Salesforce Marketing Cloud vs. Smart AdServer

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Salesforce Marketing Cloud
Score 7.8 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
Smart AdServer
Score 10.0 out of 10
N/A
Smart AdServer is a French ad server provider with a large international presence. Customers tend to be European media outlets. Smart AdServer It has been a subsidiary of the Axel Springer Group since 2007.N/A
Pricing
Salesforce Marketing CloudSmart AdServer
Editions & Modules
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
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Salesforce Marketing CloudSmart AdServer
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Salesforce Marketing CloudSmart AdServer
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
Salesforce Marketing CloudSmart AdServer
Email & Online Marketing
Comparison of Email & Online Marketing features of Product A and Product B
Salesforce Marketing Cloud
7.9
158 Ratings
1% above category average
Smart AdServer
-
Ratings
WYSIWYG email editor8.1110 Ratings00 Ratings
Dynamic content8.2140 Ratings00 Ratings
Ability to test dynamic content7.7100 Ratings00 Ratings
Landing pages7.6108 Ratings00 Ratings
A/B testing8.4139 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile optimization7.598 Ratings00 Ratings
Email deliverability reporting8.3119 Ratings00 Ratings
List management7.5116 Ratings00 Ratings
Triggered drip sequences8.184 Ratings00 Ratings
Lead Management
Comparison of Lead Management features of Product A and Product B
Salesforce Marketing Cloud
7.6
112 Ratings
2% below category average
Smart AdServer
-
Ratings
Lead nurturing automation7.7100 Ratings00 Ratings
Lead scoring and grading7.3100 Ratings00 Ratings
Data quality management7.6104 Ratings00 Ratings
Automated sales alerts and tasks7.692 Ratings00 Ratings
Campaign Management
Comparison of Campaign Management features of Product A and Product B
Salesforce Marketing Cloud
7.9
103 Ratings
4% above category average
Smart AdServer
-
Ratings
Calendaring7.993 Ratings00 Ratings
Event/webinar marketing7.987 Ratings00 Ratings
Social Media Marketing
Comparison of Social Media Marketing features of Product A and Product B
Salesforce Marketing Cloud
6.8
80 Ratings
10% below category average
Smart AdServer
-
Ratings
Social sharing and campaigns7.276 Ratings00 Ratings
Social profile integration6.432 Ratings00 Ratings
Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
Salesforce Marketing Cloud
7.6
112 Ratings
1% above category average
Smart AdServer
-
Ratings
Dashboards7.6107 Ratings00 Ratings
Standard reports7.8111 Ratings00 Ratings
Custom reports7.488 Ratings00 Ratings
Platform & Infrastructure
Comparison of Platform & Infrastructure features of Product A and Product B
Salesforce Marketing Cloud
7.6
112 Ratings
0% above category average
Smart AdServer
-
Ratings
API7.681 Ratings00 Ratings
Role-based workflow & approvals8.278 Ratings00 Ratings
Customizability7.499 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with Salesforce.com8.7101 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with Microsoft Dynamics CRM7.88 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with SugarCRM6.77 Ratings00 Ratings
Third-party software integrations7.314 Ratings00 Ratings
Ad Network Integration
Comparison of Ad Network Integration features of Product A and Product B
Salesforce Marketing Cloud
-
Ratings
Smart AdServer
8.0
1 Ratings
8% above category average
Data Transfer00 Ratings8.01 Ratings
DSP integration00 Ratings8.01 Ratings
Ad Campaigns
Comparison of Ad Campaigns features of Product A and Product B
Salesforce Marketing Cloud
-
Ratings
Smart AdServer
8.0
1 Ratings
2% above category average
Ad campaign creation00 Ratings8.01 Ratings
Ad deployment00 Ratings9.01 Ratings
Display advertising00 Ratings7.01 Ratings
Ad display and retargeting segmentation00 Ratings8.01 Ratings
Sequence targeting00 Ratings8.01 Ratings
Ad Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Ad Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
Salesforce Marketing Cloud
-
Ratings
Smart AdServer
7.5
1 Ratings
3% below category average
Ad dashboards00 Ratings8.01 Ratings
Ad performance reports00 Ratings8.01 Ratings
Ad conversion tracking00 Ratings7.01 Ratings
Ad attribution reporting00 Ratings8.01 Ratings
Cross-channel ad management00 Ratings7.01 Ratings
Ad forecasting and optimization00 Ratings7.01 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Salesforce Marketing CloudSmart AdServer
Small Businesses
Vbout
Vbout
Score 9.5 out of 10
Google Ad Manager
Google Ad Manager
Score 8.6 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
PFL Direct Mail Platform
PFL Direct Mail Platform
Score 9.3 out of 10
The Trade Desk
The Trade Desk
Score 8.1 out of 10
Enterprises
PFL Direct Mail Platform
PFL Direct Mail Platform
Score 9.3 out of 10
Adobe Advertising Cloud
Adobe Advertising Cloud
Score 8.9 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Salesforce Marketing CloudSmart AdServer
Likelihood to Recommend
8.0
(316 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.5
(112 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
6.1
(35 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Availability
10.0
(11 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
9.6
(9 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
4.0
(35 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
In-Person Training
5.0
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
8.1
(7 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
3.0
(17 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
7.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
7.9
(24 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
8.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
10.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Salesforce Marketing CloudSmart AdServer
Likelihood to Recommend
Salesforce
Salesforce Marketing Cloud does an excellent job at collecting and storing leads. Once the leads are qualified by workflows and automations established against your qualifiers, you can begin to segment, target, send communication, and track the efficacy of your campaigns. Being that Salesforce Marketing Cloud is an extension of Salesforce CRM, there is little work that needs to be done to ensure that your SQL are migrated to your CRM once they are ready to do so. The seamlessness between the two systems is paramount to the success of our organization.
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Smart AdServer
Smart AdServer is great for a marketing department, to track stats and clicks of their audience. It's a great way to engage the client without actually engaging them. We use it all the time to monitor where they're going, what they're interested in, and how engaging our posts are. I would say it's probably not a good idea for a smaller organization, as one social media manager could work it all out
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Pros
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
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Smart AdServer
  • It is easy to use, with functionality covering mobile, desktop and even tablet. I'm always on the go, so it's nice to be able to access my server from pretty much anywhere.
  • It has a wonderful intuitive user interface, every facet of this is designed and thought over, so it's easy to navigate around the program.
  • It offers a free trial so there's no real commitment if you just want to try it out, which is nice.
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Cons
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
Smart AdServer
  • I would like a more in-depth look at my traffic stats. I can see clicks, where my audience is going, but I'd like maybe some kind of perspective into who my audience is (18-24, adult, etc).
  • Constant updates. It's nice that they're always looking to update program, but the update can kinda get in the way of my work sometimes.
  • I'd prefer it if were a little cheaper – the free trial is nice, but getting my superiors to sign off on the cost (they're a bit old school) is a bit tough sometimes.
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Likelihood to Renew
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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Smart AdServer
No answers on this topic
Usability
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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Smart AdServer
No answers on this topic
Reliability and Availability
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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Smart AdServer
No answers on this topic
Performance
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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Smart AdServer
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Salesforce
They're fast and knowledgeable. You will always know what's the status of your request and they usually follow up with phone calls to ask you questions or provide updates. Sometimes it takes them a couple of days to investigate, especially if you have custom "situations" like my company usually does but at least they are very good at managing time expectations.
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Smart AdServer
No answers on this topic
In-Person Training
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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Smart AdServer
No answers on this topic
Online Training
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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Smart AdServer
No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
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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Smart AdServer
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Salesforce
Salesforce Marketing Cloud stands out for its comprehensive features, scalability, and seamless integration capabilities. Compared to other platforms, its unified suite of tools for email, social media, mobile, and advertising enables streamlined cross-channel campaign management and personalized marketing at scale. We chose Marketing Cloud for its industry leadership, robust ecosystem, and tight integration with Salesforce CRM, allowing us to deliver exceptional marketing solutions and drive measurable results for our clients efficiently.
Read full review
Smart AdServer
Honestly, you can use either/or. I'm all about AdServer right now because since Adobe has implemented their cloud service, they've gotten more expensive. Smart AdServer is just one cost, and it's cheaper than Adobe Cloud
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Scalability
Salesforce
Salesforce Marketing Cloud helps create profiles for each subscriber. The Contact Builder feature stores information about every subscriber, including whether they're an active customer, their purchase history from the last year, and their email engagement metrics. It also identifies the likelihood of a subscriber churning, aiding in creating personalized campaigns to boost company revenue.
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Smart AdServer
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
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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Smart AdServer
  • It's helped my organization better manage our traffic flow.
  • It's reduced the amount of work on our social media manager.
  • It's helped my organization get a better perspective on our clientele - where they're going, what they're interested in, it's been a great asset to our business.
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ScreenShots

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.