WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif. — J.D. Power, a business unit of McGraw Hill Financial, today announced the acquisition of Korrelate, an Orlando-based company that measures consumers’ online behaviors and links them to offline sales activity.

Korrelate’s unique method of matching anonymous online behaviors combined with new- and used-vehicle data collected by J.D. Power’s Power Information Network (PIN) will enable a unique level of timeliness, depth and transparency in measuring the effectiveness of digital marketing, according to officials. This capability allows J.D. Power to help automakers, dealers, third-party automotive websites and advertising agencies to quickly and accurately evaluate their websites and online marketing efforts. It will also help ad networks and online publishers accurately report the effectiveness of those online ads.

“We are delighted to add Korrelate and its cutting-edge capabilities to J.D. Power,” said Finbarr O’Neill, president of J.D. Power. “Consumer behavior is changing dramatically in today’s Internet-powered world. The auto industry spends billions of dollars annually on digital marketing. Measuring online activity and linking it to actual vehicle sales will enable marketers to measure and optimize their digital strategy.”

Using Korrelate’s insights on consumer online shopping behaviors and PIN data on actual new- and used-vehicle retail transactions, J.D. Power will be able to identify which websites and ad campaigns shoppers are exposed to before they buy their vehicle. By linking online shopping behaviors to actual retail sales, J.D. Power will be able to measure and enhance the effectiveness of automaker, dealer and third-party websites and ad campaigns.

“Offline sales measurement is the future of the automotive industry’s efforts to measure the success of online campaigns,” said Christian Kugel, vice president of consumer research and analytics at AOL, a Korrelate client. “This metric, combined with traditional key performance indicator (KPI) measurement, creates a more complete, 360-degree view of how to evaluate campaign success.

“J.D. Power’s acquisition of Korrelate is a smart move, and once again shows their commitment to bring scalable, accurate vehicle sales measurement to the forefront of digital automotive metrics. We look forward to working with J.D. Power to redefine how the automotive industry measures the success of online campaigns.”