This new format blends the best of Yandex.Direct — flexible, easy-to-launch campaigns with payment per click — with traditional video ads. Add the emotional content typical of display advertising and you have a format designed to help you increase your brand awareness.
So, what's new in the open beta?
Plenty of options to choose from
We listened to the feedback we received from Yandex.Direct users (that's you!). Now, using your own video clips to create ads, your potential customers can now literally see (instead of read) the advantages of your offer.
There's no need to think that video extensions mean that you need to get involved in any serious production. You can choose from our collection of ready-made video backgrounds. There are currently over a thousand available — in time for the launch of the public beta, we added 600 new, hand-picked clips for all sorts of themes, and our collection continues to grow. Access to this video library is free, and like all ads in Yandex.Direct, you pay only for clicks.
You don't need to go to Hollywood...
Choose ads from you Text & Image campaigns that you think are suitable for experimentation (this is the only ad type that video can only be added to), and Yandex.Direct will automatically select a clip for it, and take ad title, text, link, and button from your ad. You can create or edit several campaigns at once using mass campaign management tools.
Audio content can also help attract users’ attention, and we have plenty of free audio clips available for you to use.
The Creative Ad Builder also a wide range of templates that make creating ads for your needs even easier.
One of the main advantages of video ads are their interactivity: it’s easy to add a button with a call to action: Place an order online! Send a request now! Find out more about our current promotion!
In just a couple clicks, you can also add warnings and age restrictions, change a button’s text and color, enable and disable sound.
You don’t need to worry about the fact that our free library of video backgrounds is available for all advertisers — any given customer will not see ads with the same creative more than once in a 30-day period.
You can now apply one creative to several campaigns, which is useful if your ads require you to mention legal information, or if you find one very effective video and you want to use it as much as possible.
And there we are, your ad is ready. To check how it looks, click on the ad title to launch it.
… to make videos that increase your click rates
You can show your ads based on keywords, retargeting lists, and behavioral targeting. The ad’s background does not affect its impressions.
These ads appear in the Yandex Video Network. Your videos can appear in multi-roll format within video content, e.g. in film trailers on KinoPoisk, or In-page on test pages of Yandex Video Network sites. Both mobile and desktop users will see your ads.
Remember: this format is new, so if you act now, you can get access to a steady stream of impressions and increased traffic before your competitors.
Report Wizard can help you assess these new ads’ performance. Statistics for campaigns shown how your video ads’ indicators differ from other ad types.
Our tests have shown higher CTR for this format than for regular ads in Yandex.Direct. Users click on ads with video content more often, and are more likely to send requests for services. We have observed a general decrease in CPA for ads with video extensions — on average from 10-12%.
A practical tip: Try using A/B testing with different videos to see which one performs better. Also, save time on moderation by immediately adding your legal information.
You can enable video extensions for all of your campaigns at once or select certain campaigns. You can likewise disable them at any moment.
To manage video extensions, you can use the API or XLS files. To read more about how to do this, check out the help section.
Good luck with your experiments with video extensions. As always, we are ready to answer any questions you may have, and are glad hear any feedback about your experience.
