AOL buys online marketer tool Convertro for nearly $100m

AOL is continuing its quest to become one of the internet’s leading advertising platforms by reaching a deal to buy Convertro, a digital advertising firm that uses data to track which ads lead to purchases. AOL is reportedly paying $89 million for the company plus a $10 million incentive based on undisclosed goals.

Attribution tracking is of growing importance to online marketers that seek to fully understand the impact of advertising campaigns. For example, Google recently acquired Adometry, which boasts a similar technology to Convertro. The tremendous amount of data generated by online advertisements provides the data that Convertro analyzes to understand patterns in consumption. An ad seen by a person a day before a purchase may not get the credit it deserves.

AOL Platforms CTO Seth Demsey confirmed its importance:

“The web, for better or worse, operates on a last click attribution system. Attribution modeling is really fancy way of saying who gets credit for what.”

The deal provides AOL with yet another ad technology firm to boost its growing online marketing platform (in March, AOL announced it’s new integrated online ad platform, One). The acquisition is among AOL’s largest ad investments since its purchase of Adap.tv in August for $405 million.