Marketing Cloud Next Explained for Pardot Users
What Marketing Cloud Next is, how Pardot users get there through Marketing Cloud Growth and Advanced, and what to check in your setup now.
Salesforce has officially unveiled Marketing Cloud Next, the latest step in its long-planned move toward one platform for B2B and B2C marketing. For Pardot (Marketing Cloud Account Engagement) users, it marks a major shift, and an opportunity.
This guide explains what Marketing Cloud Next is, how it differs from MCE and MCAE, what it means for your current martech stack, and how Pardot users can prepare.
- Marketing Cloud Next (MCN) is Salesforce’s single marketing platform for B2B and B2C, built on Data Cloud with AI agents.
- Marketing Cloud Growth (2024) and Marketing Cloud Advanced (Dreamforce 2024) are the steps from Account Engagement toward MCN.
- Since mid-2024, Account Engagement users can move to Growth or Advanced, depending on their edition.
- There’s no forced migration and no formal sunset plan for Account Engagement.
- Check your edition’s upgrade options and how much you already use Salesforce core objects and Data Cloud.
What Is Marketing Cloud Next?
Marketing Cloud Next (MCN) represents Salesforce’s vision for a single, scalable marketing platform built on Data 360 (formerly Data Cloud). It combines capabilities from prior solutions, integrates AI-powered agents, and supports seamless personalization across the Salesforce ecosystem – Sales, Service, Commerce, and beyond.
Built to simplify a complex landscape of acquired tools and overlapping capabilities, MCN aims to:
- Unify Salesforce’s MarTech offerings from B2B and B2C into one shared infrastructure.
- Capitalize on powerful data-sharing via Data 360.
- Deliver enhanced personalization with an overhauled personalization engine.
Think of it as the future state of Marketing Cloud – where your customer data, segmentation, content, journeys, and flows all live in one purpose-built environment with AI deeply embedded.
Decoding the Marketing Cloud Landscape
To understand the significance of Marketing Cloud Next, it helps to see where it fits among the existing Marketing Cloud products:
| Product | Description |
|---|---|
| Marketing Cloud Engagement (MCE) | Formerly ExactTarget. Salesforce’s dominant B2C solution, operating on separate infrastructure with modular tools for email, mobile, and advertising. |
| Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (MCAE) | Formerly Pardot. Salesforce’s B2B automation platform closely integrated with CRM core objects like leads and opportunities. |
| Marketing Cloud Growth (MCG) | Launched in 2024. Represents Marketing Cloud “on core” for emerging B2B use cases with simplified setup and access to Data 360. Today it is the Growth edition of Marketing Cloud Next. |
| Marketing Cloud Advanced (MCA) | Announced at Dreamforce 2024. Builds on MCG with expanded functionality – suited for more complex B2B/B2C needs. Today it is the Advanced edition of Marketing Cloud Next. |
| Marketing Cloud Next (MCN) | The culmination of platform convergence, built natively on Data 360 with unified campaign, segmentation, and activation capabilities. |
What Makes Marketing Cloud Next Different?
MCN isn’t just another edition – it’s the foundation of a new unified marketing architecture. Here’s what sets it apart:
1. Combining Best-of-Breed Acquisitions
Over the years, Salesforce acquired tools such as Krux, Evergage, ExactTarget, and Pardot. With Marketing Cloud Next, core components from these tools are finally unified under one umbrella to streamline your operations and reduce complexity.
2. Rebuilding on Data 360
Data 360 acts as the connective tissue, breaking down silos between departments. Everything – from campaign creation to lead scoring to segmentation – taps into the same real-time data source across the entire Salesforce ecosystem.
This rebuild also includes a new personalization engine that delivers consistent, context-aware messaging – whether you’re marketing to consumers, businesses, or both.
3. Simplifying the Marketing Stack
Salesforce has acknowledged the complexity of managing multiple marketing tools. By unifying them, MCN:
- Reduces the total cost of ownership (TCO).
- Minimizes redundant integrations between Salesforce products.
- Supports both B2B and B2C models with one application.
The Great Convergence: From MCAE to MCN
For Pardot users, the key narrative here is convergence – not migration. Salesforce is paving a path from MCAE to Marketing Cloud on core offerings like MCG and MCA, which ultimately lead to MCN.
Here’s how the transition pathways currently look:
- MCAE → MCG or MCA: Pardot customers on Growth, Plus, Advanced or Premium who run Sales Cloud or Service Cloud Enterprise Edition or higher already have Marketing Cloud Next included (Account Engagement+). On Professional Edition, they don’t.
- MCE → MCE+: The Engagement+ editions now include a Marketing Cloud Next edition, a step towards convergence with MCN.
It’s important to note that Salesforce isn’t forcing a hard migration or phasing out MCAE. Instead, it’s offering stepping stones that let teams adopt new capabilities incrementally without disrupting their current operations.
What Can Pardot (MCAE) Users Expect?
If you’re currently using MCAE, the most relevant developments include:
- Content assets such as email templates and images can be ported into MCG and MCA editions.
- Campaigns and reporting are increasingly integrated – mirroring Salesforce’s object structure.
- You keep the value of what you’ve built, but automations are rebuilt as Flows in Marketing Cloud Next: there is no tool that carries them across.
Build Your Next Messaging with Familiar Tools
Even with Journey Builder and Flow remaining active, you can start building in Marketing Cloud Next while continuing to run campaigns in the existing stack. For example:
- Use Flow to trigger or enrich existing Journey Builder experiences.
- Leverage unified segments built in Data 360 across both environments.
However, not every feature is “one-click compatible” yet. For instance, content translation from MCE to MCN is a work in progress. MCAE customers may find a smoother integration thanks to shared object alignment and Data 360 compatibility.
What’s Ahead for Marketing Cloud Next?
Salesforce’s roadmap is clear: continue expanding MCN to serve all customers – regardless of whether they’re targeting businesses, consumers, or both. Despite rumors, there’s no formal sunset plan for MCAE or MCE. Sunsetting either would be unrealistic given the massive customer base embedded in those platforms.
Instead, expect Salesforce to:
- Focus commercial efforts on Marketing Cloud Next for new customers.
- Extend capabilities and training for those on “on-core” editions (MCG, MCA).
- Bridge gaps (e.g. content migration, platform UX) between current-state and future-state tools.
Ultimately, the future looks unified, intelligent, and AI-powered – whether your marketing goals are focused on acquisition, engagement, or revenue enablement.
What You Should Do Next
If you’re a Pardot user planning your next steps, this evolution brings both opportunities and decisions:
- Check whether your Pardot licence already includes Marketing Cloud Next (Growth to Premium, with Sales or Service Cloud Enterprise Edition or higher).
- Review how deeply you use Salesforce core objects and Data 360 today to plan integration with MCN’s capabilities.
- Start experimenting with MCN-aligned features, like Segment Intelligence or Agentforce Campaign Creation, if available to you.
- Engage your Salesforce rep or consulting partner to guide your convergence roadmap.
Now is the time to assess your B2B marketing stack and plan how it should evolve. If you’re working through the Marketing Cloud convergence and want an expert view on your next step, we can help.
Get in touch with our team to see how Marketing Cloud Next fits your growth strategy.
