Q2 2024 Taboola.com Ltd Earnings Call
Good day and thank you for standing by.
Operator: At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 11 on your telephone, and you will then hear an automated message advising that your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star 11 again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your first speaker today, Jessica Kourakos, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
Jessica Kourakos: Thank you and good morning, everyone, and welcome to Taboola's second quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call. I'm here with Adam Singolda, Taboola's founder and CEO, and Steve Walker, Taboola's CFO. The company issued earnings materials today before the market, and they are available in the investor section of Taboola's website. Now, I'll quickly cover the safe harbor.
Speaker Change: Thank you and good morning everyone and welcome to Taboola's second quarter 2024 earnings conference call. I'm here with Adam Singolda, Taboola's founder and CEO , and Steve Walker, Taboola's CFO .
Speaker Change: The company issued earnings materials today before the market, and they are available in the investor section of Taboola's website.
Jessica Kourakos: Certain statements today, including our expectations for future periods, are forward-looking statements. They are not facts and are subject to material risks and uncertainties described in our SEC filings. These statements are based on currently available information, and we undertake no duty to update them, except as required by law. Today's discussion is also subject to the forward-looking statement limitations in the earnings press release. Future events could differ materially and adversely from those anticipated.
Speaker Change: Now I'll quickly cover the safe harbor.
Speaker Change: Certain statements today, including our expectations for future periods, are forward-looking statements. They are not facts and are subject to material risks and uncertainties described in our SEC filings.
Speaker Change: These statements are based on currently available information and we undertake no duty to update them, except as required by law. Today's discussion is also subject to the forward-looking statement limitations in the earnings press release.
Jessica Kourakos: During this call, we will use terms defined in the earnings release and refer to non-GAAP financial measures. For definitions and reconciliations to GAAP, please refer to the non-GAAP tables in the earnings release posted on our website. With that, I'll turn the call over to Adam.
Speaker Change: Future events could differ materially and adversely from those anticipated. During this call, we will use terms defined in the earnings release and refer to non-GAAP financial measures. For definitions and reconciliations to GAAP, please refer to the non-GAAP tables in the earnings release posted on our website. With that, I'll turn the call over to Adam.
Adam Singolda: Thanks, Jessica. Good morning, everyone, and thank you all for joining us.
Adam Singolda: Q2 was another strong quarter, beating guidance on both XTAC and adjusted EBITDA, and with a meaningful cash flow conversion. We saw XTEC grow 21% versus last year to $150 million. Adjusted EBITDA of $37 million, growing 138%. And free cash flow was over $26 million in Q2, growing 237% and demonstrating a 70% conversion from adjusted EBITDA.
Adam: Q2 was another strong quarter, beating guidance on both XTAC and adjusted EBITDA, and with a meaningful cash flow conversion.
Adam: We saw XTREC grow 21% versus last year to $150 million, adjusted EBITDA of $37 million, growing 138%.
Speaker Change: And free cash flow was over $26 million in Q2, growing 237% and demonstrating 70% conversion from adjusted EBITDA.
Adam Singolda: Not only does this year represent meaningful growth versus last year, but it shows our growth rates are accelerating, which is great to see. This is a clear result of our investment in AI, the unique data we have access to, and the laser focus we have on our strategy and execution. Similar to last quarter, over 100% of our free cash flow was spent on share buybacks, representing our continued commitment to shareholder returns and confidence in our long-term strategy.
Speaker Change: Not only does this year represent meaningful growth versus last year, it shows our growth rates are accelerating, which is great to see.
Speaker Change: Similar to last quarter, over 100% of our free cash flow was spent on share buybacks, representing our continued commitment to shareholder returns and confidence in our long-term strategy.
Adam Singolda: With a strong first half of the year, 2024 is shaping up to be a transformational year for Taboola. As a result, we are reiterating our 2024 guidance for XTAC, Adjusted EBITDA, and Free Cash Flow, which continues to project meaningful, accelerated growth in 2024 versus last year. And to put things in perspective, XTAC is growing 25% versus last year to $667 million, adjusted EBITDA of over $200 million, growing approximately 2x in 2023, and over $100 million of free cash flow, which is also 2x in 2023.
Speaker Change: With a strong first half of the year, 2024 is shaping up to be a transformational year for Taboola.
Speaker Change: As a result, we are reiterating our 2024 guidance for XTAC, adjusted EBITDA, and free cash flow, which continues to project meaningful, accelerated growth in 2024 versus last year.
Speaker Change: Adjusted EBITDA of over $200 million, growing approximately 2x 2023, and over $100 million of free cash flow, which is also 2x 2023 levels.
Adam Singolda: 2024 continues to be an important year for us as we progress towards building one of the most scalable companies on the open web and setting a strong foundation for 2025 and onward. When looking at our core business, we have two main focus areas for the remainder of 2024. One, ramping up budgets now that Apple and Taboola Select are launched and Yahoo's advertiser migration is complete. The second priority is making advertisers successful by improving retention rates and growing NDR spend, which in turn helps us grow our yield.
Speaker Change: When looking at our core business, we have two main focus areas for the remainder of 2024. One, ramping ad budgets, now that Apple and Taboola Select were launched, and Yahoo's advertiser migration is complete.
Speaker Change: The second priority is making advertisers successful by improving retention rates and growing NDR spend, which in return help us grow our yield.
Adam Singolda: Last quarter, I talked about our focus on driving performance advertising, and we've had clear momentum here, which is reflected in our results and guidance with x-tax growth rates improving in Q2 and in Q3. With the rollout of Taboola Select across our top publishers, including Apple, now launched, and optimizing our performance on Yahoo, we see a big opportunity focusing on quality moving forward and bringing those budgets into the open web at scale. Our initiatives to attract Tier 1 brands and agencies showed strong growth year over year and accounted for 25% of revenue in Q2.
Speaker Change: Last quarter, I talked about our focus on driving performance advertising and we've had clear momentum here, which is reflected in our results and guidance with x-tax growth rates improving in Q2 and in Q3.
Speaker Change: This growth is driven by our focus on premium advertising as a company while driving results.
Speaker Change: With the rollout of Taboola Select across our top publishers, Apple now launched, and optimizing our performance on Yahoo, we see a big opportunity focusing on quality moving forward and bringing those budgets into the open web at scale.
Adam Singolda: Just this past quarter, we secured commitments from major advertisers in financial services, health, and wellness, as well as online publishers, which represent multi-millions in ad spend. Additionally, our demand out of China has more than doubled versus the prior year and shows great traction in the region. Maximized conversions, our first AI-powered bidding technology, continues to make significant strides, with adoption now approaching 70% of our revenue, up approximately 10 points from where it was in Q1.
Speaker Change: Just this past quarter, we secured commitments from major advertisers in financial services, health, and wellness, as well as online publishers, which represent multi-millions in ad spend.
Speaker Change: Additionally, our demand out of China has more than doubled versus prior year and shows great traction in the region.
Speaker Change: Our investments in AI to drive advertiser success are a big part of our momentum.
Speaker Change: Maximized conversions, our first AI powered bidding technology, continues to make significant strides, with adoption now approaching 70% of our revenue, up approximately 10 points from what it was in Q1.
Speaker Change: Our efforts are concentrated on enhancing retention rates and increasing budget allocations, also known as NDR.
Speaker Change: Looking ahead, we continue to focus on advancing our AI models, leveraging our unique data to identify and match users with advertisers, driving results at scale.
Speaker Change: This type of performance we're seeing with our advertisers is exactly what the industry needs. You see, in the open web, there is no scalable bridge for advertisers to reach the open web with a focus on performance, and we are hard at work making it happen.
Speaker Change: More about AI. And without saying too much, I can tell you that we have a new generative AI offering coming to market soon.
Adam Singolda: I'm happy to say we're done migrating Yahoo's advertisers, and we're hard at work growing budgets into the second half of the year. We keep seeing good performance from advertisers who have migrated, as demonstrated in one case study featured in our shareholder letter, where a leading hotel group took advantage of Taboola on Yahoo and saw 77% lower CPA than their target goal and 36% lower CPA than the next best performing channel. These enhancements resulted in over 20% increase in time spent on the Taboola News platform compared to Q1 2024.
Speaker Change: Now I know all of you are thinking about Yahoo, so let me give you an update. I'm happy to say we're done migrating Yahoo's advertisers, and we're hard at work growing budgets into the second half of the year.
Speaker Change: as demonstrated in one case study featured in our shareholder letter where a leading hotel group took advantage of Taboola on Yahoo and saw 77% lower CPA than their target goal and 36% lower CPA than the next best-performing channel.
Speaker Change: As a reminder, advertiser success drives yield growth, which bolsters our competitive advantage as well as our profitability.
Speaker Change: Turning now to our growth engines, Taboola News, e-commerce, and our bidder.
Speaker Change: Our product innovation and commercial wins continue to drive good momentum and it shows in our financial results. In Q2, we signed a significant, exclusive, and global Taboola News OEM partnership.
Speaker Change: Our product team is focused on testing new video experiences as well as various new utilities such as weather, sports, and others.
Speaker Change: These enhancements resulted in over 20% increase in time spent on the Taboola News platform compared to Q1 2024.
Speaker Change: Moving to e-commerce, we delivered another strong quarter. This success is driven by outstanding advertiser revenue retention in our core markets and the expansion into new high-growth advertising channels and international markets.
Speaker Change: We call that Shop Your Likes. It is showing amazing potential and it is already contributing to our growth. This early success positions us well to keep growing e-commerce in the years ahead.
Speaker Change: Moving to our bidding product, which is where we use our unique data, AI, and direct advertiser relationships to build a supply that is not exclusively ours.
Speaker Change: Our efforts are now focused on integrating with high-traffic platforms such as Outlook, Casual Games, and Microsoft 365.
Speaker Change: By extending our technology to these new areas, we aim to enhance our advertising capabilities and deliver even more targeted and effective campaigns across Microsoft's diverse ecosystem.
Adam Singolda: In summary, 2024 is shaping up to be a transformational year for Taboola, with a strong Q2, bidding guidance on both XTAC and Adjusted EBITDA, reiterating our 2024 guidance for XTAC, adjusted EBITDA, and free cash flow, and accelerating growth metrics in Q2 and for the year.
Speaker Change: In summary, 2024 is shaping up to be a transformational year for Taboola, with a strong Q2, bidding guidance on both XTAC and Adjusted EBITDA.
Speaker Change: There is a lot of good momentum in the advertising industry. I believe this market will reach a trillion dollars in years to come with more and more companies around the world looking to tap into advertising in a big way. Utility apps, streamers, OEM, and more.
Speaker Change: There's a lot of good work ahead of us. It's a big step up financially and strategically for us, and we are ready. With that, let me pass the call to Steve to review our financials and outlook in more detail.
Steve: Thanks Adam and good morning everyone. As Adam mentioned we've had a strong first half of the year and are well positioned to continue this momentum into the second half.
Steve: Q2 results were strong and showed accelerating growth across all key metrics.
Adam Singolda: XTAC growth in Q2 was primarily driven by an increase in advertiser spend, particularly with Tier 1 premium advertisers and growth in the availability of premium supply through our platform. Turning to the balance sheet, our net cash balance remains robust. We ended Q2 with a net cash position of $29.5 million, even after share repurchase.
Steve: XTAC growth in Q2 was primarily driven by an increase in advertiser spend, particularly with Tier 1 premium advertisers and growth in the availability of premium supply through our platform.
Speaker Change: Thank you.
Speaker Change: Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter of $37.2 million was up 138% year-over-year and reflected a 25% Adjusted EBITDA margin.
Speaker Change: Free cash flow of $26.2 million benefited from the stronger than projected adjusted EBITDA.
Speaker Change: Q2 operating expenses of $122.4 million were essentially flat with the year-ago period, demonstrating our strong focus on cost discipline.
Speaker Change: The GAAP debt loss for Q2 of $4.3 million narrowed significantly from $31.3 million for Q2 2023.
Speaker Change: Q2 2024 Gap Net Loss included amortization of intangibles of $15.8 million.
Speaker Change: In terms of cash generation, we had approximately $38.8 million in operating cash flow in Q2 and free cash flow of $26.2 million.
Speaker Change: This includes net publisher prepayments, which contributed $23.6 million to cash flow, and interest payments on our long-term debt, which used $3.7 million.
Speaker Change: Cash and cash equivalents totaled $182.2 million, remaining above our long-term loan balance of $152.7 million.
Speaker Change: Regarding share repurchases, we bought back $26.7 million of shares in Q2. We still have $66 million remaining under our previously announced $100 million share repurchase plan.
Speaker Change: Our goal remains to at least offset dilution and maintain our share count compared to Q1 2023 levels.
Speaker Change: Now turning to the future, I'm confident in the ongoing trends within our business and the capabilities of our team to sustain strong and accelerated growth. We've had a solid start to the year and we're optimistic about the opportunities that lie ahead.
Adam Singolda: Our guidance reflects strong expectations for Q3 and the remainder of the year. We continue to expect yield growth to turn positive in 2024 as we continue to ramp advertising spend due to our advertiser success initiatives and as contextual data increases due to our increased scale. And XTAC gross profit is expected to be in the $656 to $679 million range. This is primarily due to a test we'll be conducting as part of our ongoing collaboration with Yahoo!
Speaker Change: Our guidance reflects strong expectations for Q3 and the remainder of the year.
Speaker Change: We continue to expect yield growth to turn positive in 2024, as we continue to ramp advertising spend due to our advertiser success initiatives, and as contextual data increases due to our increased scale.
Speaker Change: With a strong first half and continued optimism for the year, we are reaffirming our annual guidance for gross profit, XTAC gross profit, adjusted EBITDA, and non-GAAP net income.
Speaker Change: As previously stated, gross profit is projected to be between $535 and $555 million.
Speaker Change: And XTAC gross profit is expected to be in the $656 to $679 million range.
Speaker Change: Our adjusted EBITDA guidance remains over $200 million, and we expect free cash flow to exceed $100 million, representing roughly a doubling of both metrics compared to 2023.
Speaker Change: Specifically, we will be testing some new ad formats on a portion of Yahoo's inventory to see how they perform for advertisers and how much further financial growth we can generate.
Adam Singolda: During this test period, that revenue will be recognized as a TAC offset rather than revenue. Therefore, our XTAC will remain approximately the same, but our revenue will be reduced. For the third quarter, we are issuing the following guidelines.
Speaker Change: Therefore, our XTAC will remain approximately the same, but our revenue will be reduced.
Speaker Change: As I have said many times in the past, X-TAC is the metric on which we focus and measure ourselves and this change does not affect our expected 25% year-over-year increase in X-TAC.
Speaker Change: I would also note that there will be no change to adjusted EBITDA, free cash flow, or any other key metrics as a result of this test.
Adam Singolda: We expect revenues to be between $416 million and $446 million, and gross profit from $129 million to $139 million. In conclusion, we are confident in our ability to expand and scale our business while adhering to a disciplined and balanced spending strategy. Our focus is on improving efficiency and profitability, even as we continue to invest in our growth. We believe that our ongoing investments in technology will yield long-term benefits for our publishers and advertisers, which will show up in our financial performance and, therefore, benefit our shareholders. Our momentum is stronger than ever, with key milestones including the completion of Yahoo's advertiser migration, our ongoing partnership with Apple, and a major new OEM deal for Taboola News.
Speaker Change: Gross profit from $129 to $139 million.
Speaker Change: Our focus is on improving efficiency and profitability, even as we continue to invest in our growth. We believe that our ongoing investments in technology will yield long-term benefits for our publishers and advertisers, which will show up in our financial performance and therefore benefit our shareholders.
Speaker Change: And with that, let's move to Q&A. Operator, can you please open the line for questions?
Operator: Please stand by while we compile the Q&A raft.
Speaker Change: Our first question comes from the line of Laura Martin of Needham. Your line is now open.
Speaker Change: Hi there. Oh my God, what great numbers you guys. Congratulations. Zero cost growth on over 20% revenue growth. Congratulations. Fabulous. Thank you.
Speaker Change: So, you're talking about premium, but I would have said, Adam, that your entire business was built on these premium news websites. And so, when you're talking about creating premium...
Adam: Yeah, good morning and thanks for the question and kind words. So I think, you know, the way I think about it is the open web always carries kind of a premium element to it as compared to UGC. You can imagine an advertiser campaign on a social network.
Speaker Change: There's always the risk of user-generated content above or below it, which is adjacent to it, and that's a risk.
Speaker Change: And, you know, putting your ad on publishers such as Disney and NBC and CBS , I think, always carries an editorial voice, which is, by definition, has a premium carried with it.
Speaker Change: So I'm a big believer that, you know, that stands.
Speaker Change: Apple, and then the launch of Taboola Select is that if you're able to create on those great publishers independent kind of standalone ad units
Speaker Change: and other big brands that will pay even more to be just on their own. And that's a big... it's now about over 20% of our revenue. And we think we have an opportunity to attract a lot of dollars from brands who historically will not come to us because of that.
Operator: Okay. Okay. Okay. That makes sense.
Laura Martin: And then could you give us just a little bit of a deep dive on what's going on with Apple? What countries are you in? When you think about the progress you've made in the oldest countries with Apple, what have you seen in Apple News in terms of the ramp, in terms of revenue growth rates? What's different about the advertisers you're getting on Apple News? Could you talk about Apple specifically, and the kinds of progress you're making there?
Speaker Change: Thank you. Thank you.
Speaker Change: The countries of UN, when you think about the progress you've made on the oldest countries with Apple, what have you seen in Apple News in terms of the ramp, in terms of
Speaker Change: and they're going to talk about revenue growth rates, what's different about the advertisers you're getting on Apple News. Could you talk about Apple specifically, the kinds of progress you're making there?
Adam Singolda: Sure, I can address that. Hi Laura.
Speaker Change: Sure, I can address that. Hi, Laura.
Adam Singolda: So I think what we've announced publicly is that it is now rolled out in all four countries where Apple News and Apple Stocks are active, which is the U.S., the U.K., Canada, and Australia. So that is, while it's not a global rollout per se, it is everywhere that Apple operates that business for Apple. And as we've said in the past, what we're basically doing is providing advertising. So if you swipe right on your iPhone and you find the news app, and you click on one of the articles, in that article, you'll see ads, usually from us. There is NBC Universal also sometimes provides ads there, but it's usually us. And then if you go back to the news feed, in that news feed, you'll see ads as well. And those are us as well.
Speaker Change: I think what we've announced publicly is that we're now rolled out in all four countries where Apple News and Apple stocks are active, which is the U.S., the U.K., Canada, and Australia.
Speaker Change: So that is, while it's not a global rollout per se, it is everywhere that they operate that business for Apple.
Speaker Change: Usually us. There is NBCUniversal also sometimes provides ads there, but it's usually us.
Adam Singolda: In terms of where we are, we haven't disclosed specifics on the ramp or the financials. What we have said is that it will be a ramp, meaning it's not a turn it on and you immediately get a bunch of revenue. We actually have to sell demand specifically for this. So it'll be kind of a ramp over time. We're making good progress there.
Speaker Change: And then if you go back to the news feed, in that news feed you'll see ads as well, and those are us as well.
Adam Singolda: We're excited about it because, as you asked in the first question about premium, it is the ultimate premium experience for advertisers. It's one of the only ways they can get onto native Apple apps and advertise their products and services. So it's exciting for advertisers. And what we think the biggest impact for our business, we've said that we think this could be, Apple could be one of our biggest publishers over time.
Speaker Change: It's exciting for advertisers and, you know, what we think the biggest impact for our business, we've said that we think this can be, Apple can be one of our biggest publishers over time. I say one of, it's not Yahoo level, but it can be a good size.
Adam Singolda: I say one of because it's not at Yahoo level, but it can be a good size, but it especially helps us sell premium advertisers. And that's what we're seeing, getting a lot more premium advertisers interested in our supply.
Speaker Change: But it especially helps us sell premium advertisers, and that's what we're seeing, getting a lot more premium advertisers interested in our supply.
Adam Singolda: Yeah, but one fun story is that Justin can, and we spent some time with the Apple team, and if there's ever a moment when you're so happy to be proud of your job, it was when we sat together, and they shared how much they were excited and happy with our partnership, and that was nice to see, and also for the team to be in that moment. Thank you very much. Great numbers.
Justin: Yeah, but one fun story is that Justin can and we spent some time on the Apple team and if there's ever a moment when you're so happy to be proud of your job is we sat together and they shared how much they're excited and happy with our partnership and that was nice to see.
Speaker Change: Go to www.Flydreamers.co.uk to purchase a free audio or video disc.
Speaker Change: Thank you.
Speaker Change: Our next question comes from the line of Jason Helfstein of Oppenheimer and Co. Your line is now open.
Brent Johnson: Hey, thanks for taking the question. Two questions. Can you provide the Yahoo!
Jason Helstein: Hey, thanks for taking the question. Two questions.
Jason Helfstein: Can you provide the Yahoo! contribution in the quarter? I mean, it was $100 million in the first quarter.
Jason Helfstein: And then just any kind of, has your view changed on the contribution for the full year?
Speaker Change: And then second, you're not changing the outlook for Revenue X-TAC. Maybe just give some color.
Speaker Change: specific areas you're seeing. Are you seeing any areas of weakness? We're hearing some, you know, pockets of weakness from other companies in the ad market versus kind of specific areas of strength you're seeing. Thank you.
Jason Helfstein: contribution in the quarter? I mean, it was $100 million in the first quarter. I mean, if you don't want to be exact, you can say kind of plus or minus that. And then just any kind of, has your view changed on the contribution for the full year? And second, you're not changing the outlook for Revenue X-TAC. Maybe just give some color, specific areas you're seeing. Are you seeing any areas of weakness? We're hearing some pockets of weakness from other companies in the ad market versus the kind of specific areas of strength you're seeing. Thank you.
Adam Singolda: Sure, I can start with kind of like a high-level, and then Stephen can get into numbers. So overall, Jason, in terms of the YAL partnership, you know, we're very happy. On the one hand, I think it's given us special access to supply, special access to data, and that's something advertisers want to buy, and it performs well. I published some case studies in the letter.
Speaker Change: with kind of like high-level and then Stephen can get into numbers.
Adam Singolda: So I think as it relates to our strategy to keep growing supply that is unique, data that is unique, and specifically works for performance advertisers, that's something that will play an important role not only this year but in years to come. I also think it validates, you know, we just spoke about Apple, but as great consumer companies are considering tapping into the advertising space, Yahoo, Apple, and others will play an important role in just validating that Taboola can be a good partner. So from that perspective, I'm happy.
Speaker Change: So I think as it relates to our strategy to keep growing supply that is unique, data that is unique.
Speaker Change: and specifically works for performance advertisers, that's something that will play an important role, not only this year, but in years to come.
Speaker Change: I also think it validates, you know, we just spoke about Apple, but as...
Speaker Change: Yahoo and Apple and others will play an important role in just validating that Taboola can be a good partner. So from that perspective, I'm happy.
Adam Singolda: I think as it relates to so far. I mentioned that the advertising migration is finished, and we're seeing great results. Again, we published some case studies. We're laser-focused on making sure that advertisers get to benefit from this partnership, and our main focus in H2 is to grow budgets from advertisers as we get into Q3 and Q4. Steve, maybe you want to speak more about the numbers? Yeah. And Jason, I think we've said-
Speaker Change: I think, as relates to so far, I mentioned that advertised immigration is finished.
Stephen Walker: Yeah, and Jason, I think we've said that, you know, Yahoo! is part of our core now. We're not really breaking out numbers there, so we won't get into real specifics on that. In terms of your second question, though, about areas of weakness and strength that we're seeing, we continue to see strength in e-commerce. So that's been kind of an ongoing theme for multiple quarters now, where we continue to see increased performance in our e-commerce units.
Steve: Steve, maybe you want to speak more about the numbers. Yeah. So, and Jason, I think we've said that, you know, Yahoo is part of our core now. We're not really breaking out numbers there, so we won't get into real specifics on that.
Speaker Change: In terms of your second question, though, about areas of weakness and strength that we're seeing...
Stephen Walker: So that's been a particular area of strength. Obviously, our growth this year is being driven also by the ramp of Yahoo!, and so we're seeing a nice influx of high premium demand, premium demand, on our site, on our platform.
Speaker Change: increased performance in our e-commerce units.
Stephen Walker: So that's been an area of strength, kind of just generally premium. I don't think that there are specific areas that I can call out that we're seeing particular weakness. There are always ups and downs in many areas. So, you know, in any given quarter, we have some areas that we didn't see quite the performance, but fortunately, we're diversified enough that it's not something that really I would call out as a
Speaker Change: Premium demand on our site, on our platform. So that's been an area of strength kind of just generally premium.
Speaker Change: I don't think that there's specific areas that I call out that we're seeing particular weakness.
Speaker Change: There's always ups and downs in many areas.
Stephen Walker: The one other thing I would say is, obviously, we see strengths in certain geographies. For instance, China has been a market for us that's been particularly strong in terms of advertising spend, not for the Chinese market domestically, but more globally spending on U.S. supply and the like. So, you know, geographically, we see some strengths and weaknesses as well, but nothing, again, on the weakness side that really jumps out.
Speaker Change: For instance, China has been a market for us that's been particularly strong in terms of advertising spend.
Speaker Change: Not for the Chinese market domestically, but more globally spending on U.S. supply and the like. So, you know, geographically we see some strengths and weaknesses as well, but nothing again on the weakness side that really jumps out.
Jason: Thanks, Jason.
Speaker Change: Thank you. One moment for our next question.
Speaker Change: Our next question comes from the line of James Kopelman of T.D. Cohen. Your line is now open.
James Kopelman: Good morning. Thanks for taking the time to answer the question. The first one is for either Adam or Steve. Now that advertisers are migrating and Yahoo is ramping nicely, can you help us think about a normalized growth rate for the Taboola core business or for core plus growth areas like news and e-commerce relative to the historical growth framework that you've provided? And by normalized, I mean looking at, say, 18 to 24 months, what do you see as the ongoing growth opportunity for your combined business over time? And then I have a follow-up question for Steve.
James Kopelman: Good morning. Thanks for taking the question. The first one is for either Adam or Steve. Now that advertisers are migrating and Yahoo is ramping nicely, can you help us think about a normalized growth rate for the Taboola core business or for core plus growth areas like news and e-commerce?
James Kopelman: relative to the historical growth framework that you've provided. And by normalized, I mean looking outside, you know, 18 to 24 months, what do you see as the ongoing growth opportunity for your combined business over time? And then I have a follow-up for Steve.
Adam Singolda: Sure, I can address that. Hi James, how are you?
Adam: Sure, I can address that.
Steve: And we want to see that kind of consistently each year with a lot of that growth coming from increased ad spend and driving higher yields.
Steve: based on all of our investments in advertiser success and the like.
Steve: Great, and then a follow-up I guess also for you Steve. You mentioned cost efficiencies as a continuing focus. What are some of the biggest factors driving your ability to effectively manage these cost lines as you did so well in the second quarter despite the strong revenue growth?
Stephen Walker: Yeah, so that's a good question. So I think there are a couple of things that are helping with our efficiency over time. So one of the new supply that we are bringing on right now is highly scaled supply. So I've said this in the past, for instance, Yahoo being one big publisher for us doesn't take as much to support as, you know, the number of smaller publishers that would be required to get to that level of revenue.
Steve: You know the number you know that the 5,000 smaller publishers that would be required to get to that level of revenue. So you know just scale of our supply helps.
Stephen Walker: So, you know, just the scale of our supply helps. Also, some of the investments that we're doing in our technology platform to help advertisers succeed can help us be more efficient as well. So, for instance, we've done some demos of this, and Adam has talked about it, some of the generative AI tools that we have now for advertisers to automatically create creatives and headlines and do a lot of the things that they found difficult previously. It helps with productivity for the advertiser, helps them do more things on their own, so we have to support them less, so that's helping us with our efficiency as well.
Speaker Change: Also, some of the investments that we're doing in our technology platform to help advertisers succeed can help us be more efficient as well. So, for instance, we've done some demos of this, and Adam has talked about it. Some of the generative AI tools that we have now for advertisers to automatically create creatives and headlines.
Adam: Do a lot of the things that they found difficult previously helps
Stephen Walker: And then I think in general, obviously, as we scale the business as a whole, scale just helps you become more efficient on a cost basis. For instance, we don't need extra engineers to support our core business even as it gets larger because there's a certain baseline level of support that you need, and you don't have to scale that up, so the scale itself helps. So I think those are the three areas I'd call out that are kind of allowing us to grow without increasing costs at the same pace.
Adam: So that's helping us with our efficiency as well. And then I think in general, obviously, as we scale the business as a whole, scale just helps you become more efficient on a cost basis naturally. For instance,
Adam: So I think those are the three areas I'd call out that are kind of allowing us to grow without increasing costs at the same pace.
Stephen Walker: Great. Thanks, Steve. I appreciate the extra color.
Operator: Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Zach Cummins of B. Reilly Securities. Your line is now open.
Adam: Our next question comes from the line of Zach Cummins of B. Reilly Securities. Your line is now open.
Speaker Change: any sort of incremental learning that you
Adam Singolda: So here are a few thoughts on that. One, what we're learning from this size of partnership and working with these great advertisers, and to me, really what I'm learning about the industry is that on the back of the pandemic, recession, the world going through whatever it's going through, the focus advertisers of all sides have on performance, just mid-funnel and lower funnel, to make sure that whatever money they spend works is just unbelievable to me to see. There's no more room for wasting money, so let's spend and hope for the best. Let's get a bottle of wine over dinner and do some RFPs. Those days are just gone.
Speaker Change: Yeah, so a few thoughts on that.
Adam Singolda: You're seeing advertisers of all sizes. You're seeing teams dedicated to understanding and measuring the value of spend. And I think this is, for us, very reassuring as it relates to our strategy to be the performance bridge for the open web and for advertisers on all sides to be able to spend on these great publishers. So that's one thing. And I mentioned it earlier; we're seeing this opportunity with new formats and new placements in a way that is new to us.
Speaker Change: And I think this is, for us, very reassuring as it relates to our strategy to be the performance bridge for the open web and for advertisers of all sizes to be able to spend on these great publishers. So that's one thing.
Adam Singolda: You know, in many ways, most of Taboola's business pre-Yahoo was at the bottom of the article, and most of Yahoo's business is the homepage and mail and new formats and new placements. And that's unique and special. And that helps us understand that different formats, different placements, and different environments can create new opportunities for advertisers to reach the open web, still looking for performance. So that's something that's very unique, and as well as thinking about the future, I think we're gonna be laser focused on this type of dynamics where we have more, not only just supply, but unique supply, and unique data that can perform for advertisers. So I would say, you know, premium, unique formats, but mainly the focus of performance from different types of advertisers is now more apparent to me than ever.
Zachary Cummins: I understand. That's helpful.
Stephen Walker: And Steve, just my one follow-up question is, and it's really helpful that you gave some insight to this within the script, but can you just talk about the dynamics that are lowering your gross revenue outlook? It seems like a testing phase with Yahoo. Is that something that will eventually revert back, and we'll get a much more normalized conversion from gross revenue to exact gross profit?
Speaker Change: And that's unique and special, and that helps us understand that different formats, different placements, and different environments can create new opportunities for advertisers to reach the open web, still looking for performance.
Speaker Change: Some insight to this within the script, but can you just talk about the dynamics that are lowering?
Stephen Walker: Yeah so first of all yes it will revert back so it's a short-term test that we're doing with Yahoo and as I mentioned in my prepared remarks we basically are testing new ad formats on some of their inventory to see if we can drive even better yields and even better advertiser performance and during that test we're recognizing the revenue as a TAC offset just because of the way that we set up the test and that's the you know the fun of accounting and therefore our x-tax should not be affected but it affected gross revenue so and obviously it doesn't affect adjust EBITDA or anything else so it's really just a technical accounting thing related to the way we set up this test with Yahoo and yes it will revert back we haven't disclosed exactly well I guess I can say it should revert back early next year understood
Speaker Change: even better yields and even better advertiser performance.
Speaker Change: And during that test, we're recognizing the revenue as a TAC offset just because of the way that we set up the test. And that's the, you know, the fun of accounting. And therefore, our X-TAC should not be affected, but it affected gross revenue.
Zachary Cummins: Okay. Well, thanks for taking my questions and best of luck with the rest of the quarter.
Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Matt Condon of Citizens JMP. Your line is now open.
Speaker Change: Thank you.
Speaker Change: Thank you.
Matthew Condon: Thank you for taking my questions. My first one is just on mass conversions.
Matthew Condon: You guys are approaching 70% of revenue. You know, as this product becomes more widely adopted, you know, what are the next key priority, maybe key product priority areas that you guys are focused on driving improved yields? And then my second one, is this under a renewed partnership with Microsoft in the quarter? I know you guys are expanding the bidder to other areas. Just what can we expect from this over time from a financial perspective, or what's the ramp there? What are you guys hoping for? Thank you so much. Sure.
Adam Singolda: Sure, I can start. So, advertiser success initiatives, as you know, that's our main focus as a company, as we believe there's so much growth for us this year and next year, given our unique access to supply already. One, we're happy to see that the adoption keeps going up from 60 to 70%. That's a significant step up from Q1.
Speaker Change: Thank you so much.
Adam Singolda: The second thing that I mentioned in the letter, which is impressive, is that not only more advertisers are using it, but the amount of campaigns that are using max conversion has doubled. So, now you're basically seeing more engagement with clients, you're seeing more engagement on a per-campaign basis, and this is all driven by our AI investment. And what we like to see here are essentially two things.
Speaker Change: So now you're seeing basically more engagement with clients, you're seeing more engagement on a per-campaign basis, and this is all driven by our AI investment.
Adam Singolda: We want to see retention rates going up, as in it's easier to become a successful Taboola advertiser or client, and we want to see NDR going up, which means that your spend with us is going up over time. I did mention that we're seeing double-digit NDR growth over the last Q1 versus Q2, and that's very encouraging. And as it relates to what's coming after, first of all, we're not done. I did mention Adbee, which is a Gen AI initiative, in my letter. It was a tease that relates to what we believe is a big friction point for advertisers in the ecosystem in general.
Speaker Change: And what we like to see here is essentially two things. We want to see retention rates going up.
Speaker Change: As in, it's easier to become a successful Taboola advertiser or client.
Speaker Change: I did mention that we're seeing double-digit NDR rising over the last Q1 versus Q2, and that's very encouraging. And as it relates to, you know, what's coming after, so first of all, we're not done.
Speaker Change: I did mention Abbey, which is a Gen-AI initiative in my letter. It was a piece that relates to what we believe is a big friction point.
Adam Singolda: So, you should stay tuned for an exciting Q3, not Apple launching a new iPhone, but Taboola launching Adbee. So, this is all coming up, and that will help advertisers be successful with Gen AI initiatives. And then later, we're working on introducing max revenue, which will allow advertisers to have basically multiple pixels to maximize revenue across a variety of products they may want to sell. This will come after. So, we're very hard at work.
Speaker Change: for advertisers in the ecosystem in general, so you should stay tuned for us.
Speaker Change: An exciting Q3, not Apple launching a new iPhone, Taboola launching Abby. So this is all coming up.
Speaker Change: And that will help advertisers be successful with...
Speaker Change: And then later, we're working on introducing max revenue, which will allow advertisers to have basically multiple kind of pixel.
Speaker Change: to maximize revenue across a variety of products they may want to sell.
Speaker Change: This is this will come after so we're very hard at work You know keep rolling out next conversion. We're going to roll out to IBM Q3 stay tuned It's going to be really really cool, and then max revenue will come after
Adam Singolda: Keep rolling out max conversion. We're going to roll out Adbee in Q3. Stay tuned. It's going to be really, really cool. And then max revenue will come after that. So, all of those things, what we want to see on track is retention rates in NDR. And then to your second question about Microsoft.
Adam Singolda: And then to your second question about Microsoft, yeah, so we are happy to say that we have renewed our partnership with them. The renewal comes with some interesting new opportunities to actually bid on new supply areas that we didn't have access to before, such as Outlook, Casual Games, and Microsoft 365. So we think this is a great opportunity. I think we teased this a little bit in previous quarters where we said we thought there were some back half growth opportunities with Microsoft. That's what these are. It's basically expanding what we do with Microsoft to new areas. So we think that's exciting, and we're looking forward to having access to that new inventory.
Speaker Change: And then to your second question about Microsoft, yeah, so we are happy to say that we renewed our partnership with them.
Speaker Change: The renewal comes with some interesting new opportunities to actually bid on new supply areas that we didn't have access to before, such as Outlook, Casual Games, Microsoft 365. So we think this is a great opportunity. I think we...
Speaker Change: Teased this a little bit in past quarters where we said we thought there were some back half growth opportunities with Microsoft. That's what these are. It's basically expanding what we do with Microsoft to new areas. So we think that's exciting and we're looking forward to having access to that new inventory.
Speaker Change: Thank you.
Operator: This concludes the question and answer session. I would now like to turn it back to Adam Singolda, CEO, for closing remarks.
Speaker Change: Thank you. This concludes the question and answer session. I would now like to turn it back to Adam Singolda, CEO , for closing remarks.
Adam Singolda: Thank you everyone for joining us this morning and for your support. As you can sense, we're very excited to close out the first half of the year with another strong quarter, with our growth rate accelerating. And as I look ahead, there's a big opportunity for us, as there's such a gap in the market, for advertisers to reach the premium open web and drive results at scale, while driving results and growth for journalism. So I can tell you there's something that...
Adam Singolda: Thank you everyone for joining us this morning and for your support.
Adam Singolda: for advertisers to reach premium open web and drive results at scale.