Hosted apps rivals duel over search marketing
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Rival hosted application providers NetSuite Inc. and Salesforce.com Inc. compete tooth and nail, so it's no surprise that both of them have announced tools to track and manage search engine marketing campaigns almost simultaneously.
As more and more companies are advertising their products on search engine providers' Web sites, they're seeking greater transparency into which keywords and search terms are generating customer leads and revenue and which words and phrases are duds.
Salesforce.com unwrapped an offering to allow companies to manage Google Inc.'s AdWords marketing campaigns directly from its Salesforce CRM (customer relationship management) software late Monday in Boston. Known as Salesforce for Google AdWords, the service is available from the company's AppExchange site where customers can try out and buy applications from Salesforce.com and its partners.
Marc Benioff, Salesforce.com chairman and chief executive officer, called the service "a real production mash-up," during a Tuesday conference in New York. He said a customer described the tight integration between the CRM software and Google AdWords as "like having our parents become friends with our in-laws so we only have one dinner to go to for Thanksgiving."
Not to be outdone, NetSuite debuted its Keyword Marketing Module Tuesday supporting both Google AdWords and Yahoo Inc.'s Sponsored Search. While Salesforce.com focuses on on-demand CRM and its AppExchange platform, NetSuite provides an integrated suite of hosted ERP (enterprise resource planning), CRM and electronic commerce applications.
The two software-as-a-service (SAAS) providers took different approaches to coming up with their new products.
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