Marketers Want AI Campaign Tools Beyond Google and Meta
Performance marketers are hitting a wall: AI automation works well inside Google and Meta's platforms, but most advertisers want comparable tools for the open web. A new Taboola study found that 80% of advertisers would increase open web spending if agentic AI solutions existed there.
The research surveyed 200 senior performance marketers across the US and UK. It shows that agentic AI adoption has moved beyond experimentation. Google Performance Max is used at scale by 91% of respondents, while Meta Advantage+ is used at scale by 88%.
That adoption is delivering results. About 76% of advertisers said their best-performing AI-powered campaign tool produced moderate to significant performance gains. Real-time optimization toward cost-per-acquisition or return-on-ad-spend goals was the biggest perceived benefit, named by 41% of respondents.
The Open Web Gap
The sophistication of search and social automation has not reached the open web yet. Only 36% of marketers currently use open web campaign management solutions at scale, though 44% are testing or piloting them.
Advertisers are not abandoning walled gardens. They are trying to reduce dependency on them. Three-quarters of marketers said finding a performance channel that delivers results beyond search and social is very or extremely important. That urgency rises with scale: 70% of advertisers spending more than $5 million monthly called it extremely important.
The open web faces real barriers. Taboola found that 74% of respondents cite too many vendors or partner complexity as obstacles, while 71% cite lack of unified attribution and measurement. Brand safety concerns were named by 54%.
What Taboola's Realize+ Addresses
Taboola announced Realize+ in April 2026 as an agentic advertising solution for the open web. It uses Taboola's supply, first-party data, and AI to optimize performance in real time. The platform includes a Decision Engine that reallocates spend and an Element Generator for creative and targeting automation.
The demand signal is strong. Eighty-one percent of respondents agreed they would increase open web investment if it offered automated AI-powered solutions comparable to search and social. Ninety-nine percent said they would allocate some performance budget to the open web if such tools existed, with an average expected allocation of 24%.
Integration, Not Just Optimization
Before shifting budget, marketers should focus on operational fit, not just performance promises. Taboola found that 54% of respondents cite difficulty integrating agentic AI into existing workflows as the top internal barrier to adoption. Among companies spending $1 million to $4.9 million monthly, that figure jumps to 74%.
Larger advertisers are often most eager to diversify, but also least able to add another disconnected platform. The winning solution will need to fit into existing workflows, reporting systems, governance processes, and creative operations.
Three questions matter for any open web performance play:
- Can open web campaigns prove incremental reach, not just cheaper impressions?
- Can attribution hold up against search and social benchmarks?
- Can agentic optimization improve cost-per-acquisition or return-on-ad-spend without becoming another black box?
The market mood is clear: advertisers like agentic AI, but they do not want its benefits trapped inside two or three platforms. For performance teams, the next priority is not just automation. It is finding where automation can create new growth without sacrificing transparency, control, or measurement discipline.
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