Can someone advise how does Taboola 'algos' work? (3)
We're running some arbs on Taboola, and I couldn't get a handle on how their algos/optimisation work.
Our rep tells us to 'keep it running longer to optimise', and 'not to cut so quickly'. Yet at the same time we're seeing on high volume publishers our avg CPC being 2-3 times our EPC (after 100+ clicks), erm how on earth am I not suppose to cut it? (This excludes all the obvious bot pubs)
And at the same time, 95% of the sites have avg cpcs much higher than our epcs. Cutting 95% of them probably gives me a trickle of traffic (assuming the 5% doesn't go haywire).
It's (very likely) not an offer problem since a lot of others are running the same thing. Would love if someone can provide some advice or point me in a direction, will greatly appreciate it thanks!
If I knew the correct answer to this question, I'd be rich af 
I don't run arbitrage, mostly leadgen and ecom, but my experience is:
Don't listen to your reps , they're full of shit most of the time and just want you to spend more money.
The 'smartbid' will shut itself off eventually, but only after spending 3-10x the payout, which is overkill for most offers. Cut it on your own at 1-2x payout.
Smartbid algo will adjust itself as high as it wants (docs say up to 100% over your bid, but even that is bullshit) if it 'thinks' it can get you more traffic. Even if you use the % +/- buttons, it will mostly ignore it and try to keep the overall campaign bid around what you set it to (this results in it raising the bid realy high on high volume widgets because it CAN and then lowering bids on some sites with quality traffic but lower volume, not spreading out your traffic nearly enough).
One way to fight this is by using Fixed bid on sites you really want lower CPC on. I do this even on the MSN sites all the time otherwise they overspend and/or take the lion's share of the traffic leaving no other sites to compete with.
Another way is to make your rep actually do something and create separate campaigns, for mobile/desktop: one where they turn off all their garbage push traffic (with a decent bid), and one with only garbage push traffic (with a much lower bid). For desktop only, they may also suggest running a camp with only MSN and one with everything else, but I've never had that work well.
Oh, and check with your rep what category your camp got put in. If compliance fucked you and put you in the 'gossip' category instead of something better, you may be stuck only getting their shittiest traffic possible.
Hope that helps a little. Taming their traffic is hard, and I honestly still have no idea wtf I'm doing most of the time.
Originally Posted by alfiss
I'm not talking about arbitrage, but it's still interesting to understand the mechanism.
I normally take my best ad, and make several copies, same image, same teaser.
When a new ad is activated, a lot of traffic comes right away.
When the traffic drops and settles down, I stop the ad and start another copy.
And so on...
However, it is clear that the campaign must have potential.
I only apply this method with campaigns that have a good ROI and I'm sure the ad I'm replying already has good results.
With Taboola I have not yet applied this method. But maybe it can work too ...
Account managers advise against doing this, but I have understood over time that it is always better to do the opposite of what they tell you ...
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