fleshed out as one might hope. In some ways, other solutions do a better job synchronizing with Salesforce. That said, Pardot's setup is the simplest I've used, and having unified support for CRM and marketing automation is also a tremendous advantage when I do run into any hang-ups. Also, while Pardot's feature set is great, some of its tools are in need of substantial upgrades to keep up with the competition. Its WYSIWYG email and landing page tools aren't responsive and are far outclassed in ease of use by Mailchimp and other lower cost options (although if you're comfortable with HTML and developing your own templates, it's not bad at all). It is progressively being updated and modernized, but it obviously takes time, and there can be minor frustrations when you see other tools that are smoother or more approachable. But I have never found this to set a limit on what's possible, only an opportunity for things to be faster and easier for less-expert users. Review Source Robert R. Client Relations Manager Media Production Used the software for: 2+ years ### "It offers more than it can handle. Terrible support. Way too expensive." August 1, 2018 2.0 We were able to update designs for emails and landing pages (with limited selection) but deliverability suffered greatly. Pros There's some good features like email drip campaigns, landing pages and forms but they all have their drawbacks. The drip campaigns we found were never getting delivered and going to spam, no one ever opened the emails. The landing pages only provide 4 or 5 designs and only one of them is even possibly usable. You'll need to code your own. The forms are extremely complicated, I've been using for a few years and I still have no idea how to customize them to improve the designs. Basically just too complicated all around. I don't have any pros really, anything good I can find a con for. Don't get fooled into buying this software. Cons We purchased Pardot on a three year contract expecting much more than we were given. We are a news publication that sends out daily alerts that our customers pay for and were told by their sales team this was the best email delivery software out there - obviously we know they all say that but this software isn't even close. Pardot purchased Exact Target and sends out of their email. Exact Target is one of the most filtered spam filters no so it's almost impossible to get emails sent through to any customers if they have even a shred of spam filtering set up. We have had to work with hundreds of subscribers to mark our emails as a safe sender through IP and Domain whitelisting and sometimes that doesn't even work. That and they fact that the reporting and features in many ways have no flexibility make this software very frustrating for us. In the beginning we were provided a chat function to contact support and found that there wasn't really much they could do for us other than redirect us to links that did not fix our problems - this would end up turning into a ticket that would rarely be resolved. After about a year they did away with the chat function altogether and told us if we want it back we need to pay an extra per month. This is already an EXTREMELY expensive software so for them to turn their back on us for another money grab was a spit in the face. We're done with them and looking forward to the contract expiring early next year. Review Source BF Bri F. Assistant Manager Medical Practice Used the software for: 2+ years ### "salesforce marketing review" January 13, 2023 5.0 Pros this is extremely impactful for our small business and the way we market, generate and keep up with new clients and leads for our sales consultant. this type of software is what makes small businesses grow Cons the dashboards can get a little overwhelming sometimes if you are just starting to work with the software but it gets easier as you use it more often Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Demand Generation Marketing Manager Transportation/Trucking/Railroad Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Gets the job done " December 21, 2021 3.0 Pardot gets the job done, but it could definitely be better. I would recommend Pardot for smaller businesses that may just be starting out. If you are a larger company, I recommend either Marketo or Pardot. Pros Creating emails and landing pages are easy once you have templates that are built out. If you are not familiar with how to build templates, it may be difficult for you to use Pardot, as there is no drag and drop feature. The automation rules make it really easy for us to integrate into Salesforce, which we love. It's also very simple to create custom fields, which was important for us. Cons The reporting feature in Pardot is subpar. It is extremely difficult to report on our marketing activities with their current reporting structure. There is no way to create a custom report, making it very difficult for our team to track ROI. Probably the biggest downside to using this platform. Alternatives considered [HubSpot Marketing Hub](https://www.capterra.com/p/171840/HubSpot-Marketing/)[Marketo Engage](https://www.capterra.com/p/75130/Marketo-Lead-Management/) Review Source Christopher J. Digital Demand Generation Manager Computer Software Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "If you are using Salesforce then this tool is great!!" October 23, 2018 4.0 Pardot has fit our needs especially in working with Salesforce. However, if I had an option I would use a different tool (such as Hubspot). It feels like a dated product that needs some updates to the user experience. Keep in mind it is VERY powerful (a ton of features) but finding them is irritating. For example, you have email templates and email drafts. The differentiation is not clear and you have to look through their knowledge base to figure that out. Pros Pardot has a huge number of features that allow you to control, split and quickly view your customer lists. It is also awesome being able to get this information into Salesforce. Another feature I love is the customer behavior tracking. It makes it simple to get an understanding of what a prospect is interested in. We can then tailor our message to this prospect. For example, if we identify someone is from a specific State (in the U.S.A) then we can share a link in an email that is information only about that State. The scoring feature is also great because you can quickly see the interest of a current prospect and then notify the correct sales agent to reach out. Cons There are 2 things that frustrate me about Pardot. The learning curve and intuitiveness is very poor. It takes a long time to figure out what pieces are where. On top of that, I have used Pardot for almost 2 years and I still figuring stuff out. It has a ton of features but figuring them all out is mind-boggling. The other thing that is irritating is the email builder. It just isn't intuitive. You have a tiny screen to make any edits and adding things (like custom information) is hard to find most times. Then you have to sync this email to the HTML version. Every time I have clicked that button the email syncs but I have to spend 5-10 extra minutes fixing the syntax issues that come about from the sync. I feel that process should work much more seamlessly. Review Source LH Liam H. Marketing Manager Electrical/Electronic Manufacturing Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement - Review" November 13, 2023 4.0 It is an essential tool that, although costly, is necessary to grow and scale. Pros It allows us to gather, segment and target leads all in one place. Cons Onboarding was lengthy and some staff found it difficult to grasp to begin with. Alternatives considered [HubSpot Marketing Hub](https://www.capterra.com/p/171840/HubSpot-Marketing/) Reason for choosing Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement Because it easier to integrate with other products in our workflow and tech stack. Switched from [Sage CRM](https://www.capterra.com/p/227247/Sage-CRM/) To upgrade to a better product that offered more advanced marketing automation solutions. Review Source Letha D. Marketing Director Events Services Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Higher End, but worth it if you use Salesforce" June 22, 2021 5.0 Pros The automation and contact management is of the best I've worked with. Not turn is unturned in regards to what you can do to optimize your communications and lead management especially if you're using Salesforce. Cons Costs. I've only had one client that could afford this investment. It's really an enterprise solution. Review Source MT Marek T. CEO Financial Services Used the software for: I used a free trial ### "Review by MT" May 22, 2023 5.0 Overall, my experience with Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement was positive. The platform offered a robust set of tools for managing customer engagement and executing marketing campaigns. The ability to segment and target specific customer groups, along with the automation features, streamlined my marketing efforts and improved campaign effectiveness. The real-time tracking and reporting capabilities allowed me to measure the impact of my campaigns and make data-driven decisions. Although the platform had a learning curve and could be costly, the overall experience with Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement was excellent, enabling me to enhance customer engagement and achieve marketing goals effectively. Pros One of the things I liked most about Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement was its comprehensive set of tools and features for managing customer engagement and marketing campaigns. The platform provided robust customer segmentation capabilities, allowing me to target specific audiences with personalized messaging. The automation features, such as email workflows and journey builders, made it easy to create and automate multi-channel marketing campaigns. The real-time tracking and reporting functionality provided valuable insights into campaign performance, allowing me to optimize my marketing efforts effectively. Cons While Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement had many positive aspects, one thing I liked least was the complexity of the platform. As a beginner, it took some time to familiarize myself with the various features and functionalities. The learning curve was steep, and I would have appreciated more comprehensive onboarding resources and tutorials to help me navigate and utilize the platform more efficiently. Additionally, the pricing structure of Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement could be quite expensive, especially for small businesses or startups with limited budgets. Review Source KS Kajal S. Marketing Real Estate Used the software for: Less than 6 months ### "SALE your Salesforce " April 14, 2023 4.0 Pros Salesforce is best because it can accessed from anywhere and it doesn't require any server and pre and post all the activities can be managed from here. Cons The analysis tool can be changed or improved as it doesn't leads to understand by using different filters if could be done in dashboard standards so that it can be used in a more understanding way. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Director, Growth & Revenue Operations Computer Software Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "Not the easiest to implement or maintain for startups, not worth the high cost" August 9, 2022 3.0 Overall, we didn't get the most use out of it mainly because its ease-of-use didn't turn out to be as advertised and sold. When you buy salesforce and pardot together, you're sold on the premise that it's 'one system', but at the end of the day they're still two separate systems that sync back and forth just like any other marketing automation tool. It just didn't turn out to be worth the heavy cost. Pros Form handlers, automation/workflow builder, not much else. Cons The need to pay extra for detailed add-ons, particularly a dedicated IP (a basic need for email marketing), is really annoying (only available in their higher tiers). We didn't like not being able to relate marketing email activity to einstein activity sync. User interface could use some work as well; just not there yet overall. Alternatives considered [HubSpot Marketing Hub](https://www.capterra.com/p/171840/HubSpot-Marketing/) Reason for choosing Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement Because we were sold on the premise that Salesforce and Pardot are essentially one system, which would be easier for a small startup like us to implement and maintain. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Creative and Digital Manager Non-Profit Organization Management Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "Pardot Helps us Treat Each Donor as an Individual" December 7, 2019 5.0 Before, we were treating email like it was direct mail. Just send out a high enough quantity and you’ll get enough donations. However, this was treating our donors as pocketbooks and not individuals with unique interests and hearts. Using Pardot means we can tailor what we share to each individual and tell a story they can relate to. Transformational rather than transactional. Donations have increased but that’s a byproduct of involving unique people in the story of our organization. Once you learn the UI, it’s very simple to use as long as you have even a bit of html and css experience or if someone on your team has made some great templates. We love the reporting on the individual level and the integration with Salesforce. Pros We love engagement studio and how easy it is to build out automated campaigns and dynamic lists. The ease of automation has meant less time spent uploading csv’s and more time developing great content. Cons We wish it had a drag and drop editor. Not everyone on our team can code and it makes it difficult when we have a heavy season for deploys. The good news is, they’ve announced a beautiful drag and drop editor for the 20 winter release. Alternatives considered [Campaign Monitor by Marigold](https://www.capterra.com/p/76928/Campaign-Monitor/)[Mailchimp](https://www.capterra.com/p/110228/MailChimp/)[Marketo Engage](https://www.capterra.com/p/75130/Marketo-Lead-Management/) Reason for choosing Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement The direct integration with Salesforce and the sheer quantity of things that Pardot can do in making a unique experience for each of our donors. Switched from [Campaign Monitor by Marigold](https://www.capterra.com/p/76928/Campaign-Monitor/) The direct integration with Salesforce and wanting more ability with automation responding to individuals engagement with us online. Review Source TT Tiju T. Director Marketing Ops Information Technology and Services Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "Strong Marketing Automation Tool! Highly recommended for SME and Mid Range Businesses" November 2, 2021 5.0 Overall I loved it. It's easier to use and the LIGHTNING EXPERIENCE IS AMAZING!!! It has the modern look and feel. I am going to stay with Pardot for a long time. Truly recommend it! Pros In-house integration with SFDC. Easier to manage. Not complicated. It has similar functionality as the other major peers like Hubspot and Marketo and it was easier to learn and start working on it. Cons Lead routing is not available. I am looking for in-built round-robin routing functionality. Alternatives considered [Marketo Engage](https://www.capterra.com/p/75130/Marketo-Lead-Management/) Reason for choosing Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement Pardot is already owned by SFDC and our CRM is SFDC. We wanted a seamless and in-house integration which makes process management easier. Customers using SFDC as CRM can really benefit with Pardot as a Marketing automation tool. Switched from [HubSpot Marketing Hub](https://www.capterra.com/p/171840/HubSpot-Marketing/) Price and getting in-house integration with our current CRM SFDC. Review Source Leon C. IT Recruiter Information Technology and Services Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "Amazing tools. " September 27, 2018 5.0 My experience was for the most part positive. Pardot is powerful and reliable, I found it to be useful for the most part, they just need to revise the e-mail marketing tools and it will surely become a market standard. Pros Even though it might seem a little bit complex to use, Pardot gets easier as you learn how to use it, it has a very intuitive structure that anyone can learn on the fly, with a clean dashboard and well -labeled banners/icons combined with a sleek graphic interface. The automation efectiveness is impressive and compelling, and its multi-platforms capabilites are beyond any other competing alternative, specially how it connects with Social Media and Salesforce. You can instinctively customize how it manages the data feed, giving away a set of rules that Pardot follows beautifully, filtering everything at your command with great results. It is probably the most complete and fully integrated Marketing Automation software in the market, with the nicest set of tools necessary to supply all your necessities and more. Cons Pardot is rather expensive and probably not suitable for small enterprises. The e-mail managing/creation/customization interface needs to be worked out, even though it works great most of the times, it tends to have issues with Gmail servers. Sending e-mail templates gets complicated, specially because it has a tendency to crash when some custom coding is involved; this usually forces you to adapt to something that does not bug the system instead of doing what you are actually adapted to. Even though mostly everything is user friendly, the e-mail marketing tools are over complicated, it might deliver the results you're looking for but it will cost you a lot of toggling. Review Source Randy M. Co-founder Financial Services Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "Horrible product, customer support, and contract." June 12, 2017 1.0 None Pros We have fully implemented Pardot into our sales and marketing teams. We use everything from landing pages, forms, custom redirects, email templates, email automation, and their gmail plugin. It does't meet our sales and marketing requirements. Cons In less than one year we have opened 42 support tickets with Pardot. Many with no resolution. After determining that the product simply doesn't work we are transitioning to their competitors. Pardot is still forcing us to pay licensing fees even though their product failed to function. Do not use. Stand Out Issues: - The Gmail plugin simply doesn't work. Activity is not consistently logged in SalesForce. We have reported the technical issue many times to their support. - They cap uploaded assets (Ex: images) at 100 MB storage. This is ridiculous. When we hit the cap they wanted to charge us 4K to increase storage. - Poor reporting on emails: \* Missing data on 1:1 emails. Direct emails sent via the Gmail plug-in. \* CTR doesn't show for under 1% in engagement studio > Requires us to click down into each email template to pull report and export details to do a side by side comparison \* There are no reports generated for engagement studio (only drip programs - old feature now retired) - Can't track replies on emails > can't gauge performance - Recurring issues with Engage in Gmail and Engage Alerts (holds up the sales team from their day-to-day tasks) - Poor UX in Engage via gmail for sales team (cannot organize 1:1 templates by folder) - Limited on engage logic, can only use prospect fields. We can't use opportunity or account data in automation. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Marketing Operations Manager Computer Software Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Good" November 1, 2023 4.0 My overall experience with Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (Pardot) has been positive, as it has enabled us to efficiently manage and personalize our marketing efforts, resulting in improved customer engagement and lead generation. Pros I really appreciated how Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (Pardot) allowed me to easily create and automate personalized marketing campaigns that significantly improved our customer engagement and conversion rates. Cons I found that the user interface of Salesforce Marketing Cloud (formerly known as Pardot) could be a bit complex and not as intuitive as I would have liked. Alternatives considered [HubSpot Marketing Hub](https://www.capterra.com/p/171840/HubSpot-Marketing/)[Marketo Engage](https://www.capterra.com/p/75130/Marketo-Lead-Management/)[Oracle Eloqua Marketing Automation](https://www.capterra.com/p/64036/Oracle-Eloqua/) Reason for choosing Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement Pardot had a tight integration with Salesforce Sales Cloud Review Source JD Jessica D. CMO Computer Software Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Pardot is a Powerful Tool, but It's Hard to Manage on Small Teams" June 30, 2021 4.0 Overall, Pardot delivers on all the capabilities that we need and has more power than we are able to leverage. We appreciate it's deep integration with Salesforce and know that it has feature parity with most of the other major players out there. Pros Pardot allows us to get insight at a per-contact level into their activity, interests, and profile. We've made it even more useful by adding on additional integrations like Clearbit and Zoom. We track more than 12k new incoming leads annually and we automate outreach to those leads every single day. Cons Many decisions that you make at the beginning of the implementation will dog you after you've made them (how do we organize our campaigns? what tags should we use? when automations do we want to build off of those tags? how do we segment our lists). Pardot/Salesforce has offered strategic support and even configuration services, however, we find that these often lack the depth of knowledge to tell us if we're making the right call/they are too expensive for a small firm like ours. Alternatives considered [Marketo Engage](https://www.capterra.com/p/75130/Marketo-Lead-Management/)[HubSpot CRM](https://www.capterra.com/p/152373/HubSpot-CRM/) Reason for choosing Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement Salesforce alignment. Review Source NI Neil I. Marketing Operations Manager Computer Software Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Marketing Automation for price conscious organizations " March 30, 2017 4.0 Pardot has a lot of base functionality that sets it apart from email platforms like Mailchimp and the like. It also provides better integration with Salesforce than hubspot and other less expensive CRMs to give your organization with a complete picture of the sales funnel. Pardot provides email templates upon sign-up that are easily customizable for specific needs. You can test this emails to internal lists and with its integration with Litmus you can view how different clients and platforms will render you email before sends. Landing pages and form are an easy way to collect leads, track conversion points, and keep the source of a lead. Forms enable you to send auto-response emails, notify teams or sales reps, and assign leads to the correct person. The can also send leads to a Salesforce campaign with detailed member statuses to provide for multi-touch attribution. Landing pages are easy to build, add Google analytics or any other tracking code and deploy. Automation rules allow you to keep your database clean and ensure that all prospects are going to the right place, tagged correctly, and scored appropriately. Dynamic content is an excellent investment as an add on to allow you to use one template but change messaging based on known prospect information. No need to create 5 different emails or landing pages for industry segments, just create on template and use the dynamic content feature to show messaging that applies to them. Pros Intuitive UI, great functionality for the price, native integration with Salesforce, dynamic content add-on. Automation rules that can help keep the system clean and prospects updated. Cons Limitations within automation rules for mutli-variable updates. For example - Loading a tradeshow list with campaign member statuses in SFDC. I would like to upload in one automation rule to say if X campaign status, update to this campaign in SFDC for X status, within the same rule I would like to add all of the other statuses with specific completion actions instead of having to run 1 rule for each status. Dynamic content should be able to trigger via a URL parameter and not just a known prospect field. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Digital Marketing and Analytics Consultant Marketing and Advertising Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Great marketing automation, but not easy to use." January 24, 2019 4.0 I really did enjoy using Pardot overall, and I would recommend it as a top-notch automation tool. The learning curve can be steep. I recommend attending one of their 3 day foundations training courses to help jump start your experience. Pros Pardot is great for companies whose sales teams also use Salesforce due to the tight integration between the two products. Prospect and campaign tracking data can sync easily between the two systems and keep track of all campaign touch points across sales and marketing teams. Engagement studios are super easy to set up and allow for easy engagement-driven campaigns that help avoid "spammy" campaigns that help you stay off the blacklists of ISPs. Cons My major complaint with Pardot really has been with the UI/UX. The user experience is not great. It's not intuitive AT ALL. There are many instances where the interface breaks standard functionality conventions, leaving you in the dark trying to figure out how to do even simple tasks. That being said, the Engagement Studio has completely different UI than the rest of the app, and is actually quite a good experience. I guess Salseforce is taking their time redoing the rest of the app, but I'm sure they'll get around to it soon enough. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer VP Demand Generation Hospital & Health Care Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Best if you use SalesForce Sales Cloud" September 23, 2020 4.0 We use Pardot as a marketing automation platform including email management, automated nurtures, lead scoring, engagement tracking, etc. Pros The best part of Pardot is the integration with SalesForce and being able to push and pull a variety of information into and from both systems. Cons The UI is pretty poor and there are some key features such as in-depth reporting that the system is still lacking Alternatives considered [HubSpot Marketing Hub](https://www.capterra.com/p/171840/HubSpot-Marketing/)[Marketo Engage](https://www.capterra.com/p/75130/Marketo-Lead-Management/) Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Marketing Campaign Manager Computer Software Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "It gets the job done...but requires a ton of workarounds" May 9, 2019 3.0 It feels like Pardot isnt getting nearly the amount of attention from Salesforce as it should. I used it over the course of a year and noticed that it would take months to roll-out incredibly important features. Pros Once you've thoroughly understood all the features in Pardot, it can be quite easy to use for simple things. Their Engagement Studio, in particular, is incredibly built-out. It's also nice to have that sync with SFDC across fields. Lastly, the dynamic content was super helpful when we needed to update email templates across the board. Cons \- The email wizard takes a LONG time to load, even if you want to change something small, like preheader text. Additionally, it can take HOURS to render samples from their built-in litmus integration. For a company as advanced as Salesforce, you'd think this would be an easy feature to use. - From the day they linked Pardot and SFDC campaigns, there were severe bugs with email stats. I think they have solved the issue, but the fact that it took months meant we weren't able to capture that data easily. -To the point above...email stats are not easy to find in Pardot. There is a page that gives you the basics for email templates, but as for one-off email sends, forget about it. The reporting tab is just not good compared to any other email automation product on the market. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Senior Project Manager Computer Software Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Pardot is somewhat sophisticated" September 29, 2020 4.0 Great tool - has more sophisticated features than less expensive tools, but is more complex to use. Pros Easy to build and send emails, manage contacts, track lists/segmentation, and built automation. You can also setup scoring/grading to see your interest/lead interest. Cons The integration with Salesforce is a bit confusing, and they change the way it's implemented with every release. This causes issues with clients trying to launch all users at once on Pardot, and ensuring they have the right licensing. Alternatives considered [Salesforce Marketing Cloud](https://www.capterra.com/p/248536/Salesforce-Marketing-Cloud/) Reason for choosing Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement better tool Switched from [Mailchimp](https://www.capterra.com/p/110228/MailChimp/) More functionality Review Source Similar Products Featured