Taboola launches Realise ID to boost ad conversions

Taboola has launched Realise ID, a unified identity product for performance advertisers that it says has delivered up to a 2.4x increase in conversion efficiency.

Designed to support Taboola's Realise advertising platform, Realise ID gives marketers a single view of consumers showing purchase intent across devices, channels and online touchpoints. Built on the company's first-party data from the open web, it is intended to help advertisers identify, reach and convert users before they complete a purchase elsewhere.

The launch comes as marketers face an increasingly fragmented path to purchase, with consumers moving between news sites, email, search, price comparison services and generative AI tools before making buying decisions. Taboola cited industry data showing US adults spend nearly 13 hours a day with media, alongside separate research indicating that 70% of consumers now use generative AI search in shopping decisions.

According to Taboola, Realise ID combines fragmented identifiers into a persistent profile of prospective buyers. It uses data from content engagement, ad interactions and conversion-related actions to map consumer journeys and predict intent.

The product draws on signals including scroll depth, time spent on site, ad clicks, video views, search keywords, conversion data and mid-funnel actions such as starting a quote. Those signals are used to analyse billions of buyer journeys and connect media consumption with buying behaviour.

Taboola's position in both publishing and advertising is central to the offering. The company says it operates across both sides of the transaction, allowing it to collect contextual data in real time as users move from content consumption to search activity, ad exposure and landing pages.

That closed-loop view is intended to address a longstanding problem in digital advertising: marketers often struggle to follow consumer intent as users move between platforms and devices. The challenge has become more acute as newer discovery channels, including AI-driven search, have been added to established routes such as search engines and social platforms.

Several advertisers and agencies cited by Taboola said the data available through Realise has helped them target consumers earlier in the decision-making process.

"Reaching consumers while they are actively searching for products is crucial, and Realise provides exactly the visibility we need during this phase. Their audience segments allow us to reach users with a high probability of converting at the precise moment when interest is strongest," said Romain Mandon, digital advertising manager, Allianz.

FOUND, a media agency, also pointed to changes in how customers move between channels before making purchases.

"At a time when the customer journey has grown very complex to stretch across devices and new channels and devices, including generative AI search, Realise has consistently shown it has the right data to tap into customer intent and connect us to our desired customers," said Adam Persinger, head of strategic media, FOUND.

Another early user highlighted the product's role beyond traditional search-led marketing.

"Overcoming the fragmentation of today's purchase journey is one of the key challenges for performance marketers. Thanks to our strategic partnership with Taboola and the right technology, we're able to capture users' real intent wherever they move across the open web, with precision and efficiency. The launch of Realise ID is an opportunity we're excited to seize to deliver incremental, measurable results for our clients beyond traditional search channels," said Giacomo Giuriani, business director, Forward, lastminute.com's media marketing company.

Taboola has framed the launch as part of a broader shift in digital advertising economics, as established customer acquisition channels become harder to scale efficiently. Search and social media remain dominant, but marketers are increasingly looking to the wider open web for additional reach and signals of intent.

Taboola says its network reaches about 600 million daily active users through publisher relationships that include news organisations and device manufacturers. That reach underpins the data pool used by Realise ID and the broader Realise platform.

Adam Singolda, chief executive officer, Taboola, said changes in consumer behaviour were forcing marketers to find new ways to identify potential buyers earlier in the process.

"Today, AI is transforming traditional search behaviour and established channels are hitting efficiency ceilings, making driving incremental growth more difficult than ever. To scale today, performance marketers must capture consumers across trusted environments beyond search and social, where buyers actively research, compare and form decisions across dozens of independent content touchpoints. Realise ID solves for this, using Taboola's unique data advantage to help performance marketers capture and act on open web intent before it disappears," said Singolda.