Looker vs. Salesforce Marketing Cloud

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Looker
Score 8.4 out of 10
N/A
Looker is a BI application with an analytics-oriented application server that sits on top of relational data stores. It includes an end-user interface for exploring data, a reusable development paradigm for data discovery, and an API for supporting data in other systems.N/A
Salesforce Marketing Cloud
Score 7.9 out of 10
N/A
Marketing Cloud is an AI-powered, cloud-based digital marketing platform within the Salesforce Customer 360 ecosystem. Marketers can segment their audience, deliver personalized messages, track campaign performance, engage leads and accounts, and optimize strategies based on real-time insights.
$1,250
per month per installation
Pricing
LookerSalesforce Marketing Cloud
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Account Engagement
$1,250
per month
Engagement
$1,250
per month
Intelligence
$3,000
per month
Loyalty Management
$20,000
per month
Personalization
$100,000
per year
Data Cloud for Marketing
$108,000
per year
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
LookerSalesforce Marketing Cloud
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesYes
Entry-level Setup FeeRequiredNo setup fee
Additional DetailsMust contact sales team for pricing.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
LookerSalesforce Marketing Cloud
Considered Both Products
Looker

No answer on this topic

Salesforce Marketing Cloud
Chose Salesforce Marketing Cloud
Salesforce Marketing Cloud is superior to other marketing platforms I have used in the past.
Features
LookerSalesforce Marketing Cloud
BI Standard Reporting
Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of Product A and Product B
Looker
8.0
117 Ratings
2% below category average
Salesforce Marketing Cloud
-
Ratings
Pixel Perfect reports7.495 Ratings00 Ratings
Customizable dashboards8.7116 Ratings00 Ratings
Report Formatting Templates7.9100 Ratings00 Ratings
Ad-hoc Reporting
Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of Product A and Product B
Looker
8.1
117 Ratings
1% above category average
Salesforce Marketing Cloud
-
Ratings
Drill-down analysis8.1113 Ratings00 Ratings
Formatting capabilities7.4115 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with R or other statistical packages8.147 Ratings00 Ratings
Report sharing and collaboration8.7117 Ratings00 Ratings
Report Output and Scheduling
Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of Product A and Product B
Looker
8.5
113 Ratings
3% above category average
Salesforce Marketing Cloud
-
Ratings
Publish to Web8.295 Ratings00 Ratings
Publish to PDF8.8101 Ratings00 Ratings
Report Versioning8.276 Ratings00 Ratings
Report Delivery Scheduling8.998 Ratings00 Ratings
Data Discovery and Visualization
Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of Product A and Product B
Looker
6.7
114 Ratings
16% below category average
Salesforce Marketing Cloud
-
Ratings
Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)7.9110 Ratings00 Ratings
Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization7.597 Ratings00 Ratings
Predictive Analytics4.66 Ratings00 Ratings
Access Control and Security
Comparison of Access Control and Security features of Product A and Product B
Looker
8.3
113 Ratings
2% below category average
Salesforce Marketing Cloud
-
Ratings
Multi-User Support (named login)8.8106 Ratings00 Ratings
Role-Based Security Model8.093 Ratings00 Ratings
Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)8.2107 Ratings00 Ratings
Report-Level Access Control8.145 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile Capabilities
Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of Product A and Product B
Looker
5.8
84 Ratings
30% below category average
Salesforce Marketing Cloud
-
Ratings
Responsive Design for Web Access6.781 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile Application5.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile6.575 Ratings00 Ratings
Email & Online Marketing
Comparison of Email & Online Marketing features of Product A and Product B
Looker
-
Ratings
Salesforce Marketing Cloud
7.9
167 Ratings
4% above category average
WYSIWYG email editor00 Ratings8.1118 Ratings
Dynamic content00 Ratings7.9149 Ratings
Ability to test dynamic content00 Ratings7.8108 Ratings
Landing pages00 Ratings7.7117 Ratings
A/B testing00 Ratings8.2147 Ratings
Mobile optimization00 Ratings7.4107 Ratings
Email deliverability reporting00 Ratings8.3128 Ratings
List management00 Ratings8.0125 Ratings
Triggered drip sequences00 Ratings8.191 Ratings
Lead Management
Comparison of Lead Management features of Product A and Product B
Looker
-
Ratings
Salesforce Marketing Cloud
7.9
121 Ratings
1% above category average
Lead nurturing automation00 Ratings7.9107 Ratings
Lead scoring and grading00 Ratings7.8108 Ratings
Data quality management00 Ratings7.9113 Ratings
Automated sales alerts and tasks00 Ratings8.199 Ratings
Campaign Management
Comparison of Campaign Management features of Product A and Product B
Looker
-
Ratings
Salesforce Marketing Cloud
7.9
111 Ratings
6% above category average
Calendaring00 Ratings8.1100 Ratings
Event/webinar marketing00 Ratings7.794 Ratings
Social Media Marketing
Comparison of Social Media Marketing features of Product A and Product B
Looker
-
Ratings
Salesforce Marketing Cloud
7.5
85 Ratings
0% above category average
Social sharing and campaigns00 Ratings7.880 Ratings
Social profile integration00 Ratings7.136 Ratings
Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
Looker
-
Ratings
Salesforce Marketing Cloud
7.9
121 Ratings
8% above category average
Dashboards00 Ratings8.0115 Ratings
Standard reports00 Ratings8.1120 Ratings
Custom reports00 Ratings7.797 Ratings
Platform & Infrastructure
Comparison of Platform & Infrastructure features of Product A and Product B
Looker
-
Ratings
Salesforce Marketing Cloud
7.7
121 Ratings
3% above category average
API00 Ratings7.487 Ratings
Role-based workflow & approvals00 Ratings7.986 Ratings
Customizability00 Ratings7.3108 Ratings
Integration with Salesforce.com00 Ratings8.5110 Ratings
Integration with Microsoft Dynamics CRM00 Ratings8.313 Ratings
Integration with SugarCRM00 Ratings7.410 Ratings
Third-party software integrations00 Ratings7.121 Ratings
Best Alternatives
LookerSalesforce Marketing Cloud
Small Businesses
Yellowfin
Yellowfin
Score 9.0 out of 10
Vbout
Vbout
Score 9.9 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Reveal
Reveal
Score 10.0 out of 10
PFL Direct Mail Platform
PFL Direct Mail Platform
Score 9.2 out of 10
Enterprises
Jaspersoft Community Edition
Jaspersoft Community Edition
Score 9.7 out of 10
PFL Direct Mail Platform
PFL Direct Mail Platform
Score 9.2 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
LookerSalesforce Marketing Cloud
Likelihood to Recommend
8.5
(118 ratings)
7.9
(324 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.3
(8 ratings)
8.3
(114 ratings)
Usability
8.8
(12 ratings)
4.2
(35 ratings)
Availability
10.0
(1 ratings)
10.0
(11 ratings)
Performance
6.0
(1 ratings)
9.6
(9 ratings)
Support Rating
8.8
(14 ratings)
6.9
(36 ratings)
In-Person Training
-
(0 ratings)
5.0
(4 ratings)
Online Training
-
(0 ratings)
8.1
(7 ratings)
Implementation Rating
10.0
(1 ratings)
3.0
(17 ratings)
Configurability
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
10.0
(1 ratings)
5.0
(1 ratings)
Ease of integration
10.0
(1 ratings)
7.0
(2 ratings)
Product Scalability
10.0
(1 ratings)
7.7
(34 ratings)
Professional Services
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
10.0
(1 ratings)
8.0
(3 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
10.0
(1 ratings)
7.0
(3 ratings)
User Testimonials
LookerSalesforce Marketing Cloud
Likelihood to Recommend
Google
As a Sales, it suited me to use such well-developed software with a nice dashboard that could navigate between my prospects, visualize the numbers of clients, and check my achievements for each quarter. That would help me understand my performance and record the data I needed for myself as a salesperson.
Read full review
Salesforce
I rated this a seven because I love Salesforce, and it is excellent on the sales side. However, the marketing side has some pros and cons. It is terrific for keeping track of lead, customer, and dealer information, but it is not easy to automate workflows, integrate other software, or create well-designed emails. It is also straightforward to generate reports, which is very helpful in keeping track of lead progression to better market those leads and turn them into customers.
Read full review
Pros
Google
  • Show visited pages - sessions, pageviews - which programs are viewed the most.
  • Displays session source/medium views to see where users are coming from.
  • It shows the video titles, URLs, and event counts so we can monitor the performance of our videos.
  • It gives a graphic face to the numbers, such as using bar charts, pie graphs, and other charts to show user trends or which channels are driving engagement.
  • Our clients like to see the top pages visited for a month.
  • I like the drop-and-drag approach, and building charts is a little easier than it was before.
Read full review
Salesforce
  • Filter relevant content so you can priorize those that are more relevant and resolve it first
  • Measure the traffic in the different social networks, as well as the response rate, average response time and other relevant metrics
  • Configure automation rules to order the work of those who must interact with the customer
Read full review
Cons
Google
  • I wish I could get more granular in the Google ad data, such as down to the campaign type, instead of having to see only all campaigns.
  • The setup can be time-consuming if you're not using the product regularly.
  • Editing the dashboard requires a few logins; I wish it was more seamless.
Read full review
Salesforce
  • The email builder does not offer any way to catch/check bugs across different email service providers
  • Creating SQL is not as easy as drag-and-drop; a lot of technical knowledge is required
  • Salesforce Marketing Cloud is sold as a marketing tool, but to be honest, you need a LOT of technical IT support to run the tool
  • Einstein metrics are across the board; if you have multiple audiences in one instance of Salesforce Marketing Cloud you can't segment the data.
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
Google
I give it this rating because it deems as effective, I am able to complete majority of my tasks using this app. It is very helpful when analyzing the data provided and shown in the app and it's just overall a great app for Operational use, despite the small hiccups it has (live data).
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Salesforce
As of right now we have not seen any other program that integrates as seamlessly into our Salesforce platform. We have barely scratched the surface of all the features and use cases. It would be irresponsible to make a move to another platform in the near future. We have not come up against any limitations that would prompt a need to switch
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Usability
Google
Looker is relatively easy to use, even as it is set up. The customers for the front-end only have issues with the initial setup for looker ml creations. Other "looks" are relatively easy to set up, depending on the ETL and the data which is coming into Looker on a regular basis.
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Salesforce
You won't find another solution that has as many features as Salesforce Marketing Cloud Interaction Studio. We all know Salesforce, we all know how big they are and it's not for nothing... Their tools do most of the things you want, need and even imagine. Using it is complicated, but the usability is infinite.
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Reliability and Availability
Google
No objections
Read full review
Salesforce
Upgrades and timing of the upgrades were communicated well and planned during off hours for our work. If we did have a campaign scheduled during that time, it would kick-off after the system was back active. There were a few unplanned system down times, but it was a rare occurrence and those times were also short in duration.
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Performance
Google
Somehow resources heavy, both on server and client. I recommned at least 50Mbs data rate and high performance desktop comouter to be abke to run comolex tasks and configure larger amount of data. On the other hand, the client does not need to worry when viewing, the performance is usually ok
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Salesforce
Though the make up of MA apps is not built this way today, it would be nice to see them become more real-time. The integration between Salesforce and Pardot is not a true real-time integration. If I modify something in Salesforce, those changes are not automatically reflected in Pardot immediately. There is a delay of about 15 minutes before the systems sync. This delay, although not long, is less than ideal We would love the systems to be integrated real time such that changes are propagated from one system to the other immediately.
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Support Rating
Google
Never had to work with support for issues. Any questions we had, they would respond promptly and clearly. The one-time setup was easy, by reading documentation. If the feature is not supported, they will add a feature request. In this case, LDAP support was requested over OKTA. They are looking into it.
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Salesforce
They are really responsive and more than not solve the problem or give you insight to how you can manage the solution yourself. I do find however sometimes a long delay on the more complex issues when they need to loop in other departments. but overall a good experience with support
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In-Person Training
Google
No answers on this topic
Salesforce
The trainers at the Pardot user conference (Elevate and Connections) were very knowledgeable and presented the material well. Again, the content was targeted to more of a new user audience, and was not really relevant for folks who had been using the product for 2+ years.
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Online Training
Google
No answers on this topic
Salesforce
Pardot's online training touches on all topics briefly and vaguely without much indepth exploration into how a final outcome could look, such as Nurturing Campaigns, Email templates, landing page templates, etc... The only true way to uncover Pardot's full capabilities is to have Front End design and coding experience. Without this key skill set, I would not recommend Pardot to another business.
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Implementation Rating
Google
Very satisfied, easy to implement
Read full review
Salesforce
From an IT perspective, once you set up the Javascript beacon and start collecting data there is a waiting game. During this time you can start labeling your site actions which can be labor intensive for a single person, but you don't really have the final end-users on the platform yet. We did a lot of training so users were experienced, but it wasn't until they had their first tasks to accomplish that they started using the system and had questions. I'd recommend setting up some immediate goals for an end-user to start segmenting for the purpose of displaying message campaigns so you can jump start end-user action.
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Alternatives Considered
Google
Looker gives you options to integrate external APIs with great ease. Our data analytics team is able to easily use multiple data sources as input to the Looker dashboard, and everything is consolidated in one single Dashboard. You also have an option for Shared folders to be accessed by multiple people. The reporting system is perfect and has a wide range of options/reporting options that can be implemented.
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Salesforce
I think that all of the marketing platforms I have evaluated and used in the past serve different markets and purposes. Salesforce Marketing Cloud was more palatable to our team because of our existing tech stack where we had Salesforce CRM already deployed and in use. Compared to Marketo and Hubspot, Salesforce Marketing Cloud is a bit dated in terms of the UI/UX and the overall experience but still meets the needs of our organization. Mailchimp, however, isn't even playing in the same arena and is meant for small organizations and companies that don't have a need for a full fledged offering that SFMC brings to the table.
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Contract Terms and Pricing Model
Google
Perfect price to performance
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Salesforce
was not involved with this part but i have not heard about clompaints
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Scalability
Google
No answers on this topic
Salesforce
Prior to this, we had no solution and literally were doing things on paper in a world where technology is outpacing paper. Having this process optimized has made it easier for the sales and marketing people to change information. From the training perspective, it has allowed us to see holes in where we could create additional support training, so the ROI here has been a lot more than just the optimization of a process.
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Return on Investment
Google
  • Looker has a poignant impact on our business's ROI objectives. As an advertising exchange we have specific goals for daily requests and fill, and having premade Looks to monitor this is an integral piece of our operational capability
  • To facilitate an efficient monthly billing cycle in our organization, Looker is essential to track estimated revenue and impression delivery by publisher. Without the Looks we have set up, we would spend considerably more time and effort segmenting revenue by vertical.
  • Looker's unique value proposition is making analytical tools more digestible to people without conventional analytical experience. Other competing tools like Tableau require considerably more training and context to successfully use, and the ability to easily plot different visualizations is one of its greatest selling points.
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Salesforce
  • Salesforce Marketing Cloud allows us to more efficiently reach out to a higher number of prospects.
  • Salesforce Marketing Cloud allows us to nimbly communicate important messages in a timely fashion to facilitate conversion.
  • Salesforce Marketing Cloud allows us to track who is opening our messages so that we can stop sending to those not interested and focus on the most engaged audiences.
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ScreenShots

Looker Screenshots

Screenshot of a Looker dashboard with a geo chart.

Salesforce Marketing Cloud Screenshots

Screenshot of Pardot Analytics - Pardot's reporting and analytics can be used to perform true revenue impact analysis and closed-loop reporting.Screenshot of Pardot Email Analytics - The reach and impact of  email marketing efforts are displayed in real-time with advanced reporting and analytics by device, and email client.Screenshot of Pardot Forms and Landing Pages - Pardot's form and landing page builders are used to turn online traffic to leads with targeted offers and content marketing.Screenshot of Pardot Email Marketing - Lead nurturing flows are defined via an interface that enables definition of the simplest or most complex segmented and targeted campaigns.