'Taboola To Sell Ads For Apple' - Axios

Author: Benzinga Newsdesk | July 16, 2024 10:24am

https://www.axios.com/2024/07/16/taboola-apple-news-deal

Ad tech giant Taboola has struck a deal with Apple to power native advertising within the Apple News and Apple Stocks apps, Taboola founder and CEO Adam Singolda told Axios.

Why it matters: The deal provides new validation for Taboola's business, which has ballooned to over $1.4 billion in annual revenue as of 2023.

• Taboola's effort to build trust with Apple across its various teams and stakeholders was "a multiyear process,'" Singolda said.

Between the lines: The deal is also a recognition from Apple that growing its ad business will require a serious sales operation — one that, if Apple doesn't build internally, will need to be outsourced.

• Marketing analytics company eMarketer estimates that Apple's worldwide ad revenues will total $10.34 billion this year.
• Apple doesn't disclose how many people use its apps but said last year that it sold more than 1 billion subscriptions to its paid apps, which includes Apple News and Apple Stocks.

How it works: As an authorized advertising reseller for Apple News and Apple Stocks, Taboola will power native advertising placements within those two apps in every market available.

• Both apps are accessible in the U.S., U.K., Canada and Australia and are built in on every iPhone, iPad and Mac.
• Taboola can sell ads within the main feeds and articles for select publishers across both apps.

Catch up quick: Most people know Taboola as the company responsible for placing chumbox ads at the bottom of many news stories online.

• But for Apple, Taboola's massive scale, global footprint, and direct relationships with publishers and advertisers make it a logical partner.
• Taboola works with more than 9,000 publishing partners to sell native ad space across their properties to more than 18,000 advertisers globally.
• Most of those client relationships are direct, which makes it easier for Taboola's team of more than 100 ad moderators to establish certain levels of control around which advertisers it will sell through to Apple apps, Singolda said.
• The company already does this kind of quality control for its clients on the open web. It recently introduced a program called Taboola Select that gives large advertisers access to inventory from a curated set of premium publishers.

Flashback: This isn't the first time Apple has worked with a third party on ad sales. Before working with Taboola, Apple had an exclusive deal with NBCUniversal to sell ads for Apple Stocks and Apple News.

 

• According to Apple's vendor site, NBCU still sells ads for both apps in the U.S. and U.K., but it is not an authorized reseller in Australia and Canada.

The big picture: Deals like these are becoming more common as the advertising industry, which is approaching $1 trillion in global spend, expands and attracts new entrants.

• Taboola, for example, struck a 30-year native advertising deal with Yahoo late last year. Yahoo last month announced a deal with grocery giant Kroger to place ads from its platform on Kroger's retail media network.
• Instacart is teaming up with YouTube to power its shoppable ads feature. Uber is working with T-Mobile's advertising unit. CNET has partnered with Best Buy. Albertsons' media arm is working with commerce ad tech giant Criteo. Lowe's is working with Google.

What to watch: More large companies with direct consumer relationships, such as banks, retailers and delivery companies, are building advertising businesses to make their services more affordable and widely available.

• Singolda is hoping to bring Taboola's advertising sales solution to more big companies that have the eyeballs to sell ads but lack the tech and sales expertise.
  • "I call this advertising in a box," he said.

Posted In: AAPL TBLA