The 8 Common Taboola Mistakes Most People Make When Advertising on This Incredible Platform
1. Your Taboola audience is too wide
Sometimes it is very important to go from narrow targeting and then spread it out. Especially if you are advertising a product or a specific software – not everything is for everyone and you can agree on that one. If your ad is about ski equipment you’re probably not going to show that to people living in Miami at the very beginning. Yes, they can travel, but no, don’t do this.
It’s the same when it comes to mobile apps – remember exclude desktop users, because you’ll waste those valuable clicks you paid for.
There is also one tip I could share here. If there is something to be downloaded or a long video of value for your brand, make sure your targeted users are on the WiFi connection. You understand why, right? Choose these settings especially for something that has over 100mb. That is the feature Taboola offers and I think it’s pretty cool.
Next, think about the location. I’ve already mentioned Miami and that applies for every campaign you are going to run. Always remember that if you narrowed your audience down, you can probably narrow it down a little bit more and that will give you if not better, then really transparent results.
So, there are important targeting that is related to platform/device, operative system, location, and Taboola offers a great targeting option connected with people’s income. If your ad is showing something pricy, then choose the household/individual with a higher income, since they are more likely to click on your ad and probably complete the purchase.
2. You want a lot of clicks
You don’t want the largest amount of clicks, you want the right people to click. And you probably got that from the previous mistake. Don’t make it too broad, choose the right text that will attract the right person and you will ensure your money going to the right place.
3. You don’t schedule your campaigns
If you have no one looking at your campaigns in the night time, why are you wasting money there? Analyze briefly every ad you ran in order to set the schedules properly. Also, when you are creating your very first ad, I’m sure you have at least some idea on what time of day is the best or what day in a week will work the best for you in order to get the highest conversions.
That means, if your ad is related to something people will enjoy during the weekend, you’re not going to show that ad on working days. I’m talking about a promotion at the local bar or karaoke night around the corner, for example.
But this can be tricky, so first think carefully what time suits best and then analyze what’s working and what’s not because you can easily adjust things afterward.
4. Your pictures are not original
This is important because I will by default SKIP an ad if I think I saw that one before! And that could be your new ad, but the picture/media you used is similar (or the same) as some others. Choose generic photos that are closely related to your ad.
For example, if you’re advertising the beforementioned ski equipment, choose the picture that will probably show not only a person who is skiing (because that could be already used by some ski center) but a specific product photo (with a person on it) that will probably work better. This way you are saying to your customers right away what your ad is about and that’s when you’ll find out that the people who clicked are the ones that are most likely to complete the purchase.
Now you will probably understand why these two ads are better:
than this one:
And that is the fifth mistake.
5. Your pictures don’t have people in them
And let’s just say that people are likely to be engaged with others – but ensure that your ad makes sense. This will ensure better communication and a better relationship with your audience.
6. You don’t block publishers
Every week, or every day the best, go through the sites your ad is being published on and block the ones you don’t want or are not related to your ad. You are making a huge mistake if your ski equipment ad is being shown on some site that is selling furniture (this is maybe not the best example, but you got the point).
Of course, don’t worry if you have around 10-20 publishers in the end, because you will get the right audience – remember the first and the second mistake here in the article.
7. You forget to retarget
When you’ve got all of your visitors who clicked, added to the cart, or even completed the purchase, a lot of people will think that advertising is over or they shift to some other targeting.
Audiences on Taboola are saved for a long time so use that and retarget the same people that were interested in your brand. Isn’t that better than going through the whole process of finding them again? Yes, it’s best to run both these campaigns together, but don’t forget to retarget. Put the Taboola pixel on your website and enjoy the experience of retargeting.
8. You do not test
Again, how do you know at the beginning what’s working and what’s not? You need to test. If you’re in marketing for some time now you know that this isn’t something that has strict rules – if something worked for your friend’s business, maybe it won’t for yours. And yes, sometimes this is tough, but that’s why a lot of platforms are giving you the option to A/B test. When I say ‘a lot of platforms’ that means you should be doing this whichever platform you are advertising from, not just Taboola.
Remember to always test one thing at a time – test the picture or the text only because later on you can get confused while analyzing the results.
Marketing on Taboola can be very cheap and get you a lot of conversions. Why don’t you use that without making any mistakes?
