Snapchat bought a company to help advertisers track people in the real world

Snapchat maker Snap Inc. has acquired Placed, a six-year-old company that helps advertisers track real-world purchases and store visits.

The acquisition comes as Snap has been ramping up its ad tracking capabilities with products that can measure foot traffic tied to in-app campaigns.

Placed will continue to operate independently in Seattle. All employees will report to founder and CEO David Shim, and Shim will report to Snap CSO Imran Khan, who runs its ad business.

Terms of the deal haven't been announced.

Placed called itself the leader in "location-based attribution" in a blog post announcing the acquisition on Monday, and noted that to date it has measured $500 million in advertising spend related to store visits.

"By partnering with Snap, we will do even more," Shim wrote. "Still working independently, Placed's goal continues to be the adoption of a common yardstick that can measure the offline effectiveness of advertising across multiple platforms and publishers."

This story is developing...