Dentsu Aegis has snapped up the US-based performance marketing firm Leapfrog Online to become part of its agency iProspect.

Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, but Dentsu claims the 150-strong Leapfrog generated between $30 million to $40 million in revenue last year, owed to its proprietary marketing conversion technology which leverages companies’ existing data to grow market share, acquire customers and deliver sales.

Following the acquisition, the search and performance marketing specialist iProspect will onboard this technology, “sharpening its ability to deliver real-time, personalised consumer experiences throughout the entire path to purchase”, according to Dentsu.

Personalised landing pages

Talking to the Wall Street Journal, iProspect’s US president Jeremy Cornfeldt said the technology will make it possible to customise what a user sees on a brand’s a landing page. While iProspect can currently personalise ads based on data gathered from online search, it hasn’t yet been able to meet this ability.

“We’re typically working with media dollars for paid search, social and display, and we’re doing SEO work. Now, we’re actually creating experiences that represent [a client’s] brand and build that relationship with the consumer,” commented Cornfeldt.

The result of the partnership is that two users searching for a hotel in Times Square that click on the same link, for example, could now see different, personalised landing pages based on their consumer profile.

Growth in performance

Leapfrog represents the third buyout from iProspect in the last few years, including the content marketing agency Covario and Chinese digital performance agency Darwin Marketing. For Dentsu as a whole, that number sits at 45 in 2016 alone, including a majority stake in performance marketing agency Merkle.

It’s within agencies like iProspect and Merkle, said Dentsu’s US CEO Rob Horler, that growth “far outstrips the growth in other parts of our business”, with both agencies reportedly growing globally in excess of 15% last year.

“You’re not getting double-digit growth in traditional media and/or traditional creative,” added Horler; “Performance and data-driven marketing is growing much faster.”