• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, September 6, 2013

BoostCTR secured $8 million in Series B funding from investors led by Battery Ventures, adding to the $4 million previously raised. The company also appointed Shawn Kernes, former CTO at StubHub, as CTO.

As part of the funding, Battery General Partner Brian O'Malley will join BoostCTR’s board. Existing investors Javelin Venture Partners and Western Technology Investment also participated in the round.

The company, founded in 2009, assists advertisers in optimizing ad content across search and social networks, but intends to use the funds to expand on services supporting display and mobile advertising through a network of content writers and marketing experts. It also plans to increase its sales force.

David Greenbaum, BoostCTR CEO and co-founder, believes the investment came after proving the company's worth. He said the technology and business model improves ads for customers by 30% by optimizing search and display for both text and images. That's why the company's largest travel brand client spends on average $2 million monthly on marketing.

He said brands will spend about $100 million in search, mobile and social annually, and "we're looking to create a cross-channel optimization platform for them." It allows marketers to takes lessons learned from one channel and use it to optimize content in another.

Greenbaum believes the model works because the 1,000-or-so BoostCTR copy and ad writers have an opportunity to write for specific brands they love. The business model follows the philosophy of brand advocates. The company started supporting small businesses, but now the typical customer averages $250,000 monthly on marketing. 

Not only does the company produce the ads, but it measures the effectiveness of the conversions per impression as each gets generated for cross-channel platforms. It means calculating the amount of the people who saw the ad and determining what percentage actually made a purchase.

To run the network of content writers and optimization experts, BoostCTR hired Christine Moellenberndt, former community experts for Wikimedia Foundation, Library Systems and Services.