It wasn't so long ago that video extensions appeared in Yandex.Direct, but we are already observing positive results: they catch users' attention more often, their СTR is higher and their CPA is lower than for ads without video. We've decided to take another step forward — now Yandex.Direct can turn any text ads with images into video.

As promised last week, Yandex.Direct now generates video extensions by default.

The question of how and when to optimize your campaigns is impossible to answer without the right information. In Yandex.Direct, your most important tool on this front is Report Wizard. We recently added three experimental indicators to Report Wizard that we hope will make it even more useful: Engaged sessions (ES), Cost per Engaged session, and Engaged session rate.

Please note that as of the end of February, we will no longer use the term “maximum cost per click” in Yandex.Direct.

There's a new type of bid adjustment available in Yandex.Direct, one we mentioned in an earlier post. These new adjustments make it easier to manage your ads with video content, and work just like other bid adjustments.

Over the years we have adapted our search engine results page (SERP) to meet each user’s individual needs better and to provide a high-quality user experience. The layout of search ads takes into account each user’s needs, the given query and other competitors' ads. More relevant ads result in more efficient advertising, increased user satisfaction, and improved advertising performance with higher conversion rates and an increase in traffic.

We continually test various ad layouts and their placement on the SERP to achieve optimal results for both our users and advertisers. In the future, we plan to expand the variety of layouts. We will algorithmically select the best layout depending on a wide range of factors.

In addition to the changes in the SERP ad layouts, we will also make the auction process more transparent. In April, these changes will be reflected in both the Yandex Direct interface and API.