Salesforce marketing intelligence, formerly known as Datorama, is a comprehensive suite of tools within the Salesforce ecosystem that helps marketers unify, analyze, and act on data from across their entire marketing mix. Designed for enterprise and mid-sized organizations, the platform gives marketing professionals a centralized view of campaign performance, channel efficiency, and ROI through powerful data integrations and customizable dashboards.
Originally an independent company acquired by Salesforce in 2018, Datorama was rebranded as Salesforce Marketing Intelligence. Since then, it has become a critical component of Salesforce's Marketing Cloud, enabling marketing teams to make smarter, faster, and more connected decisions.
How does Salesforce marketing intelligence unify marketing data across channels?
At its core, Salesforce marketing intelligence helps brands break down data silos. It connects data from dozens (or hundreds) of marketing platforms and tools- from Google Ads and Facebook to email, CRM, and web analytics-into a single source of truth.
This data is normalized and harmonized so that marketers can view performance in one cohesive dashboard rather than logging into multiple platforms and trying to compare metrics manually. For example, a B2B social media manager can see how paid campaigns on LinkedIn and Facebook compare side-by-side with email and organic web traffic, all within the same report.
It also offers pre-built APIs and AI-powered data mapping to streamline the connection process, reducing the need for extensive technical support or custom development.
What are the core features and capabilities of Salesforce marketing intelligence?
Some of the standout features include:
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Data integration and modeling: Easily connect data from hundreds of marketing platforms, including ad networks, automation tools, CRM systems, and more.
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Customizable dashboards and visualizations: Build tailored reports for stakeholders-from the CMO to the social media specialist.
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AI-powered insights: Use Einstein Marketing Insights to automatically surface optimization opportunities, campaign anomalies, and underperforming assets.
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Cross-channel attribution: Understand how each touchpoint contributes to conversions, pipeline, and revenue.
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Budget tracking and planning: Monitor budget pacing and reallocate spending based on real-time performance.
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Collaboration tools: Share dashboards and insights across teams or regions, ensuring alignment around marketing strategy.
What types of marketers or teams benefit most from using Salesforce marketing intelligence?
Salesforce Marketing Intelligence is especially beneficial for data-driven marketing teams with complex reporting needs across multiple platforms. These often include:
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Social media managers must understand how paid and organic content performs across various platforms.
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Marketing managers and directors who require campaign roll-up reports and budget visibility across departments.
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Marketing operations teams handle data flows and platform integration.
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Digital performance analysts who live and breathe campaign metrics need consistent access to clean, unified data.
That said, it can be overkill for smaller teams that don't yet work across many platforms or don't have the volume of data to justify a centralized analytics solution.
How does Salesforce marketing intelligence support data visualization and campaign reporting?
Salesforce Marketing Intelligence provides a highly flexible dashboard builder for marketers to visualize real-time campaign data. You can track KPIs like impressions, engagement rates, cost per lead (CPL), or pipeline attribution-all in one place.
This level of customization allows users to create role-specific dashboards. For example, a marketing manager can have a bird's-eye view of campaign ROI, while a social media manager can drill down into LinkedIn ad performance.
Visual elements like charts, heat maps, and trend lines make it easy to spot patterns or anomalies. You can also schedule automated reports, ensuring stakeholders have up-to-date information without manual work.
What are the advantages of integrating Salesforce marketing intelligence with the rest of the ecosystem?
One of the most significant selling points of Salesforce Marketing Intelligence is how seamlessly it integrates with the broader Salesforce suite, including:
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Salesforce CRM for pipeline visibility and lead scoring
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Salesforce Pardot (now Marketing Cloud Account Engagement) for lead nurturing
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Salesforce Service Cloud for customer feedback loops
This integration helps bridge the gap between marketing and sales by providing end-to-end attribution-from first impression to closed deal. That means you can see not just how many leads your LinkedIn campaign generated but also how many became qualified, entered a sales funnel, and converted into paying customers.
This kind of closed-loop reporting is a game-changer for B2B organizations, where sales cycles are long and involve multiple touchpoints.
What challenges or limitations should marketers know when using Salesforce marketing intelligence?
Despite its strengths, Salesforce Marketing Intelligence does come with a few caveats:
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Complexity: Setup can be time-consuming, particularly for teams without strong technical or data support.
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Cost: It's a premium product, and pricing may be prohibitive for smaller or budget-constrained teams.
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Learning curve: Although the platform offers a lot of flexibility, it may take time for teams to master its full capabilities.
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Data latency: While much of the reporting is real-time, some integrations may have delays depending on the source platforms.
Many teams find pairing the platform with internal analytics or BI support helpful, especially when running custom attribution models or reporting workflows.
How is Salesforce marketing intelligence used for B2B marketing on LinkedIn?
Salesforce Marketing Intelligence is especially valuable for B2B marketing teams running LinkedIn campaigns. The platform can ingest data from LinkedIn Ads and organic posts and combine it with CRM, email, and web data to create a complete picture of how LinkedIn content contributes to pipeline and revenue.
For example:
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You can see how a LinkedIn lead magnet campaign converts across the funnel.
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Track CPL and ROI from specific ad sets.
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Compare engagement between C-suite and mid-level audiences.
This helps social media managers and B2B marketers optimize their audience targeting, budget, and creative strategy for maximum impact on LinkedIn.
How is Salesforce marketing intelligence different from Oktopost content marketing intelligence?
While both platforms serve marketers, they're built for very different purposes.
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Salesforce marketing intelligence is focused on unifying data across multiple channels and connecting it to ROI. It's ideal for complex, multi-platform campaign reporting and attribution.
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Oktopost content marketing intelligence, on the other hand, is purpose-built for B2B marketing teams. It focuses on helping marketers uncover their competitors' top marketing tactics and stay ahead of market shifts with marketing intelligence on competitor messaging, positioning, and content strategies.
Key differences include:
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Oktopost offers four major product lines: B2B Social Media Management, Employee Advocacy, B2B Social Listening, and the new Content Marketing Intelligence. It is easy to set up and use, unlike a formidable ecosystem such as Salesforce.
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Salesforce requires more technical setup and customization, whereas Oktopost is more plug-and-play for social media teams.
Oktopost and Salesforce integrate because, in many cases, organizations use both tools in parallel-Salesforce for broad analytics and Oktopost for content marketing intelligence that supports content strategy and audience growth and social media analytics to understand the impact of social media engagement on the pipeline.