Travel marketing technology company Sojern has acquired Adphorus, a marketing company focused on helping travel brands advertise on Facebook and Instagram.
The companies did not disclose terms of the deal. Adphorus has raised $1 million in funding, according to Crunchbase. The 45-employee business, based in Istanbul, will continue to operate independently.
The news shows the value of ad tech to travel brands. On the same day, TechCrunch reported that Airbnb has acquired ad tech startup AdBasis, which offers tools to companies for ad testing and optimization.
Sojern’s deal represents its first acquisition. The San Francisco company with 400 employees that has just been named for the fifth year as one of Deloitte’s 500 fastest growingtechnology companies in the U.S.
Sojern had already worked with companies on its own to take advantage of Facebook’s potential. For example, it helped Fairmont Hotels receive 20 percent more revenue with the same expenditure by using technology to optimize an ad campaign that drove thousands of bookings from Facebook to Fairmont’s website, according to Sojern.
The overall ad tech sector has been talked down in the past few years by investors, who have knocked significant share price off of some ad tech companies that went public since 2012. Ad tech overall appears to be going through a boom-bust, gold rush cycle. Eventually, the dust will settle and many players will filter into a few winners.
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