Discovery platform Taboola is to acquire ConvertMedia, a fast-growing native video advertising company.
Following the acquisition, ConvertMedia's video technology will fully integrate with Taboola's data and personalisation engine, currently reaching over billion people a month, to help publishers deliver relevant and viewable experiences to the right user at the right time.
With the acquisition of ConvertMedia, Taboola's offering will be positioned to drive better user experiences as well as holistic monetisation for publishers seeking to add high-quality video supply. Using Taboola's personalisation technology, which currently reaches more than one billion unique visitors monthly, Taboola will be able to deliver video content at the moment when consumers are most apt to viewing. At the same time, TV budgets are rapidly moving to digital, but premium video supply is still scarce, with advertisers seeking to work with technology partners that can offer premium inventory and scalable platforms. Taboola will provide a full native ad funnel for its partners, combining in-article recommendations and native video.
"The open web is divided into two – walled gardens and everything else – and while social companies have seen huge growth in video viewership, it's time to bring that success to the open web, and to premium publishers all around the world," says Adam Singolda, Taboola founder and CEO. "I believe that the future of publishers' cross-screen monetisation is two-fold: first, content recommendations using image, title and URL, and second, video. We are excited to offer publishers the full funnel, leveraging data and personalisation to create experiences that are enjoyable for users and drive revenue growth for publishers."
Taboola Native, already being used by NBCNews, The Independent, Reader's Digest and many others, is a white label version of Taboola's predictive technology. It enables sales teams to index and recommend branded content items, matching each user with the most relevant and impactful piece of content at the right time, throughout the acquisition funnel.
With the addition of ConvertMedia, Taboola's Native platform will also include the most extensive portfolio of video outstream formats available in the market for publishers. The new video integration will include full customisation options for publishers to control delivery and related price points to balance between the user experience and revenue.
"There is a natural synergy between the vision, technology and culture at Taboola and ConvertMedia. With the growth in ad blocking and banner blindness, advertisers and publishers need to reach consumers with relevant and viewable experiences at scale," says Yoav Naveh, co-founder and CEO, ConvertMedia. "The natural integration with Taboola allows us to better help publishers navigate the balance between user experience and quality controls, while exceeding revenue goals. We're excited to give publishers unprecedented scale to reach consumers with new information and experiences, and help build out the content discovery category."
"In many ways, I feel like we're closing the circle today. I started Taboola nine years ago to help users discover video they may like and never knew existed," adds Singolda. "It's an honour to go back to our roots in video and to partner with the entire ConvertMedia team. Yoav Naveh has built an outstanding culture and business. Together, we project a billion video streams a day to quickly become one of the largest online broadcasters alongside Facebook, Snapchat and YouTube."
Some of Taboola's publisher partners already using ConvertMedia's video technology include: Tribune Media, Salon, The Hill, American Media (publisher of Radar Online, OK! Magazine, and Men's Fitness), TheBlaze, Reader's Digest, and TEGNA.
