The Best Marketing Automation Software in 2024

Nowadays, on average 56% of businesses use marketing automation software to create personalized and engaging campaigns across multiple channels. Moreover, over 40% of organizations implemented a marketing automation tool within the past 1-2 years, highlighting the importance of such software in today's fiercely competitive market.

Navigating the vast landscape of marketing automation tools is challenging, so in this article, we will explore the leading vendors in this dynamically growing arena.

What Is Marketing Automation Software?

Marketing automation software is designed to automate and improve routine marketing tasks, processes, and campaigns across multiple channels, minimizing the need for human action. It addresses such activities as email marketing, lead management, customer segmentation, and campaign execution.

A marketing automation system collects in-depth data about current customers and enables multi-channel, automated, and personalized marketing communications. The software allows marketers to understand the customer's purchase journey, motivations, and preferences, select offers tailored to their needs, and create highly targeted campaigns to maximize sales.

The key benefits of marketing automation software include enhanced efficiency, increased productivity, and effortless personalization leading to increased conversion rates. This software also enables businesses to scale their marketing efforts to support rapid growth. Thanks to it, marketers can focus on creative projects, and building meaningful relationships with leads and customers, instead of wasting time on tedious, routine tasks.

How to Choose the Right Marketing Automation Software?

When selecting the right marketing automation software, it’s essential to have a clear view of how modern technology can help you achieve your business goals. The following criteria will help you choose the ideal marketing automation tool for your needs.

1. Business alignment

Before diving into options, identify your business's specific needs and goals. Different marketing automation platforms offer varying features and capabilities. Whether you want to generate more leads with e-mail campaigns, improve the performance of your digital ads, or boost your team’s productivity with more precise lead scoring, understanding your needs will guide you toward a solution that best suits your business goals.

2. Functionalities

It's crucial to ensure that the marketing automation software you select offers a comprehensive set of functionalities that will help you achieve your marketing goals. This means choosing a platform that caters to various aspects of your marketing strategy, such as lead management, campaign execution, and analytics. Having a well-rounded suite of features will enable you to automate routine marketing tasks, save time, and deliver personalized and targeted messages to potential customers.

3. Price to value

It's also important to keep the price to value in mind. You should assess the pricing model, including any additional costs for features or user limits, and ensure that the chosen software aligns with your financial goals while providing the necessary functionalities. Make sure you don’t have to pay for features you’re not going to use, to avoid wasting your budget.

4. Ease of use

Go for a marketing automation tool with a user-friendly interface. A solution that is easy to navigate and understand will save time and resources in training, improve adoption among the users, and allow your team to leverage its full potential. Unless your team consists of tech-savvy professionals, look for solutions that offer intuitive design and preferably drag-and-drop interface with pre-built modules.

5. Reporting and analytics

Choose a software solution that provides robust reporting tools, allowing you to analyze key performance indicators like conversion rates, click-through rates, and customer acquisition costs. The ability to generate detailed reports will help you assess the effectiveness of your campaigns and make data-driven decisions for improvement.

6. Integration

Ensure seamless integration with your existing tools and systems. The chosen marketing automation software should integrate effortlessly with your CRM, email marketing tools, and other essential platforms. Compatibility and synchronization are necessary for a streamlined workflow and effective data management.

7. Limitations

Evaluate any limitations of the available marketing automation software related to customization, number of users or contacts, or specific functionalities that may impact your long-term marketing strategy. Identifying potential limitations early in the selection process is crucial to avoiding problems in the future.

8. Demo

Finally, before making the final decision, it's best to ask for a demo from the marketing automation software providers. Experiencing the platform firsthand allows you to assess its user interface, features, and overall suitability for your business. It provides valuable insights into how the software aligns with your specific requirements.

10 Best Marketing Automation Software

1. Creatio

Marketing Creatio is a comprehensive omnichannel marketing platform designed to streamline customer journeys and accelerate the lead-to-revenue process. It empowers users to create, execute, and evaluate highly personalized marketing campaigns, supporting a wide array of marketing strategies through robust workflow automation.

Marketing Creatio allows marketers to develop comprehensive customer insights, effortlessly generate target segments, efficiently handle complex marketing campaigns across various channels, enhance lead generation, and elevate conversion rates.

Fueled by Studio Creatio and featuring no-code functionality alongside AI and machine learning automation capabilities, Marketing Creatio empowers marketers to build and manage tailored marketing processes. It facilitates the implementation of new business rules and UI sections, allowing for improved customer engagement strategies through features like predictive scoring, product recommendations, and suggestions for the next best action or offer.

Marketing Creatio effortlessly integrates with other Creatio products, including Sales and Service, presenting a comprehensive suite of solutions to cater to the complete customer lifecycle. Additionally, Creatio offers an extensive marketplace featuring over 700 applications to expand the product's functionality through supplementary tools.

The pricing offers three types of paid platform plans: Growth, Enterprise, and Unlimited. On top of the platform plans, Creatio users can add a full-blown Marketing product or composable Marketing-related apps, such as Customer 360, Campaigns, Digital Ads, and others. Customers enjoy the flexibility to mix and match apps, deploying them on a chosen platform plan without constraints. The pricing details are transparent and easily accessible to Creatio customers through a calculator provided on the Creatio website.

Discover how Creatio's marketing automation software can elevate your campaigns

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2. HubSpot Marketing Hub

HubSpot Marketing Hub is built on top of a CRM platform and caters mostly to smaller businesses. HubSpot helps businesses drive revenue by connecting with leads through landing pages, forms, emails, and more. It allows organizations to effectively manage contacts and campaigns in one place and measure the success of their marketing efforts with powerful reporting tools.

Pros

• Robust reporting - HubSpot offers robust reporting capabilities that help track conversion rates and spot bottlenecks across a whole customer journey with customizable diagrams.
• Seamless integration - Marketing Hub seamlessly integrates with other HubSpot solutions, such as Sales and Service Hubs, as well as 1,000 other native integrations, providing users with a comprehensive suite for managing marketing initiatives.
• User-friendly interface - HubSpot has an intuitive and user-friendly interface, making it accessible for users of varying technical skills.

Cons

• Pricing - Although HubSpot offers a free plan and an affordable Starter plan for $18/ month for small businesses, its capabilities are quite limited, and businesses might quickly outgrow the basic functionalities. The transition from lower-tier plans to higher-tier plans involves a significant increase in costs, with prices varying from $800/month to over $3,000/month.
• Steep learning curve at the beginning - Users find using HubSpot quite challenging. The platform's extensive set of features and functionalities require time and effort for new users to fully understand.
• Non-transparent AI - Users reported that HubSpot predictive lead scoring lacks transparency when it comes to contributing factors, making it difficult for them to fully understand the criteria and variables influencing the scoring system.
• Limited template customization - HubSpot's template customization options are quite limited, and users with specific design preferences may encounter difficulties in adjusting to brand identity.

3. Zoho

Zoho is a marketing automation tool with a focus on email marketing. Zoho helps businesses attract leads with personalized campaigns, nurture them using multichannel marketing automation, score leads based on intent, and identify campaigns that bring the highest return on investment. Zoho is known for its user-friendly interface and support for diverse industries including banking, high-tech, retail, and transportation.

Pros

• Advanced AI assistant - Zoho provides prediction builders that are versatile and applicable across various fields within any marketing module.
• Robust campaign management - Zoho CRM Plus fosters collaboration within marketing teams during campaign planning. Team members can tag each other in comments, assign tasks, and efficiently manage campaign activities.
• User-friendly - Zoho has prioritized user experience with an intuitive and user-friendly interface, making it more accessible for marketing professionals with varying technical backgrounds.

Cons

• Social and audience limitations - Zoho users cannot create custom audiences on LinkedIn or Facebook for targeted advertising. Unlike some competitors who offer dedicated functionality for audience creation like contact/company lists, and look-alike audiences, Zoho currently lacks this specific capability.
• Difficulties with setting up account scoring - Zoho doesn’t offer prebuilt lead scoring capabilities, which means account scoring requires additional, time-consuming customization.

4. Customer.io

Customer.io is a customer engagement platform for tech-savvy marketers designed to build unique customer interactions across mobile and web channels such as email, push, in-app, and SMS.

Pros

• User-friendly - The software provides a user-friendly experience that is particularly beneficial for companies new to marketing automation.
• Simple segmentation - Customer.io helps businesses segment users in multiple ways, allowing for better targeting in campaigns and improving overall campaign effectiveness.
• Advanced email automation - Customer.io offers event-triggered email automation, taking email marketing to a new level. By triggering emails based on events rather than just pageviews, the platform ensures that businesses can deliver the right content to their audience at the right time.

Cons

• Setting up may require developers' help - Setting up and customizing the product may require some developer time, making it more suitable for businesses with the resources and expertise to invest in the customization process.
• High costs of the premium version - Customer.io users reported high prices for the premium version of the product, essential for growing businesses with large volumes of contacts.
• Limited support communication options - The customer.io support team is only available through email, making communication more time-consuming.

5. Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement

Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement is a B2B marketing automation software, designed to elevate customer engagement and drive personalized marketing strategies. This platform is a part of the broader Salesforce ecosystem seamlessly integrated with sales and service platforms. Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement is a platform for both small and large enterprises, supporting multiple industries such as high-tech, manufacturing, healthcare, and financial services sectors.

Pros

• Multi-channel targeting - Salesforce goes beyond conventional email targeting, offering the ability to extend marketing efforts to mobile app notifications, SMS apps, and third-party webinars. This enables businesses to engage with their audience across various channels.
• Robust analytics - Salesforce provides marketers with out-of-the-box reporting capabilities, which include key measurement areas, such as pipelines with campaign-influenced revenue, and insights into the influence of marketing messages on the lead journey with A/B testing. The platform offers an accounts dashboard highlighting the most engaged accounts by region, campaign, or company size.
• Powerful AI capabilities - AI is an integral part of Salesforce and it assists with most of the operations within the platform, like AI-powered lead scoring and grading, account-based engagement, and AI-driven insights into marketing efforts impact, to name just a few.

Cons

• Challenging customer profile management - Compared to other vendors, Salesforce's customer profile management capabilities do not stand out since many marketing automation functions require using Salesforce Data Cloud, its Customer Data Platform (CDP) solution, to perform tasks like advanced segmentation. This may be challenging for users without technical skills.
• Limited CRM/SFA integrations - As a B2B marketing automation platform, Marketing Cloud Account Engagement is designed for users of Salesforce Sales Cloud. It lacks seamless integration with other CRM or SFA platforms, forcing businesses to either invest in the whole pack of Salesforce products or seek different solutions.
• Unaffordable prices - Salesforce pricing may pose a barrier for some businesses, ranging from $1,500 per month to a premium version priced at as much as $15,000 per month. While the platform offers extensive features, the high costs may limit accessibility for smaller enterprises or those with budget limitations.

See also: Salesforce Alternatives & Competitors and Salesforce Marketing Cloud Alternatives & Competitors

6. ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign is an email and marketing automation software integrated with a CRM system, designed for both smaller teams and larger enterprises. It offers a mix of pre-built automation and integrations for both B2B and B2C companies to deliver personalized marketing, transactional emails, and tailored interactions throughout the customer lifecycle.

Pros

• Extensive multilingual workflow automation library - ActiveCampaign stands out thanks to its library of industry-specific workflow automations offering multiple language options.
• Intuitive user interface - ActiveCampaign is known for its intuitive user interface, making it accessible to users with varying levels of technical expertise. The platform's drag-and-drop builder simplifies the creation of automation workflows, email campaigns, and other marketing assets.

Cons

• Steep learning curve for advanced features - While the platform is user-friendly, some users may encounter a learning curve when exploring more advanced features.
• Lack of templates for forms - ActiveCampaign doesn’t provide diverse form templates. Businesses looking for pre-designed form options might find it challenging and invest more time and effort in creating custom forms to align with their branding and campaign needs.
• Complex pricing models - ActiveCampaign's pricing structure may be perceived as complex for some users. Understanding the various pricing tiers and features included in each plan is quite challenging and the pricing can vary drastically depending on the number of users and contacts.

7. Microsoft

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Marketing is a comprehensive marketing management solution, leveraging customization capabilities with GenAI and content ideas. Integrated seamlessly with the broader Microsoft Dynamics 365 suite, it enables marketers to create personalized customer journeys, automate processes, and drive engagement across various channels. Dynamics 365 Marketing caters primarily to midsize and large enterprises across industries such as manufacturing, healthcare, retail, finance, and nonprofit.

Pros

• Enhanced User Experience (UX) - Dynamics 365 Marketing with its comprehensive email editor, segmentation UX, forms UX, conditional content, and lead scoring features, ensures a more intuitive and streamlined user interface.
• Advanced generative AI capabilities - Microsoft offers generative capabilities including content ideas, image recommendations, and AI-driven image tagging that empower marketers to customize content and deploy conversational marketing tools seamlessly, without the need for additional IT support.
• Unified platform with Microsoft 365 - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Marketing is part of the broader Microsoft 365 ecosystem, offering seamless integration with other Microsoft productivity tools, and delivering a unified experience across the whole platform.

Cons

• Managing the platform requires additional support - Using Dynamics 365 Marketing may be challenging for small and midsize businesses. Users report that managing implementations requires support from Microsoft partners or internal IT resources, which comes at a cost.
• Steep learning curve for inexperienced users - Users, particularly those unfamiliar with marketing automation tools or the Dynamics 365 ecosystem, may struggle with navigating the complex platform at the beginning.
• Complex third-party integrations - While Dynamics 365 Marketing is optimized to seamlessly integrate with the whole Dynamics 365 suite, integrations with third-party CRM/SFA platforms can be challenging as they require the use of a Dataverse connector and some technical skills.
• Complex pricing models - Microsoft's pricing structure according to users is quite complex, with factors such as user licenses, additional features, and usage considerations influencing costs. Because of that, comparing the overall costs of the platform with other solutions is difficult.

8. Adobe Marketo Engage

Adobe Marketo Engage is a marketing automation platform designed to empower businesses with comprehensive tools for customer engagement and lead generation.

With a focus on lead and account-based multichannel campaigns, Marketo improves marketing efforts. Adobe Marketo is best suited for midsize and large enterprises, particularly in high-tech, manufacturing, healthcare, and financial services.

Pros

• Comprehensive marketing suite - Marketo Engage is seamlessly integrated into Adobe's extensive suite of marketing solutions, enhancing the platform's capabilities, and providing users with a comprehensive set of marketing tools.
• Robust integrations with third-party platforms - Adobe Marketo Engage offers native integrations with several prominent CRM and SFA platforms, such as Salesforce Sales Cloud, Demandbase, Terminus, and RollWorks, streamlining data synchronization and ensuring a seamless marketing and sales workflow.
• Intuitive and user-friendly - Despite its extensive features, according to users, Adobe’s Marketo is intuitive and easy to use and set up.

Cons

• Limited B2B functionalities - Adobe Marketo Engage doesn’t offer advanced B2B marketing automation functionalities natively. Users looking for features like predictive lead scoring may have to purchase additional solutions from Adobe, such as Adobe Real-Time CDP, increasing the licensing and implementation costs.
• Lack of transparent pricing - Adobe doesn’t provide clear product pricing on its website. Additionally, the price is determined by the database size, which requires contacting representatives to understand pricing details. It makes comparing Adobe with other vendors quite complicated.
• Limited customer journey analytics - Marketo Engage doesn’t provide detailed customer journey analytics within its native features and requires purchasing an additional product - Adobe Customer Journey Analytics.

9. Brevo

Originally an email marketing package, SendinBlue has undergone a significant evolution, emerging as Brevo – a comprehensive digital marketing hub with basic CRM functionalities. Brevo is a flexible and easy-to-use platform that’s distinguished by its automation controls and SMS marketing. Tailored to meet the requirements of small and medium-sized businesses, Brevo offers an integrated solution with a low-cost pricing model, starting at €19/month.

Pros

• User-friendly & intuitive interface - Brevo is renowned for its user-friendly interface, making it accessible for marketers of varying technical expertise. The platform's intuitive design ensures a smooth and efficient user experience.
• Extensive email builder and template customization capabilities - An intuitive and feature-rich email creation interface simplifies the process of designing visually appealing and engaging emails. The platform's extensive template customization capabilities offer flexibility, allowing businesses to tailor their email campaigns to align with their brand identity and specific messaging requirements.
• Free tier and affordable pricing model - Brevo offers a free tier with unlimited contacts and 300 emails/day, which is a great option for small businesses that want to try out marketing automation software. For growing businesses, Brevo prepared a cost-effective pricing model starting at €19/month.

Cons

• Limited scope of features for larger enterprises - Brevo's solution is well-suited for most SMBs; however, larger enterprises with complex marketing requirements might find some features lacking. For example, Brevo’s users mentioned insufficient scope for data and analysis.
• Additional costs - Some of the Brevo features, like SMS & WhatsApp campaigns, require buying credits which can increase the overall cost of using the platform.
• Limited landing pages - Brevo limits the number of available landing pages for some tiers, posing a problem for businesses seeking a diverse set of landing page options.
• Limited third-party app integrations - Brevo falls behind some competitors when it comes to third-party software integrations. The platform's list isn’t as extensive, potentially limiting the seamless integration of external tools and applications that businesses rely on.

10. Oracle Eloqua

Oracle Eloqua Marketing Automation is an enterprise-level marketing automation software. It’s focused on providing multichannel and personalized customer experience across complex B2B buying cycles. Thanks to the seamless integration with the Oracle CX suite, it offers a comprehensive solution for sales, content management, digital commerce, and data enrichment. Oracle Eloqua caters mostly to larger companies in high-tech, manufacturing, financial services, and various other industries.

Pros

• Extensive complementary solutions - Oracle Eloqua Marketing Automation offers an extensive suite of complementary solutions, which includes a Customer Data Platform (CDP), CRM, SFA, content management, and loyalty management.
• Robust native integrations and partner-built apps - The platform provides native integrations for Salesforce and Microsoft CRM. Additionally, Oracle offers more than 300 partner-built apps for implementation, along with a tool for low-code integration development and integration templates, enhancing the platform's adaptability.
• Streamlined campaign development process - Oracle simplifies the creation of brand-approved, personalized email campaigns thanks to its user-friendly Guided Campaigns tool.
• Comprehensive multichannel marketing management - Eloqua integrates seamlessly with SMS and various paid advertising channels, including LinkedIn, Facebook, Google Ads, and direct mail, helping marketers create effective multichannel marketing campaigns.

Cons

• High costs of ownership - As mentioned before, Oracle Eloqua is enterprise-grade software, hence the prices are also tailored to the capabilities of large enterprises. This is not a solution for SMBs with limited budgets.
• Lack of generative AI capabilities - Oracle Eloqua currently lacks generative AI capabilities, such as drafting email topics or text, which puts it behind some of its competitors. Businesses seeking the advantages of generative AI for content creation may find this is not the right tool for them.
• Advanced analytics require an additional tool - Oracle Eloqua depends on Oracle Unity, a separate product, for advanced analytics capabilities, like contact-level predictive lead scoring and next-best-action functionalities. For businesses relying heavily on analytics, this may increase the costs of the platform even further.

Start Automating Your Marketing Processes

In today's fast-paced digital world, marketing automation software is not a fancy addition; it's a necessity for businesses looking to stay ahead of the curve. By automating repetitive tasks, streamlining workflows, and enabling personalized customer experience, marketing automation software can help your company maximize efficiency and drive growth.

When choosing the marketing automation platform, remember to carefully consider factors such as price-to-value ratio, functionalities, ease of use, integration capabilities, and limitations to make sure it’s the best fit for your business requirements. Before you make the final decision check solution demos, compare vendors’ expertise, and seek expert advice if needed.