Pardot vs Marketing Cloud – A Comparison for B2B and B2C Marketing

Having difficulty managing leads? Sales Cloud converts leads and closes sales while Pardot takes care of automating your marketing and lead nurturing. Integrate marketing with sales to accelerate company growth!
Fatima
August 4, 2025
salesforce pardot vs marketing cloud

Selecting a marketing tool can be difficult for businesses. However, two popular marketing tools offered by Salesforce are Pardot and Marketing Cloud. Although both Pardot vs Marketing Cloud come from the same company, they have different purposes and audiences.

Pardot is made for B2B businesses. It helps businesses in managing and nurturing leads over a period of time, which helps in longer sales cycles. In contrast, Marketing Cloud focuses on B2C businesses. It provides solutions to engage with customers through emails, social media, and mobile apps, which is preferred for fast market penetration.

This article will highlight the core differences of Salesforce Pardot vs Marketing Cloud in the most straightforward manner. After reading this piece, you will know exactly which tool to use for your business.

What is a Pardot?

Pardot is a tool that helps businesses with their marketing. It's also called Marketing Cloud Account Engagement by Salesforce. In addition, Pardot makes it easier for businesses to connect their marketing efforts with sales and manage their marketing campaigns better.

Who Should Use Pardot?

Pardot is made for businesses that want to find and keep new customers. It’s especially useful for companies that take a long time to sell their products or services, where building trust with customers is very important.

What Does Pardot Do?

Lead Management: Pardot helps businesses manage potential customers, or "leads." It helps with:

  • Lead Nurturing: This means helping leads move closer to buying by giving them helpful information.
  • Scoring Lead: Pardot gives points to leads based on how interested they are, so businesses know which leads to focus on first.
  • Lead Grading: Pardot checks how well a lead matches the business's ideal customer so they can focus on the best leads.

Email Marketing: Pardot makes it easy to send automated emails to people on a business’s list. In addition, marketers can create email journeys that send the right message to the right person at the right time.

CRM Integration: Pardot works well with Salesforce CRM. Moreover, it helps businesses keep track of customer information in one place, making it easier for marketing and sales teams to work together.

Analytics: Pardot has tools that show how well marketing campaigns are working. Therefore, businesses can see which campaigns are doing well and which need improvement.

In short, Pardot is a helpful tool for businesses to improve their marketing and sales efforts, especially if they want to find and keep customers over time.

What is a Marketing Cloud?

Salesforce Marketing Cloud is a tool that helps businesses manage all their marketing in one place. It helps with emails, social media, text messages, ads, and website interactions. Moreover, it works well with other Salesforce tools to make it easier to manage customer information.

Who Should Use a Marketing Cloud?

Marketing Cloud is for businesses that want to reach a lot of people. It helps create personal marketing campaigns to build better relationships with customers and grow the business.

What Does Marketing Cloud Do?

Journey Builder: 

Journey Builder helps create paths for customers to follow. It sends messages based on what the customer does, making the experience feel more personal. Moreover, it helps get better results.

Email Studio: 

Email Studio helps businesses create and send emails. It has tools to design emails, schedule when to send them, and check how they did. In addition, it helps improve future emails by learning from past ones.

Mobile Studio: 

Mobile Studio helps businesses send text messages and push notifications to customers' phones. Therefore, it helps businesses send important messages in real-time.

Social Studio: 

Social Studio helps businesses manage and check their social media activities like comments, mentions, and followers. In addition, it keeps everything in one place, making it easier to see how customers interact on social media.

Advertising Studio: 

Advertising Studio helps businesses create ads for different platforms. It uses customer information to make the ads more personal and effective.

AI & Personalization: 

Marketing Cloud uses AI (artificial intelligence), called Einstein, to make experiences personal for customers. Furthermore, it changes the content based on customer behavior, making marketing more relevant.

Analytics: 

Marketing Cloud gives businesses reports to track how their marketing is doing. Additionally, it shows how well campaigns are working and helps improve future marketing.

In short, Salesforce Marketing Cloud is a tool that helps businesses manage and improve their marketing with emails, social media, ads, and more.

Comparative Review Between Pardot vs Marketing Cloud

Salesforce offers two distinct marketing automation platforms: Pardot marketing automation tool (now known as Marketing Cloud Account Engagement) and Marketing Cloud. In particular, each is tailored to different business models and marketing strategies. Below, you will find the table with the differentiating traits of Marketing Cloud vs Pardot:

Aspect Pardot Marketing Cloud
Target Audience B2B organizations, effective in lead generation and nurturing, are suited for companies with longer sales cycles and multiple decision makers. On the other hand, B2C businesses are focused on broad customers and personalized multi-channel marketing.
Core Functionalities
  • Lead-Centric (Lead scoring, nurturing)
  • Sales Alignment (Collaboration between marketing and sales)
  • Customer Engagement (Building and retaining relationships)
  • Omnichannel Campaigns (Email, social media, mobile, web)
Integration Capabilities Additionally, deep integration with Salesforce Sales Cloud for seamless lead and contact management. In contrast, integrates with Salesforce and third-party CRM systems for greater flexibility.
Analytics and Reporting Moreover, intelligence on lead activity, campaign success, and improved nurturing strategies. Furthermore, integrated analytics for all the channels to evaluate and improve customer engagement, increasing ROI.

Pricing Overview of Pardot vs Marketing Cloud

The following table compares the two platforms, Marketing Cloud vs Pardot, with regards to their price and essential features:

Pardot Pricing Tiers

Edition Monthly Price Annual Price Contacts Included Additional Contacts Key Features
Essentials $1,250 $15,000 10,000 $50/user/month Email Marketing, Prospect Tracking, Lead Nurturing, ROI Reporting, Forms & Landing Pages, as well as Standard CRM Integration.
Advanced $2,500 $30,000 10,000 $50/user/month Advanced Email Analytics, A/B Testing, Dynamic Content, Google AdWords Integration along with API Access (25K Calls/Day).
Premium $15,000 $180,000 75,000 $50/user/month B2B Marketing Analytics Plus, Custom Object Integration, Enhanced Support, and Advanced Security Features.

Marketing Cloud Pricing Modules:

Module Starting Price Key Features
Email, Mobile & Web Marketing $400/org/month Basic email marketing features are available; however, advanced analytics with higher editions.
Social Media Marketing $1,000/month Manage social media accounts, furthermore, higher editions support more accounts and advanced features.
Advertising Studio $2,000/month Execute targeted advertising campaigns across various platforms.
Analytics (Datorama, Google Marketing Platform) $3,000/month Advanced analytics functionalities, including extensive reporting capabilities.
Interaction Studio Pricing upon request Personalization capabilities in real-time across all channels.

When to Choose Pardot vs Marketing Cloud

Each marketing solution serves a purpose based on the unique objectives of a business. Here is a simple guide to help you decide between Pardot vs Marketing Cloud:

Choose Pardot if: 

You operate in the B2B space. This is ideal for business-to-business models. Pardot helps in reaching and nurturing prospective customers, especially those located far away and difficult to engage with. Moreover, for organizations whose sales reps work with Salesforce as a customer database, Pardot integrates seamlessly. As a result, this integration ensures that both marketing and sales departments can collaborate effortlessly.

Pardot allows users to automate the process of sharing relevant information with prospective clients until they are ready to convert.

Choose Marketing Cloud if:

You are selling to consumers. In this case, Marketing Cloud is convenient for businesses that sell to customers because it allows reaching a huge audience and executing marketing campaigns over numerous platforms. If you interact with your clients via emails, social media, mobile applications, and websites, Marketing Cloud enables you to control all of them from a single location.

Marketing Cloud allows sending messages and offers that correspond to the customer’s interests and activities, thus enhancing the user’s experience with your brand.

Conclusion

We dived into the distinct strengths of Pardot and Marketing Cloud. Firstly, Pardot excels in dealing with B2B companies; it works best with businesses that want to foster strong, lasting connections with other businesses. As for Marketing Cloud, it works best with B2C companies. In particular, it is ideal for large-scale outreach and cross-channel campaign management.

Next, determine your business requirements alongside marketing objectives and budget. Understanding what your business demands helps in selecting the appropriate platform for effective marketing.

Let PixelConsulting Simplify Your Salesforce Journey!

Struggling to pick the right marketing platform? Whether it's B2B or B2C, picking the right tool is extremely important. 

We would love to help you. Reach out to PixelConsulting right now to schedule an individual consultation. We’re eager to help you select the most suitable platform for your business.

FAQ’s (Frequently Asked Questions)

What is the main difference between Pardot vs Marketing Cloud?

Pardot is for businesses selling to other companies. In contrast, it assists in prospecting and relationship building. Marketing Cloud is for companies that deal with customers directly. It helps with marketing via email, social media, and websites.

Which platform is better for B2B marketing – Pardot or Marketing Cloud?

Pardot works well with Salesforce CRM. This is why it is better for B2B marketing and nurtures leads over time.

May I use both Pardot and Marketing Cloud together?

Absolutely! Marketing Cloud is better at B2C marketing, while Pardot specializes in B2B marketing. As a result, the two can integrate easily with Salesforce, making data exchange effortless.

Which platform is better for custom marketing, Pardot or Marketing Cloud?

Marketing Cloud is better for custom marketing. Specifically, it allows sending tailored messages to every customer according to their activities and interests.



Read Also :
Blackbaud vs Salesforce

Author Insights:
Fatima
Hi! I’m an SEO Content Writer and Brand Copywriter who turns complex ideas into engaging and easy-to-understand content. Lately, I’ve been simplifying Salesforce, helping businesses navigate their CRM systems with confidence. My goal? To make tech and marketing feel simple, clear, and impactful.
August 4, 2025

Get In Touch With Our Experts Now

Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.