• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, January 10, 2012

eBureau, the company that developed sophisticated algorithmic systems for integrating offline data with online behavior to help online marketers vet lead generation and prevent fraud, is spinning much of that proprietary knowledge off into a new company that will do the same thing for online ad targeting. The new St. Cloud, MN-based company, dubbed TruSignal, will utilize the same data sets and predictive modeling systems developed by eBureau, but will apply this to advertising planning and targeting in what it claims is a superior method to existing segmentation, modeling and behavioral targeting systems.

The methods that will power TruSignal have quietly been beta tested with two major online marketers -– one in the online education business and the other a life insurance marketer –- and the company claims it yielded results that were “80% more precise” than other online audience segmentation methods used by those marketers.

The difference, according to TruSignal, is that while conventional segmentation systems focus on a Web site visitor ‘demographics (age and gender), approximate location, and/or the content on the Web page itself, TruSignal utilizes predictive analytics to create “lookalike” proxies of a brand’s most valuable targets based on actual consumer behavior, which is then matched to online user profiles that match them. TruSignal calls these pseudo demographics “ideal audiences.”

Gordy Meyer, founder and CEO of eBureau, will serve as CEO of TruSignal, while David Dowhan, an eBureau executive, will service as president.