Geotargeting
Your campaign's success in Yandex Direct is not just a matter of creating an attractive ad. You should also make sure the ads reach those users who are interested in and can react to them. Users are generally interested in goods and services located in the regions where they live or plan on visiting. Using geotargeting, you can ensure that you are reaching customers in your region.
How does geotargeting work?
Geotargeting refers to the technology which allows you to control the geography of your ad impressions. Yandex Direct ads will only be served to people that can actually make use of your offer (either because they are located in the region you selected or are interested in that region). So if you only deliver pizza in Kursk, select Kursk as your display region in your campaign or ad group settings. Alternatively, you can specify a more precise location on the map, such as a street next to your store, and serve your ads to people who live or work close to your business or are currently nearby.
You can set up geotargeting:
- In the ad group, under Display regions (Ad serving area).
In the campaign, under Settings for all ad groups in the campaign.
In the List countries, regions, and cities field:
Start typing a region name, open the region selection tree, and select the regions where you want to show ads. By clicking the flag next to the name of the region, you select the whole region including all the towns within it (even if they are not shown separately in the region tree).
If necessary, specify the regions that you want to exclude from geotargeting. To do this, start typing the name of a region or locality in the field next to display regions. Select regions from the suggested options or from the selection tree.
You can exclude any region listed in this field. It doesn't have to be part of the specified display region. For example, you can choose to serve ads in the Lipetsk Region, excluding Yelets and Gryazi.
For each new group in the campaign, the region settings of the first ad group are automatically applied.
Specify a region on the map if you want to serve ads in a specific location, such as near your café, or if you need to target customers within a small area. For example, you have a small business without city-wide delivery. In addition, we recommended selecting Specify the region on the map if your locality is missing from the region selection tree. Keep in mind that selecting regions on the map may greatly limit your geotargeting area and cause you to miss out on potential customers.
Enter the addresses as a free text or copy the list from another group: you can use a maximum of 100 addresses. You can pinpoint addresses on the map. Determine the display radius: From 0.5 km to 10 km near each address.
Enter who exactly you would like to show your ads to: people who regularly visit the neighborhood or those who live, work, or are there right now. If you want to reach a broader audience, select users who are often in the area — these are the people who live and work nearby.
You can only replace or delete an existing point in an ad group:
- If you add a new point, the previous ones are deleted.
- If you specify multiple points and then edit the radius, it changes for all points.
Extended geotargeting
In the campaign settings under Advanced settings, Extended geotargeting is enabled by default. This option functions on both Yandex search and in ad networks. It does not affect ads served on YAN search sites (including search results pages for Yandex Maps, Yandex Market, and other Yandex services). Limitations of extended geotargeting.
Advanced geographic targeting lets you serve ads based on search queries and the user's regular region.
- By search queries
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Yandex automatically determines the region of interest expressed in the user's query. The system takes informal and shortened variants of region name into account (e.g. NYC, MSK, Chi Town) when determining the region.
When extended geotargeting is enabled, it triggers the system to compare the region in the search query with the region you indicated in the settings for the ad or campaign. If the regions match, the system knows that the user is looking for goods or services like yours in your area. However, if you use one region in your keywords while extended geotargeting is enabled and set a different region in your ad settings, then your ads will not be served on search results pages if a user enters those keywords. In this case, you would need to disable extended geotargeting in order to start serving your ads in search results. To find out exactly where users will see your ads based on different geographical settings, take a look at this table.
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For example, if you want to serve ads for an amusement park in Moscow, enter amusement park as the keyword and set Moscow as the display region. That way, your ads will be served to Moscow residents who search for amusement parks as well as people in other regions who search for amusement parks in Moscow.
However, let's say you created a special campaign for potential clients from Tver, added the keyword amusement park Moscow and set the display region to Tver. In this case, the region listed in the keyword does not correspond to any of the selected display regions, so your ad will not be served if extended geotargeting is enabled. To start serving these ads, you must disable extended geotargeting in the campaign settings.
Where will my ads appear?Extended geotargeting is enabled in the campaign
Extended geotargeting is disabled in the campaign
No region is indicated in the keyword or it matches** the display region A region is indicated in the keyword and it does not match** the display region Impressions do not depend on the region in the keyword Is the user located in the display region? Yes*
Is the user located in the display region? No*
(if the search contains the name of the display region)
Extended geotargeting is enabled in the campaign
Extended geotargeting is disabled in the campaign
No region is indicated in the keyword or it matches** the display region A region is indicated in the keyword and it does not match** the display region Impressions do not depend on the region in the keyword Is the user located in the display region? Yes*
Is the user located in the display region? No*
(if the search contains the name of the display region)
*The location of the user seeing the ad is compared with the display region in the ad or campaign settings. The location of a user of Yandex search, a network app, or visitor to a network site is determined by Yandex location settings or by IP address to be located within the display region.
**If a larger display region from the ad settings or campaign settings includes a smaller region from the keyword, the system considers these regions as matching (for example, Russia and Moscow).
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- By regular region
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Locations frequented by users are determined by Crypta, based on how often the users visit the region you selected. When selecting a region, data from the last 90 days is taken into account.
When enabled, the system receives a signal to compare the region of a location frequented by a user with the region you have specified in your ad or campaign settings. If this data matches, the user will see an ad for your product or service.-
For example, you have created an ad campaign for your car showroom in Moscow and have set the display region as Moscow. Your ad will be served not only to users who are located not only in Moscow, but also to Moscow residents who are interested in purchasing a car, but are away in Tomsk on business.
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Ads are moderated in accordance with the rules of the country that includes your display regions. Any legal restrictions on advertising that exist in the country where your ads are served will apply. An ad that passes moderation might not be served in a specific region due to local advertising laws.
Extended geotargeting allows you to serve ads to a user taking into account the location they frequent, regardless of where they are currently located. Locations frequented by users are determined by Crypta, based on how often the users visit the region you selected. When selecting a region, data from the last 90 days is taken into account.
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For example, you have created an ad campaign for your car showroom in Moscow and have set the display region as Moscow. Your ad will be served not only to users who are located not only in Moscow, but also to Moscow residents who are interested in purchasing a car, but are away in Tomsk on business.
Ads are moderated in accordance with the rules of the country that includes your display regions. Any legal restrictions on advertising that exist in the country where your ads are served will apply. An ad that passes moderation might not be served in a specific region due to local advertising laws.
Extended geotargeting won't trigger if you've specified the display region on the map.
Bulk editing of display regions
- For all your campaign's ad groups — to do this, click
→ Configure display regions. - For some groups of one or more campaigns, select the campaigns and go to the groups. Select the ones you need or all of them. At the bottom of the page, click .
Replace: To replace current regions with selected regions. You can switch between serving ads in a region or city and serving them in a specified area on the map.
- Add to list: To add the selected regions to the current regions. For example, you can add new addresses for a region on the map or an area to the list of regions.
- Remove from list: To delete the selected regions from the current regions.
Using geotargeting in your first campaign
To quickly launch ads with geotargeting, just create a campaign, create your first ad group, and choose the display regions where you offer your services or sell products for this ad group. Extended geotargeting will be enabled by default for this campaign.
If you would like to use keywords that feature the names of regions, as is common in ads relating to travel, tourism, hotels, or medical services abroad, disable extended geotargeting. To find out exactly where users will see your ads based on different geographical settings, take a look at this table.
Waiting several days after your ad impressions begin will give Yandex Direct time to collect statistics about the number of impressions and clicks in different regions. If the reports show that the regional distribution of clicks is uneven, it's best to carefully reconfigure your regional display settings.
Specifying regions and gathering detailed geographical information
By analyzing the click and conversion statistics, you may discover that user reactions to your ads differ by region.
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For example, you noticed a large number of clicks from Moscow and Tver in the amusement park ad statistics (keyword — amusement park, display region — Moscow and Moscow Region, extended geotargeting enabled). In this case Yandex recommends:
creating a new ad in your campaign specifically for display in Moscow (including Moscow region).
creating a separate campaign specifically for display in Tver (extended geotargeting disabled, keyword amusement park Moscow, and Tver as the display region).
Dividing ad campaigns by region will help you better manage your bids and conserve your budget. When setting bids in one region you don't need to take another region's competition into account. You can view the impressions forecast for a specific region in the Wordstat form.
Limitations of extended geotargeting
Extended geotargeting settings are ignored for ads in certain categories.
- Travel and leisure (such as hotels, bus tours, trip packages, transit tickets, children's camps and day trips, vacation reviews, and vacations themselves).
Categories that require specific documents in order to advertise (such as medicines, medical devices and services, pharmacies, dietary supplements, detective work, pyrotechnics, finances, insurance, and items resembling weapons).
If your ad belongs to one of these categories, it will only be displayed in the regions you set in the campaign or ad group settings. The ad category is determined automatically based on its content (such as the title, text, and sitelink descriptions) and the landing page.
Extended geotargeting settings are ignored for advertisements, the placement of which requires the provision of certain documents (for example, advertising medicines, medical goods and services, pharmacies, dietary supplements, detective work, pyrotechnics, financial services, insurance, or products similar in construction to weapons).
If your ad belongs to one of these categories, it will only be displayed in the regions you set in the campaign or ad group settings. The ad category is determined automatically based on its content (such as the title, text, and sitelink descriptions) and the landing page.
