Adobe is has bought Efficient Frontier for an undisclosed sum, as the firm looks to boost advertising services.
Founded in 2002, Efficient Frontier manages more than $1 billion in marketing spending on behalf of its clients, which include Travelodge, Match.com and Discover Financial Services.
The purchase will give Adobe more of a foothold in ad buying on Facebook. Adobe currently lets marketers buy ads on Facebook via its Adobe Search Center+ paid search management tool.
The acquisition will add new services to Adobe’s Digital Marketing Suite, which includes web analytics and web optimization tools for marketers.
This is the fourth advertising acquisition Adobe has made in the past few years, following its purchases of Omniture, Demdex and most recently Auditude.
Earlier this year Efficient Frontier picked up social marketing startup Context Optional for $50 million. The move was supposed to help it branch out beyond its core business – helping marketers navigate Google and other search engines.
Adobe currently captures approximately five trillion digital transactions per year for more than 5,000 customers, including many of the world’s largest advertisers, publishers and advertising agencies.
“With the explosion in global Internet advertising, our customers need to know where, when and how to spend their digital marketing dollars to get the greatest return,” said Brad Rencher, senior vice president and general manager of Adobe’s Digital Marketing Business. “The addition of Efficient Frontier will give our Digital Marketing Suite customers a leading platform for turning ad spend into business impact.”
“Adobe’s vision of digital marketing is perfectly aligned with the Efficient Frontier approach — use data and intelligence to manage risk and drive ROI across a growing number of digital channels,” said David Karnstedt, president and CEO, Efficient Frontier. “Adobe customers will have greater insight into how their social, search and display spend impact one another and how to optimize their cross-channel campaigns.”