When a Taboola campaign starts generating its first few conversions, media buyers—whether in-house or agency-side—typically want to take two immediate actions: block all unprofitable publishers and aggressively scale the budget on profitable ones.

While this approach is standard practice on platforms like Meta or Google Ads, scaling native advertising is rarely that simple. User behavior varies significantly across different publishers, devices, and dayparts. Some traffic sources offer cheap clicks but slow conversion paths that require retargeting to close. Others may yield zero conversions in the first few days but stabilize once the algorithm accumulates enough data. Blocking these sources prematurely based on a tiny sample size often means cutting off high-potential traffic before it has a chance to mature.

The Pitfalls of Premature Publisher Blocking

We strongly advise against aggressive publisher blocking during the early stages of a new campaign, unless a specific media environment clearly misaligns with your brand safety guidelines. Instead, allow the account to accumulate sufficient data. Once you have a statistically significant sample, analyze the Conversion Rate (CVR), Cost Per Acquisition (CPA), and overall spend within your Sites or Traffic Source reports before making optimization decisions.

Smart Bidding Adjustments Over Blacklisting

When running manual or Enhanced CPC (ECPC) campaigns, underperforming sources do not always warrant an immediate blacklist. Taboola allows you to adjust bids upward or downward at the individual Traffic Source level. Taboola's official best practice is to first lower the CPC for underperforming sites. This maintains a low-cost exploration window before you decide to block the publisher entirely.

If you are utilizing Maximize Conversions, the system automatically optimizes bidding at the publisher level. While you cannot manually adjust bids per site under this bidding strategy, you can still maintain control over anomalous traffic using Block Lists, Approved Lists, or Custom Rules.

3 Common Mistakes to Avoid When Scaling Taboola Campaigns

1. Uploading Too Many Creatives at Once

Taboola dynamically tests combinations of different headlines and images. If you upload too many creatives simultaneously, your limited daily budget will be spread too thin. As a result, many variations will fail to receive enough impressions to generate statistically meaningful data.

2. Making Drastic Budget Adjustments

Sudden budget spikes can disrupt the algorithm. Taboola recommends avoiding budget increases of more than 100% at one time. For cost-sensitive campaigns, a conservative budget adjustment of around 20% is ideal. Even for aggressive scaling, try to cap budget increases at 50% and allow the system a few days to complete its learning phase.

3. Relying Solely on Platform-Level CPA

When deciding whether to keep a publisher active, look beyond the platform-reported CPA. Evaluate deeper down-funnel metrics such as average time on site, add-to-cart (ATC) rates, lead quality, refund rates, and final backend sales. Experienced performance marketers know that some sources can deliver exceptionally high Click-Through Rates (CTR) and low CPCs, yet yield zero down-funnel engagement.

Conclusion: Achieving Healthy, Data-Driven Scaling

Healthy scaling on Taboola is not about aggressively blocking every underperforming source to leave only a handful of whitelisted publishers. True, sustainable growth occurs when your creatives, publishers, bids, and budgets converge gradually under the guidance of robust data.