Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Marketing licensing update will align cost with usage

Microsoft will update its licensing model for Dynamics 365 for Marketing in October 2018 by charging based on contacts touched by marketing activities rather than the previous model that focused on total contact count. Microsoft MVP and Forceworks CEO Steve Mordue shared the update today on his blog.

Mordue also shared the key details on the update in the form of an excerpt from Microsoft's own licensing guidance to partners. An announcement from Microsoft is also expected.

Mordue wrote that the update will solve the most critical issues with the previous licensing model, which he had publicly criticized in April as slowing down adoption of the solution overall.

The biggest issue has been solved: "Effective with the Oct 2018 release, pricing for Dynamics 365 for Marketing will be based only on those contacts used for a marketing activity." So it no longer matters how many contacts you have in your database, or how they got there, or why they are there. From a “Marketing” standpoint, the only ones that will count towards your cost for Marketing, are those that you are Marketing to. Hallelujah!

This change is designed to ensure that companies only pay for the contacts to whom they market rather than all their contacts, which could be a much larger superset. As Mordue had explained previously, with the original licensing model a company with 100,000 contacts would get a quote for the Marketing app that counted all of those contacts, whether or not those contacts would ever be touched by marketing activities. The result was absurd prices ...