Taboola bets on AI search, TV ad metrics

As publishers face a stark decline in Google-driven traffic, industry leaders like Clara Soteras Acosta urge a strategic pivot away from dependency on search referrals by 'building as if Google traffic already was zero.' This urgency is compounded by AI tools such as ChatGPT disrupting traditional traffic flows without any reciprocal traffic benefits, forcing publishers to rethink their business models and diversify revenue streams to survive in a landscape where the 'exchange rate of content for clicks is deteriorating.'

In response to these disruptions, publishers are redefining success metrics beyond mere page views and unique users, focusing instead on engagement, retention, and community conversion as the core indicators of sustainable value. As Soteras Acosta emphasizes, these metrics represent 'what’s left standing when referral traffic dries up,' prompting a shift toward becoming destination brands with distinct editorial identities and direct audience relationships—a transformation highlighted by Buttle’s observation that survivors are those who evolve into 'brands with a defined audience' rather than transient waypoints.

Google itself acknowledges this paradigm shift by promoting audience loyalty over chasing clicks, encouraging publishers to produce 'high quality, original content' that fosters retention rather than volume. The rise of generative AI has accelerated the demise of low-quality, high-bounce traffic, with Google’s tools designed to help publishers cultivate loyal audiences who 'already understand and appreciate your value,' signaling a future where publishers maximize engagement through direct relationships rather than relying on external traffic sources.

Amid this evolving landscape, Taboola’s CEO Adam Singolda highlights a publisher-driven AI revolution that empowers publishers to lead innovation rather than follow, leveraging AI tools like Deeper Dive as alternatives to closed ecosystems such as Google’s Gemini. By focusing on enabling publishers, OEMs, and apps, Taboola positions AI adoption as a critical growth lever to offset declining search traffic, signaling a business model evolution where publishers reclaim control over content monetization and discovery, reshaping the open web beyond Google’s shadow by 2027.

Taboola’s Deeper Dive AI search tool is redefining open web discovery by delivering conversational, education-driven experiences that significantly enhance publisher engagement and boost ad revenues. By focusing on interactive, user-centric content exploration, Taboola empowers publishers to thrive amid the turbulent AI arms race, carving out a distinct space beyond traditional search paradigms.

Simultaneously, Taboola is pioneering the integration of connected TV advertising with precise performance metrics, ushering in a new era of accountability that challenges the opaque nature of traditional TV ad measurement. This innovative approach not only elevates transparency and effectiveness in connected TV campaigns but also positions Taboola as a formidable contender in the escalating AI-powered advertising arms race, directly challenging closed ecosystems like Google’s.

By early 2026, marketers have grown increasingly comfortable embedding AI, especially large language models like OpenAI's ChatGPT, into their advertising stacks, recognizing AI as a powerful assistant rather than a replacement in campaign decision-making. This nuanced adoption reflects a consensus among industry experts that while AI reshapes media trading and creative generation—particularly enabling smaller advertisers to enter connected TV streaming through tools like streamr.ai and Vibe.co—human leadership remains essential to maintain strategic control and creativity.

The AI advertising ecosystem is sharply bifurcated between ad-funded platforms such as OpenAI's ChatGPT, which launched a $60 CPM ad program and rapidly exceeded $100 million in annualized revenue, and ad-free competitors like Anthropic's Claude, which has tripled its traffic share as ChatGPT's dominance waned from 76.4% to 52.7%. This divergence not only influences brand strategies but also raises systemic risks highlighted by Rory Sutherland, who warns that financial incentives in ad-funded AI may corrupt response relevance, allowing dishonest advertisers to outbid more relevant ones, thus echoing Google Search's historical pitfalls.

As AI-driven search platforms like ChatGPT and Claude alter user behavior by reducing ad clicks despite higher trust in AI-generated results, marketers face pressure to pivot investment toward short-form video content—YouTube Shorts being a prime example—since Google’s Gemini AI heavily sources data from these formats. Concurrently, brands grapple with a 'barbell syndrome' where consumer interest surges in analog, experiential engagements like events and outdoor activities, creating tension between measurable digital strategies and the less quantifiable but impactful real-world brand activations.

In a landscape where AI models such as ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini are rapidly commoditized and users frequently switch among them chasing performance benchmarks, brand building emerges as the critical differentiator for sustained success. As one expert notes, 'The companies that win the next decade of AI won’t have the best models... They’ll have the best brands.' With early-stage AI startups uniquely flush with capital and a narrow window to establish market dominance, investing heavily in brand equity now offers a rare strategic advantage over short-term performance marketing, which, while delivering quick wins, lacks long-term sustainability.