On a buying spree, Hootsuite adds analytics provider LiftMetrix

In its second acquisition announcement in two weeks, social media management platform Hootsuite said today that it has purchased social analytics provider LiftMetrix.

The Vancouver-based Hootsuite said the addition of New York City-based LiftMetrix will help social media marketers understand something they don’t currently: return on investment (ROI). The difficulty of measuring ROI has been a frequent complaint from marketers since the dawn of social marketing, since the impact can be diffuse and difficult to trace.

Hootsuite pointed to Duke University’s The CMO Survey, which showed that social media marketing budgets have increased 234 percent over the past seven years, but only about a fifth of marketers can demonstrate the specific impacts.

Deal terms were not made public.

LiftMetrix “offers a sophisticated, yet easy-to-use analytics solution that helps our customers make sense of data to maximize social marketing results,” Hootsuite CEO Ryan Holmes said in a statement accompanying the announcement.”

The two companies had previously worked together through Hootsuite’s ecosystem of partners and applications.

Hootsuite said that LiftMetrix adds a “sophisticated campaign analysis” across paid, owned and earned social media, a social-to-web conversion tracking, content recommendations and an integration with business intelligence tools.

Earlier this month, Hootsuite announced the acquisition of online ad tool AdEspresso, allowing it to offer on-platform management of Facebook and Instagram ads for the first time.

The two acquisitions beef up Hootsuite for a possible initial public offering, based on what it says is a user base of 10 million.