Taboola study finds advertisers missing new audiences

Taboola has published a study finding that 81% of advertisers fail to reach new audiences despite increasing budgets. It also found that 92% would shift spending to the open web if identity and measurement issues were resolved.

Based on responses from more than 300 senior marketing and advertising leaders at large companies, the report points to a growing gap between where advertisers want to spend and where they believe they can measure results. Respondents worked for businesses with more than 1,000 employees and monthly marketing budgets of at least USD $300,000.

According to the study, advertisers are increasing budgets by nearly 10% in an effort to find new customers. About 30% said reaching new audiences was a leading reason for allocating additional budget.

Yet higher spending is not solving the problem. Most advertisers continue to target the same groups repeatedly rather than extending campaigns to untapped audiences, the findings suggest.

The study attributes part of that difficulty to a fragmented consumer journey. Consumers now move across devices and channels before making a purchase, with touchpoints spanning mail, news, search, price comparison sites and large language models.

US adults spend nearly 13 hours a day with media on the path to purchase, according to eMarketer data cited in the report. That breadth of activity makes it harder for marketers to identify the same person across multiple interactions before a sale takes place.

Three quarters of advertisers surveyed said they struggle to recognise the same non-converting customer across different touchpoints. The report argues that this identity problem pushes marketers back towards recycled audience pools inside closed advertising environments.

Open web shift

The findings indicate that advertisers are willing to move spending beyond the largest digital platforms if those tracking issues can be addressed. While 81% said they would consider increasing spending across channels such as publishers and news sites if identity challenges were solved, another figure in the study put that proportion at 92% for reallocating ad spend to the open web.

This suggests strong appetite for alternatives to so-called walled gardens, where advertisers often benefit from more established user data and measurement systems. At the same time, many marketers appear to believe those systems are limiting their ability to find incremental audiences.

Adam Singolda, Chief Executive Officer of Taboola, said changes in how consumers discover information are making old approaches less effective.

"As AI search overviews and shifting habits fragment how consumers discover content, brands and agencies must understand true purchase intent at the crucial moment of decision," said Adam Singolda, Chief Executive Officer of Taboola.

He said advertisers outside the biggest closed platforms faced a visibility problem that restricted audience growth.

"Outside closed ecosystems, advertisers face a significant identity blind spot. By relying on recycled audiences on walled gardens, they miss vast opportunities. Unlocking identity and measurement on the open web allows brands to break free from targeting ruts and connect with valuable, untapped audiences," said Singolda.

Taboola, which operates an advertising platform used by publishers and device makers, framed the findings around a broader shift in digital marketing. Advertisers now face a buying journey that no longer follows a simple route from search to purchase but stretches across several media environments.

That fragmentation has commercial implications for publishers as well as brands. If more advertisers redirect spending to publisher sites and other parts of the open web, media owners could benefit, provided measurement and identity tools improve enough to satisfy marketers.

The study also highlights continuing pressure on the digital advertising market to prove reach rather than frequency. Repeated exposure to the same users may support short-term campaign delivery, but the report suggests many advertisers now see audience expansion as the more urgent challenge.

For agencies and marketing teams, the message is that budget growth alone is not overcoming structural problems in digital targeting. Three quarters of respondents said they still cannot identify the same potential customer across touchpoints before conversion.

That leaves marketers spending more while struggling to broaden reach, even as they signal readiness to place more money with publishers and other open web channels if those barriers can be removed.