Ottawa-based digital consulting and innovation agency Soshal has launched Soshal Demand, an autonomous media agency within the company that aims to provide online campaigns that use data to go beyond click-through rates to measure consumers online.

Soshal’s business was previously centred around providing online strategy and planning services, as well as building and managing digital solutions like websites.

The new launch builds on one of its previously-used tools, looking at what happens online after the click-through. The agency is working to combine its data with campaign tracking tools like Marketo to show clients when and through what access point the customer was acquired, and use it to continue to optimize the campaign, Alexandra Reid, director of growth at Soshal Demand, tells MiC.

“Based on what we’ve heard from our clients, for a lot of their media partners, tracking typically ends at Google Analytics or numbers from the social channels,” says Reid. “We don’t want to stop at clicks and impressions, we want to follow it all the way through to actual customer acquisition.”

For now, Soshal Demand is being run entirely by Reid, who was formerly Soshal’s marketing manager, and director of strategy Marissa Gagnier, the company’s former digital strategist. The pair’s new positions came into effect yesterday with the agency’s launch and they have already begun an onboarding process within Soshal, which currently employs about 20 people, to bring more team members on board. The team will work out of Soshal’s Ottawa headquarters, though internal hiring will draw from the company’s Toronto office as well.

Though Reid and Gagnier will answer to Soshal’s CEO Dave Hale and president Phil Sonea, Soshal Demand will operate autonomously, with its own clients, performance and financial goals.

Soshal Demand’s current clients include Bullfrog, Algonquin College and Temple Street Productions. Looking ahead, Reid says the agency is focused on working with independently employed clients in professional services such lawyers and accountants, as well as building off of Soshal’s current relationships with business-to-business technology companies and higher education institutions.