Maximum profit^β

This strategy aims to deliver the highest possible profit from your promotions. It uses data about your profit per conversion to calculate the optimal CPA and continuously adjusts it. Here's what you can do using this strategy:

• Identify the CPA level that delivers the highest overall profit for your business, even if it differs from the average CPA benchmarks.
• Boost the financial performance of your business. Rather than trying to hit a set target, the strategy aims to find the volume and CPA that help your business earn more.

This strategy works well for businesses that focus on CPA optimization and want to maximize campaign efficiency based on unit economics. This strategy works great for companies that prioritize profit growth and whose unit economics enable them to calculate and set an average profit for a specific goal.

How it works

The "Maximum profit" strategy sets bids to find the balance between volume of conversions and their cost, helping your business earn more from advertising.

To launch this strategy, select a goal and specify the average profit from completing it, excluding advertising costs (CPA).

Dynamic profit input for specific conversions (for example, different items in a cart) isn't supported yet.

Profit per conversion is an average profit from a single conversion after variable costs (product cost, contractor fees, payment processing fees, and other costs), excluding promotion expenses. Specify this amount in your strategy settings.

Promotion profit is the final financial result of your campaigns. This metric is calculated as the total profit from conversions in a specific campaign, minus all advertising costs incurred during the campaign period. This is what the strategy aims to maximize.

How do I calculate my profit per conversion?

Profit per conversion = Average sales revenue − Average sales cost, where:

• Average sales revenue is an average revenue per sale (for example, the product or service price).

• Average sales cost includes all variable expenses related to a single sale. For example, the product cost, contractor fees, supplies, payment processing fees, shipping, and so on. This value doesn't include fixed costs, such as office rent, accountant salary, or software development. These costs also don't include advertising expenses (CPA).

If some goal completions don't lead to a sale, factor the goal‑to‑sale conversion rate (CR) when calculating your conversion margin:

Goal-to-sale conversion rate (CR) = Number of completed sales / Number of conversions for this goal.

In that case,

Profit per conversion (for the goal) = (Average sales revenue − Average cost of sale) × CR

Example of a profit calculation

Example 1. Cleaning service

• Strategy goal: On-site request.
• Average revenue per completed order: ₽5000
• Average order cost (including employee wages, cleaning supplies, and other variable expenses): ₽3000.
• Profit per order: ₽5000 – ₽3000 = ₽2000.
• Average conversion rate from lead to paid order: 50%.

Profit per conversion for strategy setup = ₽2000 × 50% = ₽1000.

Specify in your strategy settings: ₽1000 for the "Request" goal.

Example 2. Online movie streaming service

• Goal for this strategy: subscription.
• Subscription price: ₽300 per month.
• Average subscription duration per user: 6 months.
• Average revenue per subscription: ₽300 per month × 6 months = ₽1800.
• Variable costs to maintain subscriptions (such as content licensing fees, payment processing fees, direct customer support costs): 50% of revenue.

Profit per subscription = ₽1800 (revenue) × 50% (profit share) = ₽900.

Specify in your strategy settings: ₽900 for the "Subscription" goal.

Example 3. Online store for designer lighting

• Goal for this strategy: order paid.
• Average order value: ₽7000.
• Average product cost (procurement and packaging): ₽3500.
• Delivery cost (variable, covered by the store): ₽500.
• Payment processing fee: 2% of ₽7000 = ₽140.

Profit per purchase: ₽7000 – ₽3500 – ₽500 – ₽140 = ₽2860.

Specify in your strategy settings: ₽2860 for the "Order paid" goal.

Example 4. Real estate agency

• Strategy goal: Property selection request.
• Average agency commission per closed deal: ₽150,000.
• Variable expenses per deal (agent's commission upon closing, legal support): ₽50,000.
• Profit per closed deal: ₽150,000 – ₽50,000 = ₽100,000.
• Conversion rate from request to closed deal: 1%.

Profit per conversion for strategy setup = ₽100,000 × 1% = ₽1000.

Specify in your strategy settings: ₽1000 for the "Property selection request" goal.

We recommend evaluating the result in 7 to 14 days: at the beginning of your campaign, the strategy might need some time to accumulate initial statistics. If you get very few conversions during the learning phase, check your strategy settings.

Changing certain strategy settings resets the campaign's training. Learn more.

Strategy settings

1. Pay per click on your ad.

2. Set your budget and choose a limit: per week, per period, or unlimited.

   For long-term campaigns without a specific end date, we recommend setting a weekly budget. If you need to control costs for flight campaigns, use a budget for a period. We recommend setting a weekly budget of at least 10 × Profit per conversion.

   Minimum budget:

   • Per week: ₽300 (values for other currencies). We recommend setting a weekly budget of at least 10 × Profit per conversion.

   • For a period: RUB 50 per day (values for other currencies). We recommend setting a period budget to at least 10 × Profit per conversion. If you specify a period longer than a week, your budget should be enough for at least ten conversions each week.

   Learn more about the strategy budget.

3. Add a Yandex Metrica tag.

   If you don't have access to the Yandex Metrica tag, you can request access to the goals configured for this tag. To do this, specify the tag and click Request access. Next, ask the tag owner to enable the Allow optimizing campaigns for goals option.

4. Select one conversion and specify the average profit per conversion.

   A goal is an action you want a user to complete after seeing your ad. Enter your goal completion margin, excluding any conversion costs.

   Dynamic transfer of profit per conversion isn't supported.

5. Select the attribution model in the advanced settings, if needed.

   An attribution model is a rule that determines which click is assigned as the source of a session on your site. The model helps you more accurately identify how advertising contributes to business growth. The bidding system uses Yandex Metrica statistics for the selected attribution model and focuses on achieving the desired result.

   You should select a model based on your business type, the method you use for attracting traffic, and what information you need to obtain from it. The Automatic attribution model is set by default. You can change it as needed.

   More about attribution models.

How to evaluate strategy performance

In the Report Wizard

In the Statistics section, the total profit per conversion (Profit × Number of conversions) appears as the "Conversion value" metric, and the total profit generated by advertising is shown in the "Profit (based on value)" metric.

Using an A/B experiment

To assess your performance against the "Maximum conversions" strategy, run an A/B experiment in Yandex Direct:

1. For the control group, select a campaign with the "Maximum conversions" strategy and set a target CPA.
2. For the test group, set up a campaign with the "Maximum profit" strategy and specify the profit margin used to determine the target CPA.

Once you have enough conversions, evaluate the results to check how much profit each strategy delivered:

Promotion profit = Number of conversions × Profit per conversion – Advertising costs

Calculate this metric for both your "Maximum conversions" campaigns and "Maximum profit", campaigns, then compare the results.

Questions and answers

When does the "Maximum profit" strategy work best?

This strategy may not be optimal if maximizing profit isn't your current business goal. This often happens when other metrics take priority:

• Capturing market share. When you need to quickly ramp up your customer base or boost sales, even if it means reducing profit. For example, you're aiming to become a market leader.
• Clearing inventory or speeding up turnover. When you need to quickly sell off products to avoid storage costs or make room for new stock.
• Maximizing the number of customers, leads, or users. If your business is ready to run at break‑even or even at a loss early on, funding growth from borrowed or other external sources, with the aim of monetizing later (for example, via LTV).
• Strict CPA or CRR control. If you must strictly keep CPA or CRR within set limits, regardless of potential profit, to meet your internal financial benchmarks.

In these cases, the "Maximum conversions" strategy with optimization for average CPA, CRR, or budget works best. This approach helps you reach your target conversion volume, even if it means earning less profit on each deal.

How does the "Maximum profit" strategy differ from the "Maximum conversions" strategy optimized for average CPA or CRR?

These strategies help achieve different goals. When optimizing for CPA, you need to set your target CPA. The goal of this strategy is to drive as many conversions as possible within your specified CPA. This is a great option when you need full control over your CPA or want to get as many conversions as possible within your specified CPA, especially when it takes priority over profit growth. However, when a fixed price is set, the resulting profit may not be maximized.

When optimizing for CRR, you need to specify your target cost revenue ratio. The goal here is to maximize conversions while maintaining your specified CRR. This is a great way to keep your advertising ROI in check. However, just like with CPA, setting CRR manually doesn't guarantee maximum profit, since not all CRR values are optimal for driving financial results.

With the "Maximum profit" strategy, you need to specify your margin per conversion, excluding advertising costs. The goal of this strategy is to find the optimal balance between cost and conversion volume to deliver the highest possible profit.

The key difference is that the "Maximum profit" strategy continuously adjusts the CPA for maximum profit, automatically adapting to market dynamics. Keeping CPA up to date manually is virtually impossible, even if with the optimal CPA or CRR for maximum profit, because auctions are always changing.

Can I use revenue as my profit margin?

Your profit margin is only part of your revenue. If you exaggerate your profit margin, the strategy will aim for higher bids to capture more conversions. Although the number of conversions may grow, your actual profit per conversion will drop due to unaccounted variable costs. As a result, your profit from promotion may be lower than it could be, because you might overpay for conversions when your profit margin is inflated.

Can I use CPA as my profit margin?

If you set your margin much lower than it actually is, the strategy will optimize toward lower bids. This could mean earning more from each conversion, but the total number of conversions will drop significantly. As a result, your total profit from promotion will be lower than it could be with a more accurate profit margin.

The closer the profit margin you specify is to the real one, the more profit your business can generate from promotion.

Why doesn't the profit margin calculation factor in advertising costs?

To run this strategy, you need to specify your profit per conversion, excluding advertising costs. This strategy aims to maximize marginal profit from promotion, meaning profit that's calculated after all variable costs, including advertising costs, are deducted. It aims to find the optimal balance between CPA and conversion volume to maximize overall profit after deducting advertising costs.

Have questions?

Scan the QR code or tap it to follow the link.

 

Promotion profit is the final financial result of your campaigns. This metric is calculated as the total profit from conversions in a specific campaign, minus all advertising costs incurred during the campaign period. This is what the strategy aims to maximize.

Profit per conversion is an average profit from a single conversion after variable costs (product cost, contractor fees, payment processing fees, and other costs), excluding promotion expenses. Specify this amount in your strategy settings.

Payment currency	Minimum weekly budget
RUB	300
KZT	1 300
BYN	9
USD	10
EUR	10
CHF	10
TRY	17

Payment currency	Minimum weekly budget
RUB	0.9
KZT	3
BYN	0.03
USD	0.03
EUR	0.03
CHF	0.03
TRY	0.03

Payment currency	Minimum daily budget
RUB	50
KZT	200
BYN	1.5
USD	1.5
EUR	1.5
CHF	1.5
TRY	2.5