Salesforce for Google Adwords – Searching for a Sunset to Retire By

Salesforce for Google AdWordsWhen thinking about Salesforce.com’s retirement of Google AdWords one has to wonder… how did it last this long if so few companies used it?

Salesforce.com recently announced that Salesforce for Google AdWords is going away. Seems like it was just yesterday that they forced it on all of us by adding it to all Salesforce instances (2007?). If you own Salesforce, you’re now in one of 3 camps vis-a-vis the retirement of Salesforce for Google AdWords:

Camp #1: If you’re just purchasing Salesforce.com now, you won’t notice that it is already gone- since it won’t ever appear in your new system.

Camp #2: If your Salesforce.com instance dates back before February 2012, but you did not activate your Google Adwords account from within Salesforce, then you are now shut out and have a useless Google AdWords Setup Tab cluttering your system.  It is possible for a system administrator to uninstall the app under Setup/Installed Packages.

Camp #3: If you’ve used Salesforce.com for a while AND activated your Salesforce for Google AdWords account, then you have one more year to use it. Starting May 2013, no new AdWords data will be added to Leads and Opportunities. The Google Adwords Setup tab will no longer display the AdWords dashboard in your system. Prior to that day you’ll want to make a decision on the AdWords related data in the 4 Objects in Salesforce, and if you will migrate it elsewhere. There is a nice overview within Help that explains “What happens to my existing Salesforce for Google AdWords data?“

The official announcement within Help documentation suggests Salesforce is moving on from AdWords “so that we can focus our efforts on innovation in other areas of the application.”  Somewhere else I read that Google hasn’t made it easy to interact via their APIs, but I haven’t confirmed it.  Whatever the case, if you are in Camp #3, you’ll need to find a new way to manage the integration of your AdWord spend and your Salesforce.com Leads and Opportunities.  Salesforce.com lists three options to consider: Pardot, Marketo, and Eloqua- and undoubtedly there will be more out there.

fast-track your mission critical project

start here

March 11, 2012

David Carnes - Founder & CEO

about the author

David Carnes

David’s role as Chairman & Chief Digital Evangelist is centered around driving meaningful client engagement and business development. The key to this is serving as an advisor to OpFocus’ SaaS clients as they scale their revenue operations and embrace digital transformation.

In his early career, David worked in IT and operations for software companies, developing an interest in CRM, marketing automation, and analytics while building out systems, processes, data, and reporting for the business teams he supported. He earned a Masters in Software Engineering and credits a Harvard summer class in database management for opening his eyes to what systems could do to support operations. In founding OpFocus in 2006 David took another step toward focusing on business operations, seizing on Salesforce’s vision and never looking back.

David is a frequent speaker at Salesforce and Salesforce community events around the world, mentors through the Trailblazer Mentorship Program hosts Dashboard Dōjō, and serves as a Platform Champion and a Pi-TaP board member. Due to his involvement in the trailblazer community, David’s recently been awarded the position of Salesforce MVP!