Starting April 22, the “Maximize clicks with manual bids” strategy will gradually be disabled in campaigns with impressions in the Yandex Advertising Network, as well as in Yandex Search and YAN. In these campaigns, only the “Maximize conversions” and “Maximize clicks” strategies will remain available.
At the beginning of 2023, we shared our plans to transition campaigns with manual bid management in YAN to automatic strategies. Back then, certain tasks could only be handled using manual bid management. These tools are now available in automated strategies, and the share of their use in YAN has already exceeded 94%.
Professionals who choose manual management often have low-data campaigns, control budgets in flight campaigns or, for example, increase ad delivery at the group level based on location or user characteristics.
Automatic strategies help with the following tools:
- Package strategies. Combine multiple campaigns in the same strategy so that Yandex Direct’s algorithms get enough conversions to learn and work correctly.
- Minimum budget. In certain cases, a pay-per-click strategy may temporarily fall short of cost-per-click or cost ratio restrictions. For example, at the start of a campaign or if the goal on the site started working incorrectly and no data was received. In this case, the strategy will lower bids. They may drop to a level where there won’t be any ad impressions. To avoid this, you can set a minimum budget with the minimum expenses you want for the calendar week.
- Time-limited budget. Helps when a cyclical weekly budget isn’t good for you and you want to set a budget for a certain period. For example, ₽15,000 from Tuesday to Friday.
- Group bid adjustments. Available in Unified Performance Campaigns. You can adjust up or down based on gender, age, device, region, and more.
Transition plan
The update will take place in spring and summer 2024 step-by-step:
- April 22 — New advertising campaigns can no longer be created.
- May 20 — Bids can no longer be edited in active advertising campaigns.
- June — Active advertising campaigns will be stopped. To relaunch them, you’ll have to change the strategy.
We’ll warn you about each stage in advance, and you’ll have several weeks to prepare for the changes.
Which strategy to choose
When to use “Maximize clicks”
This strategy is focused on attracting traffic to your site. It increases the number of clicks on your ads with a certain cost per click. Unlike the conversion strategy, you don’t need to set up Yandex Metrica to work with “Maximize clicks”. But we recommend that you always set goals to keep the strategy focused on achieving them and make it easier for you to work with statistics.
When to use “Maximize conversions”
The goal of this strategy is to increase the number of targeted actions for users on the site or offline. For example, placing an order, purchasing a product, or submitting a form on the site. To use this strategy, connect the Yandex Metrica counter and set up goals on the site or download offline conversions (for example, through the Conversion Center).
With the “Maximize conversions” strategy, you can optimize for two indicators: cost per conversion and cost revenue ratio, both with a fixed payment or cost ratio for achieving a target action and based on an average indicator. You can also set a weekly or time-limited budget to help the strategy achieve maximum conversions with limited resources.
The changes will also affect the Yandex Direct API. To learn more, see Help.