Native design

Native advertising is an ad format that flexibly adapts to your website's design.

You can pick and choose the elements to use in your ad, such as the title, body text, image, and so on. Some elements are required by advertising law and the terms of the Yandex Advertising Network. Other elements are optional: you can use them to make the ad fit in seamlessly with your website's design and increase the block conversion rate.

Add a native design when editing or creating an RTB unit: in the visual designer, when setting up the Advertising format, click Add design → Native design.

You can customize the HTML and CSS settings to help your ad blend in with your site's page. To do this, go to the Code tab in the native design settings in the right part of the window.

Block template

The template determines which ad elements will be displayed in the ad. All available elements are shown in the schematic below:

<div class="wrapper">
  <div class="headline">See also</div>
  <ya-units-grid cols="${grid_columns}" rows="${grid_rows}">
    <div class="image"><ya-unit-image /></div>
    <div class="title"><ya-unit-title /></div>
    <div class="desc"><ya-unit-desc /></div>
    <div class="domain"><ya-unit-domain /></div>
    <div class="meta">
      <span class="category"><ya-unit-category /></span>
    </div>
  <ya-unit-kebab />
  </ya-units-grid>
 </div>

You can use this to:

• Change the ad unit's appearance from a grid (<ya-units-grid />) to a slider (<ya-units-slider />).
• Add your own layout to the template.
• Swap elements or nest elements into other HTML tags.
• Remove additional elements you don't want displayed in the block. For example, if you wish to hide a label, delete the line <ya-unit-desc />.

Required ad elements

As defined by the terms of the Yandex Advertising Network, these elements must always be in the ad unit:

CSS class styles

You can also create your own CSS classes and customize their styles.

Ad block design

Block format

Blocks with native design may have the appearance of a grid of a specific size or of a slider (a horizontal scrollable ad feed). The grid is rendered by <ya-units-grid /> while the slider is rendered by <ya-units-slider />. You can't use both of these elements within the same template.

Setting up the grid

The <ya-units-grid> element is used to draw the grid based on parameters specified in the Grid size fields. You can only change the grid size using these fields.

Exception: if you need to display a different grids for different screen sizes, specify the corresponding values in the sizes. parameter. The ${grid_columns}x${grid_rows} valuables must be listed last. For example:

HTML

<ya-units-grid sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 2x2, (max-width: 600px) 2x1, ${grid_rows}x${grid_columns}">

Here is how grids are going to be matched to different screen sizes in this example:

• A 2 × 1 grid will be displayed on screens less than 600 pixels wide.
• A 2 × 2 grid will be displayed on screens between 601 and 1024 pixels wide.
• Screens wider than 1025 pixels will display a grid based on the values set in the Grid size fields on the General tab.

The grid layout is configured via CSS classes grid, grid-row, and grid-item. For example:

CSS

.grid-row {
  margin-top: 10px; /* vertical distance between cells — 10 pixels */
}
.grid-item {
  margin-left: 20px; /* horizontal distance between cells — 20 pixels */
}
.grid {
  border: 1px solid #000; /* border around the grid: thickness — 1 pixel, border type — solid, color — black */
}

Important. Keep in mind that you should set the number of displayed ad unit cells in the HTML code. To specify the number of ads to load, change the values in the Grid size fields. For example, if you set the Grid size to 5 × 2 while the <ya-units-grid> element is configured to display a 2 × 2 grid for this screen size instead, then only 4 out of 10 loaded ads will be displayed. The opposite is also possible: if you have a 5 × 2 grid while the number of ads is set to 2 × 2, then the block will display six empty cells.

Setting up the slider

To render an ad unit as a slider, use the <ya-units-slider /> element.

Example of a slider template:

<div class="block">
  <div class="headline">See also</div>
  <ya-units-slider>
    <div class="unit">
      <ya-unit-kebab />
      <div class="image">
        <ya-unit-image ratio="0.5" />
      </div>
      <div class="body">
        <div class="title">
          <ya-unit-title />
        </div>
        <div class="meta">
          <span class="category">
            <ya-unit-category />
          </span>
          <span class="date">
            <ya-unit-date />
          </span>
        </div>
      </div>
    </div>
  </ya-units-slider>
  <div class="block-label">
    <div class="label">Yandex recommendations</div>
  </div>
</div>

The slider design can be customized in CSS using the classes ya-units-slider (overall slider appearance) and ya-slider-item (a specific card within the slider):

.ya-units-slider {
  width: 95vw;
}
.ya-slider-item:not(:first-child) {
  margin-left: 1em;
}

You can add an ad scroll button to your slider. To do this, find the element <ya-units-slider> and add the element <ya-slider-button>. The scroll direction is indicated with the direction attribute:

• The left value sets scrolling to the left. The scroll button will be placed before the ads in the slider.
• The right value determines scrolling to the right. The scroll button will be placed after the ads in the slider.

If <ya-slider-button> includes an element with the ya-clickable class, then scrolling will be triggered once the element is clicked on. If there is no such element, scrolling is performed by clicking on the button itself.

For example:

<ya-slider-button direction="left">Back to top</ya-slider-button>

When you scroll to the leftmost or rightmost position, the element <ya-units-slider /> receives the classes ya-slider-leftmost or ya-slider-rightmost respectively.

Note. If the scroll buttons are located above the slider cell, we don't recommend hiding them using these classes: this can lead to invalid clicks.

Block appearance

To customize the block's overall appearance (such as the text background color or margins), you need to wrap all of the ad unit's code in tags, set the class (for example, wrapper) and set up parameters for that class in CSS.

HTML

<div class="wrapper">
  <ya-units-grid cols="${grid_columns}" rows="${grid_rows}">
  ...
  </ya-units-grid>
</div>

CSS

.wrapper {
  background: #fff; /* background color — white */
  padding: 10px; /* margins inside the border, all sides — 10 pixels */
  margin: 5px; /* margins outside the border, all sides — 5 pixels */
  border: 2px solid #000; /* border: thickness — 1 pixel, border type — solid, color — black */
  border-radius: 6px; /* round the border's corners after 6 pixels */
}

Restricting the number of rows displayed

If you want to limit the number of rows displayed in the element, wrap the element you need in the <ya-clamp> tag.

Attention. Do not limit the number of lines displayed in the title: it must be displayed in full according to advertisement law.

HTML

Original header style:

<div class="desc"><ya-unit-desc /></div>

After limiting the number of displayed rows to two:

<ya-clamp lines="2" class="desc"><ya-unit-desc /></ya-clamp>

Or

<div class="desc"><ya-clamp lines="2"><ya-unit-desc /></ya-clamp></div>

Text format

You can use CSS to format your text. Choose the class of the element you wish to configure and change its values.

Setting up the font and spacing

CSS

.headline {
  font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; /* font */
  font-size: 18px; /* font size — 18 pixels */
  font-weight: bold; /* font thickness (weight) — bold */
  font-style: italic; /* font style — italics */
  line-height: 24px; /* line spacing — 24 pixels */
  letter-spacing: 1px; /* character spacing — 1 pixel*/
  text-decoration: underline; /* text decoration — underlined */
  text-transform: uppercase; /* text case — all uppercase */
  text-align: right; /*  text alignment — right */
  color: #373e44; /* text color — dark gray */
  background: #fff; /* background color — white */
}
                          
.category {
  color: #093; /* text color — green */
  font-size: 12px; /* font size — 12 pixels */
  text-transform: uppercase; /*  text case — all uppercase */
}
                        

Configuring margins

CSS

.headline {
  padding-top: 10px; /* top margin — 10 pixels */
  padding-right: 10px; /* right margin — 10 pixels */
  padding-bottom: 10px; /* bottom margin — 10 pixels */
  padding-left: 10px; /* left margin — 10 pixels */
}

Making a border around text

CSS

.headline {
  border: 1px solid #000; /* border: thickness — 1 pixel, border type — solid, color — black */
}

Cell appearance

You can use the unit-wrapper class to configure the background color or border for each cell. For example:

CSS

.unit-wrapper.unit-without-image {
  background: #fff; /* background color — white */
  border: 1px solid #666; /* border: thickness — 1 pixel, border type — solid, color — gray */
  padding: 5px; /* margins outside the border — 5 pixels */
  border-radius: 6px; /* round the border's corners after 6 pixels */
}

Cells that contain ads without images can have their own unique layout, which you can set using the <unit-wrapper.unit-without-image> class. For example:

CSS

.unit-wrapper.unit-without-image {   background: #fff; /* background color — white */  border: 1px solid #666; /* border: thickness — 1 pixel, border type — solid, color — gray */ padding: 5px; /* margins outside the border — 5 pixels */
  border-radius: 6px; /* round the border's corners after 6 pixels */}

Adapting your ads' appearance to fit your website design

You can dynamically change your ad design to fit different site sections or visual themes (such as light or dark themes). To do this, add the darkTheme: true parameter to the embed code, for example:

<script>
    (yaads = window.yaads || []).push({
        id: "123456-7",
        render: "div",
        darkTheme: true
    });
</script>

When the code is called, the <ya-units-grid> or <ya-units-slider> root elements will receive the ya-theme-dark or ya-theme-light classes:

<ya-units-grid cols="1" rows="1"> <!-- when calling the code, classes are added to the root element -->
  <div class="image">        <ya-unit-image ratio="1" />
  </div>
</ya-units-grid>

Each ad unit can store one design layout with two color themes. To do this, go to the Code tab in the CSS settings and set the desired properties using these classes.

.ya-theme-dark {
  background-color: black;
}
                
.ya-theme-light {
  background-color: white;
}

The ad menu will also change depending on the theme. We don't recommend using media queries for your ad designs, because this method won't let the menu change to match the theme changes.

Note. We would normally use the additionalClasses and nativeAdditionalClasses parameters to make ads fit the website design. However, they will no longer be supported in the future.

Design of individual ad elements

Menu icon in the ad

The user can hide or report the ad using the menu icon. The menu icon is added to the upper-right corner of the ad.

In the HTML template, the <ya-unit-kebab /> element sets the configuration of the menu icon. This element must be located directly inside <ya-units-grid /> or <ya-units-slider />.

Edit the menu icon

The default menu icon is white with a semi-transparent sublayer. For rendering on a white background, you can change the icon color to black and remove the sublayer: to do this, use the ya-unit-kebab_dark class.

<ya-unit-kebab class="ya-unit-kebab_dark" />

You can set any other color for the icon using the backgroundColor parameter:

<ya-unit-kebab backgroundColor="#000000"/>

Image or video used in the ad

You can add an image or video to the template using the <ya-unit-image> element. If you receive a video from the advertiser via the <ya-unit-image> tag, it will be displayed in the ad. If there is no video, a picture will be displayed instead.

You can use this to:

• Set the aspect ratio using the ratio parameter (sets the height to width ratio).
• Enable adaptive aspect ratio for ad units with adaptive height using the ratio="adaptive" parameter. The image or video will be embedded without any restrictions and will take up at least 180 pixels but no more than 60% of the visible browser window area (without scrolling).
• Limit adaptive images and videos by height by setting a limit on the pixel count or the % of the visible browser window area. To do this, use the max-height parameter (example: max-height="140" or max-height="40vh").
• Specify the path to a placeholder image (used in ad units if your ad doesn't have any images to display) with the src parameter.
• Fit a picture or video into a specified area without cropping by using the variant="contain" attribute (example: <ya-unit-image ratio="0.5625" variant="contain" />).

Advertiser information

You can add advertiser info to your ads:

The website's favicon

You can add a favicon using the <ya-unit-favicon /> element.

The favicon has a fixed size that can be set with the size parameter. Acceptable sizes: 32 × 32 and 120 × 120 pixels. The default size is 32 × 32.

If the favicon can't be displayed, you can display the ad image instead. To do this, specify the allowImageFallback attribute.

<ya-unit-favicon size="32" allowImageFallback></ya-unit-favicon>

Logo

You can add the advertiser's logo to be displayed on your block's ads using the <ya-unit-logo />element.

For cases where the ad doesn't have a logo, set a placeholder image in the src parameter. The placeholder image has zero height by default.

<ya-unit-logo src="https://example.com/image/image.png" />

If the ad doesn't have a logo, it's replaced with other elements in the following order: favicon — image — placeholder. You can change this order in the disabledSubstitution parameter:

• <ya-unit-logo disabledSubstitution="all" /> — Excludes both the favicon and the image. The logo is immediately replaced with a placeholder
• <ya-unit-logo disabledSubstitution="favicon" /> — Excludes the favicon: the logo is replaced with an image, or a placeholder if no image is found.
• <ya-unit-logo disabledSubstitution="image" /> — Excludes the images: the logo is replaced with a favicon or a placeholder if no favicon is found.

Sitelinks

You can add sitelinks using the <ya-unit-sitelinks /> element. An ad can display up to 8 links at a time, but you can limit their number via the limit parameter.

<ya-unit-sitelinks limit="2" />

Physical address

Added using the <ya-unit-address /> element.

Callouts

You can add callouts using the element <ya-unit-callouts />.

Callouts list the advantages of a certain product or service, inform users of special offers, and describe the advantages of partnering with a specific advertiser.

The advertiser can add multiple callouts to a single ad. The number of callouts can be limited using the limit parameter. Callouts are not clickable.

Action button

You can add an action button to your ad that will act as the ad link for the user. To do this, add the element <ya-unit-direct-button />.

The text on the button is chosen by the advertiser in Yandex Direct. To make this text appear during ad rendering, specify a special value {BUTTON_CAPTION} inside <ya-unit-direct-button />, such as:

<ya-unit-direct-button><div>{BUTTON_CAPTION}</div></ya-unit-direct-button>

The user's browser will render the element as <div />:

<div class="ya-unit-direct-button"><div>Get discount</div></div>

Mobile app ad design

Statistics

To view a report on native design impressions for an ad unit, expand its card menu and click Statistics.