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Most advertisers see AI gains only in walled gardens, Taboola study finds

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By Luis Rijo

Taboola survey of 200 senior marketers finds 76% see meaningful performance gains from agentic AI tools, but only within search and social, not the open web.

Bar chart showing AI campaign adoption: Performance Max and Advantage+ at 98%, open web at 80%.

Taboola this week published a survey report showing that 76% of senior performance marketers are seeing meaningful improvements from agentic AI campaign tools, yet the benefits remain concentrated almost entirely within search and social platforms. The report, titled “The Agentic Advantage in Performance Marketing: Securing Incremental Growth Beyond Search and Social,” was conducted in March 2026 across 200 marketing leaders in the United States and United Kingdom and released in May 2026 by Realize, Taboola’s advertiser platform.

The findings land alongside the beta rollout of Realize+, Taboola’s agentic campaign system for the open web that the company launched on April 23, 2026. Taken together, the survey and the product signal how the company is trying to shift budget away from walled gardens by making the argument that the automation advertisers already rely on in Google and Meta can be replicated outside those platforms.

Who was surveyed and how

The study was administered online by Global Surveyz Research, an independent global research firm, with respondents recruited through a B2B research panel and invited via email. All 200 participants hold roles ranging from Senior Manager to VP and are responsible for performance strategy and execution at their organizations. Companies represented span the eCommerce, Banking and Financial Services, Automotive, and Health and Pharma sectors, split evenly 50-50 between the US and UK. Organization size leans large: 41% employ 1,000 to 4,999 people, 43% employ 5,000 to 9,999, and 16% employ 10,000 or more. Monthly marketing budgets start at $300,000 and range up to $5 million or more. The average survey completion time was 6 minutes and 6 seconds.

Responses to most non-numerical questions were randomized to prevent order bias. The survey was conducted entirely in March 2026.

AI adoption is a two-platform market

At-scale adoption of AI-powered campaign solutions is concentrated almost entirely on Google and Meta. According to the Realize report, 91% of respondents currently use Google’s Performance Max at scale, with a further 7% testing or piloting it – meaning 98% of the sample is actively engaged with the product. Meta’s Advantage+ shows almost identical numbers, with 88% using it at scale and 10% in testing, for a combined engagement rate of 98%.

TikTok’s Smart+ occupies a different position. Current at-scale usage sits at just 9%, yet 73% of respondents are in active testing or piloting, suggesting broad exploratory interest that has not yet translated into full deployment. Open web campaign management solutions are used at scale by 36% of respondents, with a further 44% in the testing phase – an 80% total engagement rate that trails the two dominant platforms by a considerable margin.

The concentration matters. Performance Max and Advantage+ are not just the most-used tools; they are also the benchmarks against which all other solutions are judged. Both products use fully automated bidding, audience selection, and creative serving. The survey’s framing consistently positions them as the standard that the open web has not yet matched.

Three-quarters report performance lift

Of the 200 respondents, all are currently measuring the performance impact of their best-performing platforms. According to the report, 76% are seeing meaningful improvements, with 29% reporting a significant lift and 47% reporting a moderate lift. A further 7% describe only a limited lift, 16% say it is too early to determine, and just 1% see no impact. Zero respondents said they are not measuring at all.

The strongest perceived benefit of these tools is real-time CPA/ROAS optimization, cited as the top value driver by 41% of respondents. Saving time and operational efficiency comes second at 14%, followed by improved budget allocation across channels at 11%. Greater ability to drive incremental performance ranks fourth at 10%. Automated creative generation and testing, and improved audience targeting and segmentation, each score 6%.

The ranking reflects a market where performance advertising is primarily evaluated in revenue terms. CPA and ROAS are the dominant success metrics, and solutions that directly optimize toward them carry more weight than those offering operational or creative benefits alone.

Budgets remain locked in search and social

Despite broad satisfaction with AI tools in search and social, budget allocation has not moved significantly toward newer channels. According to the report, 74% of respondents allocate more than 25% of their total budget to paid search, against an average allocation of 22% of total budget. Paid social sees significant investment from 67%, with an average share of 21%.

The open web occupies a moderate position: 63% fund it at a moderate level (10-25% of budget), while only 4% give it significant investment above 25%. Average allocation sits at 13%. Retail Media Networks attract mostly minimal spend from 56% of respondents, with an average of 9%. Connected TV is split between moderate (50%) and minimal (35%) investment, averaging 12%. Affiliate and Partner Networks receive primarily minimal investment from 64% of respondents, averaging 8%.

The pattern reflects a structural gap. The open web reaches a large audience – Taboola’s own platform touches approximately 600 million daily active users across properties including NBC News, Yahoo, and Samsung devices – yet it captures a fraction of the budget that search and social command. According to the report, the explanation is technical rather than strategic: the open web has yet to match the automation sophistication available in search and social, which offer advertisers more advanced tool options and more attractive CPA and ROAS outcomes.

This budget concentration is not a new observation. As PPC Land has tracked, Taboola began addressing the open web’s automation deficit by expanding the Realize platform in October 2025 with deepened partnerships with TIME, Weather Channel Digital, Gannett, Nexstar, and Slate, followed by the launch of Predictive Audiences in June 2025, which delivered conversion improvements of up to 270% for early adopters.

Workflow integration is the dominant adoption barrier

The biggest internal obstacle to broader agentic AI adoption is not scepticism about performance outcomes. According to the report, 54% of respondents cite difficulty integrating these solutions into existing workflows as the single largest barrier. That figure dwarfs all other options: lack of team knowledge or expertise scores 12%, uncertainty about which technology or vendor to choose scores 9%, and budget constraints rank fourth at 6%.

The challenge grows sharply with budget size. Among companies spending $300,000 to $499,000 per month, only 9% identify workflow integration as the primary barrier. That figure rises to 38% among $500,000 to $999,000 per month spenders. Among the largest two segments – $1 million to $4.9 million per month and $5 million or more per month – it reaches 74% and 68% respectively. The companies that have invested most heavily in existing platforms are the ones finding it hardest to add a new layer of automation on top.

This creates a specific challenge for the open web. Large advertisers, who would generate the most revenue for platforms like Realize, are precisely those with the most entrenched workflows and the highest integration costs. The transition from manual campaign management to agentic systems requires changes to reporting infrastructure, attribution models, and organizational processes that small budgets can absorb more easily than large ones.

82% see potential, few have scaled

When asked about their organizational stance on AI-powered goal-based buying on the open web, 82% of respondents indicate they see meaningful growth potential. The distribution within that 82% is revealing. According to the report, 46% describe it as a high-potential opportunity they have not yet scaled, 19% say they believe in it but are holding back, and only 17% describe it as a proven growth driver at scale. On the sceptical side, 15% question its incremental impact, 2% say they do not believe it drives meaningful results, and 1% have not seriously evaluated it.

The gap between perceived potential and actual deployment is large. The dominant stance is one of cautious optimism – recognizing the opportunity while lacking either the tools or the confidence to act on it fully. According to the report, many of those holding back are not doing so out of caution but because a suitable solution does not yet exist at the technical level they require.

Open web barriers are operational, not philosophical

The factors limiting further open web investment point squarely at operational complexity and measurement gaps. According to the report, 74% of respondents cite too many vendors or the complexity of managing multiple partners as a limiting factor. Lack of unified attribution and measurement ranks close behind at 71%. Brand safety concerns are cited by 54%. Insufficient resources to manage additional channels scores 42%.

Strategic scepticism is rare. Only 7% say they have not seriously considered diverting budgets to the open web, 5% say they do not believe they can reach incremental users, and just 2% say they do not believe incremental performance is achievable. Only 5% report no significant barriers at all.

The data draws a clear line: advertisers broadly believe the open web can deliver performance, but fragmentation and measurement complexity make it operationally harder than staying within walled gardens. This is directly relevant to the investment case for platforms like Realize. The argument is not that advertisers need convincing about the open web’s audience quality; it is that they need a simpler operational layer to access it.

81% would increase open web investment if automation matched search and social

The study’s most direct finding on the market opportunity is this: 81% of respondents agree they would increase open web investment if it offered agentic AI-powered campaign solutions comparable to what they use in search and social. Broken down, 49% strongly agree and 32% somewhat agree. Only 11% disagree, and 8% are neutral.

The intensity of agreement scales with seniority and spend. Among VPs, 67% strongly agree – compared to 46% of Directors and 35% of Senior Managers. The pattern by budget is steeper still: only 3% of organizations spending $300,000 to $499,000 per month strongly agree, rising to 21% among $500,000 to $999,000 per month spenders, 67% among $1 million to $4.9 million per month, and 74% among those spending $5 million or more. The largest advertisers are the most enthusiastic about automation reducing operational complexity.

Expected budget reallocation averages 24%

If agentic AI solutions existed for the open web, virtually all respondents (99%) say they would allocate some share of their performance marketing budget to it. The average expected allocation is 24%. Half of respondents cluster in the 11-25% range, while 37% would allocate 26-50%. Only 11% would allocate up to 10%, 2% would allocate more than 50%, and 1% would allocate nothing.

The gap between current and anticipated significant open web investment tells the story clearly. Just 4% of respondents currently invest more than 25% of their performance budget in the open web. At least 39% say they would invest 26% or more if agentic AI solutions were available for it. That would not make the open web the dominant channel – the 24% average still trails paid search’s current 22% average allocation modestly – but it would represent a substantial shift in where performance dollars flow.

Why this matters for the marketing industry

The survey’s findings carry direct implications for how performance marketing budgets may evolve. At present, the industry’s agentic AI story is largely a Google and Meta story. As PPC Land has reported, Google’s Performance Max serves over one million advertisers and has received more than 90 quality improvements over the past year, including expanded automation tools, AI-generated creative features, and channel performance reporting. Meta’s Advantage+ demonstrated 22% average ROAS improvements through 2025.

The pressure that dynamic creates on other channels is real. If 74% of performance budgets flow to paid search and social, and those platforms continue improving their automation while the open web remains fragmented, the gap risks widening rather than closing. The survey suggests the market is aware of this dynamic and is looking for a way through it. Whether platforms like Realize can provide the automation layer that unlocks the 81% willing to increase open web investment is a product and execution question as much as a market one.

The Taboola survey also lands as the company reported Q1 2026 revenue of $466.4 million, a 9.1% year-on-year increase. Realize+ is built on two core technical components. The first is the Decision Engine, which includes a Budget Allocator that automatically moves spend toward the highest-performing campaigns in real time. The second is the Element Generator, which creates and continuously updates ads and targeting parameters without manual input. The architecture is explicitly designed to replicate the autonomy of Performance Max and Advantage+ on open web inventory – without the owned-and-operated bias critics of walled garden systems have raised repeatedly.

Adam Singolda, CEO of Taboola, addressed the core market demand in the press release accompanying the report: “Advertisers of all sizes are leaning into agentic advertising, and the results are following. Our research shows a clear demand for advertisers that want the same ‘always-on,’ AI-driven performance they see in walled gardens applied to the open web. They are looking for autonomous systems that learn continuously, pivot in real time, and turn every impression into a measurable outcome.”

The survey frames this not as a niche demand but as a near-universal one. Three-quarters of all respondents rate finding a performance channel that delivers incremental outcomes beyond search and social as very or extremely important. Among VPs, that figure climbs to 53% rating it extremely important alone. Among those spending $5 million or more per month, 70% call it extremely important – the single largest concentration of urgency in the entire dataset. The combination of high stated demand, measurable performance gaps, and specific operational barriers provides the clearest public data picture yet of where performance marketing budgets might go if the automation gap between walled gardens and the open web can be closed.

Timeline

  • April 2024 – Taboola launches Taboola Select, a curated premium publisher package for large advertisers with access to a vetted subset of 15% of top US publishers.
  • June 2025 – Taboola announces full commercial launch of Predictive Audiences on its Realize platform, reporting conversion improvements up to 270% for early adopters including The Motley Fool, QuinStreet, and NerdWallet.
  • October 15, 2025 – Taboola expands the Realize platform with deepened publisher partnerships including TIME, Weather Channel Digital, Gannett, Nexstar, and Slate, adding display inventory to a historically native-focused network.
  • October 22, 2025 – Taboola and Paramount Advertising announce Performance Multiplier, connecting CTV advertising to measurable open web performance outcomes via Realize.
  • December 3, 2025 – LG Ad Solutions and Taboola announce Performance Enhancer, combining LG’s ACR data with Realize to connect CTV exposure to digital conversions.
  • January 28, 2026 – Taboola publishes research with Columbia, Harvard, Technical University of Munich, and Carnegie Mellon showing AI-generated ads match human creative performance across 500 million impressions.
  • March 2026 – Global Surveyz Research conducts the survey underlying the “Agentic Advantage in Performance Marketing” report, polling 200 senior performance marketers in the US and UK.
  • April 23, 2026 – Taboola launches Realize+, an agentic AI system for open web performance campaigns built on a Decision Engine and Element Generator, alongside Claude Skills integration.
  • May 6, 2026 – Taboola reports Q1 2026 results: revenue $466.4 million, up 9.1% year-on-year, net income $59.1 million.
  • May 14, 2026 – Taboola and Realize publish “The Agentic Advantage in Performance Marketing” report based on the March 2026 survey of 200 senior marketers in the US and UK.

Summary

Who: Taboola (Nasdaq: TBLA), through its Realize advertiser platform, in partnership with Global Surveyz Research, surveyed 200 senior performance marketers – ranging from Senior Managers to VPs – at mid-to-large organizations in the United States and United Kingdom across eCommerce, Banking and Financial Services, Automotive, and Health and Pharma industries.

What: A research report titled “The Agentic Advantage in Performance Marketing: Securing Incremental Growth Beyond Search and Social” showing that 76% of performance marketers see meaningful performance gains from agentic AI tools like Google Performance Max and Meta Advantage+, yet gains are concentrated within walled gardens. The report also finds 81% would increase open web investment if comparable automation were available, with an average expected budget allocation of 24% to the open web under that scenario.

When: The survey was conducted in March 2026 and the report was published on May 14, 2026.

Where: Respondents are based in the United States and United Kingdom, split evenly 50-50. The findings relate to global digital advertising markets and the structural divide between walled garden platforms and the open web.

Why: The research addresses a persistent structural imbalance in digital advertising, where the open web captures a fraction of performance budgets despite reaching a large share of user time. The primary barriers identified are not performance scepticism but operational complexity: workflow integration difficulties, fragmented vendor environments, and lack of unified attribution. The report was released alongside Taboola’s Realize+ beta, positioning the findings as a market-level argument for agentic AI automation on the open web.

 

By Luis Rijo

Sourced from PPC.Land

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Meta debuts generative AI features for advertisers

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By Sarah Perez

Meta announced it’s rolling out its first generative AI features for advertisers, allowing them to use AI to create backgrounds, expand images and generate multiple versions of ad text based on their original copy. The launch of the new tools follows the company’s Meta Connect event last week where the social media giant debuted its Quest 3 mixed-reality headset and a host of other generative AI products, including stickers and editing tools, as well as AI-powered smart glasses.

In the case of AI tools for the ad industry, the new products may not be as wild as the celebrity AIs that let you chat with virtual versions of people like MrBeast or Paris Hilton, but they showcase how Meta believes generative AI can assist the brands and businesses that are responsible for delivering the majority of Meta’s revenue.

The first among the trio of new features allows an advertiser to customize their creative assets by generating multiple different backgrounds to change the look of their product images. This is similar to the technology that Meta used to create the consumer-facing tool Backdrop, which allows users to change the scene or the background of their image by using prompts. However, in the ad toolkit, the backgrounds are generated for the advertiser based on their original product images and will tend to be “simple backgrounds with colours and patterns,” Meta explains. The feature is available to those advertisers using the company’s Advantage+ catalogue to create their sales ads.

Another feature, image expansion, allows advertisers to adjust their assets to fit different aspect ratios required across various products, like Feed or Reels, for example. Also available to Advantage+ creative in Meta’s Mads Manager, the AI feature would allow advertisers to spend less time repurposing their creative assets, including images and video, for different surfaces, Meta claims.

With the text variations feature in Meta Ads Manager, the AI can generate up to six different variations of text based on the advertiser’s original copy. These variations can highlight specific keywords and input phrases the advertiser wants to emphasize, and advertisers can edit the generated output or simply choose the best one or ones that fit their goals. During the campaign, Meta can also display different combinations of text to different people to see which ones drive better responses. However, Meta won’t showcase the performance details for each specific text variation, it says, as the reporting is currently based on a single ad. However, the more options the advertiser selects to run, the more opportunities they’ll have to improve their ad performance, Meta informs them.

Meta says it’s already tested these AI features with a small but diverse set of advertisers earlier this year, and their early results indicate that generative AI will save them five or more hours per week, or a total of one month per year. However, the company admits that there’s still work ahead to better customize the generative AI output to match each advertiser’s style.

In addition, Meta says there are more AI features to come, noting it’s working on new ways to generate ad copy to highlight selling points or generative backgrounds with tailored themes. Plus, as it announced at Meta Connect, businesses will be able to use AI for messaging on WhatsApp and Messenger to chat with customers for e-commerce, engagement and support.

Feature Image Credit: Meta

By Sarah Perez

Sourced from TechCrunch

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How is influencer marketing building advertisers’ trust?

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By Jessie Sampson

Trust between advertisers and consumers is the bedrock of effective advertising, not least when it comes to influencer marketing. The nature of influencers’ relationships with their followers means that transparency and authenticity are non-negotiable when it comes to communicating branded messages to their communities – and doing this successfully requires trusted partnerships between influencers and the advertisers they work with.

So, how are technological developments impacting the industry’s ability to deliver transparency? What does the growth of AI mean for authenticity in this space? And how is affiliate marketing helping to deliver a full-funnel view of influencer activations? Members of our Influencer Group share their views.

AI & influencer content

Melanie Kentish, managing partner, Gleam Futures: “As the influencer marketing industry matures with greater regulation and in-depth reporting, brands’ trust in the channel is building. Not only is the quality of content often as good as a brand’s own content, the production costs are a fraction of the price. But the most valuable asset of all is the trust fostered within influencers’ communities.

“However, the momentum at which AI is growing is startling and – now more than ever – it’s important that influencers are leading the way by turning their backs on beauty filters and holding their accounts to account to sustain that trust. Progressive advertisers will be casting authentic, filter free and diverse talent for their audiences to be truly represented. This in turn will do what’s right for both brands and society at large. It’s time to do better.”

The role of robust reporting

Ceres Cueva, SVP global publisher partnerships, Rakuten Advertising: “With marketers calling for greater measurement and transparency of campaign performance in influencer marketing, we’re seeing more brands combine influencer and affiliate marketing strategies. You get more robust reporting and actionable insights by layering affiliate tracking links into influencer campaigns; getting a full-funnel view into how influencers drive conversions throughout the consumer journey and better understand the creators, messages and creative that resonate most with your audience.

“These insights build trust between brands and influencers, solidifying relationships and allowing creators to make decisions that actively engage and convert consumers. The outcome? Lasting partnerships that transform influencers into brand ambassadors. After all, when a great storyteller or content creator can directly impact performance growth, it’s a win-win for both parties.”

Authenticity is essential

Izzy Treacy, senior campaign manager, Buttermilk: “Transparency and authenticity are key to building trust in influencer marketing. The recent #deinfluencing trend sparked some controversy amongst advertisers, but it also proved that influencers are striving to be increasingly authentic with their audiences and, in turn, brands are taking more action to encourage transparency in their collaboration.

“Technological developments are key to this – providing brands with improved access to the metrics that matter. As a result, they can clearly understand the impact of their investment and build confidence in future strategies. Additionally, with more tools providing API access directly from the platforms, advertisers can also feel more confident about their influencer selection. Finally, the increase in clear disclosure practices from bodies such as the ASA has created a level of assurance and brand safeguarding for brands investing in influencer marketing.”

By Jessie Sampson

Sourced from The Drum – iab.uk

 

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Why Advertisers and Marketers Should Tap into Web3 and Metaverse?

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By Paromita Gupta 

While Metaverse and Web3 will take a few years to take their full form, advertisers and marketers need to be prepared and get going on it.

Web3 is touted to have the potential to change the way systems work globally. And the world of marketing and advertising is and will not be privy to it. Much like how marketing took the form of digital marketing, it will now have to embrace the possibility of becoming decentralized in nature and adapt to the technologies of Web3 and Metaverse.

While Metaverse and Web3 will take a few years to take their full form, advertisers and marketers need to be prepared and get going on it.

Why the need to adapt?

Brands such as Nike, Hyundai, Adidas, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, and Samsung have embraced the virtual world and made it work for them. Demand Sage shared that the majority of revenue earned by the Metaverse came from advertising and made USD 114.93 billion in 2021.

Thoughtworks, in April, announced the purchase of its digital land in Jump.trade’sDX Racing Metaverse to leverage innovative ways and broadcast their brand and message. In March, Maggi announced the launch of its NFTs on OneRare Foodverse for reaching out to their fans and foodies in an all-new avatar. Puma announced Black Station 2 as an experimental 3D spatial playground for users to explore the virtual experience offered and/or mint NFTs by connecting their wallets.

“Brands should consider Web3 and Metaverse advertising and marketing over traditional methods due to the unparalleled potential for immersive and interactive experiences. By embracing these innovative approaches, brands can enhance their brand awareness, foster customer loyalty, and drive meaningful connections with their target audience. More importantly they no longer are constrained by geography and can sell to/engage customers anywhere literally,” shares Piyush Gupta, CEO, VOSMOS, a Web3 and Metaverse-oriented marketing company,

The user base will expand

Long story short, the user base for Web3 and Metaverse platforms will keep on increasing. The key reason for it is the control over data and the increase in privacy and security. Metaverse is reported to currently have 400 million monthly users as of 2023 and is expected to reach 800 billion users by 2028.

Users are and will be drawn to the virtual and decentralized world because of features such as ownership and control of digital assets, data and identity, transparency and trust, and enhanced privacy and security.

“With this strategy, brands may capitalize on the expanding trend of digital innovation while forging closer ties with their target market and staying ahead of the competition,” shares Hiren Shah, Founder & Chairman, Vertoz.

Why marketers and advertisers should tap into it

User engagement, direct communication, data ownership, and tokenization are the main reason why marketers and advertisers should tap into Web3 and Metaverse.

  • Tokenization- Tokenization lies at the centre of Web3 as a concept. With cryptocurrency and NFTs, brands can create an incentive system for users upon engaging with the brand content. The users can be rewarded with tokens which in turn can be utilized with the brand.
  • User engagement– Web3 will bring transparency to the table for the two parties. The relationships on this platform will be built on direct communication and trust. Marketers and advertisers will be able to learn the likes and dislikes of their target audience and how they engage with a brand publicly.
  • No middleman involved– The concept of tokenization and smart contracts will help remove intermediaries and middlemen from the process. Marketers and advertisers will be able to directly incentivize users to engage with them without any platform or ad networks coming in between. When it comes to marketers and advertisers, and influencers, the two can strike a deal with the need of any intermediaries, such as talent agencies or influencer marketing platforms.
  • Data ownership- Users will have more control over their data and will have more privacy and security. The data can be monetized by the user at will. A possible aspect of Web3 can be focused on enforcing data confidentiality and integrity on each transaction by having the owner of the wallet ‘sign it’. This concept can see advertisers and companies seeking permission from the user to access and use their data and have the user be compensated accordingly.

When should a brand think of using Metaverse and Web3?

“Firstly, understanding their target audience’s presence and engagement within these platforms is crucial. Secondly, brands should ensure their messaging and experiences align with their core values and resonate with the audience in the virtual space. Lastly, brands need to evaluate their technological readiness and capacity to provide immersive experiences,” shares Shah.

“There needs to be clarity on why the brand is getting into metaverse and what the short and long-term goals are. For example many brands are not there for sales but to reinforce and deliver a more immersive brand experience to their consumers. Second is ensuring readiness in terms of scalability and accessibility, in order to deliver a consistent and effective experience to a diverse and global audience, before taking the plunge. Half-hearted attempts simply backfire and do more harm than good. Last, look at aspects like security since web3/metaverse needs to be seamlessly integrated into the company’s existing systems/channels and that poses a potential threat if not well protected,” adds Gupta on being asked the question.

Feature Image Credit: Freepik

By Paromita Gupta 

Covering news and trends in AI and Metaverse segments. An avid book reader running her personal blog on the side. You may reach me at paromita@entrepreneurindia.com.

Sourced from Entrepreneur India

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Forrester: Brands Shouldn’t Bail on Twitter Altogether

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By David Cohen

The research firm suggests treating the beleaguered platform like an emerging channel

A new report from Forrester, “Twitter Isn’t Canceled; It’s Downgraded,” stresses that Twitter is far more relevant to users than advertisers and provides suggestions on how marketers should treat the platform moving forward.

Forrester data reveals that 22% of online adults in the U.S. used Twitter weekly in 2022, well behind Facebook (63%) and Instagram (40%).

The company said in the introduction to its report, “Twitter ranks highly on the cultural relevancy scale but low on the advertiser priority list. It’s where news breaks, politicians debate, activists organize and niche communities meet. And despite Twitter users threatening to leave the platform, application downloads are up since Elon Musk took over. No other social media platform—not even Reddit, Mastodon or Hive—can replace Twitter for consumers.”

Principal analyst Kelsey Chickering delved further into the advertising side in a blog post, writing, “The advertising community has given Twitter more oxygen than it deserves since Elon Musk took over. The reality is that Twitter has never been a critical media channel in the overall media mix, comprising just 1.3% of 2022 digital ad spend based on Forrester’s 2022 Advertising Forecast, U.S. Why? The ad experience on Twitter has never quite caught up with other ‘legacy’ social media platforms such as Meta’s family of apps. According to media buyers and social media strategists who spoke with Forrester, Twitter doesn’t quite deliver on lower-funnel performance.”

Forrester said in the report that advertising executives it spoke with believe Twitter’s direct-response ad products pale in comparison to those from Meta when it comes to meeting lower-funnel media goals, and they only rely on Twitter for mid- to upper-funnel media goals like awareness and consideration.

Advertisers also told Forrester Twitter’s targeting and personalization capabilities are less mature than those of other social media platforms.

Forrester suggested that marketers treat Twitter as an emerging channel within the advertising maturity spectrum, breaking out that spectrum as follows:

Always on:

  • Meta: Ad formats for every part of the customer lifecycle and proven performance

Campaign-dependent:

  • Pinterest: Original Pin formats still useful but finding its way in video and commerce
  • Snap: Leader in augmented reality and advanced in providing creative resources to brands
  • LinkedIn: Top channel to capture consumers when they’re in a business mindset

Test and learn:

  • Reddit: Rising star in advertising capabilities and advanced in brand safety
  • TikTok: Social media’s darling but hard to succeed without creator partnerships
  • Twitter: Unevolved ad experience and growing brand safety concerns, but still offers a unique experience for live updates and news

The research firm added that marketers should consider the following questions when planning for the remainder of 2023:

  • Will my brand consistently appear in a space that complies with our safety guidelines? Forrester noted that Twitter’s policy on brand safety and moderation is a moving target at best, suggesting that as these policies change, brands should evaluate them against their own overall digital media brand safety guidelines.
  • To what degree is my target audience spending significant time on Twitter? Forrester said even if an advertiser’s target audience loved Twitter before, they may be shopping around, so brands should determine if their time on Twitter is growing or waning and whether they’ve transferred that time to other platforms.
  • What share of social media spend has Twitter historically held on my media plan? If Twitter hasn’t taken up a large portion of a company’s media spend to date, the dollars are probably easily absorbed elsewhere.
  • What material impact has Twitter had on our business results? Forrester believes advertisers should look at whether they have seen a dip in brand health metrics or sales after shifting their Twitter budget to other channels.
  • Does Twitter deliver an ad or user experience that’s not available on other platforms? Forrester suggests keeping a pulse on Twitter’s changing ad experience and whether other channels can deliver on a brand’s goals and audience.

Chickering wrote in the blog post, “Advertisers such as Chevrolet and Chipotle paused their Twitter spend for fear of appearing beside extremist, racist and inflammatory content. The Washington Post found ads for over 40 advertisers on white nationalist Twitter pages recently reinstated by Musk. At the same time, not every major advertiser has decided that Twitter is unsafe. Amazon continues to run paid media on the platform. Musk also introduced a ‘flash sale’ in an attempt to lure lost advertisers back.”

She suggested that brands that are not comfortable with Twitter in its current state under Musk:

  • Refrain from posting any brand content to Twitter. Direct social media teams’ efforts to other channels that meet brand safety requirements.
  • Monitor and respond to customer-service-related questions. If customers are reaching out for help or have questions about products, continue responding in order to ensure a positive customer experience.
  • Listen for relevant cultural trends or product feedback. As usage continues on the platform, use social listening tools to find out what trends are popping and how consumers are talking about your company’s category to inform your marketing strategy.
  • Test other social media channels. Twitter has downshifted into a social media startup rather than an established platform. Roll your previously dedicated Twitter dollars into a pool of test dollars for channels including TikTok, Reddit and Snapchat.

Finally, Forrester shared the reasons cited in a survey last November of 101 adults in the U.S. who stopped using Twitter or planned to do so in the next month:

  • 31% found content on the platform to be too hateful
  • 29% said there were too many bots or fake accounts
  • 28% found content on the platform to be too political
  • 21% didn’t like the amount of misinformation being spread
  • 21% thought the platform’s moderation process was too strict
  • 18% felt they needed to stop for their mental health
  • 17% don’t support Musk as Twitter’s new owner and CEO

Feature Image Credit: tanyamcclure/iStock

By David Cohen

David Cohen is editor of Adweek’s Social Pro Daily.

Sourced from ADWEEK

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Twitter Pursues Anxious Advertisers Amid Concerns on Musk’s Era

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By Joaquin Victor Tacla

Twitter pursues a sceptical audience in the Digital Content NewFeronts when it pitches its upcoming premium video content slate to anxious advertisers who are concerned about the future of the social network’s “brand-safe” platform under Elon Musk’s era.

Anxious Advertisers

The company had already pitched some of its projects in NewFront in the previous years, however, this time was a more challenging one after the emergence of reports that Twitter advertisers were already planning to stop their spending on Twitter once Musk took over.

In fact, several activist organizations have released a letter containing “non-negotiable” standards  that Twitter advertisers must commit to since they are worried that  Musk’s acquisition might turn the platform into a “megaphone of extremists.”

Musk has openly declared that he is a free speech absolutist, and it may not sit well with some of the advertisers, given the current political climate. If Musk’s takeover deters the existing content moderation controls of Twitter to address misinformation and abusive speech, it may not align with the interests of these advertisers.

For example, in 2020, big-name brands like Verizon, Unilever, Boeing, Microsoft, Levi Strauss, Adidas, HP, Pfizer, and many more joined in an advertising boycott to Facebook due to their content moderation policies and called the platform to increase its combat against hate speech.

However, Twitter has assured advertisers that the social network would remain a safe place for them in the future and making sure that their ads will not be aligned with any harmful content but the social network has also noted in an SEC filing that the loss of ad revenue is one of the risk factors brought by the takeover.

Pitching Time

Twitter did more than just pitching their content but they also had to face the challenge of convincing advertisers that they have a promising project to guarantee their partnerships.

The company had to emphasize in their presentation that their content would operate in a brand-safe zone on Twitter because of its upcoming premium video partnerships.

“I hope that you see that we are going to continue to invest in the parts of our business that bring scroll-stopping content to the timeline,” Twitter’s Chief Customer Officer Sarah Personette said during the presentation, reported by TechCrunch.

“We’re committed to growing our audience. We are committed to investing in our product innovation, and we are committing to increasing the velocity with which we ship products. We’re committed to deepening the relationships with the top rights holders and premium content publishers in the world and also across this country.,” Personette added.

She also highlighted how this project is “extremely important” to the social network because she claimed that it matters to the advertisers in connecting their brands to people “that matter” to them.

Feature Image Credit: (Photo : LIONEL BONAVENTURE/AFP via Getty Images) This photograph taken on October 26, 2020 shows the logo of US social network Twitter displayed on the screen of a smartphone and a tablet in Toulouse, southern France.

By Joaquin Victor Tacla

Sourced from Tech Times

 

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The Quiet Way Advertisers Are Tracking Your Browsing

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By Matt Burgess

Cookies are on the way out—but not enough is being done about browser fingerprinting. So what is it?

Creepy cookies that track all your online activity are (slowly) being eradicated. In recent years major web browsers, including Safari and Firefox, have restricted the practice. Even Chrome has realized that cookies present a privacy nightmare. But stopping them ends only one kind of online tracking—others are arguably worse.

Fingerprinting, which involves gathering detailed information about your browser’s or your phone’s settings, falls into this category. The tracking method is largely hidden, there’s not much you can do to stop it, and regulators have done little to limit how companies use it to follow you around the internet.

What Is Fingerprinting?

The exact configuration of lines and swirls that make up your fingerprints are thought to be unique to you. Similarly, your browser fingerprint is a set of information that’s collected from your phone or laptop each time you use it that advertisers can eventually link back to you.

“It takes information about your browser, your network, your device and combines it together to create a set of characteristics that is mostly unique to you,” says Tanvi Vyas, a principal engineer at Firefox. The data that makes up your fingerprint can include the language you use, keyboard layout, your timezone, whether you have cookies turned on, the version of the operating system your device runs, and much more.

By combining all this information into a fingerprint, it’s possible for advertisers to recognize you as you move from one website to the next. Multiple studies looking at fingerprinting have found that around 80 to 90 percent of browser fingerprints are unique. Fingerprinting is often done by advertising technology companies that insert their code onto websites. Fingerprinting code—which comes in the form of a variety of scripts, such as the FingerprintJS library—is deployed by dozens of ad tech firms to collect data about your online activity. Sometimes websites that have fingerprinting scripts on them don’t even know about it. And the companies are often opaque and unclear in the ways they track you.

Once established, someone’s fingerprint can potentially be combined with other personal information—such as linking it with existing profiles or information murky data brokers hold about you. “There are so many data sets available today, and there are so many other means to connect your fingerprint with other identifying information,” says Nataliia Bielova, a research scientist at France’s National Institute for Research in Digital Science and Technology, who is currently working at the French data regulator, CNIL.

Fingerprinting evolved alongside the development of web browsers and is intertwined with the web’s history. As browsers have matured they have communicated more with servers—through APIs and HTTP headers—about people’s device settings, says Bielova, who has studied the development of fingerprinting. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) first identified fingerprinting back in 2010. Since then fingerprinting has become increasingly common as advertisers have tried to get around cookie blocks and limits put on ad tracking by Google and Apple.

So How Bad Is It?

While there’s little transparency around the companies that run fingerprinting scripts, the practice is verifiably widespread across the web. Many of the websites you visit will fingerprint your device; research from 2020 found a quarter of the world’s top 10,000 websites running fingerprinting scripts.

New ways of fingerprinting are being created too. “The existing fingerprinting algorithms are not the upper boundary in terms of trackability,” says Gaston Pugliese, a research fellow at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität in Germany, who has studied the long-term impact of fingerprinting. For instance, earlier this year researchers proved they could create fingerprints of GPUs to identify people. Tracking people across different browsers is also possible.

But not all fingerprinting is bad. David Emm, a principal security researcher at Kaspersky, says the technique can often be used as a way to spot potential fraud, such as banks using it to identify suspicious behaviour.

However, the widespread use of fingerprinting for targeted advertising and tracking people’s online movement raises legal problems. Across Europe regulators have been calling for a clampdown on cookie banners, which appear on websites asking people if they give their permission to be tracked. The banners are so ubiquitous (and frustrating) that people largely click Accept and don’t understand how they are agreeing to be tracked—that’s leaving aside the fact that many cookie banners may not even do what they claim.

In Europe fingerprinting falls under the same General Data Protection Regulation and marketing rules as cookies, says Elle Todd, a partner specializing in data and tech at law firm Reed Smith. European regulators have warned since 2014 that fingerprinting “presents serious data protection concerns,” and Todd says many websites don’t tell consumers that they may track people with fingerprinting. “I think that a lot of companies don’t realize, and they think that this is a nice way to get around the cookie rules,” she says.

How Can You Stop It?

Unlike cookies, it’s hard to stop fingerprinting. Cookies are stored in your browser, and it’s possible to delete your cookie history, block them, or turn them off entirely. “With the fingerprinting, it’s all invisible,” Emm says. “People don’t know about it; they don’t see it.” When the EFF first detailed fingerprinting in 2010, it said it was “akin to a cookie that cannot be deleted.”

Various browser plugins claim to help reduce or stop fingerprinting, but there’s a mix in quality. A 2019 study by a researcher from Snap and two US academics found many anti-fingerprinting tools aren’t that useful. The biggest thing you can do to stop fingerprinting is pick a browser that limits tracking and increases privacy.

“The most promising approach that is also built into browsers nowadays is the approach of the Tor browser,” Pugliese says. To prevent fingerprinting, Tor tries to standardize all the parts of its browser so everyone appears to have the same fingerprint. Tor isn’t always practical, though; some websites will break, and many companies don’t allow it on corporate networks. Other browsers, including Firefox and Brave, have their own anti-fingerprinting methods. Firefox blocks third-party requests to companies that fingerprint, while Brave adds noise by randomizing fingerprints.

“In the fingerprinting space, browsers are going to have to evolve,” says Firefox’s Vyas, adding that anti-fingerprinting technology needs to change in a way that doesn’t break parts of the web. More action from regulators would also help to stamp out the tracking. “If we had legislative support that said ‘these fingerprinting technologies and scripts are unlawful,’ then that would help us.”

Feature Image Credit: Hiroshi Watanabe/Getty Images

By Matt Burgess

Matt Burgess is a senior writer at WIRED focused on information security, privacy, and data regulation in Europe. He graduated from the University of Sheffield with a degree in journalism and now lives in London. Send tips to [email protected].

Sourced from WIRED

 

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Good News for Amazon: Advertisers Are Spending More Online

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By Parkev Tatevosian

The e-commerce giant has been gaining ground in the advertising market.

It may be a curious phenomenon that Amazon ( AMZN -1.05% ) is happy about increasing ad spending, but it’s true. Over the past few years, Amazon has built itself into an advertising giant. The company is generating an increasing share of its revenue from advertising, and since that revenue tends to be more profitable than the overall business, it’s become an essential element.

For that reason, Amazon and its stockholders must be thrilled with a recent Wall Street Journal article that highlights advertisers are spending much more online this year.

Advertisers are finding online spending more lucrative

According to GroupM, global ad spending will grow 22.5% to $763 billion this year. That’s the second revision upward from GroupM since it first gave estimates in December 2020. After many businesses had to shut their doors to customers in the early stages of the pandemic, this year has consisted of vast reopening’s worldwide. That’s given cause for advertisers to increase spending: to get the word out that they are open for business again.

Interestingly, digital advertising will encompass 64.4% of the total in 2021, up from 60.5% in 2020 and 52.1% in 2019. The rapid shift to online advertising is not entirely surprising. Typically, marketers can more effectively measure the returns from online advertising. For instance, it’s difficult to calculate how many people heard a radio advertisement or viewed an ad placed in a newspaper.

Indeed, you can get approximations by looking at estimated listener audiences or subscribers to the newspaper, but they will be far from precise. Compare that with digital ad spending, where marketers can see how many folks viewed the ad and how many clicked on a link.

Moreover, with the proliferation of online shopping, it only makes sense to increase advertising online. People browsing the internet on their computers or phones typically have a payment method on file. If they see a compelling advertisement, they are only a few clicks away from purchasing.

Amazon is already benefiting from the shift

Amazon does not break out how much it makes from advertising specifically. However, it states that one of its segments consists primarily of ad revenue. In its most recent quarter ended Sept. 30, the segment that contains advertising reported revenue of $8.1 billion. That was up by 49% from the same quarter the year before. Amazon is home to hundreds of millions of shoppers who are one click away from purchasing, making it a desired online destination for ad spending.

“We’ve also seen strong growth in our advertising products as vendors and sellers have embraced their ability to build their brands and reach customers just as they consider their purchases,” CFO Brian Olsavsky said during the company’s Q3 conference call.

Indeed, ad revenue has almost doubled at Amazon since Q2 2020, growing from $4.2 billion to the $8.1 billion mentioned earlier. As folks keep looking to Amazon for their shopping needs, advertisers will increasingly be interested in gaining their attention in the meantime.

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Feature Image Credit: Getty Images.

By Parkev Tatevosian

Sourced from The Motley Fool

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What would it take for advertisers to leave Facebook?

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By Jeremy Goldman

The question: What would it take for advertisers to give Facebook the boot? The answer isn’t as inspiring as one might think.

The findings: Advertisers on the whole are sticking with the platform—but there’s still a split between who will stay and who might go.

  • Performance marketers like mobile app advertisers, for example, use Facebook predominantly to drive app installs. Facing aggressive revenue targets and typically operating under the radar as brands, those companies are less likely to take part in advertiser initiatives like brand safety boycotts.
  • That’s more likely to happen among bigger, institutional brands, such as Coca-Cola, Nike, and Procter & Gamble, which have more of a stake in how consumers perceive them. These highly visible brands are often looking for brand exposure, which allows them to shift spending to other channels—since the top of the funnel offers more advertising options.

The marketer’s point of view: While Facebook has issues, it’s important to remember some companies have performed well by relying on the company’s ad ecosystem.

  • Some of the advertisers eMarketer spoke with have indicated that they’re diversifying into different channels in order to ensure they aren’t overly dependent on the Facebook ecosystem.
  • “I think there is something to be said for the CPM [cost-per-thousand] increase. It’s much more expensive than it was last year. There’s no question there,” said Avi Ben-Zvi, vice president of paid social at Tinuiti.
  • But rising CPMs only account for a fraction of his increased Facebook spend year over year, Ben-Zvi added. He said he’s seen a major increase in investment for mid-funnel consideration campaigns on Facebook that are designed to fuel the bottom of the funnel.

Our analysts weigh in:

  • “Facebook has weathered multiple scandals and headwinds in the past and continued to grow, indicating that advertisers will continue to spend on Facebook despite negative public perception,” said Jasmine Enberg, eMarketer senior analyst at Insider Intelligence. “What’s different this time is that Facebook is facing a real potential threat to its ad business.”
  • “Brand safety is a noble concern and something that many major companies think seriously about, but when it comes to their ad expenditures, the bottom line often ends up being more important,” said Debra Aho Williamson, eMarketer principal analyst at Insider Intelligence. “If ad performance were to start suffering, advertisers will look to other media. But brand safety concerns alone aren’t going to drive most advertisers away.”
  • “Measurement and attribution problems are causing performance declines for advertisers, especially ones focused on the lower funnel,” said Audrey Schomer, eMarketer senior analyst at Insider Intelligence. Schomer sees that advertisers are confused by a lack of clarity regarding what’s causing performance to go down: Is targeting particularly challenged by iOS users opting out of tracking? “That could be having some impact on performance, though most advertisers I’ve spoken with believe it’s primarily an attribution problem,” Schomer said.

By the numbers: Even in light of the whistle-blower news, our upcoming Facebook ad revenue forecast won’t be making any big downward adjustments.

  • Facebook’s net ad revenues for 2023 will actually be higher than previously forecast, but growth will be a little bit slower.
  • “The biggest thing that’ll come out of the whistle-blower revelations and platform outage is that advertisers will look to diversify their spending more,” said Nazmul Islam, forecasting analyst at Insider Intelligence. “While you won’t see a big drop in Facebook spending overall, you might see a bit more growth in the other social platforms that benefited from last year’s Facebook ad boycott.”

The big takeaway: Some advertisers may pull back spending due to negative public perceptions of the platform, but those pullbacks have so far tended to be temporary.

  • Advertisers won’t leave Facebook until there is real evidence that campaign performance is hurting, and until there is a better option for them to go to.
Facebook Ad Revenue Growth, 2018-2023 (billions and % change)

By Jeremy Goldman

Sourced from eMarketer

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Facebook will separate Instagram and Facebook accounts for advertisers, citing privacy

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By Ryan Barwick

The company can tell which way the wind is blowing.

Advertisers are going to start finding a larger audience across Facebook’s apps.

The company announced in a blog post Monday that, unless someone links their accounts together, it will consider an individual user’s Instagram and Facebook accounts as two separate people—at least from an advertiser’s perspective.

  • Previously, Facebook counted someone with a Facebook and Instagram account as one person using identifiers like email, even if these accounts weren’t officially linked up.

Why the change? Facebook can tell which direction the wind is blowing.

“This update aligns with trends of offering people more control over how their information is used for ads and is consistent with evolving advertising, privacy, and regulatory environments,” wrote Facebook’s VP of product marketing, Graham Mudd.

Though he said pre-campaign audience estimates will look larger, “we do not believe this will have a substantial impact on reported campaign reach.”

  • Facebook said it’s been telling advertisers that changes were coming since June.

Refresh: It’s been quite a few weeks for advertisers on the Book.

In September, the company acknowledged that Apple’s privacy updates were more disruptive than advertisers initially expected, leaving marketers “blind” to Facebook’s campaign metrics.

Weeks later, whistle-blower Frances Haugen disclosed internal documents and accused Facebook of misleading advertisers, specifically its “shrinking user base” and how it counts the number of people using its platform.—RB

Feature Image Credit: Pexels

By Ryan Barwick

Sourced from Marketing Brew

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