Advertisers often want their ads to lead to conversions for several different Yandex.Metrica goals on their site, e.g. users calling, filling out an order form or visiting certain pages. Now, there are two new ways to optimize conversions for multiple goals in Yandex.Direct: by optimizing a multi-step goal in Yandex.Metrica or priority goals.

Why is this important?

We have noticed that many advertisers still run optimization for all Yandex.Metrica goals. Such an approach cannot provide stable results. Yandex.Metrica tags usually have lots of goals, and not all of them can be used for optimization — some are needed solely to analyze user behavior on the site. Taking such goals into account when using an automatic strategy can lead to the worst of results. Moreover, any change to any of the tag's goals will affect the ad campaign — the algorithm has to be retrained for the new list of goals. This can lead conversions to spike or drop. Adding or removing a campaign’s tags can also lead to unpredictable results.

To avoid this, we are starting to disable optimization for all Yandex.Metrica goals. At first, this option will no longer be available when creating new campaigns, and then gradually for all ad campaigns. Instead, you already have the option to use optimization for multi-step goals or for several priority goals.

How to optimize ads for several goals

1. Optimization for a multi-step goal in Yandex.Metrica

Fulfilling a multi-step goal requires several "subgoals" (described in its settings) to be met. Multi-step goals help you configure conditions using "and/or" operators more flexibly to take into account different user behavior scenarios and fit them into a single Yandex.Metrica goal.

Example 1. If you have a good idea of how users interact with your site, the user path to conversion can be set as an "Order" multi-step goal:

This goal will be reached if the customer calls and places an order (1 and 3), writes via chat and placed an order (2 and 3) or fulfills all three actions. If the customer simply places an order, skipping the first step, that is a good thing in itself, but it will not be counted as the multi-step goal being reached. An automatic strategy configured to optimize for the "Order" goal will only count conversions when the specified conditions are met — that is, it will try to bring in more users who are most likely to complete a chain of actions ([1] or [2]) and [3].

Example 2. We have two goals of equal importance for the business. In other words, you can set the same average CPA for these goals in the settings for the “Optimize conversions” automatic strategy. You can say that the multi-step goal in this example is an "aggregator" of goals with the same price.

Setting up the multi-step "Contact" goal:

An automatic strategy optimized for such a multi-step goal will try to bring users most likely to perform one of these actions at the set CPA. This figure is then visible in the report, and the strategy will focus on reaching the value you set.

If you use the pay for conversions payment model and the "Average CPA" setting, then you can now also set a Yandex.Metrica multi-step goal for optimization.

2. Optimization for several priority goals

This solution works to optimize conversions within a weekly budget and is suitable if a) different user actions have different values for your business, and b) it does not make sense to buy all conversions at the same price, e.g. if the goals are located at different levels of the sales funnel.

Example 3. Let's return to our first example. We set the customer actions as priority goals and their value:

[1] called — 200 RUB

[2] wrote via chat — 200 RUB

[3] placed an order — 1000 RUB

Call and chat messages have the same value since these actions are located on the same level of the sales funnel. The value of the "Placed an order" priority goal is based on the number of calls and chat messages led to orders.

The value you set for a goal should reflect how much revenue each such conversion brings your business. We always recommend using real data to set the value for priority goals. Then Yandex.Direct will be able to drive conversions and maximize the business' revenue from the completion of priority goals.

Afterward, when important target actions have been evaluated and set as priority goals in Yandex.Direct, all you need to do is select "All priority goals" in the “Optimize conversions” automatic strategy settings with a weekly budget and launch the campaign.

Example 4. Setting priority goals and their value for actions that are of equal value to the business — we saw something similar in Example 2:

[1] called — 200 RUB

[2] wrote via chat — 200 RUB

Once again, here we are launching conversion optimization for all priority goals with a weekly budget. In this case, the strategy will try to bring users most likely to complete one of the specified actions, while taking into account their equal significance and trying to bring the maximum number of conversions for these two goals.

When optimizing conversions for all priority goals, the strategy tries to bring as many conversions as possible by focusing on the goals' values (whether they differ or not) and thereby maximize the revenue from their completion. The end value for each goal (the "Revenue" column) in the report may differ from the value you set.

By the way, ROI optimization also works for all priority goals — you can set the ROI and run ads without setting a weekly budget. The system will rely on the set value of your priority goals to maintain and improve the campaign ROI.

Last, a few technical comments: in your priority goals, you can specify a multi-step Yandex.Metrica goal along with regular ones. And you can also use Direct Commander and the Yandex.Direct API to manage your optimization settings for all your priority goals.

Remember, the way you work with your campaign goals should be based on your own objectives for your business. Please get in touch if you have any questions, and we can find solutions together!