Taboola Expands Beyond Native Ads with Realize, New Technology Platform Allows Taboola to Serve the Entire Performance Advertising Market, Delivering Outcomes at Scale Beyond Search and Social; Customers Include Babbel, eToro and More

Rhea-AI Summary

Taboola has unveiled Realize, a groundbreaking technology platform expanding beyond native advertising to serve the entire performance advertising market. The platform aims to address an estimated $55B market opportunity, targeting $25B currently spent on DSPs and niche AdTech solutions, plus nearly $30B suffering from diminishing returns on social media.

Realize offers three key components:

• New Supply: Extends beyond 'bottom of article' native ads to display advertising across publisher networks including NBC News, Yahoo, Xiaomi and Samsung
• AI and Data Advantage: Leverages unique code-on-page integrations with publishers for optimized ad placement
• Creative Freedom: Enables advertisers to use existing social media and display assets across premium placements

Major clients already utilizing the platform include Babbel and eToro, with the solution specifically targeting advertisers facing challenges with performance outcomes on traditional channels.

Positive

• Expansion into $55B performance advertising market opportunity
• New revenue streams beyond native advertising
• Partnerships with major publishers (NBC News, Yahoo, Xiaomi, Samsung)
• Notable client adoption (Babbel, eToro)
• AI-powered optimization capabilities

Negative

• Entering highly competitive market against established DSPs
• Potential execution risks in expanding beyond core native ad business
• Dependent on publisher partnerships for inventory access

Insights

Marketing Technology Analyst

Taboola's launch of Realize marks a strategic expansion beyond its native advertising roots into the broader performance advertising ecosystem. This move positions the company to compete for a significantly larger addressable market, estimated at $55 billion - targeting spend currently allocated to DSPs, niche AdTech solutions, and social platforms experiencing diminishing returns.

The Realize platform represents Taboola's bid to create an alternative performance channel beyond search and social by leveraging three key assets:

• Expanded inventory access - Moving beyond bottom-of-article placements to include display and other premium positions across their publisher network (NBC News, Yahoo, Samsung, etc.)
• First-party data advantage - Utilizing on-page publisher integrations for unique signals that power their AI optimization engine
• Creative flexibility - Enabling advertisers to repurpose existing social and display creative assets

CEO Adam Singolda frames this as Taboola's "Amazon moment" - a strategic inflection point similar to how Amazon leveraged books to eventually dominate e-commerce. The comparison suggests Taboola views native advertising as merely their entry point into a much larger opportunity.

This expansion addresses several market pain points: the challenge of achieving performance outcomes through DSPs (which excel at branding but struggle with direct response), the fragmentation of working with multiple niche AdTech providers, and the 75% of performance advertisers reporting diminishing returns on social platforms due to audience saturation and rising costs.

For publishers in Taboola's network, this expansion potentially means higher yield through access to performance budgets previously unavailable to them. For advertisers like Babbel and eToro (highlighted as early adopters), it promises a scaled alternative to increasingly expensive and saturated social channels.

The strategic shift positions Taboola more directly against Google and Meta's performance advertising businesses while differentiating from DSPs like The Trade Desk. However, success will depend on whether Taboola can deliver comparable performance to these entrenched platforms despite lacking the same level of user identity data and targeting capabilities.

NEW YORK, Feb. 26, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Taboola, a global leader in delivering performance at scale for advertisers, today announced a new focus beyond native advertising and a powerful new technology platform called Realize.

Taboola has pioneered native advertising for more than a decade, driving success for advertisers, primarily in bottom of article placements. Today, Taboola extends far beyond this legacy with the introduction of Realize, an industry-first platform that specializes only in performance outcomes at scale beyond search and social.

Realize taps into Taboola’s unique data, performance AI, and an increasingly diverse range of inventory and creative formats to achieve performance objectives. While advertisers need great solutions for all parts of the marketing funnel, they need specialized solutions. Existing solutions that promise full funnel service face significant challenges to excel in each part of the marketing funnel. As of today, Taboola is opening Realize for all advertisers focused on performance.

Taboola estimates that advertisers spend $25B a year attempting to achieve performance outcomes on DSPs and niche AdTech solutions, yet in many cases these channels lack the performance expertise, scale or data to get the results advertisers need. DSPs tend to focus on video and CTV, which is great for branding goals but not performance, while AdTech companies tend to lack enough scale for success. Taboola estimates there is nearly $30B of spend suffering from diminishing returns on social media as well. In addition, 75% of performance advertisers spending on social say they are dealing with diminishing returns and are looking for solutions, due to audience saturation, rising costs and ad fatigue. In total, Taboola estimates that a majority of this $55B being spent on performance advertising is not providing the ROI it could be.

Realize is the only independent performance platform that goes beyond search and social media and delivers outcomes at scale for advertisers, leveraging Taboola’s unique supply, first party data and AI technology. It delivers simplicity and efficiency for advertisers to run performance-based campaigns on many of the world’s largest and most trusted publishers across all ad inventory, OEMs and apps.

Key components of Realize include:

• New Supply: Going Beyond “Bottom of Article” Native
  For the first time ever, Realize allows advertisers to tap into display and even more parts of Taboola’s large network of publishers, apps and OEMs which include NBC News, Yahoo, Xiaomi and Samsung. Taboola advertisers can now go beyond native ad placements to connect with relevant customers in high visibility locations on many of the world’s most trusted publishers and apps to drive performance.
  
• AI and Data Advantage: Driving Measurable Results at Scale
  Realize is powered by an AI performance engine that finds the best opportunities for campaigns across Taboola’s network of trusted publishers and apps. This AI performance engine is powered by the unique data advantage of Taboola’s code-on-page integrations with publishers, giving it signal unlike any other open web platform to use when optimizing and placing ads.
  
• Creative Freedom: Getting Started Faster with Social, Display, Vertical Videos
  Realize provides an intuitive experience for performance advertisers, allowing them to now reach their customer acquisition goals with the same creative assets they use on display or social media campaigns. It transforms existing assets into high-performing ads across premium placements on leading publishers and apps, instantly.
  

“Every business deserves a chance to grow and succeed,” said Adam Singolda, CEO at Taboola. “Performance advertising beyond search and social media has been far too difficult for too long, however. Advertisers have settled on search and social media simply because there has been no viable alternative. Spending money with DSPs and CTV is great for branding but not optimized to drive performance, and running display with hundreds of advertising tech companies at low scale is simply not worth marketers’ time. Amazon started in 1994 and did a great job winning the book business by 2000, which allowed them to go into owning all of e-commerce. This is our “Amazon moment.” After many years of success with native ads, it's time to go after all of performance advertising. We can do a lot more for advertisers, and a lot more for publishers. Today is an exciting day for me and us at Taboola.”

Supporting quotes
“Taboola’s new technology platform, Realize, expands the potential for success with our performance marketing. Realize provides more options to connect with customers in engaging and prominent ways through a vast network of trusted publishers globally. We expect Realize will greatly benefit our advertising reach and ROI, and we’re excited to use it,” said Julie Hansen, CRO & US CEO at Babbel.

"Taboola has been a longstanding partner for eToro, providing the technology and team that has helped us excel in reaching customers. Taboola's new Realize technology platform helps us go even further, driving success for our performance-focused campaigns and helping us to achieve our customer acquisition goals. We look forward to continuing to grow using Taboola and Realize," said Nir Szmulewicz, CMO, eToro.

“We praise Taboola’s end-to-end approach to ensuring performance advertising success,” says Jeff Ratner, President Media, Data, Analytics at Quigley-Simpson. “We have worked with Taboola for many years and they have shown the technology and expertise needed for driving true ROI for our campaigns. Realize shows promise for going even further, bringing the best of all worlds–AI that works to find us the best outcomes, audiences that are uniquely engaged, and placements that are highly visible that live on trusted publishers.”

“For a media agency that has always been on the cutting edge of performance marketing, as we are at EVERSANA media, I could not be more excited to leverage Taboola’s new performance platform, Realize, which brings to life end-to-end performance campaigns. With Realize, you have the marriage of both audience engagement and scale, along with outcome-driven AI. I think this type of strategic pivot into performance is going to yield major dividends for Taboola and its clients,” says Justin Chase, EVP, Media at Eversana.

About Taboola
Taboola empowers businesses to grow through performance advertising technology that goes beyond search and social and delivers measurable outcomes at scale.

Taboola works with thousands of businesses who advertise directly on Realize, Taboola’s powerful ad platform, reaching approximately 600M daily active users across some of the best publishers in the world. Publishers like NBC News, Yahoo, and OEMs such as Samsung, Xiaomi and others use Taboola’s technology to grow audience and revenue, enabling Realize to offer unique data, specialized algorithms, and unmatched scale.

Disclaimer – Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements in this press release are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements generally relate to future events, including Taboola.com Ltd.’s (the “Company’s”) new focus beyond native advertising and its expectations for Realize, its new performance advertising technology platform, and by implication the potential future financial and operating performance of the Company.

Such forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties, and other factors which could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based upon estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable by the Company and its management, are inherently uncertain. Uncertainties and risk factors that could affect the Company’s future performance and cause results to differ from the forward-looking statements in or implied by this press release include, but are not limited to: the recent introduction of Realize, which has not yet been subject to extensive third-party market testing or utilization; the degree to which, or whether, Realize can achieve its intended performance objectives and attract, retain and grow advertisers and advertising spending; timing and levels of market acceptance; implementation costs for the new platform; risks relating to the timing and amount of financial contributions from Realize, which could be negative especially during the roll-out period, which could be protracted; the new platform's ability to deliver outcomes at scale; impacts of user experience, advertiser platform utilization and spending; impact from competitors that have or are perceived to have superior solutions now or in the future; and other risks and uncertainties set forth in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2024 under Part 1, Item 1A “Risk Factors” and the Company’s subsequent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Contact
Dave Struzzi
Dave.s@taboola.com

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/fd2d7546-1b67-4f4f-bf27-0a5a18210c8f

FAQ

What is Taboola's new Realize platform and how does it differ from their previous offerings?

Realize is Taboola's new technology platform that expands beyond native advertising to serve display ads and other formats across premium publishers, powered by AI-driven performance optimization.

How large is the market opportunity Taboola (TBLA) is targeting with Realize?

Taboola estimates a $55B market opportunity, comprising $25B spent on DSPs and AdTech solutions, plus $30B in social media spending facing diminishing returns.

Which major publishers and brands are partnering with Taboola's Realize platform?

Realize partners include major publishers like NBC News, Yahoo, Xiaomi, and Samsung, with advertisers such as Babbel and eToro already using the platform.

What are the key features of Taboola's Realize platform for advertisers?

Realize offers expanded ad inventory beyond native placements, AI-powered performance optimization, and the ability to use existing social media creative assets across premium publisher placements.

Why are advertisers shifting from social media to platforms like Taboola's Realize?

75% of performance advertisers on social media report diminishing returns due to audience saturation, rising costs, and ad fatigue, making them seek alternative solutions.