US affiliate marketing network Pepperjam has acquired online marketing compliance solution AdAssured, in a bid to provide clients with fully transparent measurement of ROI and incrementality.
Purchased for an undisclosed amount, AdAssured specialises in protecting brand integrity for merchants and publishers running performance marketing campaigns, ensuring publishers are promoting brands, products and content in accordance with established policies and preferences.
Pepperjam’s CEO, Michael Jones, said the deal will help the company complete its suite of products and services built to optimise campaigns within the “complex” performance marketing industry.
“Brands are rightly sensitive about compliance, and so we are incredibly excited to add the value of AdAssured to our clients and partners around the world,” said Jones.
The acquisition means Pepperjam will now be able to offer clients a range of protective measures, including monitoring for restricted keywords in publisher site content, preventing channel overlap in paid search, screening for ‘domain-squatting’, and providing notifications of expired or invalid promotion codes.
Publisher rehabilitation
AdAssured CEO, Ian Francis, said that joining Pepperjam will be a “boon” to not only merchants, but publishers, who can use the tool to ensure merchant exclusives are consistently enforced, and stay current with all active offers.
“Many merchants are under the impression that publishers knowingly violate their advertising terms and conditions,” added Francis.
“Their first instinct is to remove them from the programme, which often comes at the expense of valuable revenue streams. We work to preserve advertiser revenue by rehabilitating publishers so they can come into compliance.”
As part of the terms of the deal, AdAssured will continue to provide a service to advertisers and publishers who aren’t on the Pepperjam books, while those that are claim the added value of account programme management and full-stack compliancy solutions.
Sure to strike a chord with those concerned that affiliate industry is at risk of losing ground to a resurgence in ethically questionable tactics, Jones concludes: “Not only do we have the tools to generate tremendous revenue, but now we are able to protect brand integrity at the highest level currently possible.”
