Taboola CEO Adam Singolda On Mobile Mistakes And Why The Future Will Be 'All Personalized'

This post is sponsored by Taboola.

Content is everywhere on the web - and there's a lot of it. What we consume each day is just the tiniest fraction of what's out there. So how are we to find great articles and videos that we often don't know exist?

Adam Singolda founded Taboola in 2007 with the goal of bringing content to readers, rather than making them go out and search for it. Advertisers and publishers (including Business Insider) now use Taboola's discovery widgets to distribute articles, videos, and slideshows across the web, to the tune of 150 billion overall recommendations a month.

As user behavior evolves, Taboola hopes to be instrumental in helping publishers and marketers evolve, as well. Business Insider's President and COO Julie Hansen recently interviewed Singolda over email about what publishers aren't doing right in mobile, why the future will be personalized, and what surprised Singolda about what people will (and won't) click to read.

Julie Hansen: Is mobile advertising as different from "traditional" digital advertising as traditional digital was from print or TV? Or do you see it as more of an evolution? And why?

Adam Singolda: I think it's very different. In the early days of mobile, we thought as an industry that mobile would be an extension of what we do on desktop, both editorially as well as commercially. For example, we thought it made sense for the homepage to show the same content to desktop users as we did to mobile users, and we thought that our ads would flow into the mobile experience and work just fine.

We've since learned that mobile carries use patterns that are dramatically different than desktop, and requires unorthodox solutions to monetize and engage consumers. For example, many people engage with content on their mobile devices when they're waiting at a doctor's office or on line in a store; these people are in more of an exploratory mode than searching for specific information per se. Plus, small screens call for new formats and new targeting possibilities. Mobile definitely opens up new opportunities, and we'll likely see billions of dollars shift to this new platform and formats.

JH: What are the biggest opportunities that publishers miss in mobile?

AS: I think it's an exciting time to be a publisher due to the broad range of technologies and executions that exist out there, and becoming familiar with different user experiences, ad formats, and best practices now while mobile is still in its infancy will carry long dividends for publishers.

I think it's an exciting time to be a publisher.

There is also a huge opportunity to dynamically adjust the layout of the website, or app, and capitalize on each traffic source differently. To do this, publishers can create unique treatments just for specific factors such as device, geography, or referral sources like search vs. social, etc.

For example, we've seen a recent increase in mobile traffic that is actually coming from the increase in Facebook referrals to our sites. The Facebook-mobile audience is massively different than other sources of traffic in terms of how many pages they read, time on site, how they interact with sharing tools, and even ads.

JH: eCommerce companies routinely personalize their content for their customers, but publishers have been slow to embrace the algorithm. Can it work for content? Taken to the extreme, can personalization "warp" the content experience? If so, how do you avoid that?

AS: I'm very passionate about a future that is all personalized: "a web of one." I think that there are a few trends that are happening right now that will help showcase the potential of personalization:

I'm very passionate about a future that is all personalized: "a web of one."

Between original content, syndicated content, native content, partner content, etc., there is just a lot for readers to consider reading, and the amount of content to choose from can be overwhelming.

Also, in a world where most of the web is consumed via a 4.5-inch screen, and desktops are seen in museums, it will be harder for users to "find" interesting information. So having information find us in a personalized way will become the key vehicle to driving content consumption and monetization.

New discovery platforms on the market can provide publishers with real-time visibility about how content is performing. Matching specific content to users based on available data will serve as a natural solution to improving performance.

JH: With programmatic advertising, advertisers want to pick and choose the users they target. Others claim ads should be personalized to users based on their behaviors. Who's right?

AS: I think there's room for both in the advertising stack: managed advertising campaigns that use various targeting technologies to surface sponsored content to the right user at the right time, based on their behavior; and a real-time bidding environment where first- and third party data can help to give specific offerings to specific people. If you look in the public market, companies like Google or Facebook already have those two offerings as separate ad products.

JH: Business Insider's traffic is now more than half mobile, which means finding successful ways to monetize mobile is increasingly urgent. Advertisers have been slow to embrace mobile for numerous reasons, including their dependence on flash. But paid content works well, particularly on phones - in part because mobile is such a great content consumption device. Is this the future of mobile advertising? How do you see it evolving?

AS: I think this is an important point. While most people "killing time" on their mobile phones may not click on a banner when they have five minutes to spare, they will consider reading an interesting story that is paid from around the web. I think "in-feed" types of ads will generate a meaningful portion of our advertising revenue in the future. In fact, Taboola has seen mobile revenue quickly increase, and it now represents nearly half of our total revenue.

JH: Taboola does extensive testing on all its ads, all the time. What is the biggest A/B test surprise or win you've had?

AS:I was quite shocked to find that contextual targeting doesn't work as well as we originally thought when we started Taboola. When we recommend a piece of content with the same subject matter a consumer just finished reading, there is a 30% decrease in CTRs. Humanity apparently does not appreciate "more of the same." We prefer to discover new things we may like and never knew existed.

JH: What's the most innovative use of your technology by any partner, whether it's an advertiser or a publisher?

AS: Advanced partners leverage the full breadth of the Taboola platform by doing three key things: monetizing traffic, increasing engagement, and building their audience. Publishers take advantage of all the data Taboola gathers, such as homepage article performance and end-user feedback we collect, and continuously optimize their site while empowering their editorial organization with these learnings. Lastly, more and more publishers are using Taboola to identify different pockets of audiences that have different value/intent to them, and are then able to create unique and personalized Taboola experiences for each group.

Taboola is a premier sponsor of Business Insider's 2014 Ignition: The Future Of Digital event. For more about Taboola and its strategy, visit the company's website.

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