What happens to Marketing Cloud as the data layer takes charge at Salesforce?
Salesforce reported a strong quarter, but marketing is taking a back seat to data and AI.
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Salesforce made its name in the CRM space. Despite its moves into data and AI and rumors that it would change its name to Agentforce, Salesforce still trades under the ticker symbol CRM.
But Salesforce has strong roots as a marketing platform, dating back to its 2013 acquisition of ExactTarget. As is the custom for Salesforce, ExactTarget’s marketing automation capabilities underwent several name changes, eventually becoming known as Salesforce Marketing Cloud.
Marketing and commerce tools like Marketing Cloud are important enough to the Salesforce business that the company called them out in quarterly earnings calls — until last week.
After seeing growth in the marketing and commerce segment slow from +4% to +3% to +1% in successive quarters, the segment turned negative in Q4 2026 earnings at -1%. At its Q1 2027 earnings announcement last week, Salesforce did not provide numbers for its marketing and commerce tools, instead folding them into its Agentforce Apps segment.
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The growth at Salesforce is clearly elsewhere in the company, and right now, it’s in the data layer.
The combination of Agentforce and Data 360 generated almost $3.4 billion in annual recurring revenue (ARR), the company said in last week’s earnings announcement, a 200% year-over-year increase. Data 360 processed 52 trillion records, a 136% increase from the previous year.
This is a story Salesforce is happy to share.
Why is Salesforce falling short with marketers?
Almost anyone who’s evaluated Salesforce for their marketing needs will talk about budgets and complexity. Salesforce offers a complete platform — few people doubt that — but it comes at a cost.
Marketing teams that want to use Salesforce to help build personalized customer journeys, for example, could find themselves investing in as many as half a dozen Salesforce tools, including MuleSoft, Agentforce, Data 360, Commerce Cloud, and more.
A complete platform? You bet. But if you’re looking for agility and ease of use, that stack is a tough sell.
The SEO toolkit you know, plus the AI visibility data you need.
Salesforce also has a reputation for being heavily dependent on IT resources. Its workflows rely heavily on SQL, API integrations require developer resources, and complex data modeling.
The competition knows all of this, and they’re talking about a more agile, easier-to-deploy form of marketing automation. Vendors like Braze, Klaviyo, and Iterable tout faster deployments, no consultants, greater marketing control over the platform, and maximum flexibility.
Adobe is a solid competitor in the enterprise segment. Braze performs well in customer engagement. Shopify is strong in the commerce sector. In other words, marketers have options.
Salesforce was full of good news at its Q1 2027 earnings call. The company’s bet on Agentforce appears to be paying off. It tells a compelling story about getting your data in order to power your agentic future. It has the tools to deliver on that promise
But marketers looking for marketing automation are increasingly finding it elsewhere.
MarTech is owned by Semrush. We remain committed to providing high-quality coverage of marketing topics. Unless otherwise noted, this page’s content was written by either an employee or a paid contractor of Semrush Inc.
Mike Pastore is the Head of Content & Media at Third Door Media, the publisher of the Martech and Search Engine Land websites and the producer of the SMX and MarTech Conferences. In nearly three decades in B2B marketing, Mike has worked as an editor, writer, and marketer. He first wrote about marketing in 1998 for internet.com (later Jupitermedia). He then worked with marketers at some of the best-known brands in B2B tech, creating content for marketing campaigns at both Jupitermedia and QuinStreet. Prior to joining Third Door Media as the Editorial Director of the MarTech website, he led demand generation at B2B media company TechnologyAdvice.
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