Autotargeting

Autotargeting is a tool that allows you to automatically serve ads on Yandex search and the Yandex Advertising Network search sites without adding any keywords. Based on your ad text and the advertised site page, Yandex.Direct will select suitable keywords and serve your ads when users enter them.

  2. How it works
  3. How to activate it
  4. Setting bids
  5. Statistics

How it works

Autotargeting is based on a special mathematical algorithm which forecasts the likelihood of a click-through for a particular search query for each ad. Yandex.Direct analyzes your ad text and information on your landing page when it creates a forecast. Based on that information, Yandex.Direct then selects the most suitable search queries and serves ads when users type them in.

You may decide to enable autotargeting rather than add keywords to a new ad campaign. Ads start displaying when users enters related search queries. Use statistics to put a list of keywords together and then add them to an ad group.

Autotargeting can function alongside keywords that you added to an ad group. When selecting ads to be served, a keyword that has been added by the advertiser has priority over ads served through autotargeting.

A default keyword will be inserted when serving autotargeted ads made from templates.

How to activate it

Autotargeting is disabled for new ad campaigns. You can activate it on the page where you edit ad groups, but only for “Text & Image Ads” and “Ads for Mobile Apps” campaigns.

You can enable mass autotargeting for a few ad groups. To do this, go to your campaign page, mark the appropriate groups, select Set up autotargeting in the Action field and click Apply.

You can enable autotargeting using the Yandex.Direct API, in Direct Commander or using XLS/XLSX files.

Setting bids

For automatic strategies, you can give serving priority to autotargeted ads. The CPC will be determined automatically in accordance with the strategy settings you set.

If you use a manual bid management strategy, then you can set a CPC for ads served based on autotargeting. The maximum bid for autotargeted ads will not exceed the CPC you set.

Statistics

You can view autotargeting statistics in the Report Wizard. Just filter by Impression criteria type → Autotargeting. You can view query statistics for autotargeting in the Search queries report. It contains the Yandex search terms that triggered your ad. Based on this information you can fill out your list of campaign keywords, identify irrelevant search queries, and add them to your negative keywords for your campaigns or ad groups.

When you analyze statistics in reports, we recommend paying attention to the conversion and goal price data.

For example, let's say that the goal for a campaign is "place an order." Select the Conversion (%), Goal cost, and Conversions columns in the report and compare data for keywords and autotargeting.