Taboola shares surge as the adtech firm, known for clickbait, secures Apple ads deal

Taboola is best known for its ‘chumbox’ ads, or clickbait-style ads with over-the-top headlines that often appear at the bottom of articles. But the company also offers native advertising designed to integrate seamlessly with surrounding content in web and mobile environments.

Per the new deal, native ads like these will appear in users’ main feeds and within selected articles in Apple News and Apple Stocks across all operational markets, according to Apple’s developer site.

As it stands, Apple News is the most used news app in the US, UK, Canada and Australia. Taboola is hopeful that the partnership will help major brands and agencies connect with premium audiences in these and other regions.

Previously, NBCUniversal sold ads for Apple News and Apple Stocks, under an exclusive deal inked in mid-2022. It’s unclear whether the arrangement with Taboola is exclusive.

For Apple, the development suggests that the tech titan is looking to expand its advertising business, which marketing analytics firm Emarketer projects will generate $10.34bn globally this year. The broader picture suggests that the company may be looking to diversify its revenue streams; while hardware including iPhones, Macs and Apple Watches has long accounted for the bulk of Apple’s business, digital ad revenue may be looking increasingly promising.

Taboola represents a potentially strong partner for Apple thanks to its vast network of direct relationships, which encompass over 9,000 publishers and more than 15,000 advertisers worldwide. According to the company’s website, Taboola ads reach more than 600 million daily active users.

But some advertisers are surprised by the partnership, considering Taboola’s reputation for serving up low-quality clickbait, and Apple’s concerted focus on digital safety and data privacy.

Lior Ben-David, the founder of Gruvian, a digital advertising firm built for small businesses, said in a post on X that the deal is an “extremely weird partnership.” He wrote: “If Apple strives to be the most trusted brand in the world, Taboola is content with being the least trusted.”

Extremely weird partnership

Taboola is the company that facilitates the scammy clickbait ads you see at the bottom of recipes.

If Apple strives to be the most trusted brand in the world, Taboola is content with being the least trusted. pic.twitter.com/xu5pHznNwo

— Lior BD (@liorb_d) July 16, 2024

Others opined on what potential privacy promises Taboola may have had to make as part of the agreement. Industry veteran Simon Halstead, who previously advised IAB UK and now operates his own consultancy, wrote in a post today: “I wonder if Taboola has had to sign up to anything around non fingerprinting as part of Apple News deal.”

In any case, Taboola’s business – which, per the company’s Q4 2023 earnings report, has grown to over $1.4bn in annual revenue – is likely to benefit from the collaboration.

Taboola founder and CEO Adam Singolda told Axios that his firm hopes to work with other large companies like Apple – businesses with the potential to cash in on digital ads but that may lack the technical chops required for the job.

Apple did not respond to a request for comment.

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