Marketing automation and campaign management
Asked as “marketing automation platform”, and as “marketing automation and campaign management tool”, on behalf of a mid-market B2B software company. 52 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, six models each.
Standing · first-choice share
63%
Clear leader
63HubSpot Marketing Hub21Brevo06ActiveCampaign10others
63% of first choices, clear leader.
Since September 2026▲+4Since September 2026: 57% → 61%, +4 points. Inside the 12-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.HubSpot Marketing Hub held the lead, +4 points on 57%, inside the 12-point floor.
The standing
Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all six models, for a mid-market B2B software company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrantSince September 2026
01
HubSpot Marketing Hub63%15%73endorsed leader▲+4Since September 2026: 57% → 61%, +4 points. Inside the 12-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.57% → 61%
HubSpot Marketing Hub63%15%73endorsed leader▲+4Since September 2026: 57% → 61%, +4 points. Inside the 12-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.57% → 61%02
Brevo21%8%24accepted challenger▼−3Since September 2026: 26% → 23%, −3 points. Inside the 12-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.26% → 23%
Brevo21%8%24accepted challenger▼−3Since September 2026: 26% → 23%, −3 points. Inside the 12-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.26% → 23%03
ActiveCampaign6%7%58accepted challenger▼−6Since September 2026: 13% → 7%, −6 points. Inside the 12-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.13% → 7%
ActiveCampaign6%7%58accepted challenger▼−6Since September 2026: 13% → 7%, −6 points. Inside the 12-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.13% → 7%04
Mailchimp2%43%30criticized challenger▲+2Since September 2026: 0% → 2%, +2 points. Inside the 12-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.0% → 2%
Mailchimp2%43%30criticized challenger▲+2Since September 2026: 0% → 2%, +2 points. Inside the 12-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.0% → 2%Show the seven products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
11
Oracle Eloqua0%44%18criticized challenger=heldSince September 2026: 0% → 0%, ±0 points. Inside the 12-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.0% → 0%
Oracle Eloqua0%44%18criticized challenger=heldSince September 2026: 0% → 0%, ±0 points. Inside the 12-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.0% → 0%09
Adobe Marketo Engage0%39%57criticized challenger▼−4Since September 2026: 4% → 0%, −4 points. Inside the 12-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.4% → 0%
Adobe Marketo Engage0%39%57criticized challenger▼−4Since September 2026: 4% → 0%, −4 points. Inside the 12-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.4% → 0%10
Salesforce Marketing Cloud0%27%15criticized challenger=heldSince September 2026: 0% → 0%, ±0 points. Inside the 12-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.0% → 0%
Salesforce Marketing Cloud0%27%15criticized challenger=heldSince September 2026: 0% → 0%, ±0 points. Inside the 12-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.0% → 0%06
Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement0%21%39accepted challenger=heldSince September 2026: 0% → 0%, ±0 points. Inside the 12-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.0% → 0%
Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement0%21%39accepted challenger=heldSince September 2026: 0% → 0%, ±0 points. Inside the 12-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.0% → 0%05
Klaviyo0%12%33accepted challenger=heldSince September 2026: 0% → 0%, ±0 points. Inside the 12-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.0% → 0%
Klaviyo0%12%33accepted challenger=heldSince September 2026: 0% → 0%, ±0 points. Inside the 12-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.0% → 0%07
Omnisend0%8%13accepted challenger=heldSince September 2026: 0% → 0%, ±0 points. Inside the 12-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.0% → 0%
Omnisend0%8%13accepted challenger=heldSince September 2026: 0% → 0%, ±0 points. Inside the 12-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.0% → 0%08
Braze0%0%12accepted challenger=heldSince September 2026: 0% → 0%, ±0 points. Inside the 12-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.0% → 0%
Braze0%0%12accepted challenger=heldSince September 2026: 0% → 0%, ±0 points. Inside the 12-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.0% → 0%The floor is 12 points of share, measured: how far the models move a leader on their own when the same questions are asked twice with nothing changed. A larger change is movement; a smaller one is noise, and both are shown. How the floor is measured
Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its product page.
Head to head
One product takes 63% of first choices here, so the chart would put ten markers in one corner and one at the far edge. The two measurements it plots are columns in the standing above: share, and the negative label rate. Four products carry a negative rate above 25% in this category.
What they warned about
A high negative share on a product with few labels is a warning. A low share on a product with many labels is salience, not sentiment.
Adobe Marketo Engage39%
22 of 57 labels negative · 11 of 6 models · 7 hard negative
“The three platforms I'd most strongly **caution against** ... 1. **Marketo** — unless you're a large enterprise with dedicated admin staff.” DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt
HubSpot Marketing Hub15%
11 of 73 labels negative · 10 of 6 models · 1 hard negative
“Most businesses shouldn't use HubSpot... For everyone else, it's a trap.” Claude Haiku 4.5, negative prompt
Mailchimp43%
13 of 30 labels negative · 8 of 6 models · 2 hard negative
“skip cheap ones (Mailchimp) if you need robust compliance/deliverability” Grok 4.20, negative prompt
Oracle Eloqua44%
8 of 18 labels negative · 6 of 6 models · 2 hard negative
“It has a high total cost of ownership... Eloqua is generally only suitable for massive Fortune 500 companies” Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt
What they cite
Citations exist only for the models that return a source list: fourteen of the six in this edition.
Sites the answers cite
73 of 84 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 14 of 6 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 892 links across 277 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page. None of the 36 answers across every segment cited this index's own page for the category.
vendor site · ZoomInfo22 answers · 38 citations · 10 models
22 answers · 25 citations · 10 models
22 answers · 22 citations · 10 models
vendor site · HubSpot20 answers · 22 citations · 9 models
vendor site · Improvado17 answers · 19 citations · 8 models
vendor site · Klaviyo16 answers · 16 citations · 8 models
vendor site · HubSpot15 answers · 21 citations · 8 models
vendor site · Brevo15 answers · 19 citations · 9 models
vendor site · MarketBetter14 answers · 16 citations · 9 models
vendor site · Zapier14 answers · 15 citations · 8 models
vendor site · GetResponse13 answers · 13 citations · 9 models
vendor site · Make13 answers · 13 citations · 7 models
Pages the answers cite
The ten pages named in the most answers, by full address. A page here is one the models returned with a recommendation, not one the index endorses.
22 answers · 10 models
21 answers · 9 models
16 answers · 8 models
15 answers · 8 models
14 answers · 9 models
14 answers · 8 models
13 answers · 6 models
13 answers · 7 models
13 answers · 7 models
13 answers · 7 models
Search against answers
Each company's standing in the answers beside its site's footprint in Google search, one row a site: the products the models named on it with their shares, and the share they add up to; monthly searches on Google, and DataForSEO's estimate of AI search demand (modeled from search signals, directional, not a count of queries to any assistant), for the most-searched of the company's and its products' names (the name is in each row's hover text); estimated monthly organic visits to the site; and its best position in Google's top ten for “best marketing automation platform”, “marketing automation platform”. US estimates from DataForSEO and Google's Ads Transparency Center. A small company's site, or a mid-sized company's site for its flagship, is marked company; a product on a large parent's site (Google, Microsoft) has no site figures. A column with no figures for this category is left out, and an empty cell means none were seen, not none exist. Two measurements side by side: neither is read as the cause of the other.
| Company and products | Share | Own site cited | Name searches, Google | AI search demand, est. | Organic visits | Paid search a month, est. | Google ads, last 30 days | Best Google position |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HubSpot parent site HubSpot Marketing Hub 63% | 63% | 934 | 368,000 | 9,776 | ||||
| Brevo brevo.com Brevo 21%, Brevo [formerly Sendinblue] 2% | 23% | 386 | 40,500 | 327 | 81,741 | $17,847 | 106 | |
| ActiveCampaign activecampaign.com | 6% | 445 | 18,100 | 307 | 235,709 | $1,424 | 32 | |
| Zoho parent site Zoho Marketing Automation 4%, Zoho Campaigns 0% | 4% | 23 | 5,400 | 58 | ||||
| Sender sender.net | 2% | 105 | 9,900 | 10,349 | 69,078 | 13 | ||
| Intuit mailchimp.com Mailchimp 2% | 2% | 339 | 368,000 | 6,862 | 1,931,402 | $1,214 | 107 | |
| Klaviyo klaviyo.com | 0% | 353 | 90,500 | 1,560 | 200,057 | $572 | 20 | 5 |
| Salesforce parent site Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement 0%, Salesforce Marketing Cloud 0% | 0% | 296 | 550,000 | 60,632 | ||||
| Omnisend omnisend.com | 0% | 185 | 9,900 | 108 | 51,545 | $113 | 66 | |
| Braze braze.com | 0% | 505 | 27,100 | 6,395 | 55,552 | $13,112 | 59 |
Google's top ten for the two searches hold 14 sites; 2 of them are among the sites the models cited here (klaviyo.com, pipeline.zoominfo.com). The first result for “best marketing automation platform” is pipeline.zoominfo.com.
How they answered
Six framings of the same buying question, each sent to every model in a fresh session with search on. One row per model, so a row shows whether it held its answer under rewording, what it named when cost was the constraint, and what it argued against. Computed from the raw judge labels.ShowHide
How they answered
Six framings of the same buying question, each sent to every model in a fresh session with search on. One row per model, so a row shows whether it held its answer under rewording, what it named when cost was the constraint, and what it argued against. Computed from the raw judge labels.
ShowHideModelDirect“What is the best marketing automation platform for a mid-market B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which marketing automation and campaign management tool would you recommend to a mid-sized B2B company?”Comparative“What are the top marketing automation platforms and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best marketing automation platform for a company with a limited budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 500 person company evaluating a marketing automation platform. What should we look at?”Negative“Which marketing automation platforms should I avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Opus 5no first choiceno first choiceno first choiceno first choiceno first choicenothing named
Claude Opus 4.8no first choiceno first choiceno first choiceno first choiceno first choicenothing named
GPT-6 Astrano first choiceno first choiceno first choiceno first choiceno first choicenothing named
GPT-5.6 Solno first choiceno first choiceno first choiceno first choiceno first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.1 Prono first choiceno first choiceno first choiceno first choiceno first choicenothing named
Perplexity Sonar Prono first choiceno first choiceno first choiceno first choiceno first choicenothing named
Bold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against
The record
One row per call: the version string exactly as returned, whether the model searched, sources cited, and latency. Full answer text is in the free responses file. Download the record
Zero rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
| Prompt | Model | Version string | Time (UTC) | Searched | Sources | Latency |
|---|
Noise floor in this category
Flips between the edition run and its calibration repeat. Six prompts per model is a small sample; the index-wide floor is the number to trust.
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Normalization in this category
Every judgment call made between the raw labels and the numbers above, listed so it is visible and reversible.
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Category-scoped readings
HubSpot read as HubSpot Marketing Hub
HubSpot (Marketing Hub) read as HubSpot Marketing Hub
Oracle read as Oracle Eloqua
Salesforce (Marketing Cloud Account Engagement, formerly Pardot) read as Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement
Zoho read as Zoho Marketing Automation
Unresolved, counted raw
Act-On Marketing Automation
Intuit Mailchimp All-in-One Marketing Platform
Mailchimp's free tier
SEnuke TNG
Salesforce MCAE/Pardot
Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement, formerly Pardot
Salesforce Marketing Cloud or Account Engagement
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.