I've been testing a lot lately in Taboola and had a few questions.
Should I always pick "optimized" for Creative Traffic Allocation? It seems like it always sends like 90% of the traffic to just 1 image and it never sends the traffic to the highest CTR image its seems really random which image gets the traffic each day.
Also what are the best guidelines to follow to make sure my ad hits level 1 sites? There is no way to tell if my ads got approved for level 1 or 2 until I start getting traffic and can tell just by the quality of sites. It seems kinda random if I get on level 1 or 2 is this normally the case?
I always go with even split. Haven't really seen any change in traffic volume by choosing optimized so there doesn't seem to be much point, like you said the chosen creative is pretty random.
I never pick optimized creative traffic allocation, it never properly tests all the creatives.
Pick even split, give each one at least 20-30k impressions and then leave the best 2-3 running, I've noticed that if you have more than 1 active ad, even if the other 2 have lower CTRs you end up getting more traffic.
Taboola's tier rating does happen to be a bit random at times, a good general guideline to follow would be to make sure your ads headlines aren't shocking/weird/gossipy and that your images aren't some super weird mixtures/fruits/super wrinkled faces etc/zoomed in body parts etc.
I started in the beginning with "optimized" I saw the same results like you 90% the traffic hit one ad. Its more the best for taboola. Now i create my ads "even" and I decicde whats the best ad for me. I am able now to test which ads are the best an let only that active. Since then i get also better results.