Marketo Release Notes | FEB'26

What do the FEB'26 Marketo updates really mean for your team?

We break down what matters, what to act on, and where it impacts your marketing operations.

Features

• Email Designer – Folder Actions: Parity with the old email editor. Share and archive folder actions for Email Designer assets. Share folders across workspaces, right-click on a folder to create a new asset, move assets via drag-and-drop.
• Email Designer – API: You can now use API calls for the Email Designer. Marketo Asset API
• Email Designer – AI Assistant Image Generation: Now, in addition to Firefly, you can use Nano Banana models to generate images with the AI Assistant for email content. Create content for a specific section of your email

Announcements

• SEO Feature Deprecation: On Tuesday, March 31, 2026, Marketo Engage will deprecate the Search Engine Optimization feature (SEO). If you don’t actively use SEO, you don’t have to do anything. If you have used SEO recently, you have the option of exporting your data. Learn more.
• REST API Merge Leads limit: Beginning March 31, 2026, calls that include more than 25 IDs in the leadIds parameter of a Merge Leads API call will result in a 1080 error code, and the call will be skipped. Jobs requiring the merger of more than 25 records into one should be split into multiple jobs to ensure the success of those calls.
• Rest API ‘access_token’ Parameter Deprecation: The access_token query parameter used to authenticate Marketo REST API calls is being deprecated and will not be available after July 31, 2026. All new and existing integrations should authenticate REST API calls using the ‘Authorization’ header, as described here.
• SOAP API Deprecation: Support for the Marketo SOAP API will end on July 31, 2026. Services which use SOAP API capabilities should be migrated to the REST API.

What this means for you and your team

Email Designer folder actions mostly remove friction, not complexity. Sharing, archiving, drag-and-drop moves, and quick asset creation help if your team already runs many workspaces or shared libraries. The real value is less admin overhead and better reuse; the risk is looser governance if folder permissions and naming rules are inconsistent.

Email Designer API is the bigger operational enabler. If your team needs templating, bulk asset management, or external workflow integration, this opens the door to automation beyond the UI. It matters most for scaled programs and multi-region teams. You’ll want strong controls around versioning, QA, and approval flow so automation doesn’t create uncontrolled email sprawl.

AI image generation in Email Designer is incremental but useful for speed. It can reduce dependence on design bottlenecks for drafts, variants, and test assets. That said, the output still needs brand, legal, and quality review. Treat it as a productivity aid, not a substitute for governed creative production.

SEO feature deprecation is a cleanup signal. If you used it, export anything you still need now and remove it from your operating model. If you didn’t, this is noise. Either way, it shows Adobe is trimming legacy features, so avoid building process dependencies on low-priority Marketo functionality.

Merge Leads limit and access_token deprecation are integration risks, not feature updates. The merge limit matters if you run large dedupe or data hygiene jobs; those workflows need redesign before they fail. The authentication change is more important operationally: every REST integration should be checked, because token-in-query-string patterns will break and SOAP migration work may be more extensive than it looks.