Campaign has insufficient conversions

This page lists the most common reasons for a campaign to get few conversions and offers tips for configuring campaigns.

Yandex Metrica settings

• Check the tag used: you must have access to it. The tag numbers on the website and in Yandex Direct must match.

• Make sure that the goal used for campaign optimization is working properly. To do this, follow the instructions.

  Try to trigger a conversion yourself. Make sure that your Yandex Metrica tag has recorded it.

Achievability of goals

Goal for the website

Check conversion frequency

To let the algorithm learn, choose a conversion action that generates at least 10 conversions per week. The higher the conversion frequency, the faster the strategy will learn. The strategy will need at least 1–2 weeks to learn.

I get over 10 conversions per week, but the CPA is higher than set

If your campaign has been active for over two weeks, and the strategy goal generates more than 10 conversions per week, but the CPA is still higher than set, replace or add a goal that generates more conversions (for example, change the "Purchase" goal to "Add to cart"). You can also speed up learning by increasing the CPA or the budget.

Make sure the goal is available for the strategy

If the strategy settings indicate that the goal isn't found, check that it hasn't been deleted in Yandex Metrica. If the goal doesn't work, adjust its settings or select a different goal to optimize the campaign.

Check the attribution model

When analyzing accumulated statistics, check the attribution model selected: it must be the same as in the campaign settings.

Goal from a mobile app

If you use in-app events as your optimization goals:

• Make sure that the indicator for the goal selected from the app is green: it means that events are being received for it.

• If the goal's indicator is gray: double-check that you configured transmission of events from your mobile app properly.

• Make sure that you didn't exclude any important audience from impressions (for example, the audience of mobile devices).

• Double-check that links in your ad follow a proper scenario.

CPA

• Check your CPA: it must be high enough to achieve conversions in your area of business. You may use accumulated statistics for analysis. Read more about calculating the optimal conversion cost from the statistics data.

• If you don't have accumulated statistics yet, determine the average CPA using the Maximum conversions strategy with a limit set for only your weekly budget. Specify the budget amount and one goal for which you can get more than 10 conversions per week. Launch the campaign.

  The system will try to bring as many conversions as possible within the specified budget. To give the strategy enough time to learn, evaluate the results and change your weekly budget no more than once every two or three weeks.

  Within two or three weeks, the algorithm will find the value. You can use it to set up your target CPA. If the CPA determined this way seems too high, pay attention to the quality of advertising and promotional content (ads, landing pages), and check the targeting criteria.

Use the Report on conversions to monitor your conversions.

Yandex Direct account balance

Make sure that your shared account balance is high enough and your campaign is running without interruption. Check the daily budget limit of your shared account. If a campaign stops for insufficient funds, this may impact effectiveness of the optimization algorithms.

What else you can check in a campaign

1. Payment model. If there are not enough goal completions, you can try to switch to the pay-per-click model. This way, the algorithm will have more freedom to conduct tests and bring more conversions. You can return to the pay-per-conversion model after a few weeks if the required number of goal completions is achieved.

2. Weekly budget. It should cover at least 10 conversions for the most expensive goal (if there are several of them). If there is not enough budget, increase the limit.

3. Targeting settings that limit the campaign reach: Bid adjustments, negative keywords, time targeting, blocked sites, geotargeting, and impression criteria.

4. Moderation statuses. If some ads or parts of the ads are rejected or restricted in impressions, make the necessary changes and re-submit them for moderation.

When checking the campaign, look at the Yandex Direct recommendations for improving the performance. These are marked in blue. Yandex Direct can prompt you which limits should you set on the CPA or budget to make your campaign effective.

Learn more

Have questions?

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

If you select Telegram or WhatsApp, keep in mind that Yandex does not control and is not liable for how third-party messengers store your data and chat history.