Yandex Blog

We have been precision-targeting our advertising audiences for quite a while. First, we fed the information about online behavior of millions of our users to our online behavior analytics technology Crypta, which used the unique capabilities of our machine learning method MatrixNet to learn how to tell men from women and one age group from another and show them only the relevant banner ads.

Then, we partnered with digital communications group VivaKi to create a tool for targeting display ads to web users based on the amount of time they spend watching TV.

And now, we took it a notch further by covering all kinds of demographics and audiences with one universal clickthrough-oriented targeting tool, which shows banner ads to web users based on similarity of their online behaviour to the behaviour of those web users who have already visited or performed specific actions on the advertiser's website.

Our new Crypta-powered targeting technology finds patterns in a website visitor behaviour and then tracks down those who exhibit similar behaviour online. Combined with the information about users' actions on a website, provided by our website analytics tool Yandex.Metrica, the new targeting allows advertisers to show their ads to a very narrow audience – those who have already made a purchase on their website, for instance. Or, conversely, those who put an item in the basket, but didn't pay for it. Any website owner with at least 15,000 visitors per week – the minimal sample size for the technology to find patterns – can use this targeting.

The look-alike targeting works only for those users, whose behaviour matches to a large degree – for up to 80%, for instance. The behaviour match threshold varies from audience to audience and depends on advertisers' goals.

Field tests showed impressive results. Using our look-alike targeting, clothing company Quelle managed to increase clickthrough rates from their banner ads by 300%.

We also experimented with manual campaign optimisation and boosted first results for Quelle by almost 100% in the fourth week. Our next step is to offer automated campaign optimisation individually to each of our advertisers.

Besides increasing conversion rates at virtually no cost, look-alike targeting gives advertisers some generous windfall in the form of additional visitors who delayed their conversion. KIA's advertising campaign with look-alike targeting showed 145% increase in delayed conversions compared with conversion rates from the same banner ads without look-alike targeting.

With a monthly audience of more than 60 million users, Russia is Europe’s largest internet market, having overtaken Germany in 2011. Naturally, this is attracting ever-growing numbers of European, Asian and American companies seeking to tap into Russia with online sales of goods and services, and looking for digital marketing and advertising opportunities. Yandex is now introducing a special training course for these clients, to help them better take advantage of all the opportunities.

Russia is one of just a few countries with local players dominating the domestic internet market. Yandex is one of them: the company boasts 61.5% of all search traffic in Russia as of May 2013. The structure of Russia’s online ad market is also unique, with different platforms at the fore. Last year Yandex overtook Russia’s top TV channel, Pervy Kanal, in daytime audience numbers, and raked in similar ad revenues.

Foreign companies are attracted to Yandex.Direct, the nation’s largest web ad network particularly in such segments as travel (hotel bookings and flights), e-commerce (especially clothing), gaming, and medical services abroad (mainly Israel and Germany).

Outside of Russia and other CIS countries, Yandex’s largest numbers of foreign advertisers are in China, then Germany, the UK and the United States. France, Italy and Spain follow, all at about the same level.

To get closer to its foreign clients, the company last year founded Yandex.Europe AG. It continues to offer all its clients strong support as advertiser numbers grow. Interest from digital marketing agencies is also on the rise, as they look to organise ad campaigns within Yandex services.

Yandex announces the launch of a special programme to train its international advertising clients: both vendors and digital agencies. The training is to take place through the International Marketing School in Barcelona and at some locations in the United States. The course will be delivered to selected Yandex clients and covers the use of the Yandex.Direct contextual advertising service, including creating accounts and campaigns, managing match types and working with retargeting and content networks. The first course starts on June 18, don’t miss the chance to sign up!

The training program is called the “Global PPC Campaign Manager (With Yandex.Expert)” and has been developed by UK-based international search marketing support services group Webcertain working closely in conjunction with the Yandex teams in Moscow and the US.

Two course options are available – an exclusive two-day Yandex version, and a three-day course also covering some other search engines. All participants have the opportunity to attempt the challenging Yandex.Expert online examination as part of the course – the examination was recently translated into English for the benefit of international users of the system.

“Many international advertisers are reaping the benefits of working with Yandex in Russia and other countries, but have fed back a need for greater in-depth knowledge of Yandex systems to maximise their returns,” said Yandex’s US Business Development Director, Preston Carey.

The course will provide participants with a deeper understanding of how to build ad campaigns on Yandex.Direct, the largest automated, auction-based ad-serving system for contextual advertising on the Russian internet with a client base of 315,000 advertisers in 2012.

It will also give insights into other parts of the Yandex Advertising Network – the largest ad network on the Russian internet with a combined audience of almost 57 million – as well as the Yandex.Market online comparison shopping system, which has a monthly audience in Russia of 14.6 million. The service includes more than 50 million price offers placed by more than 12,000 internet stores in 300 categories, from clothing to automobile accessories.

The course is led by Webcertain’s Andy Atkins-Krüger with support from colleagues Justyna Wilner and Immanuel Simonsen. All delegates receive a Workbook guide and full support on taking the Yandex.Expert examination.

Yandex clients who would like the opportunity to participate in the training programme can get more information by e-mail.