Google books Intuit’s customer base

Filed in Google, Local Search, PPC Advertising, Small Biz Marketing by Matt McGee on September 13, 2006 2 Comments

Google logoSuper-smart move on Google’s part today, as they’ve partnered with Intuit — makers of the uber-popular accounting software programs Quickbooks and Quicken — on a deal that gives Google direct access to Intuit’s customer base.

How?, you ask?

Several Google tools will be integrated directly into the 2007 version of Quickbooks, which is due out this month. Quickbooks users will be

  • invited to set up and manage an AdWords account (with a $50 credit to start)
  • invited to submit items directly to Google Base
  • invited to be listed on Google Maps (with or without having a web site)
  • able to use Google Desktop Search

Quickbooks, you surely know, is the accounting software of choice for millions of people, most of whom are small business owners. Google gains direct access to an audience that, to a large degree, hasn’t heavily adopted AdWords, Local Search Marketing, etc. The partnership announced today could help open the floodgates of PPC and local search adoption by small businesses. Greg Sterling says “this is a big deal.” Erick Schonfeld says “this could be massive.” Michael Arrington is less impressed.

I think it certainly has the potential to be big, at least in terms of getting the non-adopters to dip their feet in the online marketing waters. But what will the follow-through be? You can’t just throw up some new AdWords campaign and let it sit there, unattended. How many new adopters will take the time to learn how to make AdWords work for them, and manage their PPC efforts on a weekly, or even monthly basis? Online marketing isn’t like the Yellow Pages, where you get to make an ad and then let it sit for a year (or more) before ever needing to do something with it.

Related Stories:
Official News Release
Greg Sterling writes at SEW Blog

[tags]google, intuit, quickbooks, adwords, google base, small business, ppc[/tags]

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