Teads reports 10-15% pageview decline as AI reshapes publisher economics

On November 6, 2025, Teads Holding Co. announced third-quarter financial results that exposed a structural challenge facing digital publishers: pageviews are declining faster than expected, driven by artificial intelligence summaries and changes in search behavior. The company reported that publishers across its network experienced approximately 10-15% pageview declines during the third quarter, according to CEO David Kostman during the earnings call.

The admission marks one of the first times a major advertising technology platform has quantified the traffic impact publishers face from AI-powered search features. Teads works with thousands of premium publishers globally, giving the company direct visibility into website traffic patterns across diverse content categories and geographic markets.

"The decline of page views is accelerating because of AI summaries and changes in discovery," Kostman stated during the November 6 earnings call. The company disclosed that revenue reached $318.8 million in the third quarter, representing 42% growth year-over-year on an as-reported basis but a 15% decline on a pro forma basis after accounting for the Outbrain merger completed earlier in 2025.

The pageview decline directly impacts Teads' business model, which depends on serving advertisements across publisher websites. Chief Financial Officer Jason Kiviat explained that traffic reductions represented one component of a $10 million revenue headwind during the quarter. "Publishers, we saw a decline of approximately 10-15% in page views during Q3 2025," Kiviat confirmed, with single-digit declines in in-app traffic following similar trends from prior quarters.

Publishers have responded to falling pageviews by attempting to increase revenue per thousand impressions, but these pricing adjustments have proven insufficient to offset volume losses. The company noted that while publishers seek higher RPMs to compensate for traffic declines, the overall impact on advertising revenues remains negative across the platform.

The traffic challenges align with broader industry patterns documented throughout 2025. Research from Ahrefs published in April 2025 found that when AI Overviews appear in search results, the first organic link loses an average of 34.5% of clicks. Additional studies have documented declines reaching 54.6% for certain query types when AI-generated summaries provide direct answers within search interfaces.

Google Network advertising revenues declined 1% year-over-year to $7.4 billion during the second quarter of 2025, according to Alphabet's July earnings announcement, reflecting reduced monetization opportunities for publishers participating in AdSense, AdMob, and Google Ad Manager programs. The decline suggests that reduced traffic from Google Search is beginning to impact publisher monetization capabilities across the advertising ecosystem.

BuzzFeed reported on the same day as Teads that direct traffic to BuzzFeed.com now surpasses both Facebook and Google referrals, with direct visits, internal referrals, and app usage accounting for 63% of traffic. The shift away from external platform dependency comes as Facebook referral traffic has plummeted 50% for publishers over the past year, while Google dominates 63.41% of all U.S. website referrals but increasingly keeps users within its own ecosystem through AI features.

Teads' demand-side platform business experienced particular pressure during the quarter. A small number of large clients exited the DSP, leading to a $5 million decline in Ex-TAC revenue, which represents approximately two-thirds of the DSP segment. "The revenue impact of these factors has been larger than expected, most notably in our DSP business, where a few large clients significantly reduced their scale across our platform," Kiviat stated.

The company's connected television business provided a contrasting growth narrative. CTV revenue grew approximately 40% year-over-year during the third quarter on a pro forma basis, reaching a trajectory to achieve $100 million for the full year. Connected TV now represents about 6% of Teads' total advertising spend, with margins expanding year-over-year as the company scales its CTV offerings and further differentiates its products.

Teads has executed over 2,500 HomeScreen CTV campaigns since launching the product, securing partnerships with TCL and Google TV during the quarter. The company positions its CTV HomeScreen product as differentiated within the fastest-growing format in connected television advertising, where industry data projects budgets to double from 14% in 2023 to 28% in 2025.

The company launched CTV Performance globally during the quarter, introducing optimization and measurement capabilities that connect premium streaming exposure to deterministic downstream outcomes including site visits and conversions. The measurement solution marks a shift from impression-based metrics to outcome-driven advertising on streaming platforms, addressing persistent attribution challenges in CTV campaigns.

October performance data provided limited encouragement for management. Revenue and bookings in cross-sell activities grew over 55% month-over-month during October, though this growth came from a small base following the Outbrain merger integration. The company emphasized that building meaningful revenue from cross-sell opportunities requires extended timeframes as advertisers test new inventory sources and publishers evaluate new demand partners.

Teads provided fourth-quarter guidance expecting Ex-TAC gross profit between $142 million and $152 million, with adjusted EBITDA guidance between $26 million and $36 million. Management announced at least $35 million in annualized adjusted EBITDA improvement from new operational initiatives, with initial impact beginning in the fourth quarter of 2025.

The company recognized $14 million in cost synergies during the third quarter, approaching a $60 million annual run rate for 2026 that had been previously guided. Management suggested additional cost reduction opportunities remain available beyond the initial $60 million target. Operating expenses increased year-over-year, driven primarily by the acquisition impact, with $4 million of acquisition and integration-related costs and $1 million of restructuring charges recorded during the quarter.

Ex-TAC gross profit reached $130.5 million in the third quarter, increasing 119% year-over-year on an as-reported basis. The growth rate exceeded revenue growth due to favorable revenue mix changes resulting from the Outbrain acquisition, supplemented by continued improvements in revenue mix and RPM growth in the legacy Outbrain business. Adjusted EBITDA totaled $19.2 million for the quarter.

Cash flow performance showed significant pressure. Adjusted free cash flow represented a $24 million use of cash during the quarter, driven by a $32 million semiannual interest payment. The company ended the quarter with $138 million in cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities, alongside €15 million in short-term overdraft and $628 million in long-term debt at a 10% coupon maturing in 2030.

Teads announced organizational changes during the earnings call, including the appointment of Molly Spielman as Chief Commercial Officer to lead the restructured go-to-market organization. The operational changes implemented during the second and third quarters in the United States and Europe have produced measurable improvements in sales pipeline development, but management acknowledged that the timeline to realize revenue from these pipeline improvements has proven longer than initially anticipated.

The three key markets of the United States, United Kingdom, and France—which collectively represent approximately 50% of revenue—are driving all of the headwind on the legacy Teads business, with many other countries remaining neutral or growing. The DACH region, which represents Teads' second-largest market, has shown growth during this period of broader challenges.

Management expressed confidence in the strategic thesis behind the Outbrain merger and the potential of the combined cross-screen, outcome-driven branding and performance advertising platform. The company emphasized focus on cash flow generation and profitability improvement while working to accelerate the return to growth through the operational changes implemented during recent quarters.

Teads indicated plans to test new proof-of-concept initiatives to monetize AI large language model inputs, representing one potential avenue to participate in the traffic patterns reshaping publisher economics. The company has not disclosed specific timeline details or revenue expectations for these AI monetization experiments.

The implications for digital advertising extend beyond a single quarter's financial results. Publisher traffic declines documented across 2025 suggest fundamental changes in how audiences discover and consume content, with artificial intelligence features providing direct answers within search interfaces rather than directing users to publisher websites. These traffic patterns create challenges for advertising technology platforms whose business models depend on advertisement delivery across third-party publisher properties.

Teads' admission of quantified pageview declines provides concrete data supporting what many publishers have reported anecdotally throughout 2025. The 10-15% traffic reduction during a single quarter, if sustained or accelerated, would represent a material challenge to digital media economics built around page-based advertising impressions. Publishers attempting to compensate through higher RPMs face practical limits on pricing increases before advertisers shift spending to alternative channels.

The contrast between declining web pageviews and growing connected television revenue within Teads' portfolio illustrates the broader transition occurring across digital advertising. Connected television's share of media budgets is projected to double from 14% in 2023 to 28% in 2025, with 72% of marketers planning to increase programmatic advertising investment. This growth occurs as traditional web traffic faces headwinds from AI-powered search features and changing user discovery patterns.

The financial pressure on advertising technology platforms dependent on publisher traffic creates incentives for business model diversification. Teads' investment in connected television measurement capabilities, outcome-driven advertising solutions, and potential AI monetization represents efforts to participate in emerging revenue streams while managing declines in legacy pageview-based inventory.

Timeline

• February 3, 2025 — Teads completes merger with Outbrain, combining operations across complementary advertising platforms
• April 17, 2025 — Ahrefs research documents 34.5% organic click reduction when AI Overviews appear
• July 23, 2025 — Google Network advertising revenues decline 1% to $7.4 billion amid AI feature expansion
• August 7, 2025 — Google revenue shift reaches 90% as network advertising faces decline
• September 25, 2025 — Teads research shows CTV HomeScreen ads achieve 48% attention rate
• October 16, 2025 — Raptive drops pageview requirement from 100,000 to 25,000 monthly visits
• October 23, 2025 — Teads launches deterministic CTV measurement for streaming campaigns
• November 6, 2025 — Teads reports Q3 results with 10-15% publisher pageview decline and 40% CTV growth
• November 6, 2025 — BuzzFeed shifts away from Google and Facebook as direct traffic reaches 63%

Summary

Who: Teads Holding Co., a publicly-traded advertising technology platform working with thousands of premium publishers globally, alongside CEO David Kostman and CFO Jason Kiviat who disclosed the traffic trends during the earnings call.

What: The company reported publishers across its network experienced 10-15% pageview declines during the third quarter of 2025, driven by AI summaries and changes in discovery patterns, while connected television revenue grew 40% year-over-year, demonstrating divergent trends across digital advertising formats.

When: The financial results cover the quarter ended September 30, 2025, with the earnings announcement and call occurring on November 6, 2025, providing the first quantified disclosure from a major advertising platform about AI-driven publisher traffic impacts.

Where: The traffic declines affected publishers globally across Teads' network, with particular pressure in the United States, United Kingdom, and France—three markets representing approximately 50% of the company's revenue—while other regions including DACH showed neutral or positive trends.

Why: Artificial intelligence summaries in search results and changing user discovery patterns are keeping audiences within search interfaces rather than directing traffic to publisher websites, creating structural challenges for advertising platforms whose business models depend on serving advertisements across third-party publisher properties while simultaneously driving growth in alternative formats like connected television that operate with different traffic dynamics.