Google, Salesforce.com partner on Web site

update Salesforce.com and Google launched a Web site on Tuesday that is designed to allow the online customer relationship management software maker to act as a reseller for Google's AdWords.

For Salesforce.com, the alliance expands its efforts to tie its hosted CRM software with Google AdWords, following its acquisition last year of privately held Kieden, which had created an add-on to Salesforce's hosted services for purchasing and managing Google-driven ad campaigns. Salesforce.com will expand beyond allowing its customers to launch Google AdWords from a Salesforce.com application to one in which it will act as a reseller of the Google AdWords platform.

The two companies jointly developed Salesforce Group Edition, which features Google AdWords, and will jointly market the offering, said Kendall Collins, senior vice president of marketing for Salesforce.com.

Salesforce Group Edition is designed to allow companies to connect to Google AdWords and have their advertisement displayed on Google.com when related search terms are entered on the site. They can also distribute their ads on Google AdSense, the advertising program that allows Web site publishers to earn a portion of ad revenue by hosting Google-sponsored ads on their sites.

When potential customers click on the advertisement, they are taken to the company's Web site and are encouraged to fill out a form that records their name. This information is then transmitted to a company's sales team as a potential sales lead via Salesforce's technology.

"This alliance was a natural fit for us," said Collins, noting that the two companies are similar in the way they approach delivering services over the Internet, such as leveraging open application program interfaces (APIs).

More to come?
David Bradshaw, principal analyst at Ovum, suggests the announcement is likely a signal of deeper collaboration to come from the two companies.

"Clearly this is just a first step and there will be further steps," Bradshaw said in a research note. "Googles and Salesforce aren't saying what's next on their roadmap, though with a six-month development cycle, there clearly must be more coming."

He noted that as a first step, the Salesforce Group Edition featuring Google AdWords makes "perfect sense" as it aims to make it easier for smaller companies to buy, use and monitor returns from AdWords. Bradshaw added that these businesses typically do not have the technical or marketing expertise to fulfil this function on their own.

The Salesforce Group Edition featuring Google AdWords targets midsize to small companies and costs US$1,200 per year for five users, although a 30-day promotion is under way that offers the product for US$600 for five users for the first year. That promotional price includes a US$50-per-year Google AdWords credit.

As part of the nonexclusive deal, Salesforce will receive all proceeds from the sale of its Salesforce Group Edition and share a nominal portion of any Google AdWords sales, Collins said. The remainder of the proceeds from Google AdWords will go to Google.

While the joint-development efforts between the companies has produced one product, Sean Whiteley, director of Salesforce's search marketing, said its customers will drive future development plans.

"We're hoping that as people use these products, it will become evident what we should do next," Whiteley said.

Eileen Yu of ZDNet Asia contributed to this article.