When I started Taboola more than a decade ago, we had one obsession, one conviction. We wanted to make the Open Web a thriving ecosystem, a place where journalism, publishers, and OEMs could flourish. A place where advertisers could succeed outside of the walled gardens, Search, and Social. I used to affectionately declare Taboola the “Robin Hood of the Open Web”.
We went after something called Native Advertising, mostly known as bottom of article feed. Not only were we able to generate more revenue from those ad placements than anything else, we also provided our publishers more than just a monetization – we wanted to help them drive audience and engagement as they battled the fight for users’ attention with the walled gardens. Some of my best friends are Chief Editors, not only Chief Revenue.
Advertisers found what they needed in us too: outcomes that drove their businesses forward. Unlike social platforms where people often present curated versions of themselves, a sort of “who they wish they were”, the Open Web reveals genuine interests, a real curiosity of humanity based on what actions they take when they care about a topic. This authenticity gave advertisers an unmatched advantage.
We did a good job. We built something thousands of publishers and advertisers use. They rely on us, and we rely on them. This relationship has been a first of its kind Win-Win partnership, where we grow only if our partners grow.
As the advertising landscape continued to evolve in a very exciting way, with companies like Amazon, Netflix, Uber and others operating as their own advertising platforms, we evolved too. Taboola has become a trusted partner for some of the world’s most iconic companies – brands I never imagined we’d collaborate with, like Apple, Yahoo, and more.
Through this journey, I learned that being first is irrelevant. What’s important is being the best – execution was innovation. We were not the first in Native, but became the biggest. Same way Google wasn’t first, and Meta wasn’t first. Most of our success was driven by our Taboolars, our 2,000 employees bringing so much passion, proving to us and the industry that you can copy anything, but you can’t copy a group of people working together, executing and caring about their partners, clients and colleagues.
Advertisers and publishers wanted more from us. Native wasn’t enough.
Advertisers spend $25B annually on publishers and apps, trying to grow their businesses, but face significant challenges in today’s digital advertising landscape. These challenges include:
- DSPs Shifting Focus To CTV, Not Performance Advertising: Many Demand-Side Platforms (DSPs) have transitioned into primarily Connected TV (CTV) companies, focusing on branding through video ads on large screens rather than delivering “Meta-like” performance advertising results. Nobody is scanning a barcode when watching a TV ad to open a bank account, that’s not happening. CTV is great for branding, which is an important pillar for advertisers, it just has nothing to do with performance advertising (mid-low funnel).
- Complicated AdTech Landscape: Hundreds of AdTech companies exist globally, making it difficult for advertisers to understand and effectively utilize the best solutions for their needs. The vast majority of advertisers will not take the time to be educated on Ad-Tech (sad, but true), including Native Advertising. They want scale, outcomes wherever they can get it (bottom of article, homepage, OEMs, etc.), and they want amazing service.
In addition, most advertisers are experiencing diminishing returns even with established channels like social media. This is attributed mainly to audience fatigue, leading to rising costs and decreased effectiveness over time. The experience advertisers share is that, at first, the performance is great, as in meeting their acquisition and growth targets, but as they scale, there is “wasted budget” due to fatigue of reaching the same audience. In fact, our research indicates that advertisers spend approximately ~$30B on social platforms – despite experiencing diminishing returns.
Publishers are frustrated too. Bottom of article native advertising is a good business, but it’s not enough for them to double and triple their business. Mainly because most of their revenue is now programmatic, and it is in fast decline. I’ve spoken with many of our publishers, they believe performance budgets have faded away. Google is motivated to put their performance budgets on their own sites, not on publishers’ sites, and DSPs over time have become more of a CTV play, which contributes little to the open web as we know it.
I just came back from spending time with our EMEA team, and shared how inspiring I find the origin story of Amazon. In 1994, Amazon started selling books online. By 2000, they decided to expand from books to all eCommerce. In talking to dozens of our advertisers and publishers, I feel like right now, we’re having our “Amazon moment”. We did a great job with native advertising, but it’s time to go beyond, to go after the entire performance advertising market.
We see a massive opportunity to bridge the gap. Advertisers don’t just want native—they want scale, outcomes, and results wherever they can find them. Introducing Realize.
No Empty “Full Funnel” Promises. Introducing Realize: Outcomes at Scale Beyond Search and Social
We’ve done what the best startups do: we chose a niche market, we went for it, and we captured it. Now, we’re ready for more—more for our clients, our partners, and ourselves. Our reputation as a performance company is well-established, with data, technology, and supply that consistently deliver results.
Advertisers and publishers need a friend and partner. They need Taboola because Search and Social aren’t enough. The landscape outside of these platforms is fragmented, and there’s a pressing need for a single performance company that does it all.
While branding and performance are both valuable for effective marketing , marketers need specialized tools. There is no such thing as a “Full Funnel” solution, that is a myth, in practice no platform can be the best choice for both branding, and performance. We’re focused, we know what the market needs, and that’s what we’re going to deliver.
Realize is here to empower businesses to grow through performance advertising technology that delivers measurable outcomes. It’s the only independent performance platform that goes beyond Search and Social, delivering outcomes at scale using our unique supply (no more just native/bottom-of-article), unique 1st party data, use of any creative they already have (display, vertical video, social creative), and the best AI in the industry – from Abby, to Max Conversion, and more to come.
Publishers win with Realize because we’re going to expand beyond the bottom of article feed, we will be bringing A LOT of performance budgets back into programmatic. We’re also doubling down on our AI suite to help publishers battle the “GenAI” scare, and drive audience and engagement to their site.
A Whole New Taboola
Today, we’re expanding beyond the native advertising market we grew up in and helped create, venturing into the entire performance landscape beyond Search and Social – with Realize. Redefining our dreams.
I feel fortunate to have the support of thousands of advertisers, publishers, and OEMs around the world, and to be surrounded by 2,000 Taboolars—co-founders in my mind—whose passion, energy, and conviction fuel our journey.
This is the new Taboola.
