• by Ben Frederick  @mp_benfred, June 22, 2016

Mobile advertising platform Verve announced the acquisition of a Denver-based startup called Roximity this week, which runs a beacon network in the US.

Verve recently raised $30 million in debt financing and has reportedly used some of that money to pay for the acquisition, though the terms of the deal haven’t been released.

Verve utilizes location data to provide analytics to various apps and sells ads for publishers on its platform as well.

With the purchase of a beacon network, the company will be able to get more concrete data about the relation of mobile ads to in-store visits—and hopefully add more data points to the problems with mobile attribution that many publishers, brands and advertisers still have.

Roximity’s network is opt-in and anonymized, for consumer privacy.

Many brands are experimenting with beacons in various pilot and beta programs, but the major problem is scaling the hardware and software to every unique branch of a franchise.

Some think of beacons as a way to augment the in-store purchase process. Others think of them as data collection points to identify cohorts to serve ads at a later date.

The two approaches aren’t mutually exclusive, but require different implementations of the various aspects of mobile marketing, like push notifications, timing and specific content.

The hardest part by far is getting users to opt in and quelling privacy concerns.