JET Advertising ✳︎

JET Advertising operates as a full-funnel digital partner, capable of delivering everything from large-scale municipal website builds to ongoing SEO, paid media, and creative retainers. The agency’s proprietary ASP.NET CMS gives non-technical clients granular control of their own content while creating recurring maintenance revenue for JET, a key differentiator from typical WordPress-only competitors. This structure gives the business real operational depth: delivery, quality assurance, and client communication all run through established processes rather than through the founder himself.

By the time Jason engaged Merge, he had already transitioned away from JET’s day-to-day operations. Jason’s time and focus had increasingly shifted toward a separate venture he’d started with his son, and he was ready to hand JET to a new steward. His objective wasn’t to walk away from what he’d built overnight, it was to find the right partner who could take the agency forward while providing continuity for the team and clients he’d spent nearly two decades serving.

Jason wanted a buyer who could step into JET’s existing leadership structure without disrupting the team or the client relationships that had taken years to build. He was looking for a successor who shared his values around client service and employee care, someone who would treat the team’s continuity and the clients’ experience as seriously as he had. Above all, Jason prioritized finding a good long-term home for the people who had helped him build JET, not just a transaction that maximized price.

To prepare JET for market, Merge positioned the business as a technology-enabled, founder-independent digital marketing platform with a proprietary CMS creating genuine recurring revenue and client stickiness. The business stood out for its diversified, low-concentration client base, its blended project-and-retainer revenue model, and a leadership structure already capable of running the business without daily owner involvement, a key selling point for a clean ownership transition.

Merge marketed JET as a rare opportunity to acquire an established digital agency with embedded client infrastructure and a scalable, remote operating model. Buyers were drawn to the agency’s dual-platform capability, delivering both WordPress and complex custom ASP.NET builds, its steady base of clients with no significant concentration risk, and the recurring monetization opportunity created by the websites managed on JET’s own CMS. The opportunity was especially compelling for buyers already running complementary marketing capabilities who wanted to broaden their service offering without duplicating their existing team.

JET Advertising was acquired by Expert Marketing Advisors (EMA), led by Courtney Kehl, who was actively pursuing acquisitions to grow the firm’s revenue, client base, and team capabilities. JET offered exactly the kind of business EMA was looking for: an established agency with complementary digital capabilities, including web development, SEO, Google Ads, and a proprietary CMS, that broadened EMA’s existing end-to-end marketing offering. JET and EMA were closely aligned on the fundamentals as well, similar in size, team structure, and leadership style, with both businesses operating through empowered, self-sufficient teams and limited founder dependency.

The acquisition gave EMA a natural extension of its existing service line, adding deeper web development and digital execution capability without meaningfully duplicating the team it already had in place. For JET’s employees and clients, the transaction preserved the culture and delivery model Jason had spent nearly two decades building, while EMA’s strong emphasis on employee retention, flexibility, and a thoughtful integration process ensured the team Jason cared so much about would be taken care of moving forward.

Merge guided Jason through a founder-first process centered on finding a successor who could preserve everything he and his team had built. By identifying a buyer whose capabilities and culture mapped directly onto JET’s existing strengths, Merge helped create a seamless transition for the business, its employees, and its clients, allowing Jason to step back with confidence that JET Advertising was in capable hands