Analytics and fraud prevention company Click Forensics announced that it has acquired ad verification firm Adometry. Click Forensics is also assuming the Adometry name as the release states: “The moves are designed to support the continued expansion of the Click Forensics product line for the display advertising market.” Read the release.
Paul Pellman, CEO of Click Forensics and the new Adometry, spoke about the transaction.
AdExchanger.com: Why are you pivoting your core business with the acquisition of Adometry? What are the drivers?
PP: We’re not pivoting, but expanding our product lines. Our stand-alone solutions for the Cost Per Click industry are still integral to our business. In addition, they’re a key part of our ability to deliver cross-channel measurement and campaign optimization for online advertisers.
Last year, we expanded out our product line with the beta launch of our display advertising product. As we developed and tested the product, it evolved into our current and more expansive Ad Analytics suite, which now includes cross-channel attribution and campaign optimization.
What drove this expansion is a clear void in the marketplace. We, along with our advertising, agency and ad network customers, found no options for advertisers looking to manage display campaign performance across all channels. Point solutions (ad verification, attribution, optimization, etc.) on their own offer limited value and only provide some of the information you need to adjust campaigns. Only when combined together, can you truly measure and improve campaign performance across different channels, platforms, ad networks and publisher sites.
Adometry’s vision was also closely aligned with Click Forensics. Although they competed in the pure-play ad verification market with DoubleVerify, AdSafe Media, and others, Adometry has always described the problems for display advertisers as more than simple “ad verification.” The company’s offering is different because it helps online marketers understand what is working well in addition to what is non-compliant. This is exactly our vision for comprehensive Ad Analytics. Since Adometry had already developed data collection infrastructure and ad verification features and Click Forensics had developed sophisticated attribution and optimization functionality, it made sense to combine the two for comprehensive ad analytics functionality.
Will ad verification be your sole focus going forward? What happens to the clicks business?
Not at all. We still offer our CPC Ad Analytics solution as a stand-alone product. Most third-party CPC ad networks rely on us for scoring and auditing traffic and filtering click fraud and we’ll continue to invest in and grow that business. Additionally, our click experience helps us to offer unique value in the display and cross-channel space. Ad verification, while important, is only part of the solution. But when combined with attribution and optimization, it allows you to see where cross channel (i.e. email, search, banner, display,etc.) campaigns have performed well (or not) so our customers can adjust them going forward.
What will happen to the Adometry team? How will this affect the ClickForensics team?
All Adometry employees and the company’s various customers will be part of our new team and client roster. In addition, they will maintain their current office and we will continue to grow the team as part of a Northwest R&D center. We will also grow the sales team in Redmond as we expand into new markets. It will not affect the Click Forensics team in any way.
Regarding the new analytics suite, what problem is this solving as they say? What are the implications for advertisers and publishers?
It’s allowing advertisers and agencies to track and measure the performance of their campaigns across all channels and thenadjust them going forward for optimal ROAS.
What makes the new Ad Analytics suite unique is it’s the first to combine ad verification, attribution and campaign optimization in a single offering. Other companies offer only point solutions. We found through beta testing, that when combined together, customers can truly measure and improve ad campaign performance across different platforms, ad networks and publisher sites.
The implication for publishers and advertisers is they now have a clear way to see what’s working as well as what’s not working so they can adjust campaigns going forward to maximize ROAS.
What was the cost of the transaction? Will there be need for additional funding?
While we are not disclosing specific financial details of the transaction, I can say the deal was a combination of cash and stock. Both companies are well-funded and generating significant streams of revenue. We have no plans to seek additional funding at this time.
We have DSP, SSP, ad network, agency, DMP – What is the short form description for Adometry today?
Adometry provides Ad Analytics. Ad analytics doesn’t fit neatly into any of those pre-defined TLAs you mentioned, but it’s probably closest to a DMP. We’re certainly not in the business of buying inventory or transacting traffic. We provide deep analytics for optimizing online advertising.
By John Ebbert
