Google on Monday said it has picked up online advertising startup Teracent.

San Mateo, California, Teracent promises online advertisers greater returns on display ads, a category that has struggled to show gains compared with other advertisement forms. The company develops machine-learning algorithms that can instantly build ads using thousands of different art elements.

"We think that this technology has great potential to improve display advertising on the web," said a Google blog post.

Mountain View, California-based Google said it plans to fold the service into options available to display advertising clients using its Google Content Network and DoubleClick.

Teracent has raised $5.8 million from New Enterprise Associates and others.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Google three weeks ago snagged mobile-advertising network AdMob for $750 million.