This has been a big week!  The company we founded as Click Forensics back in 2006, was acquired by Google.  Click Forensics became Adometry in 2011 and has grown to become the leader in online advertising attribution.  I am proud of our team and am excited for our investors. We began with a mission to ensure advertisers "get what they pay for".  Our founding team and leadership worked hard to grow the company to where it is today.  I'm grateful for the opportunity and appreciative to our investors, partners and employees that have worked hard over the years to build something great.  More about our history here.

From the Wall St. Journal May 6th, 2014

Google to Acquire Online Attribution Firm Adometry

Google wants to help advertisers get a better sense of how their online ad campaigns work collectively. So the company is acquiring Google wants to help advertisers get a better sense of how their online ad campaigns work collectively. So the company is acquiring Adometry, an Austin-Tx.-based firm that specializes in online ad attribution–i.e. the science of crediting various online ads for influencing a person to take an action, such as clicking on an ad or buying something.

Terms of the deal have not been disclosed, but Google officials said the acquisition did not have to pass through any regulatory hurdles. Adometry raised $8 million in funding in early 2013. The firm will continue to operate independently, as least for the near future, Google said.

The deal  is an ironic one for Google, given that for years, Web publishers have complained that Google search ads get too much credit. The common complaint among companies that sell online ads is that Google ads perform well because people only encounter them after searching for something specific. The argument is that a person may have encountered lots of other ads prior to deciding to search for something like “blue blazer” and then clicking on an a Target ad.

Several years ago in fact, Microsoft made a big push into solving the attribution issue, launching a business that was directly aimed at challenging what Microsoft saw as Google’s disproportionate credit for the success of online advertising at large.

Thus, you might wonder why Google would want to rock the boat. Well, for one thing, the company manages a huge display ad network, as well as an ad exchange. Google wants to capture a larger share of online advertising overall, and needs to convince brands that tactics outside of search ads can work. The company has also made better analytics a priority of late, including the Google Analytics Premium business, which helps website owners better manage their data, traffic, and ad reporting. Adometry’s tools and technology will be used to help bolster that business, Google said in a blog post.

There’s a possible side benefit to the Adometry deal that Google executives didn’t mention. Adometry has roots in online ad fraud prevention. In fact, in 2011, the online ad fraud detection firm Click Forensics acquired Adometry and assumed its name. Google has made a point of being a leader in rooting out bogus traffic, fake sites, bots and the like.

A few months ago, Google acquired Spider.io, another anti-fraud specialist. With Adometry and Spider in the fold, Google can make a claim to be making a serious investment toward protecting its advertisers.