Google, Intuit Team to Push Search Ads to Small Biz

In an effort to entice more small businesses to try their hand at search marketing, Google has announced a partnership with Intuit, the maker of the QuickBooks accounting software for small businesses.

The upcoming 2007 version of QuickBooks will include software that will automate users’ sign-up for Google AdWords, the program that lets advertisers bid to place pay-per-click ads against keywords in Google Search. QuickBooks 2007 buyers will also get a $50 credit toward search ad spending on Google’s platform.

QuickBooks 2007 will also provide preloaded install disk software that will let small business owners build a profile on Google Maps and post their products for sale on Google Base, the search company’s free online classified-ad service.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt said in a conference that the partnership could result in adding a million or more new users to the AdWords search marketing program. “Less than half of these [small businesses] have online presences, because it’s so difficult,” he said. “Using the QuickBooks franchise, we saw an opportunity to solve the problems once and for all. It’s a good win for Intuit, it’s a good win for Google, but more importantly, I think it’s the beginning of a much, much deeper partnership.”

Small businesses using QuickBooks 2007 will be find a Google marketing tool icon on the software’s home page. Clicking on it will lead them to a streamlined version of the Google AdWords sign-up page, with their business information pre-filled. They can activate a new account from here and be led through the process of setting up a search marketing campaign.

Those small businesses without a Web site will be able to direct pay-per-click search ads to a profile page on Google Maps. Hosted by Google to bulk up its Maps directory content, these pages can include not only store location information and phone numbers but hours of operation, payment methods, services, specialties and coupons or discount offers. The business listings can also appear in the local category at the top of search results pages when users do a general Google search for an appropriate product or service in their region.

QuickBooks 2007 will also let users make their products searchable on Google Base. Using a free beta product listing service, retailers can select items from their inventory to be listed and upload data on those products, including photos and pricing, directly from their Intuit software into the Google Base database. Searchers who find those listings in a Google search can click through to the merchant’s Web site or small-business profile page.

The product listing service will be powered by StepUp Commerce, an online merchandising company that specializes in retail inventory control from point-of-sale systems. In addition to the alliance with Google, Intuit also announced yesterday that it has acquired StepUp and a subsidiary for about $60 million in cash. Google has an existing relationship with StepUp, making the integration with Google Base simpler.

QuickBooks software is used in 3.7 million small businesses, about half of them product-based. Intuit also manufactures Quicken accounting software, which is used in another 3 million small businesses.

Intuit’s QuickBooks 2007 will go into general release later this fall.