Since June 2, rules for product profile ranking now take into account products’ CTR, as well as their participation in the Market Ordering program.
Earlier, products from different stores were displayed on product profiles and in a Yandex search block under the same name in descending CPC order. Now, clickability is also taken into account: the higher the CTR of the offer, the less impressions in prominent positions cost.
The new ranking formula also takes into account information from the Yandex Market Ordering program: all other conditions being equal, products which can be ordered directly from this service now appear above other products. In this situation, the system relies not only on participation in the program but also on the confirmed order conversion rate.
An addition to the introduction of these two aforementioned changes, a new display position has been added to the product profile: the previous TOP-5 Internet store offers which you see in the screenshot has now been expanded to include one more line, making it the TOP-6.
Changes in More Detail
Here you’ll find answers to key questions about the new formula for product profile ranking.
Please contact your Yandex manager if you cannot find an answer to your question.
1. What determines the sequence in which product offers are displayed?
The new rules are similar to those applicable to premium placement in Yandex search.
The system allocates positions as follows:
— All offers are allocated positions based on their CPC and CTR, and, for shops participating in the Yandex.Market Ordering program, the confirmed order conversion rate is also factored in. Offers with the best indicators make it into the TOP-6 and the rest may appear in seventh position and below in descending order based on their indicators.
— Within the TOP-6 block, the system re-ranks product offerings in descending CPC order.
2. Is placement on Yandex.Market more expensive now?
Placement in general isn't. Impressions in prominent positions on the product profile may be either cheaper or more expensive depending on the clickability of the product offering and participation in the Yandex.Market Ordering program.
Recommended bids and system projections are primarily affected by CTR. The more clickable your offer, the lower the minimum bid to hold onto a prominent position now is.
3. What about new products which nobody has had a chance to click on yet?
The ranking formula uses a projected CTR. As in Yandex.Direct, the system uses machine learning technologies to project how likely it is that a user will click-through from your product listing.
4. What should I do if my store does not participate in the Yandex.Market Ordering program? Will offers from CPA-connected competitors always hit higher positions?
Something that can be bought on Yandex.Market will appear in a higher position only when all other conditions are equal. Positions primarily depend on CPC and clickability. If your product's CTR is higher than that of your competitors’, your offer is likely to display above them, given equal bids.
5. Does autobroker work?
Yes. The autobroker continues lowering your CPC so that it’s just enough to maintain its current position when factoring in all new ranking rules. As before, it takes competitors' figures and the user's region into account.
6. Should I make any changes to my bid management algorithms? How will bid recommendations work?
Since the new ranking formula’s launch, the system has automatically returned recommended bids for different positions based on CTR and Yandex.Market Ordering data. However, all key API methods remain unmodified, and changes do not affect the operation of external bid management programs.
To be on the safe side, it’s best to double-check how your programs have responded to the new top six position on the product profile. Please, also check the bidding logic and note that there can be situations when the system recommends identical bids for different positions.
7. Can stores participating in Yandex.Market Ordering also influence their positions by increasing the commission rate?
Commission rate does not influence position: CPA is 1% for everyone, so CTR and CTC remain the key parameters affecting a product’s position. In the future, however, we will allow stores to manage CPA fee rates.
8. Where can I view CTR?
Clickability data is not integrated into Yandex.Market statistics yet. Of course, since we are increasing the influence of CTR on product positions, we do plan to add more data to placement evaluation reports. Thus in the near future you can be guided by the increasing or decreasing number of clicks on product offers as well as by the dynamics of recommended bids.