Hi everyone,
We recently recorded a conversation with Katie Mulliken from NewsBreak (she previously worked in Ad Ops at TikTok), and we got so many practical answers.
A lot of media buyers are curious about NewsBreak right now, but also confused about how to approach it.
It looks like native… but behaves closer to social.
Here are the main takeaways that stood out to us, and we recommend you to watch the entire interview, because for sure you will find it useful:
1. Start simple (seriously simple)
Their recommended starting structure:
1 campaign → 2 ad sets → 3-5 ads per ad set
Many affiliates overbuild campaigns in the beginning.
On NewsBreak this actually slows learning.
Broad targeting works better than trying to “outsmart” the algorithm.
2. Creative matters more than targeting
This was probably the biggest point.
The platform already does a lot of the targeting internally.
So performance differences mostly come from creatives, not interests.
UGC style ads and native-looking images usually perform best.
3. The algorithm needs conversion data
We also talked about tracking and this part was very clear.
If you don’t send conversion data back to the platform, the system cannot learn who converts.
The campaign doesn’t just perform worse, it can stall completely.
Many advertisers run traffic but never pass conversions back.
From the platform perspective, that traffic looks like it never works, so delivery drops.
This applies to any network, not only NewsBreak. Make sure you send conversions back to your traffic sources! (usually a tracker has this built in, at @CPV Lab Pro for sure it is
)4. NewsBreak vs TikTok
Interesting comparison:TikTok = fast feedback, fast fatigue
NewsBreak = slower but more stable
Also the audience skews older, which is why lead gen and service offers (insurance, finance, home services) perform well on Newsbreak.
We hope this would be useful as NewsBreak is starting to show up more often in case studies.
If you want to watch the full discussion, you can find it here:
Watch it on Youtube
or Listen on Spotify
or Read the article
Curious if anyone here is already running NewsBreak, what verticals are you testing?
