Salesforce.com and Google team up on AdWords--that's all
The salesforce.com and Google partnership turned out to be not a grand alliance or acquisition pitting the two companies against Microsoft, but a refinement of the AdWords campaign management software that salesforce.com acquired from Keiden Corp. in 2006. Salesforce.com can sell more CRM subscriptions and Google can increase its number of AdWords customers through the product and co-marketing efforts.
The new Salesforce Group Edition featuring Google AdWords, which replaces introductory Team Edition and integrated the AdWords functionality, was co-developed with Google and is aimed at smaller businesses. Pricing for the next 30 days is set at $600 per year for five users, with a $50 rebate. Standard pricing is $1,200 per year. Both companies will promote the new service, and salesforce.com will be an officially endorsed distribution channel for the Google AdWords across 43 countries.
"It's a natural fit in terms of a partnership of two companies," said Kendall Collins, senior vice president of corporate products and marketing at salesforce.com. "There is a lot to this level of collaboration of the two companies. It's the first product and we are excited to see what comes next. We are starting here because of the market opportunity."
The market opportunity is the 900,000 Google AdWords customers and a pool of 20 million small businesses. "For the mass market of businesses and entrepreneurs, you are crazy if you don't advertised on Google or don't use this product," Collin said.
He would not say if salesforce.com and Google were collaborating on deeper integration than the current mashups of Google 'Office' into the salesforce platform."
Regarding doing a product similar to Salesforce Group Edition featuring Google AdWords for Yahoo or Microsoft ad platforms, Collins said, "We will do whatever the market demands. Today we are not talking about that and do not have it. Google is overwhelmingly what small businesses want to advertise on. It would be silly not to start with Google. We haven't seen any traction on MSN, it doesn't have the reach. Yahoo is also a good platform and at salesforce.com we advertise on Yahoo. It's something we would consider if that's what customers are pushing us to do."
