Kantar Acquires AdGooroo To Enhance Data Analysis

Terry-KentWPP Group's Kantar Media, which provides insights into online marketing and advertising, has acquired AdGooroo to expand its analysis on global digital media.

AdGooroo will remain a stand-alone company under Kantar Media. Richard Stokes will remain CEO. The acquisition gives Kantar Media tools focusing on competitive keyword and budget analysis, ad creative pieces, back-link data, and campaign statistics, as well as the ability to compare monthly amount spent on paid-search ads. The technology also tracks changes to algorithms and impressions. 

The technology allows AdGooroo to develop spend models, starting with about $100 million of known ad spend, to analyze trends. It combines various sources of search data, referred to as "occurrence" data, and machine learning models that predict click-through rates, cost per clicks and impressions. Multiplying the three points allows the company to estimate spend. It takes about 30 days to process and run through the cycle.

Terry Kent, CEO at Kantar Media North America, said the two companies have been having discussions on how to expand the suite of products, but declined to elaborate, only calling the AdGooroo platform "state of the art."

AdGooroo supports more than 4,000 advertisers and agencies in 52 countries to gain insights on search and display marketing data. The company, founded in 2004, measures advertisers, what visitors sees on a Web site and the action that follows. Measurements take place every 15 minutes, AdGooroo founder Richard Stokes told MediaPost Search Insider Summit (SIS) attendees earlier this month. Clients include iProspect, Staples, GroupM, iCrossing, and Southwest.

Stokes said about 93% of all online ad spend goes to search and display media. At SIS, he laid out the five top emerging search categories for 2012, which marketers should watch in 2013.

The No. 1 category, online education, rose from $87 million in spend last year to $196 million in 2012. No. 2, IT solutions and services rose 220% to $109 million in 2012, compared with the prior year. No. 3, Internet marketing services, rose 250% to 45 million this year compared with the prior year. The number of advertisers has doubled since 2010.

No. 4, pharmaceuticals and supplements, rose 150% to $181 million this year compared with the prior year. The top spenders in the pharma industry are building out symptom-focused mini sites. It gives the companies higher impressions at a lower click-through rate, Stokes said. Once personalized top-level domain names start rolling out, the results should improve.

The No. 5 category, home improvement, rose from $105 million in 2011 to $145 million in 2012. Home Depot and Lowes, the two big players, each spent between $7 and $10 million in October on Google, and similar on Bing.

 

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