Salesforce offers two marketing tools: Salesforce Marketing Cloud Engagement and Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (Pardot). To spice up things, one more Marketing tool introduced in Feb,2024 - Marketing Cloud Growth Edition.

This question is particularly perplexing for many marketers, especially customers. The rebranding of Pardot as Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement has led to even more confusion. At first glance, both platforms serve the same purpose of "Marketing," but there is a deeper underlying significance. Dig deeper, and you’ll find that Marketing Cloud and Pardot (Account Engagement) are distinct from one another. Few more questions that arise are, Is Marketing Cloud merged with Pardot? ---> No What is the need for Pardot, when we have SFMC? -->There is a difference Does SFMC supports all the features Pardot has? --> With customization, yes! Few features are however unique to Pardot. One of my customers recently inquired about the deprecation of the name Pardot, as they have acquired a Marketing Cloud Account Engagement. I informed that there is no distinction between the platforms except the name. I might use Pardot more rather than Account Engagement but both remains same. Pardot is built on Salesforce platform(there is a history behind this) Whereas SFMC or Engagement platform is a standalone tool. Pardot is partly on its own platform, and partly on the core Salesforce platform. Marketing Cloud still exists on its own, not on the core Salesforce platform. Despite being renamed “Marketing Cloud Account Engagement”, the two do not function together, nor are sold together. Marketing Cloud still exists on its own, not on the core Salesforce platform. 

Pardot (Account Engagement) is used for ‘considered purchases’ where there are long sales cycles and multiple decision-makers – which is typical of B2B, but not exclusively. Marketing Cloud is best suited to transactional purchases across multiple marketing channels – which is typical of B2C, but not exclusively. As time goes on, you’ll find more examples of organizations marketing to consumers that will be making a considered purchase, and on the flip side, more accounts (B2B) making transactional purchases, in high-volume, such as self-service commerce. There is difference in functionalities, marketing channels, price and purpose. If your purpose is lead generation and lead nurturing then use Marketing cloud account engagement. If your purpose is more on commercial and transactional side then pick Marketing Cloud Engagement.

Significant distinctions exist between Account engagement and Marketing Cloud engagement, including the duration of your sales cycle, the number of decision-makers involved, and the primary marketing channels utilized. These factors will help determine the most suitable tool for your needs.