Breakroom, an innovative employer comparison platform, set out to establish its brand presence in the US market through TikTok advertising. With a mission to empower workers by exposing wage disparities and employer conditions, Breakroom needed to efficiently acquire users at scale while keeping CPAs low. However, launching a brand-new campaign in an unfamiliar market presented unforeseen challenges.
The Challenge
The initial campaign followed TikTok’s recommended Broad Audience strategy. With no prior learnings to guide the algorithm, the campaign failed to find the right users. This resulted in CPAs exceeding acceptable levels, halting any meaningful scale and putting the US strategy at risk.
Our Approach
Recognising the limitations of broad targeting for a new brand, we developed a two-phase strategy focused on precise audience targeting followed by smart scaling.
Phase One – From Broad to Interest-Based Targeting
We conducted deep research to understand the US worker mindset, identifying low pay as a core emotional driver. This informed the build of tightly defined Interest-Based Audiences around themes of financial stress and job dissatisfaction.
We paired these audiences with targeted creative using lines like:
- “Think you're underpaid? See how your job compares!”
- “Your employer doesn’t want you to see this...”
Launching the new campaign to these refined audiences reduced CPA by over 95% in just two weeks.
Phase Two – Scaling with Smart+ Campaigns
With a proven audience and messaging strategy, we transitioned to TikTok’s Smart+ Campaigns. This allowed us to efficiently scale by using TikTok’s machine learning to build on learnings from phase one.
Smart+ dynamically adjusted targeting and bids in real time, expanding reach while preserving efficiency. CPA performance held steady while budgets increased, confirming the value of the phased approach.
Conclusion
Breakroom’s pivot from Broad to Interest-Based targeting, followed by Smart+ scaling, enabled rapid turnaround and sustainable user acquisition. The campaign not only hit performance targets but demonstrated how data-driven audience insights and testing can fuel low-cost, high-impact growth—especially in competitive and unfamiliar markets.
These learnings now shape Breakroom’s wider acquisition strategy as the brand continues to scale in the job search space.
