Business rules

Business rules are a tool for setting a CPM threshold for multiple RTB blocks at once. By configuring targeting based on criteria, you can flexibly segment your audience and serve more expensive ads to more valuable groups of users. Business rules apply to all types of RTB blocks (for sites, mobile apps, and video).

Attention. If you set the CPM threshold too high in the rules, you reduce the opportunity to sell traffic at a profit. If you do not specify your own ad code, do not use business rules, because it may reduce the number of impressions on the site and affect your income.

How business rules work

In a rule, you set the CPM threshold, select the necessary RTB blocks, and configure targeting criteria. You can add the same block to multiple rules. You set a priority for each rule (, , ).

The process of selecting ads checks whether criteria are met for each rule, starting with the highest priority rule. The CPM threshold is taken from the first rule that the criteria are met for. If no rules are met, the ad is selected based on the CPM threshold specified in the block strategy settings.

Attention. The last point does not apply to blocks using the Minimum CPM strategy, as well as blocks that have special CPM thresholds set for display in other regions. If no business rule is applied to this kind of block, ads will be picked without regard of the CPM threshold. How to avoid this

Adding a rule

Go to the Business rules page and click Add a rule. Enter the name of the rule and the CPM threshold. Select the RTB blocks you need from the list. You can search by block ID. If you don't add any blocks, the rule won't be triggered.

To set up targeting, go to Conditions and select the desired option. You can configure multiple parameters (in other words, create multiple criteria). In order for the rule to be triggered, all the criteria must be met at the same time.


Parameter	Targeting
Geo settings	Targeting by the user's geographic location.
Device	Targeting by the user's device.
Operating system	Targeting by the operating system on the user's device.
Browser	Targeting by the user's web browser.
URL	Targeting by the URL of the page where the user will see the ad block. This condition is met when part of the page URL matches the value of this parameter. The parameter value is case-sensitive. You can add several of these conditions. For example, your site has a section about elephants siteforyandex.com/elephants, and the page URLs in this section contain the name of the breed. If you want to set up targeting for pages about African elephants, add the conditions elephants and african. The rule will be triggered for the page siteforyandex.com/elephants/about-african.html and it won't be triggered for sileforyandex.com/elephants/species-indian.html.
Query parameters	Choose targeting values for the platform. Only applies to ADFOX clients. You can add several of these conditions. The rule will be triggered for a platform where all the specified puids are configured. Learn more about working with ADFOX.


Parameter	Targeting
Geo settings	Targeting by the user's geographic location.
Device	Targeting by the user's device.
Operating system	Targeting by the operating system on the user's device.
Browser	Targeting by the user's web browser.
URL	Targeting by the URL of the page where the user will see the ad block. This condition is met when part of the page URL matches the value of this parameter. The parameter value is case-sensitive. You can add several of these conditions. For example, your site has a section about elephants siteforyandex.com/elephants, and the page URLs in this section contain the name of the breed. If you want to set up targeting for pages about African elephants, add the conditions elephants and african. The rule will be triggered for the page siteforyandex.com/elephants/about-african.html and it won't be triggered for sileforyandex.com/elephants/species-indian.html.
Query parameters	Choose targeting values for the platform. Only applies to ADFOX clients. You can add several of these conditions. The rule will be triggered for a platform where all the specified puids are configured. Learn more about working with ADFOX.

Click Create. Enable the rule you created. It appears in the Active list with the lowest priority.

Managing rules

The Active list contains all the rules that are currently used when selecting ads. Rules are sorted in order of descending priority.

You can manage the rules. For example:

Change the priority.
Edit them.
View statistics.
Disable them.
Archive them.

Changing priority: Hover over next to the priority and drag the rule to the desired position in the list.
Editing: When editing a rule, you can change the CPM threshold, conditions, and blocks. To start editing, click the rule name in the list.
Statistics: Click Statistics next to the rule. A report on the rule will open in a new window. You can use the chart and the table to view the number of impressions by days, as well as placement requests and total remuneration for the blocks where a specific rule applies.
Disabling: Set the option to Off. The rule moves to the Inactive list. You can re-enable it at any time.
Archiving: To archive a rule, click . The rule moves to the Archived list.

Recommendations

How to set the CPM threshold for multiple blocks

If a business rule does not specify any actual conditions, the CPM threshold is applied to all traffic shared by the added ad blocks. This lets you set a CPM threshold for multiple RTB blocks at once.

Using business rule priority levels

Priority levels help make CPM threshold customization more flexible. Let's say you applied two rules to the R‑A‑1234‑1 block:


CPM threshold in rubles.	Condition	Priority
150	Location: Moscow
10	URL: siteforyandex.ru

If you apply this priority setting, all users who visit siteforyandex.ru from Moscow will be shown ads with a CPM threshold of 150 rubles. If you change the priority order, the threshold of 10 rubles will be used instead. To avoid this situation, you can add another priority rule :


CPM threshold in rubles.	Condition	Priority
60	Location: Moscow URL: siteforyandex.ru
150	Location: Moscow
10	URL: siteforyandex.ru

How to not lose revenue if your strategy is Minimum CPM or the location settings are in effect

If none of the business rules work for the blocks under the Minimum CPM strategy or blocks with limited display in certain regions, these settings will not be taken into account when selecting ads. If you don't want to lose revenue, we recommend creating a business rule with no conditions, set it to the lowest possible priority, and apply it to your ads.

For example, the Location settings of an ad block meant for users from St. Petersburg specify a CPM threshold of 50 rubles. The threshold will only be taken into account once the conditions of both rules are met. To avoid this, add a rule with no conditions and a CPM threshold of 50 rubles and set its priority to 3.


CPM threshold in rubles.	Condition	Priority
60	Location: Moscow URL: siteforyandex.ru
150	Location: Moscow
50