Taboola launches performance marketing platform Realize to expand beyond native ads

Get wise, it’s time you Realize!

In AdTech news and a significant shift for digital advertising, Taboola is expanding beyond its native advertising roots with Realize, a performance marketing platform designed to challenge the dominance of search and social media advertising channels. The move comes as advertisers face diminishing returns on social media platforms, with Taboola estimating that $55 billion in performance advertising spending could be delivering better ROI through alternative channels.

The big picture: Taboola’s new Realize platform aims to capture a share of the $25 billion performance marketing spend currently directed to DSPs and niche AdTech solutions.

• The company sees an opportunity to serve advertisers struggling with diminishing returns on social media, where 75% report challenges with audience saturation and rising costs.
• Realize leverages Taboola’s first-party data and AI technology across major publishers, OEMs, and apps.

Key details: The platform specializes exclusively in performance outcomes at scale beyond traditional search and social channels.

• Realize integrates with trusted publishers across all ad inventory types.
• The platform aims to simplify campaign management for performance-based advertising.

Behind the numbers: Taboola identifies nearly $30 billion in social media spending suffering from diminishing returns.

• This challenge stems from audience saturation, increasing costs, and ad fatigue on social platforms.
• The company estimates most of the $55 billion spent on performance advertising is underperforming.

What they’re saying: “Performance advertising beyond search and social media has been far too difficult for too long,” says Taboola CEO Adam Singolda.

• Singolda compares this moment to Amazon‘s expansion beyond books in 2000, calling it Taboola’s “Amazon moment.”
• He emphasizes that while DSPs and CTV excel at branding, they’re not optimized for performance metrics.

Why this matters: The launch represents a strategic pivot for Taboola, moving beyond its decade-long focus on bottom-of-article native advertising to compete more broadly in the performance marketing space.