Digital marketing company Sojern announced today it has acquired Adphorus, a Facebook and Instagram Marketing Partner (FMP) specializing in ad solutions for the travel industry.
The deal will allow Sojern – whose high-profile clients include Hyatt, Fairmont and Singapore Airlines – to grow its opportunities on Facebook.
In a statement, Sojern CEO Mark Rabe says interest in Facebook marketing solutions has grown dramatically. “Our clients know that Facebook attracts two billion users a month, with the average user spending nearly an hour every day.
"The only question for travel marketers has been how to capitalize on that scale to drive bookings."
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Interestingly, Airbnb was itself busy in the marketing technology world this week, snapping up testing and optimization service AdBasis for an undisclosed fee.
Acquiring Adphorus – which counts Expedia, Kayak and Trivago among its clients – is indeed a strategy to capitalize on the Facebook travel marketplace, and the two companies' already established status in the travel sector stands to allow for significant growth.
The terms of the deal were not disclosed, and the acquisition is Sojern’s first.
Fifty team member-strong Adphorus was certified as a Facebook partner in 2014 and operates from offices in Istanbul, Turkey, and the German capital, Berlin.
Sojern recently produced a lengthy report into the general path to purchase for travelers, discovering in some cases that the average consumer in Asia-Pacific could spend up to 213 days considering a trip within the region and, during the period, interacting with 735 potential brand touchpoints.
The touchpoint figure was substantially lower (162) for US travelers heading towards Asia-Pacific.