Upgrading Text & Image ads to combinatorial ads
How we upgrade ads
To give you time to prepare for these changes, the upgrade will roll out in several stages:
-
Starting June 30, Text & Image ads in unified performance campaigns are available for editing only. For campaigns that previously relied on Text & Image ads, you can now create combinatorial ads.
Existing Text & Image ads will keep running as usual. You can edit, archive, unarchive, pause, and resume them.
When you copy Text & Image ads or import files with new ads of this type, they are created as combinatorial ads:
- In Yandex Direct: Starting June 30.
- In Direct Commander: Starting July 7.
When you copy Text & Image ads into an ad group that already contains 3 non-archived combinatorial ads, the new combinatorial ads are created as archived. You won't be able to copy a specific Text & Image ad into an ad group that already contains 3 non-archived combinatorial ads and 10 combinatorial ads in total, including archived ads.
Before your Text & Image ads upgrade to combinatorial ads, you can still archive, unarchive, pause, and resume ad groups and campaigns that contain them.
-
On July 14, existing Text & Image ads started upgrading to combinatorial ads.
The upgrade will roll out in two stages:
- First, we will upgrade all Text & Image ads (including paused ads and drafts) in non-archived campaigns. This stage will take a few weeks.
- After that, we will start upgrading Text & Image ads in archived campaigns. This stage will take a few more weeks.
All ads upgrade automatically, so you don't need to do anything.
The system will randomly schedule the day to upgrade your ads. The changes will affect all ads in your account. Upgrading each ad will take several seconds. Each stage takes up to 24 hours to upgrade all ads in your account. The exact time depends on how many ads you have. Your ads will keep running both during and after the upgrade.
Once the upgrade starts, your ads, groups, and campaigns will show a notification stating that settings are temporarily read-only.
You can make changes to a Text & Image ad, group, or campaign after all ads in the campaign finish upgrading. This will take a few minutes.
Upgrade won't affect the statistics, IDs, or settings of your ads, except for additional titles. For more details, see this section. The system doesn't add any new title, text, image, or video options to your combinatorial ads. It simply migrates the assets you already put into your Text & Image ad. You can manually add new options to your combinatorial ad once the upgrade is complete.
Text & Image ads unarchived after July 14 will upgrade to combinatorial ads after all archived Text & Image ads in your account have been upgraded.
Once your ads upgrade to combinatorial ads, you can manage them just like any other ad in Yandex Direct. Keep in mind that each group can have up to 3 non-archived combinatorial ads or 10 combinatorial ads in total, including archived ones.
To learn how the update will affect the Yandex Direct API, see Yandex Direct API Help.
How limits on the number of combinatorial ads per group will apply
Each ad group can contain up to 3 non-archived combinatorial ads and up to 10 combinatorial ads in total, including archived ones. Even with this limit, every single Text & Image ad in your group will upgrade to a combinatorial ad, regardless of how many you have. The upgrade is one to one, meaning one Text & Image ad converts to one combinatorial ad. The ad status won't change. The system also won't merge the content of multiple Text & Image ads into a single combinatorial ad.
Once the upgrade is complete, you can edit, archive, pause, and resume your ads, as well as entire groups and campaigns with combinatorial ads.
You can also duplicate groups containing the upgraded combinatorial ads, even if the total number exceeds the limit. When you duplicate a group like this, the three ads with the most clicks will stay as drafts, while the rest will be created as archived ads. You can unarchive up to three combinatorial ads and manage them as usual.
Once you reach the limit on the number of combinatorial ads per group, you won’t be able to:
- Add a new combinatorial ad to the group.
- Unarchive ads that were upgraded with an "Archived" status.
- Pause all combinatorial ads and create new ones instead.
Upgrading Text & Image ads with an additional title
Combinatorial ads don't support additional titles.
The main and additional titles of a Text & Image ad are combined using a semicolon into the first title of a combinatorial ad, provided the total character count is 56 or less, including the semicolon and space separators. This provides the system with more details about your offer, which helps our algorithms reach your target audience more effectively.
Example
|
Text and image ad (before update) |
Combinatorial ads (after the update) |
|
Title: "Buy flowers" Additional title: "Delivery in Moscow" |
Title 1: "Buy flowers. Delivery in Moscow" |
If the combined length of the main and additional titles in a Text & Image ad exceeds 56, it will be upgraded to a combinatorial ad without the additional title. Only the main title will be retained. Our experiments show that omitting the additional title doesn't affect ad performance.
Warning
If you need to keep the content from the additional titles, move it to the main title of your Text & Image ad. You can also add it to your combinatorial ad after the upgrade.
Each combinatorial ad supports up to 7 titles and 3 text options. You can also add extra information via callouts.
How performance data will appear in statistics
In the Report Wizard, statistics for specific ads will match their type during delivery:
-
Before the update, you can view statistics for your Text & Image ads under this dimension: Ad type → Text & Image.
-
After the update, statistics will appear under this dimension: Ad type → Combinatorial. Ad IDs will remain the same.
How to prepare for the upgrade
To keep the content from the additional titles of your Text & Image ad, move it to the main title or to the callouts before the upgrade.
The system upgrades all ads automatically, so you don't need to do anything.
Case studies and helpful resources
- Skyeng boosts customer acquisition and reduces the cost per request using combinatorial ads.
- Haval dealer Alarm-Motors drives customer requests at half the cost of Text & Image ads using combinatorial ads — see the full story in our news.
- TANK Center Lyubertsy attracts more customers from Yandex Search using combinatorial ads.
- Russian fashion brand Love Republic boosts revenue using combinatorial ads in the Yandex Advertising Network.
- S7 Airlines boosts clicks and drives more conversions with combinatorial ads compared to Text & Image ads using the same ad elements — see the full story in our news.
- How combinatorial ads help Skillbox drive more leads from Yandex Search while keeping acquisition costs within KPI — see the full story in our news.
- How the car dealer "Rolf" drives more conversions and lowers the cost per lead from the Yandex Advertising Network using combinatorial ads — see the full story in our news.
- How A/A/B tests with combinatorial ads help t2 drive more conversions at a lower cost than Text & Image ads — see the full story in our news.
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