Why use “Yandex.Direkt”.
“Yandex.Direct is the contextual advertising system of the largest search engine on the Runet, Yandex. This definition contains the main answer to the question of whether you should use this tool to advertise your product. With Yandex.Direct, you can show ads to the audience of the most popular search engine in Runet, which is just in search of goods from your segment. To assess the prospects, add to these arguments the general advantages of contextual advertising:
- The ability to break through banner blindness by showing ads to people interested in your product.
- Fast attraction of targeted traffic. Possibility to receive clients from the first day of existence of the project.
- Efficient payment method: you spend money only on user conversions to the site (CPC).
- Flexible targeting settings. The ability to publish ads for iPhone repair in Balashikha exclusively for residents of this city.
- Publication of ads on quality sites. “Yandex” strictly refers to the moderation of sites – partners.
- Ability to run an ad campaign within an hour. You do not need to sign a contract, approve layouts and coordinate the publication of ads.
- Easy management of advertising campaigns.
If persuasion is no longer necessary, start learning Yandex.Direct with this guide. For convenience, the information in it is organized into the following sections:
Table of Contents:
- Why you should use “Yandex.Direct”
- How to create an account and an ad campaign in “Yandex.Direct”
- How to create “Yandex.Direct” ads
- How to set up retargeting
- Which automatic ad impression strategy to choose
- How to create mobile ads
- How to use the Direct Manager
- How to use “Direct Commander” to perform split tests of ads
- How to pass moderation in “Yandex.Direct”
- How to predict the budget in “Yandex.Direct”
- How to increase brand awareness with Yandex contextual-media banners
- Take advantage of graphic ads
- What problems smart banners and media ads solve
- Use dynamic ads
- How to track the effectiveness of contextual advertising “Yandex.Direct
- How to use UTM tags in “Yandex.Direct”
- Instead of a conclusion, or Yandex.Direct and Google AdWords: which is better
How to create an account and an ad campaign in “Yandex.Direct”
To create an account, go to Yandex.Direct website. Enter your personal data, make up a password and register in the system. Use the “Place Advertisement” button.
Select the country and specify the type of the first campaign. For advertising most products and services, “Text and graphic ads” is fine. Click the “Start Using the System” button.
On the Create Campaign page, specify the campaign name and select the start and end date.
Set up the time targeting: select the appropriate time for your product to show your ads. To start with, select the working time, and then the time targeting can be adjusted after analyzing the behavioral factors and analyzing the sales statistics by time.
Enable bid adjustment mode if necessary. This feature allows you to increase or decrease the click price during the selected hours. For example, if your product is better bought in the first half of the day, it makes sense to increase bids in the morning hours. This will allow you to successfully compete with other ads and redeem more clicks.
Select the regions of the ad impressions. If necessary, you can also enable the adjustment of rates depending on the region.
“Extended geographic targeting” – a function through which the ad can be seen by a person from Novosibirsk, who enters the search query “pizza with delivery in Minsk”.
The choice depends on the characteristics of your business. For example, hotels should definitely include this feature, as it is logical to show ads for room reservations to people from different cities and countries, who are going to go to Minsk.
If it’s not logical to show ads to people from other cities due to the peculiarities of the project, turn off advanced geographic targeting.
In the “Manage impressions” section, enable the “Manual bid management” strategy. Enable ad impressions on search only. To broadcast ads in the Yandex Advertising Network (YAN) is better to create a separate campaign.
Use the rate adjustment feature. Depending on your project and audience preferences, increase or decrease bids for mobile impressions.
For example, you can increase bids for mobile impressions if you’re advertising a tire service. Drivers with punctured tires will surely look for the nearest tire repair shop from their cell phones. The increased rate will also allow you to successfully compete with other ads.
To effectively adjust bids by gender and age, you need to know and understand the target audience of the ad campaign and product. For example, mascara is predominantly bought by women, while shaving cream is of interest to men. If you are selling mascara, it makes sense to reduce the bid for male ads.
Also include a feature to stop showing when sites are unavailable. This will help not drain the budget in situations where, for example, the hosting went down.
If you want, set up SMS notifications.
Enter a single address, phone number, and other contact information for all ads in the campaign in the “Business card” section.
In the “Metric” settings section, specify the number of the Yandex.Metric counter. Leave the markup on. The system will automatically add UTM tags to the links, which make it easy to analyze the effectiveness of the campaign. If you prefer Openstat or Liveinternet statistics services, enable the appropriate tags.
In the notification settings, turn on the position change messages. Make sure that the “Notifications” field contains a valid e-mail address.
If necessary, configure notifications by SMS. Check the events about which you need to be notified, as well as specify the time of receipt.
In the special settings, disable the accounting of automatically stopped ads when calculating rates.
In the Phrase Optimization section, add common minus-phrases for the campaign.
Minus-phrases are words and phrases for which the ad will not be shown. They are used to optimize costs.
Here are some recommendations for working with minus-phrases:
- Minus words and phrases specific to your product that are undesirable. Example: insurers should include phrases like “doesn’t pay,” “screws around,” “delays the case.
- Limit ad impressions to freebies. Sellers of antivirus software should include the phrases “free”, “keyed”, “cracked” into the list of minus-words.
- Filter information requests. If you’re advertising a product page, use the minus phrases “review”, “or”, “what’s better”, “which one to choose”.
It’s more effective to attract transactional traffic or people who use queries like “buy iPhone X” to a product page. Authors of information queries like “iPhone X or Nokia 1100 which is better” are more effective in the information section of the site.
Turn off displays for additional relevant phrases.
The rest of the options at the stages of getting acquainted with the system can be left unchanged.
Click the “Next” button. The campaign is set up, start working with the ads.
How to create “Yandex.Direct” ads
On the page for creating an ad group, specify its name.
Check the corresponding checkbox if you mean the ad is for mobile users. Add a title of the ad not more than 35 characters. The keyword in the title will ensure that your message visually matches the user’s search query and increases the clickability of the ad.
A nice “bonus” “Yandex.Direct” from 2017, increasing the clickability of ads by 5-10%, according to “Yandex” – the second headline.
Its length should not exceed 30 characters. Use it to emphasize the benefits of an offer or a product advantage.
Compose your ads so that the information is clear without an additional headline, as it does not always appear.
Its availability depends on the position of the ad in the block and on the user’s device.
Add up to 81 characters of ad text. Don’t forget punctuation, up to 15 punctuation marks are not counted in the character count.
Recommendations:
- Include a key phrase in the text.
- Use a call to action.
- Make the text sellable. In contextual ads, you can gently sell your product to the audience.
- Use attraction words: “free,” “discount,” “promotion,” “gift,” etc.
- Include the company’s address and phone number if you haven’t set it up at the campaign level.
- Add quick links, images, and clarifications.
Take advantage of the beta testing mode where video refinements are available. Upload a 10-15 second video to the system or use the template. Add text and a button to the video and save your changes.
In the “Yandex.Direct” interface, you can add up to four quick links to your ad. They should lead to relevant and useful for the user pages of the site.
Introduce clarifications that help the user appreciate the benefits of the product or its features. The length of the clarification should not exceed 25 characters. This element of the ad is displayed in the special placement.
How to choose keywords for ads
Enable the “Autotargeting” feature to trust the selection of keywords to Yandex robots. The system will independently select keywords for which ads will be shown. Autotargeting can be used in parallel with self-selected keyword phrases. In this case, the priority on the side of the keys, self-selected.
If you do not trust Yandex robots, Use the built-in keyword selection tool in the ad editing interface.
Enter a keyword or phrase and click on the “Find words” button. Check the boxes next to the appropriate keywords and click “Save.
You can use match operators to refine keyword phrases and improve the effectiveness of your campaigns.
Yandex.Direct uses broad keyphrase matching by default. For example: you sell turnkey apartment repair service. Your ad will be seen by users looking for a wrench or crescent wrench with the flashy phrase “turnkey repair. These are untargeted impressions, because of which the effectiveness of the campaign falls.
You can solve the problem with the forced word order operator. It is denoted by square brackets: []. When using the operator with the phrase “turnkey repair” the ad will not be seen by the authors of the query “turnkey repair”.
When using the exact match, which ironically captures the form of the word and is indicated by the “!” symbol, in the key “cab in St. Petersburg” the ad will not be shown to Vyborg residents who want to order a cab to St. Petersburg.
Authors of the query “turnkey repair of apartments by private citizens” will see an ad for turnkey repair of apartments. To avoid such a broad match, irrelevant shows using word count operator enclose the key phrase in quotation marks: “”.
Authors of the query “trucking St. Petersburg” with a broad match will see an ad for trucking from Vyborg to St. Petersburg.
You can fix prepositions with the operator “+”. And then there will be no irrelevant displays.
In order for the ad to be seen by the authors of the queries “repair of apartments” and “repair of offices,” you need to group complex queries with a special operator. The key phrase should be as follows: repair (apartments|offices).
With the operator “-” set minus-words for a group or specific keywords. For example, if you only renovate apartments, specify the minus words “office” and “house” at the group level.
Minus-phrases can be specified at the specific keyword level. For example, if you don’t do design projects, you can specify the minus-words “design” and “project” at the key level.
Specify the display regions and adjust the bids for the ad group if necessary. Specify the tags and click “Next”. The system prompts you to set the price per click.
You can assign a click price for all keywords or set a price for each keyphrase separately in case of manual bid management.
Since April 2018, Yandex.Direct sells advertisers not positions in ad units, but targeted conversions. The system uses a set of stencils in which ads are displayed differently depending on the device and interests of end users and the current level of competition between advertisers.
A stencil is a technology that decides on the output option on a case-by-case basis (how the ads will be positioned and how they will look). Each individual search engine variant is a different stencil. Ads look different in different stencils. The location, the number of ads in a block, and the extensions displayed vary.
“Yandex.Direct” chooses the appropriate stencil on its own. Use all possible extensions: quick links, refinements, images and videos, so that the ad hits all available stencils. Adjusting the bid does not change the position of the ad in the block, it only changes the predicted traffic.
As of 2018, using Yandex.Direct has become easier. Previously, the advertiser had to think about the position of the ad in the blocks, but now the system decides this question, and the advertiser can focus on traffic and the cost of paid conversions.
What newcomers need to know about Yandex.Direct auctions
It is important for an advertiser to understand the principles of ad selection and pricing in the “Yandex.Direct” system.
Ads with the highest bid are selected first and foremost for display in RSS. Well, in addition to the search rate the system takes into account the predicted clickability and quality factor.
Until 2018, the system used a generalized second-price auction, or GSP, for dynamic show blocks and thematic RNS sites. According to the rules of the auction, the advertiser paid the bid of the nearest loser competitor for the transition.
As of 2018, Yandex.Direct uses the Vickrey-Clark-Groves (VCG) auction. The VCG auction will remain the basis of ad buying in search. As before, you will not be charged more money than would be enough to beat your nearest competitors and get additional ad conversions.
Prices are calculated based on the quality and predicted clickability of each ad for the chosen keyword phrase – the better your ads perform, the cheaper the clicks.
How to set up retargeting
By setting up retargeting, you can show ads to people who are already familiar with your product, this requires:
- Set the counter “Yandex.Metrika”;
- Segment your audience with goals.
For example, you can segment users who have visited category or specific product pages, viewed delivery terms, or are interested in the “About” section.
Use the corresponding menu under “Settings – Goals” to create a goal in Yandex.Metrics.
Under “Condition Type,” select the “Page Visits” option to show ads to visitors to selected pages on the site.
Specify the URL and create a target.
Retargeting only works in РСЯ, which means that to use the feature you need to create a new campaign with the appropriate settings. At the stage of editing a group of ads in the “Add-ons” section, add images. They will be displayed in blocks on Yandex partner sites if certain conditions are met:
- The rate per click is set above 3 rubles.
- Images contain no contact information and prohibited materials.
- Photo size does not exceed 10 MB.
- Aspect ratios from 450 to 5000 pixels for standard photos.
- For widescreen images, the minimum size is 1080 by 607 pixels, the maximum is 5000 by 2812 pixels.
To make photos appear in different blocks, use two ad options: regular and widescreen.
Click “Add” opposite the “Audience Matching Conditions” option and add the condition. Click Save.
In the rate settings, specify a conversion price of at least 3 rubles.
What automatic ad impression strategy to choose
The automatic strategy can be selected during the campaign setup phase.
Usually algorithmic impression management gives good results in a few weeks after the launch of the campaign. Therefore, it is not worth evaluating the effectiveness based on the results of the first days of the algorithm.
There are five automatic strategies available in Direct.
- Average cost per click – you specify the allowable costs for the week and the system will automatically set the value of the rates, allowing to attract as many users as possible. This will allow you to attract the maximum number of visitors, but not spending more than a certain amount per transition.
Disadvantage of the algorithm. If you choose the wrong average price, or a sharp increase in competition, provided that the competitors’ rates will be much higher than the proposed price, you will not get the planned conversions.
- Average conversion price is a complex strategy, it pays for the targeted actions of users on the site, not for conversions, and is only effective if your site visitors regularly take actions that are listed in “Metrics” as targets. Here you yourself determine the acceptable conversion price. The algorithm tries to bring the real cost of the target action closer to the stated cost, taking into account the weekly budget set.
- Average ROI – more suitable for online stores. With this strategy you can manage the ROI or ROI of advertising and bring it closer to the target value.
Set goals in Metric and wait for enough targeted actions. Effective at a minimum of 10 conversions and 200 clicks per week.
- Weekly budget – specify the amount you invest in advertising on a weekly basis. In the settings you select the algorithm for maximizing conversions or conversions. For the algorithm of maximization of conversions you need to set the target in “Metrics”. Also in the settings it is desirable to specify the maximum price per click.
This is a conservative strategy, so it can be tested by beginners.
- Weekly Click Bundle – Specify a target number of clicks to the site for the week, and limit the maximum or sets an average price per click. Under this strategy, the algorithm provides a specified number of clicks at a minimum price.
Disadvantage of the algorithm. With a sharp increase in competition can not reach the target number of hits. If you do not limit the price of the click, the real costs may exceed the planned.
How to create mobile ads
You can create separate ads for smartphone owners. This feature will increase the effectiveness of interaction with the mobile audience.
1. check the corresponding checkbox in Edit Group mode.
2. Add the title and text of the ad.
Don’t forget that smartphone owners are often on the run looking for the information they need, so be sure to add a phone number. this will allow your potential customers to contact you in one tap.
Under Bid Adjustment, increase the bid for mobile users, this will increase mobile traffic to the site. The rest of the ad parameters are set up in the standard way.
How to use “Direct Commander”
The “Direct Commander” program helps you manage contextual advertising. The tool is designed for advanced users who implement a large-scale campaign or work with several campaigns simultaneously, so the information about it in the guide for beginners is offered for familiarization.
Download and install it on your computer.
After logging in, import your campaigns into the program.
Listed below are the functions of the Direct Manager:
- Changing campaign settings
Highlight the option you are interested in on the Campaigns tab. On the Options tab, make the necessary changes.
- Creating ad groups
On the “Ad Groups” tab, use the “Add Group” button.
- Creating ads
Click the “Add ad” button on the appropriate tab.
- Editing Ads
Use the slider to stretch the panel to the full width of the program window. Add or change the text, link, quick links. Use the Image Wizard to add a photo, if necessary. If you need to make changes to any element, hover the cursor over it and click the left mouse button twice.
You can adjust the size of the panels with the “Panel Dimensions” and “Align Panels” buttons.
Use the tab shown in the image to add search phrases. Use the price wizard on the tab bar to set the rates.
After editing the bids, send them to the server using the “Send Bids” button.
The “Search and Replace” feature will help you quickly edit your key phrases.
Here in the “Ads” tab you can also quickly edit your listings.
How to split-test ads with “Direct Commander
With the help of “Direct Commander” it is convenient to carry out experiments that can increase the effectiveness of “Yandex.Direct” ads.
Select the ad whose effectiveness you want to improve with an A/B test and create a take of it. To do this, select the corresponding line in the ad tab, right-click and use the “Copy” and “Paste” options.
Edit the elements that you want to make more effective. First of all, we’re talking about headlines and ad text.
Here are some test ideas:
- The presence/absence of quick links.
- Quick Links Text.
- Image presence/absence.
- Displayed URL of the ad.
- Calls to Action.
- Words-attractors: free, discount, etc.
- Presence/absence of price.
- Presence/absence of address and phone.
Only after obtaining a sufficient amount of statistical data, evaluate the results of the experiment. Pay attention to the CTR and conversion rates of the test and control variants, and most importantly remember that the effectiveness of ads affects the frequency of impressions. When the system reliably identifies the more clickable variant, it shows it to users more often. Growth of CTR decreases the cost of clicks. Therefore, split tests can be considered as a tool to optimize advertising costs.
How to pass moderation in Yandex.Direct
In case the moderator did not allow the campaign or ads to be shown, you have grossly violated the general or special requirements for advertising materials. Usually you get a message indicating the reasons, but you can also check the status of the campaign and ads in the interface of Yandex.Direct yourself.
The most common violations include:
- Advertising of illegal products, such as alcohol or drugs.
- Lack of supporting documentation required to advertise drugs, medical services, financial services, and other products.
- Use of logos or contact information in images.
- Adjectives in the comparative and superlative degree without placing an expert endorsement on the site. In order to call rolled metal the best, it is necessary to conduct an independent examination.
- Use of capital letters in the title or text of an ad.
Correct the errors and send the ad for re-moderation.
How to predict the budget in “Yandex.Direct”
Don’t think about how much you’re willing to spend on advertising. “What I want to achieve” and “what it takes” are questions that will help achieve efficiency. Think about how many conversions or conversions you want to get, and calculate the resources needed to do so.
You need to understand that any budget forecast in contextual advertising is approximate. Calculations are based on historical data. And the situation on the market and the level of competition are constantly changing, and the actual costs may differ from the forecast by tens of percent.
Use the “Budget Forecast” link to roughly calculate the cost of an advertising campaign.
Select display regions.
Specify billing parameters: campaign term, sites and currency, if necessary. Add keyword phrases, including minus-phrases.
Click the “Calculate” button. The system will offer a budget forecast for the selected keyphrases. You can select the amount of traffic and evaluate the performance of the key phrases.
Pay attention to the totals. Compare the predicted number of clicks with the target. Adjust campaign parameters if, for example, the system promises 317 clicks, and you plan to get 500 for the month.
You can change the number of conversions by using additional search phrases. You can also change the desired amount of traffic. Add additional keys, remove ineffective or too expensive options and recalculate the forecast.
How to increase brand awareness with Yandex contextual-media banners
Contextual-media banners are displayed on Yandex, Mail.ru and Rambler search results pages. They combine the advantages of contextual and traditional advertising. They are paid for displays, not for clicks, so they are convenient to use to inform the audience about the brand and product.
To place a banner, you need:
- Create a banner that meets the requirements of Yandex.
- Select the appropriate publishing terms.
- Apply to publish an advertisement.
Take advantage of graphic ads
Graphic ads are another tool that combines the benefits of contextual and traditional advertising.
Benefits:
- Visibility
Due to the large image, graphic ads attract attention and help you quickly understand the essence of the ad. Due to the visual attractiveness of the format, the advertiser can count on a high CTR. - Reach across networks
The more sites your ads are suitable for, the more often they can be selected for display. Graphic ads can be created in a variety of formats to suit different sites. This greatly increases the chances of good coverage on the networks. - Recognition
Graphic ads help build brand attitudes and create the right associations – linking users’ emotions with the company or product.
Check the appropriate item in the Ad Type section.
Add a creative. You can create it yourself. It must meet the requirements of the system. You can also use GIF animation.
For newcomers, there are template graphic ads. To use them, use the drop-down menu to select the “Create New by Template” option.
In the Creative Builder, select the appropriate template.
Customize the appearance of the creative: upload or select an image from the library, specify the fill, frame and text colors. Add the ad text. Specify contraindications and age restrictions, if necessary.
The 12 creatives of different sizes that the system creates provide the ability to show your ad in different blocks. Select the sizes in the corresponding menu block, this will allow you to evaluate the appearance of each creatives.
If you’re happy with everything, click the “Create” button. To continue with the ad group, click on the “Select sizes” button and select all available sizes. Click the “Add Selected” button.
The system will create 12 ads with different sizes of creatives. Setting up a group and selecting rates is done similarly to the settings for standard ads.
What tasks smart banners and media ads solve
Smart banners are pay-per-click banner ads. They are suitable for online stores. Ads are shown in the RSS. A smart banner takes up an entire block or part of an ad unit on a partner site. The banner broadcasts a product feed.
Three automatic strategies are available when setting up a campaign:
- click optimization,
- conversion optimization,
- average profitability.
Add a product feed in csv or xml format, then you can add banners and run the campaign.
The smart banner looks like this:
A media ad is also a banner ad, only with pay-per-view. Currently available in beta-testing mode. Choose this format if you need to increase your reach and brand awareness.
In the settings, you can choose manual rate management and two automatic strategies: maximum impressions at minimum price and reduction of repeat impressions price. Manual control allows you to distribute the budget and show ads to all users. Automatic strategies increase the likelihood of impressions to people who have not yet seen your ad.
Audience can be targeted by gender, age, marital status, interests, income level.
You can gather an audience that has already seen your ad. To do this, add a Yandex.Audience pixel to the banner code.
Use dynamic ads
Dynamic ads are available on beta-testing terms. The tool is designed for owners of online stores that advertise many products at once. In the settings of the company it is enough to specify the URL of the site or group of pages and write general ads. In turn, the system itself will analyze the content of pages and substitute dynamic headlines.
- In the “Create Company” menu, select the “Dynamic Ads” option.
- Specify the appropriate settings.
- Specify the URL of the site or feed that the system will use for analysis (during the editing phase).
- Add UTM tags using the “Add Options” function, if necessary.
- Add a generic announcement. The system will substitute a title for it according to the client’s needs. The desired URL will also be substituted by the system.
- In terms of targeting, it is better to choose a group of pages (this is important!).
For example, if it’s about selling smartphones, it’s better to set the URL of the smartphone catalog in the conditions, rather than a link to all products.
If other campaigns have more precise keys, “Direct” will show standard ads. Therefore, the “Dynamic ads” function is convenient to use simultaneously with the standard contextual advertising.
Specify the rest of the settings in the same way as the standard campaigns.
How to track the effectiveness of “Yandex.Direct” contextual advertising
Three groups of metrics to track advertising effectiveness:
- Ad performance metrics: CTR, conversion rate, number of impressions and clicks, account quality score.
- Site performance metrics: number of targeted conversions, conversion rate, behavioral metrics.
- Business performance metrics: number and average amount of transactions, ROI, revenue, profit.
Important performance metrics for advertising campaigns are customer acquisition cost (CAC), lifetime customer value (LTV), and the ratio of these metrics.
Ad performance metrics can be tracked in the Yandex.Direct interface.
– To keep track of site performance metrics, use Metrics.
– To highlight traffic received through contextual advertising, use UTM tags.
How to use UTM tags in “Yandex.Direct”
Tags allow:
- Track traffic sources,
- individual campaigns,
- type of traffic,
- ad parameters,
- key phrases.
In the “Metrics” section, check the boxes for “Label links for Metrics” and “Add _openstat tag to links” to label links automatically.
Make sure that auto-labeled links work correctly.
To add markup to links manually, use the UTM markup linker.
- Select the “Yandex.Direct” tab.
- Add a target URL
- Specify campaign name, keyword
- Specify additional data in the “Campaign content” field, if necessary
- Click the “Generate Link” button
Select the tracking options and generate the link. Use it as the target URL for the ad.
In Yandex.Metric, select the Standard Reports – Sources – UTM Tags menu.
Add the metrics and targets of interest to the report and the system will collect the data you need to monitor the effectiveness of your advertising campaigns.
Instead of a conclusion, or Yandex.Direct and Google AdWords: which is better
First, think about what are the tasks you are solving with contextual advertising, what is your experience, what is the market you are working for, and what are your personal preferences.
The benefits of Yandex.Direct:
- A simpler interface compared to AdWords. This makes it easier for newcomers to understand “Yandex” contextual advertising system.
- Yandex’s leadership in the Runet search market. Thanks to this, with the help of “Direct” you get a higher coverage of the audience.
- Strict moderation of partner sites. Yandex.Direct” ad units are not installed on low-quality sites or resources with less than 100 people per day.
Disadvantages of “Yandex.Direct”:
- Higher cost per click compared to AdWords. This disadvantage is due to the popularity of “Yandex” and the high competition between advertisers.
- The low efficiency of working with foreign audiences. If you are advertising a product to residents of the U.S. or Europe, choose AdWords.
- Lack of ability to show ads on YouTube. This trump card of Google to Yandex contextual advertising system has nothing to hide.
If you want to use contextual advertising effectively, learn how to solve specific problems with Yandex.Direct and alternative tools. When you get some experience with it, you’ll choose the right advertising system for yourself.