What should native advertisers do to increase their success with Taboola campaigns?

Xevio CEO Nadim Kuttab has learned a lot as a native advertiser, and he’s parlayed those lessons into a $3 million monthly spend on Taboola alone as part of a nine-figure annual budget for ad spend in 2024.

Nadim was generous enough to share some of those very expensive lessons at a recent Affiliate World event, and we’re generous enough to share them with you here. 😉

3 Steps for Success on Taboola
Nadim’s Taboola campaigns use a simple three-part funnel that most native advertisers are familiar with — an ad, a landing page, and an offer.

To succeed, however, there are some underlying steps that advertisers need to take before testing a new product or vertical.

1. Define Your Product
To generate direct sales, you need to start by defining your product. Nadim has had success on Taboola in lead generation and ecommerce, but this principle applies to every vertical and just about every ad placement.

Before creating your funnel, you need to establish the action that you want people to take at every step. That could be a click, or a purchase, or a subscription, but you need to know what it is and how you’ll get prospects to act.

Also, you need to understand how high the “hurdle” is that you’re asking prospects to clear. If you’re selling a $5 item, for example, the hurdle is much lower than a $500 purchase, and your ads should reflect that.

2. Use Your Ad to Define Traffic Quality
Defining traffic quality, according to Nadim, isn’t about targeting options or geographic areas. Instead, he recommends broad targeting with specific language that appeals directly to your audience and addresses that pain point that your offer solves.

This language can be as broad or specific as necessary to bring your target audience in, and Nadim recommends testing multiple approaches to see what drives the best results. But by establishing your target audience in the headline, you can maintain broad ad targeting but still bring in a high-intent audience due to the specificity of the offer language.

3 Steps for Success on Taboola
3. Build Your Funnel
Based on the above, you can build 3-4 variations of landing pages with different language and design elements to see what resonates. And again, Nadim recommends a simple three-step formula to craft landing pages that will convert Taboola audiences.

Landing Pages
1. The Intro
The headline should directly address the problem or desire of the target audience. Answer the obvious question — why are people here? Why is this problem relevant to them?

You can also encourage immediate action with a clear and compelling CTA that gives prospects the option to proceed without reading the body content.

2. The body
Now that you have their attention, introduce your solution. Explain the solution and how it works, as well as the benefits of your offer. Bring in the simplicity, affordability, and ease of access to the solution.

In this section, it’s wise to soft-sell your solution. Explain why it’s great and how it matches the solution you’ve introduced above. Also, explain why your solution is better than alternative solutions. At least 50% of your audience should reach this point of the page; ideally closer to 60%.

3. The CTA
At this point on the landing page, it’s time to sell. Bring in direct response principles like scarcity and urgency. However, do not use absolute language, fake messages about limited, or timers — all of these tactics can run afoul of compliance guidelines if they aren’t sincere.

Some key hacks for CTA buttons that Nadim has identified include gamifying your CTA, adding a floating CTA from the bottom half of your page, or a multi-part instructional CTA. Also, avoid CTAs and hyperlinks in the top half of your article, but testimonials below the CTA button or next to it in a sidebar are a good idea.

Top CTAs