• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, September 16, 2014

Kenshoo on Tuesday announced acquiring Facebook Preferred Marketing Developer (PMD) Adquant in a move aimed at bolstering its social and mobile marketing offerings. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Kenshoo, which has its roots in search engine marketing, has increasingly expanded into social marketing and advertising, helping companies manage their presence and run campaigns on sites like Facebook and Twitter. The purchase of Adquant, which focuses on powering social campaigns for mobile apps and games, would especially help Kenshoo capitalize on fast-growing mobile ad spending on Facebook and other social sites.

Mobile ad spending accounted for 62% ($1.6 billion) of total ad revenue for Facebook in the second quarter, with the bulk of the mobile portion said to be driven by app download ads running on the social network. Overall, eMarketer projects U.S. mobile ad spending worldwide will reach $17.7 billion this year, up 83% from $9.7 billion in 2013. Globally, mobile ad spend is projected to reach $32.7 billion.

“By joining forces, Kenshoo and Adquant are uniquely positioned to serve advertisers across all verticals and geographies with world-class digital marketing solutions,” stated Kenshoo co-founder and CEO Yoav Izhar-Prato. As a Facebook strategic PMD, the company’s social ad platform rated the highest among seven analyzed by Forrester based on 45 criteria in a December 2013 Wave report.

Under the deal, Kenshoo indicated it would initially maintain Adquant as a separate brand and service, with the two companies’ products being merged over time. For now, Adquant clients will be able to continue to run their ad programs on the Adquant platform while gaining immediate access to Kenshoo’s cross-channel marketing services.

Adquant executives and “key personnel” will join Kenshoo’s 24 offices worldwide, including its global headquarters in Israel and regional headquarters in the United States, United Kingdom, and China. Adquant co-founder and CEO Joe McCormack will become part of the Kenshoo management team, though his new role was not specified in the announcement.