WPP, the world’s largest marketing agency, has invested $5m in Buddy Media, which helps seven of the largest advertisers use social media company Facebook.
WPP’s Digital subsidiary said it was making the corporate venturing investment to improve the process by which its clients access Facebook.
Mark Read, chief executive of WPP Digital and head of strategy for the company, said: "As Facebook has surpassed the half-billion-users milestone, and is effectively the third largest country in the world, it is no longer a matter of if brands should have a presence on Facebook, but how they can be successful.
"In the same way that brands have software for managing websites and search campaigns globally, it is also now appropriate that we have software that will help manage the fastest-growing communication medium of all time: Facebook."
After the investment, the partnership allows WPP to integrate the Buddy Media Platform with its technology products and services and exclusive co-development of products and social applications for its clients.
WPP’s cash investment into Buddy Media is an add-on to the $23m series C round that closed in the summer from venture capital firms Greycroft Partners, Bay Partners, Institutional Venture Partners and Softbank Capital.
Softbank Capital had led Buddy’s $6.5m series B round in April 2008, which also included European Founders Fund and a number of other angel investors, while its series A had closed at $1.7m.