Checklist for setting up campaigns

Once you've created your campaign (whether as a unified performance campaign or via the Campaign Wizard), be sure to review its settings with this checklist prepared by Yandex Direct specialists.

Account structure for app promotion

Minimized the overlap between targetings in campaigns that promote the client's app and those promoting their site.

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Ads for mobile apps and sites belonging to the same client compete with each other for impressions. The auction is unique for each user, with the winner ad determined based on their potential to drive the desired conversion as set in the campaign strategy. Learn more about how auctions work.

No campaigns duplicate each other's targetings and display regions.

A single campaign targets several display regions. You can split the campaign by region if it makes sense for your business objectives.

Targetings are combined into campaigns based on large semantic blocks, such as business verticals/streams and product categories.

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To train an automatic strategy effectively, a campaign needs to generate more than 70 conversions. If you split your campaigns, each one will collect less data, making it harder for the strategy to learn and optimize.

Each campaign serves a distinct purpose: acquiring new users or retargeting. The campaign's targetings, strategy, and ad content are determined by your selected scenario.

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The account structure usually depends on your business niche and promotion objectives. We recommend separating campaigns based on their purpose: engaging a new audience or working with existing app customers. This allows for more precise settings, helping you achieve your desired advertising KPIs. Your chosen scenario determines which ad placements, conversions, targeting types, and ad settings get selected.

To launch promotion, use a unified performance campaign. Choose your goal. Available settings for each scenario appear automatically.

The primary campaign scenarios have been launched:

Campaign structure

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For retargeting and promotion in the Yandex Advertising Network, it's best not to create too many different campaigns. This will help you consolidate more training data in a single strategy. For fine control over your targetings, use ad groups.

Campaign settings

An appropriate campaign goal has been selected: attracting new users or retargeting (unified performance campaigns only).

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Learn more about how the selected goal affects your campaign. To help you choose the right goal for your business, check out the article User acquisition or retargeting: how to choose a promotion scenario for mobile apps in unified performance campaigns on the Yandex Ads portal.

The selected strategy is conducive to the campaign's goals.

Maximum clicks helps you get maximum ad clicks for a specified CPC or budget.
Maximum conversions helps you get maximum ad clicks for a specified average CPA, weekly budget, or budget for a custom period. You can also opt to pay only for app installs: this option is available only for Android campaigns with the Attract new users goal.
With the Maximum clicks with manual bids strategy, you can set bids for specific impression criteria in Search-only campaigns.

Strategy-specific checklists:
Maximum conversions with pay per click
Specified CPA is competitive.
The selected strategy goal aligns with your business objectives or is linked to your main conversion event.
You can select app installs or in-app events as your goal. The strategy will drive relevant conversions based on your goal. The more conversions it generates, the more effective your campaign.

If your current goal delivers a strong Bottom-of-Funnel conversion rate, you can optimize the strategy for a different goal further up the funnel.
The campaign doesn't max out at the weekly budget.
When your budget is too limited, your ad impressions decrease, restricting strategy training and undermining performance.
Your campaign delivers at least 70 conversions per week.
- To facilitate strategy learning, optimize your campaign for a different goal further up the funnel while continuing to track conversions for the key Bottom-of-Funnel action.
- Combine multiple campaigns into one.
The maximum CPC isn't set or is set based on campaign statistics analysis (unified performance campaigns only).
Maximum conversions with pay per install (for Android)
Specified CPA is competitive.
The campaign doesn't max out at the weekly budget.
An insufficient budget lowers the number of impressions, making it difficult to train the strategy and reducing its effectiveness.
The campaign delivers more than 70 conversions per week.
- Switch the campaign to a goal that is higher up the funnel for training purposes while continuing to track the conversion rate for the primary goal.
- Combine multiple campaigns into one.
Maximum clicks
The campaign doesn't max out at the weekly budget.
An insufficient budget lowers the number of impressions, making it difficult to train the strategy and reducing its effectiveness.
Set CPC limits are competitive.
Maximum clicks with manual bids for Yandex Search (available in unified performance campaigns only)
The campaign doesn't max out at the daily budget.
An insufficient budget lowers the number of impressions, making it difficult to train the strategy and reducing its effectiveness.
Set bids are competitive.
To see if your bid is set at the right level, analyze your campaign’s results in the Report Wizard:
1. Look at your average ad position, average CPC, number of impressions, and number of clicks.
2. Compare your campaign results to keyword data from Yandex Wordstat.
3. Estimate the volume of traffic you’re acquiring.

For iOS app promotions, enable the Use SKAdNetwork option in the unified performance campaign or select Campaign for iOS 14.5 and higher in the Campaign Wizard.

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With Apple's SKAdNetwork technology, it's possible to attribute app installs to specific campaigns while maintaining user privacy. If this option is enabled for your campaigns, you'll get more detailed conversion statistics and be able to better evaluate the performance of your promotion.

Learn more about using SkadNetwork and recommendations for iOS.

The impression schedule is set to the default value Daily, 24/7 or is based on campaign statistics analysis (unified performance campaigns only).

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Limiting the impression schedule impacts the reach of your campaign, making it difficult to train a strategy and reducing its effectiveness.

For mobile app promotions, it’s best to keep your campaigns running 24/7. The algorithms automatically distribute impressions based on the effectiveness of different display times.

Adjustments aren't set or are set based on the effectiveness of the selected segment.

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Use statistics-based bid adjustments to control target costs (per click, install, or in-app event) by audience (gender or age) or ad group.

Use negative bid adjustments to exclude irrelevant audiences. Use positive adjustments to boost KPIs for your target cross sections.

The Extended geotargeting option is enabled (available in unified performance campaigns only).

Negative keywords for search campaigns don't include your target keywords.

There's a separate list of negative keywords for Yandex Adverting Network campaigns.

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To avoid limiting your impressions, do not use excessive negative keywords for the Yandex Advertising Network. For more details, see Negative keywords when serving ads in ad networks.

The list of sites with disabled impressions is based on a statistical analysis of their effectiveness (unified performance campaigns only).

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Excluding too many sites can lead to:

Reduced ad impressions and strategy effectiveness.
Loss of additional audience reach.

Evaluate site performance over a long term.

Ensuring proper campaign optimization

Changes to the campaign settings are made no more than once every 2–3 days.

The promotion budget and CPA can be increased by no more than 30% at a time.

Group settings

Region

A correct targeting region is specified.

Dimension

The campaign is divided into groups based on a significant feature, such as a subtype of a business stream or a product subcategory.

Each group has unique ads and relevant targetings.

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Define the audience segments that you plan to target with your promotion.
Gather relevant impression criteria for each segment: keywords, autotargeting categories, and retargeting lists. Within autotargeting categories, it’s best to start with targeted queries.
Add unique ads for each segment of your target audience. To prevent overlap in ad impressions, avoid using identical ads across different groups. If you can’t create a unique ad for a given segment, combine your targetings within a single ad group. You can view detailed statistics in the Report Wizard.

Targeting

All the available targeting categories have been tested.

To learn more about adding and combining targetings, see Step 2. Creating ad groups (for UPC) and Creating ads in the Campaign Wizard.

Interests and habits

You've tested different interest and habit-based segments to attract new users from the Yandex Advertising Network.

Interests
Organizations and places
Look-alike sites
Look-alike apps

Keywords

You've tested keywords with different semantic categories.

Autotargeting categories

You've tested autotargeting in the Yandex Advertising Network.

All search query categories have been tested (the unified performance campaign interface offers an expanded list of categories).

Category	Queries mentioning your brand	Queries mentioning competitors' brands	Queries that don’t mention your brand or competitors’ brands
Targeted
Broad
Narrow
Alternative
Related

Audience segments

Ad settings

The ads contain relevant, up-to-date information.

The ads in Retargeting campaigns contain valid deeplinks.

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A deeplink is a required mobile measurement platform (MMP) parameter for ads in retargeting campaigns. It ensures that users who click your ad land directly on the specified section of the app.

The ads contain links for impression attribution.

The ads passed moderation.

Your communications use all ad types:

Combinatorial ads:

Ad display examples and technical requirements

The promoted object is clearly defined.

Titles are self-explanatory and communicate the core message of the related texts.

You've added images for impressions in the Yandex Advertising Network.

You've added videos for impressions in the Yandex Advertising Network.

Playable ads and image ads (available in unified performance campaigns only):

Ad display examples and technical requirements

Products ads (unified performance campaigns only).

Product descriptions are as detailed as possible — all available fields are completed.

There's a deferred deeplink added to the link.

Tracker settings for app promotion

On the mobile app side

You've installed the MMP SDK in the mobile app code.

On the tracker side

You've enabled integration with Yandex Direct.

Learn more

Instructions for setting up integration with MMPs.

The App ID is specified.

The option for sending postbacks is enabled.

You've selected the events that you want to send to Yandex Direct.

You've set up sending of all conversions, including unattributed ones, from the tracker to Yandex Direct.

Attribution by impression is enabled.

AppsFlyer Advanced Privacy isn't used in app campaigns targeting iOS devices.

The attribution window for installs is set to 30 days for clicks and 24 hours for impressions.

Tracker settings for retargeting in app promotion

To effectively target an existing audience with your app promotion, additionally configure the tracker and tracking links with deeplinks.

AppMetrica

Unified performance campaign Campaign Wizard

Unified performance campaign	Campaign Wizard
Created a new tracker in Yandex Direct. In your MMP settings, you've enabled the option This is a remarketing campaign. The MMP page is set up to pass `click_id` and all the other parameters needed for the Remarketing report. Before: myscheme://deeplink After: myscheme://deeplink?click_id={click_id}&campaign_id={campaign_id}	Created a new tracker in Yandex Direct. In the tracker settings, This is a remarketing campaign is set to On. The option This is a remarketing campaign is enabled in your MMP settings. The MMP page is set up to pass `click_id` and all the other parameters needed for the Remarketing report. Before: myscheme://deeplink After: myscheme://deeplink?click_id={click_id}&campaign_id={campaign_id} The `&direct_no_s2s=1` parameter is added to the tracking link in Yandex Direct.

Created a new tracker in Yandex Direct.
In your MMP settings, you've enabled the option This is a remarketing campaign.
The MMP page is set up to pass click_id and all the other parameters needed for the Remarketing report.

Before: myscheme://deeplink

After: myscheme://deeplink?click_id={click_id}&campaign_id={campaign_id}

Created a new tracker in Yandex Direct. In the tracker settings, This is a remarketing campaign is set to On.
The option This is a remarketing campaign is enabled in your MMP settings.
The MMP page is set up to pass click_id and all the other parameters needed for the Remarketing report.

Before: myscheme://deeplink

After: myscheme://deeplink?click_id={click_id}&campaign_id={campaign_id}

The &direct_no_s2s=1 parameter is added to the tracking link in Yandex Direct.

AppsFlyer

Unified performance campaign Campaign Wizard

The option Ignore active users for retargeting is disabled.
The option Re-engagement view-through attribution is enabled.
The attribution window for the option Re-engagement view-through attribution is set to 24 hours. The option Ignore active users for retargeting is disabled.
The option Re-engagement view-through attribution is enabled.
The attribution window for the option Re-engagement view-through attribution is set to 24 hours.
The deeplink is set in the af_dp parameter of the tracking link used in Yandex Direct.
The is_retargeting=true parameter is added to the tracking link.
The &af_force_deeplink=true parameter is also added to the tracking link (only for app campaigns targeting iOS devices).

Unified performance campaign	Campaign Wizard
The option Ignore active users for retargeting is disabled. The option Re-engagement view-through attribution is enabled. The attribution window for the option Re-engagement view-through attribution is set to 24 hours.	The option Ignore active users for retargeting is disabled. The option Re-engagement view-through attribution is enabled. The attribution window for the option Re-engagement view-through attribution is set to 24 hours. The deeplink is set in the `af_dp` parameter of the tracking link used in Yandex Direct. The `is_retargeting=true` parameter is added to the tracking link. The `&af_force_deeplink=true` parameter is also added to the tracking link (only for app campaigns targeting iOS devices).

Adjust

Unified performance campaign	Campaign Wizard
A dedicated tracking link has been created with these settings: Inactivity period — 0 days. Reattribution window — 14 days.	A dedicated tracking link has been created with these settings: Inactivity period — 0 days. Reattribution window — 14 days. The deeplink is set in the `deep_link` parameter of the tracking link used in Yandex Direct.

To learn more, see Setting up a link on the Mobile Measurement Platform (MMP).

Effectiveness analysis for app promotion

Cross section options for assessment

Campaign effectiveness was analyzed across multiple parameters. This analysis was run in the Report Wizard using the following cross sections:

Cross section	Analyzed parameter
By campaign	Placement effectiveness, structure optimization.
By group (only for unified performance campaigns)	Distribution of traffic between groups.
By ad (only for unified performance campaigns)	Quality and relevance of advertising and promotional content.
Site type	Ability to split campaigns into separate campaigns for Yandex Search and the Yandex Advertising Network.
Impression criteria Targeting category (only for Yandex Search) Branded queries (only for unified performance campaigns in search results)	Effectiveness of added targetings and identification of growth points.
Search queries	Relevance of queries to the ad and keyword relevance.
Demographic metrics Targeting region Branded queries (only for unified performance campaigns in search results)	Traffic management using adjustments.

Changes in campaign effectiveness are monitored for a full calendar week after being applied.

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Installations from alternative app stores

Promotion on Connected TVs and desktops

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