Nielsen’s latest buy is a research firm

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: The Nielsen Co is making another acquisition in a deal that underlines the growing interest in gauging how well advertising works—or fails to work.

Nielsen said that it had agreed to acquire IAG Research in New York for $225 million in cash. IAG Research, which had revenue last year estimated at more than $35 million, measures the effectiveness of advertising on television and online for marketers and networks.

IAG, which was founded in 2000, will operate as a unit of Nielsen, the chief executive officer of IAG, Alan Gould, said. The estimated 300 employees of IAG, most of whom work in Los Angeles and New York, will join Nielsen.

“Everything stays the same,” Gould said.

“The only difference is we’re going to have access to more data, which for us was a huge selling point.”

Other recent Nielsen acquisitions include Telephia, which focuses on mobile marketing, as well as a stake in NeuroFocus, which specialises in consumer research that uses methods like scanning brain waves.

IAG will serve as “the cornerstone for a new analytics practice” at Nielsen, David L Calhoun, chairman and chief executive officer at Nielsen, said in a statement.

The data IAG Research gathers includes information about how much viewers like and how much do they recall the television commercials.

Among the marketers that have hired IAG are blue-chip names like Chrysler, Ford Motor Co, General Motors, Procter & Gamble, Verizon and Visa.

IAG Research also works with broadcast and the cable television networks.