Marin Software Names David A. Yovanno As CEO, Reports Q1 Revenue Up 33 Percent

Today, Marin Software announced David A. Yovanno will be filling the CEO role being vacated by founder Chris Lien, who will assume the role of Executive Chairman. The company also released its first quarter earnings report for 2014, showing revenues increased 33 percent to $22.8 million, up from $17.2 million the previous year.

Lien founded Marin in 2006. The company operates a Revenue Acquisition Management platform — a campaign management solution for advertisers and agencies to manage search, display, social and mobile campaigns from a centralized platform. Marin claims $6 billion of ad spend now runs through the platform from agency customers such as Razorfish and iProspect and brands like Gap, Macy’s and Vistaprint. The company went public in March 2013.

“I am excited to announce that Dave has joined Marin as CEO to partner with me, the rest of the team, and our Board to help scale Marin to its next stage of growth,” said Lien in the announcement. “Marin’s record results for the first quarter demonstrate our tremendous market opportunity and momentum. Now is the right time to bring in Dave, who has more than 20 years of operating experience and strong digital marketing expertise. I am confident Dave will build on Marin’s success to drive the company to even greater levels of achievement. In my new role as Executive Chairman, I look forward to working closely with Dave and the entire team to extend Marin’s leadership position in Revenue Acquisition Management as we seek to serve more advertisers and agencies worldwide.”

Yovanno served most recently as Executive Vice President of Technology Solutions at Conversant Inc. where he was responsible for overseeing the company’s technology, media and DSP solutions. He held the CEO position at social media management solution, Gigya, from 2008 to 2011, between stints at Conversant. Yovanno also served on the board of the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) from 2005 to 2008.

“I am honored to join Marin Software as CEO to help the company scale to even greater levels in the years ahead,” said Yovanno in a statement. “Chris and the Marin team have defined and led the Revenue Acquisition Management space, which I believe is a rapidly growing opportunity in the multi-billion dollar digital advertising market. I am excited to leverage my executive, operational, and digital marketing experience to expand the company’s leadership position. I very much look forward to working with our customers, employees, partners and investors.”

Marin reported earnings per share (EPS) for the first quarter 2014 was -$0.21, beating expectations from Zacks Investment Research of $-0.31 (EPS) and up from -$0.39 the previous year. The company predicts next quarter’s revenues to tick up slightly from the first quarter and range between $22.9 and $23.3 million. However, the non-GAAP loss from operations is expected to rise, ranging between $8.3 to $8.7, up from the first quarter operations loss of $6.7 million.

In a sign the company’s moves to provide more solutions such as full support for Facebook campaigns and the ability to incorporate contextual data like weather, sports scores and TV advertising into their digital campaign strategies are luring more to the platform,  Marin reported active advertisers increased from 542 in the first quarter of 2013 to 704 in Q1 of this year.