• by Tobi Elkin  @tobielkin, June 14, 2016

Aiming to close the gap between ad tech and martech, Impact Radius, a provider of digital marketing and affiliate solutions, announced on Tuesday that it acquired Forensiq, a provider of advertising fraud prevention services.

It was a cash and stock deal; specific financial terms weren’t disclosed.

The acquisition provides a consolidated platform for dealing with ad fraud, viewability, brand safety, and consumer journey analytics. “CMOs are going to demand marketing analytics platforms that give them trusted insights, free of fraudulent data points from non-human traffic, and scientifically valid attribution models that offer a complete view into the customer journey across all devices, free of fraudulent data from bots," Per Pettersen, CEO of Impact Radius, told Real-Time Daily via email

Combining forces with Forensiq, the company will have more than 275 employees across six offices worldwide.

Pettersen said the team will focus on developing artificial intelligence technologies, and a new digital currency for attribution, viewability, and ad fraud. “Our goal is to expose and remove fraudulent traffic across devices and ecosystems to create a more pure, real-time data hub for media buyers, analysts, and executives to stay on the same page, share granular insights, and maximize marketing ROI,” he said.

Forensiq’s technology seeks to eliminate fraud from the entire marketing funnel. Its fraud detection technology analyzes probabilistic and deterministic signals from more than four trillion monthly events across desktop and mobile devices.

Forensiq said one of the hardest problems for big brands is to get an accurate view of campaign effectiveness while tracking the various channels used to drive traffic. The challenge is compounded by fake signals sent by fraudsters to impersonate human activity.

Combining Forensiq’s ability to clean advertising data, and Impact Radius’s tracking capabilities, some of these challenges can be addressed, David Sendroff, CEO, Forensiq, told Real-Time Daily via email.

“Through this partnership, we will be able to ensure data quality and integrity throughout the entire funnel, then apply data science to understand how to reach the most relevant consumers,” Sendroff said.

The Interactive Advertising Bureau estimates that ad fraud costs the U.S. marketing and media industry $8.2 billion each year.