Marketing automation specialist Marketo has acquired Crowd Factory, which provides a management platform for social media campaigns. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Crowd Factory’s platform helps marketers deliver social media and word-of-mouth marketing, while expanding their marketing databases with the addition of social media profiles. The platform can be used to add social media applications and messages to every online channel - Facebook Pages, Twitter and LinkedIn feeds, landing pages, web sites, banner ads and e-mails - while automatically tracking the reach and impact on the return on investment (ROI).

Users can measure social media activity and influence down to the individual level, with the ability to see who is promoting their products and programs and who responded or bought as a result.

Last year, the firm secured $6.5m in equity financing, which it has been using to develop and market its social marketing suite.

Through the acquisition, Marketo will add its own marketing automation, sales effectiveness, and analytical reporting solutions to Crowd Factory’s platform.

Sanjay Dholakia (pictured), CEO of Crowd Factory, comments: ‘Crowd Factory pioneered the idea of Social ROI by empowering marketers to push viral campaigns throughout the social web, and then track that social activity back to individual influencers and conversions. This fits perfectly into the vision that all marketing activity matters and can be measured against the bottom line.’

Web sites: www.marketo.com and www.crowdfactory.com .

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