diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index d75b9b0..1519564 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
 .DS_Store
 /target
 /Cargo.lock
+/bench/bench
diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index 79c35b2..c781f8a 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@ env:
 script:
   - cargo build
   - cargo test
+  - make -C bench
   - cargo doc
 after_script:
   # the doc directory needs to be in the root for rust-ci
diff --git a/bench/Makefile b/bench/Makefile
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5ea2303
--- /dev/null
+++ b/bench/Makefile
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+all: bench
+
+bench: *.rs ../src/*.rs
+	(cd .. && cargo build)
+	rustc -L ../target --test bench.rs
+
+run: bench
+	./bench --bench
+
+clean:
+	rm bench