Glomming Onto Google: Salesforce.com, NetSuite Forge Paid Search Links

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) rivals Salesforce.com and NetSuite this week unveiled plans to support Google AdWords and, in NetSuite's case, additional paid-search services.

Salesforce.com has acquired startup Kieden and its Google-focused paid search expertise, and it now offers a free 30-day trial of the Kieden technology, Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff said Monday at a Boston event. Called Salesforce for Google AdWords, the technology will be generally available in time for Salesforce.com's Dreamforce conference in San Francisco this fall and will cost $300 per organization per month. Terms of the Kieden deal weren't disclosed.

Kieden, a four-person company launched in January, built its prototype atop Salesforce.com's AppExchange infrastructure, said Kraig Swensrud, a Kieden founder and now senior director of Salesforce at Google AdWords. The alternative to using AppExchange was to "buy a bunch of app servers, set up a data center and start programming in Java," he said. Using AppExchange, Kieden had a working prototype up by Jan. 17, he said.

Such technology is designed to enable customers to create and track the results of paid searches. The beauty of this model is that instead of an expensive, scattershot approach to advertising, paid search turns up potential customers who are already interested in what the vendor offers, according to Salesforce.com and NetSuite. The searches pop up on Google or Yahoo screens when a Web surfer enters a search term.

VARs and trusted advisers can make money on the technology by coaching customers on how best to attack potentially lucrative paid-ad searches, said Jay O'Connor, vice president of marketing at NetSuite, San Mateo, Calif.

"This is a great opportunity for end users as part of their marketing mix. You get more results from paid search than from e-mail marketing, but not a lot of people are experts in paid search," O'Connor said, adding that VARs who become experts in the technology can become value-added advisers.

For now, San Francisco-based Salesforce.com is concentrating on Google AdWords, since Google represents the lion's share of the market. Google accounts for about 80 percent of the space, with Yahoo second at 15 percent and Microsoft third at 5 percent, according to Salesforce.com.

Microsoft, however, is pouring resources into its AdCenter capability, and Swensrud said Yahoo and Microsoft paid-search expertise will be added based on market demand.

Salesforce.com already is integrating with Google Gmail and Google Maps, Benioff said. "This is a logical extension," he said.

Industry watchers say the timing of the Salesforce.com and NetSuite announcements isn't fortuitous. The two software vendors, both headed by former Oracle marketing executives, are big rivals. Perhaps more important, Microsoft's Business Solutions push is encroaching on their turf even as the Redmond, Wash., software giant ramps up its AdCenter game. Both Google and the business apps players are building allegiances against Microsoft, observers said.

"Google's fingerprints are all over this," said analyst Denis Pombriant, an analyst at Beagle Research.

Using the Salesforce.com tools, VARs and customers can target ads to specific states, regions or other geographies. The tool guides the ad designer through the sometimes arcane Google process and alerts them in realtime if they commit a Google "no-no."

"If you type in seven exclamation points, you'll be alerted that this may constitute 'excessive punctuation,' " Swensrud said. As the Google rules change, the system updates, and it will guide users through keyword entry and post the approved ad within 10 or 20 minutes.

But the real benefit is the tracking and feedback, Swensrud said. "It will tell you [from within the Salesforce.com dashboard] how many impressions you got and of those how many click-throughs and of those how many turned up as leads," he said.

NetSuite promises similar functionality in a toolset for optimizing the process of tracking and managing keywords. "A wizard helps you set your keywords up. That's where best practices come into play," said Mini Peiris, vice president of product management. "And what NetSuite does is facilitate visibility into how those keywords are performing."

The NetSuite tool is part and parcel of the company's CRM and marketing capabilities. There's no additional charge.