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Representatives of the Yandex.Direct advertising platform announced the imminent deactivation of the "" option, which is on this moment available as part of manual bid management.

After disabling this option, Yandex.Direct will bring the maximum possible amount of available traffic, taking into account the cost per click set by the advertiser, as well as other settings for each specific advertising campaign. It is important to understand that this will not automatically increase the cost per click to the maximum possible value.

From a practical point of view, disabling the option " Show at the lowest possible position” will cause ads with a good CTR to move to a higher position in the ad unit without a significant increase in cost per click and thus bring in much more traffic.

According to representatives of the Yandex.Direct service, advertisers should now adopt an official warning about the imminent deactivation of the option " Show at the lowest possible position". The fact is that until recently, many of them have dramatically increased the maximum allowable cost per click, in the expectation that you still won’t have to pay at an overestimated rate. Starting from June of this year, in the settings of each specific advertising campaign, it is worth specifying exactly the cost per click, at which it is really beneficial for the advertiser to attract traffic.

It should also be noted that after disabling the "Show at the lowest possible position" option, the Yandex.Direct platform API will return an error in response to attempts to set any possible option « Impressions at the lowest price» ( LOWEST_COST, LOWEST_COST_PREMIUM, LOWEST_COST_GUARANTEE). Based on this, we can recommend making appropriate adjustments to the applications used in the very near future.

According to representatives of the Yandex.Direct advertising platform, the once really popular option " Display in a block at the lowest price» Literally over the past year and a half has lost most their users. This is primarily due to a radical decrease in the effectiveness of this strategy, which occurred against the backdrop of a global change in the rules for the sale and placement contextual advertising in Yandex search results.

By far the most popular search ad placement strategy is showing in the highest available position. It is also noteworthy that in many cases this strategy is used in conjunction with the most appropriate limits on the daily budget of the advertising campaign.

In turn, the most profitable in terms of the ratio of the average number of impressions, clicks and average CPC are the strategies " Average CPA" and " Weekly budget: maximum conversion».

In addition, representatives of the Yandex.Direct advertising platform emphasized that it was time to get rid of the negative effects of using the " Show at the lowest possible position” as part of a significantly updated auction model, as well as finally abandoning this option in favor of the already familiar bidding for the volume of attracted traffic.

Moreover, it should already be taken into account that bidding for positions in Yandex.Direct ad units is gradually losing its relevance, as advertising is becoming more and more personalized every day.

In conclusion, it should be noted that exact date disable the option " Show at the lowest possible position» will be announced later.

Sergey Arsentiev

Check for overpriced Yandex.Direct bids or the end of the era of the "impressions in the block at the lowest price" strategy

It is with this message that Yandex today greets those account holders who previously used the most popular strategy "display in a block at the lowest price". Now this strategy will not be available for selection, and the most popular will be "show in the highest position."

But at the same time, with such new strategy CPC will be deducted in the first place if the bid allows placement there. Would advertisers have to shell out more money within competition for now first place.

In other words, if earlier the advertiser set, for example, the maximum bid for 1 click = 100 rubles. and chose the strategy of showing in a block at the lowest price, then it was shown third in the special offer or at the bottom in guaranteed impressions, but not the first, and not the second. And do not overpay for high places.

And now you have to pay as much as you have to. True, Yandex announced for a long time and tediously in the release that everything will be cheaper now, but it’s hard to believe in it. Full-fledged bets will begin to play and obviously, at least for the first time, advertising costs will increase sharply, because traffic from the first positions will also increase, which many advertisers will automatically, in accordance with their rate.

Costs will go up, I think, because most advertisers don't bother with bidding at all, and I totally understand that.

Exhibited, for example, 200 rubles. per click within the limit for all ads at once, then they used the "Impression in the block at the lowest price" strategy and the system itself adjusted the bids to reasonable limits for each ad. As a result, in competitive ads, you really had to pay 156 rubles each. per click, but in less competitive ones - as you can see - only 12 rubles.

Now imagine that you, as usual, put up 200 rubles everywhere. At the same time, nothing will change much in competitive ads, but in all the rest you will not pay 12 rubles, but Yandex will take the maximum - in this case, 35 rubles. and show you first.

So Yandex warns everyone that if you used to bet 200 r per click, and were shown for 20 r, now it’s quite possible that you will be proudly shown first for your 200 r or so

It is clear that Yandex still promises that with the new strategy everything will be calculated differently, and clicks for the first place will be counted not "on the forehead" at the price of the first place, but taking into account the price for the second place + taking into account the traffic in the first .

But as for me, so 12 rubles. you will already get a fic for 3rd place, but will it be 35 rubles. per click on the first or 29 rubles. - these are the details. In any case, the budget of the advertising campaign (and Yandex's income) should grow, after some time it will become clear for sure.

What to do

In principle, everything was heading towards this, since this strategy was too popular, so much so that in some cases it stopped working.

An unpleasant blow to an intimate place from Ukraine (sanctions, Karl) forced Yandex to squeeze the maximum out of the remaining minimum of advertisers' opportunities. One of the “retaliatory” sanctions, as always, hit its own - the display in blocks was canceled at the lowest price.”

This strategy comforted the budget of site owners, exhausted by the crisis, and was the only outlet in the realm of advertising darkness. How to live on than earning their daily bread, and what strategies remained in the arsenal of a Yandex.Direct user in 2017?

folding fairy tale

The official reason for disabling impressions in blocks at the minimum rate is concern for advertisers, they say, earlier they were unreasonable and paid more for less traffic. Plato literally said this:

“Impression in the block at the lowest cost” limits not only the cost, but also the amount of traffic that the ad will receive. The strategy behaves least predictably for impressions with an inexact match to the key phrase.

Yandex also said that a manual strategy:

1. Broke the auction
2. Reduced placement control
3. Became unpopular!

Following the path of Yandex logic, with the cancellation of the impression at the minimum price, advertisers will:

1. Get more traffic
2. Spend less budget
3. Live in full accordance with the teachings of Zarathustra.

sad reality

The lip is rolled out below the pectoral cross, but .... It’s not the first day I’ve been planting crops and harvesting crops in the field of Direct, so I’ll say my “fi” to the cancellation of a fairly effective and economical canceled strategy. If you look at the weekly statistics, after turning off the display in blocks, by the cost of a click and CTR, then at the very least, the picture looks normal. If you look at real sales, then quiet horror met you in a dark alley.

In other companies, the picture is painted in the same oil. With the same budget, but with a change in strategy, the real conversion has dropped significantly! Over and over, Carl! From the height of an eagle's flight, I personally, sneeze deeply at a 5-10% increase in traffic on a weekly budget with a CPC cap. Judging by the angry comments on Yasha's blog, there are a lot of people like me who have fallen down with happiness.

This once again confirms that the good intentions of Yandex have one goal - to cover a hole in the budget due to Ukraine at the expense of a domestic advertiser.

This is how it is accepted in our country, the fall in oil prices is compensated by an increase in the cost of gasoline within the country, the growth of gold and foreign exchange reserves is covered by the weakening of the ruble and the impoverishment of the population. Yandex remains true to the party's policy and, out of habit, serves an obviously spoiled, but expensive dish on a beautiful tray.

What strategies are left

What remains of interest in Yandex.Direct strategies in 2017? Manual bid management after canceling impressions in blocks is rather dead, you will have to choose between automatic strategies, which are good for Yandex because it is difficult to find the truth (good conversion) in them.

You will have to open your wallet:

1. Average CPC,
2. Average cost per conversion,
3. average profitability,
4. weekly budget,
5. weekly package.

From the heights of my Kilimanjaro, it's better to prioritize "Average CPC" and "Weekly Budget". When choosing a cost per click, of course, we indicate its cost and put a checkmark “specify weekly budget”. While the shaking after the cancellation of the impression in the block passes, it is recommended to set the average price and budget based on past statistics. Edits will be needed later, but this way you can minimize the risks.

The “average conversion price” strategy did not work for me, since the conversion is real and differs from Yandex, like the fate of Tantalus from the existence of the ancient Slavic water.

If you choose "Weekly budget", then specify the maximum cost per click and set the maximum conversion by goals. It will not be very sweet, but the chances of survival will remain.

As new statistics are collected, automatic strategies, despite automation and a deep analytical mind, will have to be adjusted. Somewhere it will be necessary to increase the cost per click, somewhere to revise the budget.

P.S. If you need sales, and not empty traffic, then do not set the maximum number of clicks with the “weekly budget”. This is what suicides do who want to please the world before their own death.

P.S. I'll go and see how Google AdWords is doing.

SHAREROV

The strategy of showing in a block at the lowest price

This ad display strategy in Yandex Direct is manual. When choosing such strategies we manually edit the rates and can choose blocks of impressions of our ads - a block of special placement, a block of guaranteed impressions (guarantee) or a block of dynamic impressions. When choosing Strategies for showing in a block at the lowest price you will face interesting fact. Yandex will offer you to display ads in "special" or "special and guaranteed". And now let's take a closer look at this nuance. If we fix our eyes on the strategy impressions per block by min. price in special accommodation , then our announcement will be regularly broadcast in the special placement block in the third place, i.e. on the very last positions in the special accommodation block. For clarity, look at this picture below, I marked in red where your ad will be shown at a suitable click price. If you do not have enough money for special placement, then with this strategy you will go down to guaranteed impressions and will be shown in the guarantee block at the highest available position. That is, you can be in the first place of guaranteed impressions, you can also be in the second. You will be in the position where there is enough money.

Display in a block at the lowest price in special placement

If we choose showing in a block at the lowest price in special accommodation and guarantees , then our ads will be shown in the same way as in the first case ( showing in a block at the lowest price in special placement), but with one simple difference. Guaranteed impressions will show our ads at the lowest price at the very last place in the guarantee. That is, if we do not have enough money in special placement, then ads will be shown with a guarantee at the lowest cost per click. An excellent strategy for the most economical. I am attaching a picture for clarity.

Screening in the Block at the lowest price in special accommodation and guarantee

This is how ranking in Yandex Direct happens. And this is just one strategy, if you want to understand the issue of choosing a strategy in more detail, then read the article " Which display strategy to choose? ". And what do you think? Which of these strategies is the most beneficial?

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