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Taboola

Score8 out of 10

29 Reviews and Ratings

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What is Taboola?

Taboola is a native advertising platform from the company of the same name in New York for publishing "recommended" content in a variety of popularly visited news sites and spaces. Taboola is partnered with many publishers (the Atlantic, Tribune, MailOnline, Business Insider, etc.).

Categories & Use Cases

Reviews

What users are saying about Taboola.
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Taboola Is Great For Targeting A Wider Audience & Getting Results

Incentivized
Garegin Baghdasaryan
Senior Digital Media Manager in Marketing at Apollo Interactive (11-50 employees employees)

Pros

  • Custom targeting
  • Remarketing
  • Easy to use user interface
  • Great customer service

Cons

  • I would like to see an easier way to exclude irrelevant sites that our ads received impressions or clicks on.
  • Being able to bid on specific sites only.

Return on Investment

  • Helped get more leads.
  • Positive ROI.

Alternatives Considered

AdRoll and Outbrain

Other Software Used

AdRoll, Outbrain, Bing Ads

Not impressive, but it gets the job done for generating second-tier traffic.

Incentivized
Verified User
Employee in Marketing (51-200 employees employees)

Pros

  • It's easy to set up campaigns.
  • The interface isn't too difficult to navigate.
  • Account Reps are quick to answer questions.
  • Many options for targeting
  • Easy pixel implementation
  • Helpful UTM tracking macros
  • Supports look-alike audiences

Cons

  • The UI is clunky navigating between managing campaigns and viewing performance.
  • The lack of performance whitelisting makes it difficult to zero-in on the best traffic.
  • Lack of ability to block websites in bulk
  • Creative approval is arbitrary and vague when denied.
  • Creative approval is slow.
  • I still get traffic outside of the US even after setting up a campaign only in the US.

Return on Investment

  • We've been running at a steady -70% ROI.
  • On our best days we've been able to achieve -10% ROI.

Usability

Other Software Used

Google Ads (formerly AdWords), SnapApp, Facebook for Business, Revcontent

Taboola: Great network, great users

Incentivized
Devina HeriyantoView profile
Community Officer in Social Media at The Jakarta Post Digital (51-200 employees employees)

Pros

  • Taboola's network is made up of high-quality websites that are similar to our own. This means that we can attract high-quality readers and that the impressions are not wasted on just any other internet user.
  • The pricing is great. There are two bidding systems: smart and fixed bidding so that you can choose according to your need and budget, of course.
  • Related to the first point: since the users are high-quality, they spend more time on your website and end up reading more pages. When you consider this, Taboola's pricing is way cheaper than other similar platforms.
  • Easy to use dashboard. The dashboard puts everything you need to know upfront, from CPC, spending, and results.

Cons

  • Uneven performance across one campaign. I usually curate 10 to 15 news articles to be promoted in Taboola, and usually, only two or three perform really well and eat up a huge piece of the budget. Sometimes you have to separate contents into different campaigns so that you'll have more even performance.
  • Since Taboola caters to all kind of websites, it is sometimes hard for news media to compete and follow their content best practice. It takes a while to have a grasp on what kind of contents perform well on Taboola.
  • Also, being a news website, we have varying contents including that which is related to pornography or violence. Sometimes Taboola doesn't allow us to promote these kinds of contents, even though the materials do not promote pornography or violence.

Return on Investment

  • Taboola guarantees stable user flow across the campaign period. I use balanced spending setting on my campaign so that the budget is well spread throughout the month, but usually, the traffic is higher nearing the end of the campaign.
  • New users and more awareness. Taboola allows us to reach potential readers without much hassle.
  • Users from Taboola are a high-quality audience who spend a lot of time on your website and read several pages. Unlikely to be bots.

Alternatives Considered

Outbrain

Other Software Used

Echobox, Facebook for Business, Outbrain

Good for Recommendation and Curation To get More Monetization

Incentivized
Verified User
Team Lead in Information Technology (10,001+ employees employees)

Pros

  • Advertise
  • Recommendation
  • Curation
  • Customer interest

Cons

  • Defensive check on their API
  • API response time
  • Look and feel of their curation module

Most Important Features

  • Content Recommendation
  • Trending Now
  • Asset Curation

Return on Investment

  • Get more monetization
  • Generate more traffic to get more ROI
  • Provide Trending Now content on more highly viewed articles

Alternatives Considered

Parse.ly and Sailthru

Other Software Used

Parse.ly, Sailthru, LambdaTest

Traffic, traffic, traffic.

Kelly SauxView profile
Director Direct Response Marketing in Marketing at Pimsleur Language Programs / Simon & Schuster Audio (501-1000 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Taboola is a native advertising platform that I've used to reach top of funnel traffic effectively and on the cheap. You can expect to pay CPM rates below $1 and if you retarget those users via their platform, the CPM rates are usually between $1-$3. It is pretty much a self-serve platform, but I found the Taboola support responsive and well trained.

Pros

  • Target top of funnel traffic on the cheap.
  • Transparency when it comes to placements, rates, etc.
  • Ability to exclude underperforming segements, placements, devices, etc.

Cons

  • Introduce view-trough and click-through reporting

Return on Investment

  • Taboola campaigns have had positive effects on top of funnel activities and engagement metrics though the traffic is not always as qualified as one would like. You will need to carefully tailor your campaign to squeeze out the most relevant traffic.

Alternatives Considered

Outbrain and Yahoo Gemini

Other Software Used

Yahoo Gemini, AdWords, Zedo

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