Twitter buys keyword management firm AdGrok

Twitter has acquired keyword bid management platform AdGrok, the companies said May 31. AdGrok employees have joined Twitter's revenue engineering team, with plans to discontinue AdGrok's Google AdWords management product on June 30.

“When Twitter approached us and asked if we'd be interested in working on their monetization platform, we realized this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that we just couldn't pass up,” AdGrok said on its company blog. The company specializes in helping marketers manage their Google AdWords campaigns through keywords analysis tools.

AdGrok cofounder and CEO Antonio Garcia-Martinez will not join Twitter. He has instead accepted a position at Facebook, according to media reports. AdGrok representatives did not immediately respond to a request seeking comment.

A Twitter representative said via email that AdGrok cofounders Argyris Zymnis and Matthew McEachen have joined the company's revenue engineering team.

Ryan Sarver, Twitter's director of platform, said in March that the social network plans to roll out Promoted Tweets to all users' timelines in the fourth quarter. He added that Twitter envisions Promoted Tweets as the equivalent of Google AdWords and plans to use various signals to target the advertisements to consumers.

Twitter is expected to generate $150 million in advertising revenue this year, up from $45 million in 2010, according to eMarketer.