Google Credit Card Helps Businesses Pay for AdWords

Google is offering its first credit card to advertising customers in an effort to take some payment pressure off of small and medium-sized businesses, according to a report by Reuters.

The AdWords Business credit card, aptly named for Google's popular search sidebar advertisements, will be available to a select group of customers beginning this week to be used toward the purchase of Google advertisements.

Ninety-six percent of Google's revenue comes from advertising, with the small AdWords claiming the largest percentage. However, many small and medium sized businesses struggle to pay for the ads during peak campaign times like holidays, which is what vice president of global online sales Claire Johnson says the credit card is directed toward.

"They are resource-constrained and they are often cash flow-strapped. Many of them are trying to grow a business without the kind of means that, say, your classic company has," Johnson told Reuters.

The AdWords credit card will be a MasterCard with an 8.99 percent locked in annual rate issued through the World Financial Capital Bank. Google is keeping quiet on the minimum and maximum credit lines offered and how many customers will be offered the card, though Google Treasurer Brent Callinicos said, "Availability will skew toward the smaller businesses."

Alongside competitors like Microsoft, Yahoo and Facebook, which has become increasingly popular among small and large business advertisers alike, Google is responding to the rough economic environment and stringent credit laws.

"It isn't a financial engineering project that we came up with and said this would be cool to do," stressed Callinicos. "It's a customer need."