Ottawa-based seoplus+ has acquired local firm Meerkat Marketing in an all-cash deal that brings together two of the city’s best-known digital marketing agencies. Terms of the transaction, which closed last Friday, were not disclosed. Founded in 2012, seoplus+ has become one of Ottawa’s most prominent marketing and advertising firms thanks to its expertise in areas […]
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Ottawa-based seoplus+ has acquired local firm Meerkat Marketing in an all-cash deal that brings together two of the city’s best-known digital marketing agencies.
Terms of the transaction, which closed last Friday, were not disclosed.
Founded in 2012, seoplus+ has become one of Ottawa’s most prominent marketing and advertising firms thanks to its expertise in areas such as search engine optimization strategies that help drive traffic to client websites via Google and other platforms. Its customers include Cannon Canada, online betting site Betway and cellphone repair chain Mobile Klinik.
Meerkat, which was launched five years ago, specializes in marketing and social media services for small and medium-sized businesses. Its clients include Ottawa-based real estate firms Paradigm Commercial and Jennings Real Estate and executive search firm Keynote Search.
In an interview with OBJ on Thursday, seoplus+ co-founder and chief operating officer Brock Murray said the two agencies have worked together on numerous projects over the past several years and share similar values and business philosophies, adding he admires Meerkat CEO Kyle Turk’s strong grasp of marketing strategies.
“It was really just kind of a natural progression,” Murray said, explaining the deal will give the firm “added horsepower” in areas such as social media marketing.
In a statement Thursday, seoplus+ co-founder and CEO Eddy Abou-Nehme said the transaction “represents the first of many more acquisitions to come” for the company, which is one of the largest marketing firms in Ottawa.
As part of the deal, Turk is joining the seoplus+ leadership team. Meerkat director of content marketing Amanda Foget and social media specialist Emily Lessard are also moving over to seoplus+, raising the firm’s head count to 55 employees.
Lauding Murray and his team for being “super strong” in digital marketing, Turk said Meerkat would have “needed to hire three or four people right away” in order to compete against bigger entities like seoplus+. Instead, he opted to join forces with Murray, his friend and sometime business partner.
“It was either (expand) and try to get people that are good … but with Brock’s team already knowing they have the expertise, it worked out perfectly for us,” he said.
Murray said that bringing Turk and his team into the fold also gives seoplus+ additional bench strength as it expands its offerings in fast-growing fields such as geo lead generation services.
Geo lead generation uses artificial intelligence tools such as ChatGPT to analyze local market trends and target potential customers in a particular geographic area. Murray said interest in the service has skyrocketed since seoplus+ launched it a couple of months ago and he expects the geo trend to keep gaining momentum.
“Ten years ago, when it was, ‘I want to be first on Google,’ it’s like, ‘Now I want to be found on ChatGPT’ when somebody searches,” he explained. “It’s the same concept. I think a lot of business owners have been trying to figure out how they can use ChatGPT to increase productivity.”
Describing seoplus+ as “the leader in AI marketing in Ottawa,” Turk said the ability to mine the firm’s geo lead generation technology “is going to give a big advantage to a lot of our clients and Meerkat as well, because that’s something that they’re all talking about.”
While seoplus+ is profitable and continues to grow its revenues at a steady clip of about 20 per cent annually, Murray said the firm needs to be nimble if it wants to remain a market leader in a fast-changing industry.
For example, SEO strategies that were sure-fire winners just a year or two ago are quickly becoming obsolete as traffic from Google searches plummets, he explained.
Companies that don’t adapt quickly to such dramatic shifts will be left in the dust, Murray said.
“The things that worked previously are not necessarily working as they used to. That’s where business owners are having to pivot. We can’t rest on our laurels.”
