Bid adjustments

Adjustments allow advertisers to raise or lower a bid, CPA, or conversion value for specific ad serving criteria. The values can be adjusted using coefficients. A coefficient is a percentage by which a bid, CPA, or conversion value changes (depending on the chosen strategy).

How adjustments work

Use adjustments to change the bid, CPA, or conversion value depending on user characteristics, ad format, and other criteria.

Here are the ways you can adjust bids:

• Target audience — increase or decrease for an audience that matches certain retargeting list conditions. For example, when ads are served to users who have already ordered products from your site, the bid is automatically adjusted by the percentage you have set.
• Gender and age — increase or decrease for an audience of a particular gender or age.
• Video: Increase or decrease for ads with videos.
• Display region — increase or decrease for ad display regions.
• Smart ads — increase or decrease for smart ads. Only for smart banners.

• Devices — increase or decrease for different types of devices.
• Inventory — increase or decrease for different types of display advertising. Available only for display campaigns.
• Weather — increase or decrease depending on weather conditions.
• Exclusive placement: An increase for exclusive placement or ads in autofill suggestions.
• Income: decrease or increase for high-income segment.

You can adjust bids for a particular campaign or ad group. If you use the same type of bid adjustment on the level of both a campaign and an ad group within it, then the group-level adjustment will be used.

If you don't want to apply adjustments to a certain ad group within a campaign, set the coefficient for that group to zero.

For example, let's say you set the coefficient to “increase by 40%” for a particular campaign, but don't want this coefficient to apply to a particular ad group. For that group, you would set the coefficient to “0%”.

When you use the “Optimize clicks” strategy, Yandex Direct factors in bid adjustments and does not exceed its limits for the weekly budget or average CPC. If you set a maximum bid for a strategy, the actual bid will not exceed the adjusted maximum.

For example, you're using a strategy. Your maximum bid is set at 20 rubles per click and your coefficient for mobile impressions is set to “increase by 100%” (so that the adjusted bid will be 40 rubles). In this case, impressions on mobile devices will be served at the 40 ruble bid rate.

In conversion-based strategies (Maximum conversions, Maximum conversions with a ROI limit), the goal values are maintained based on these adjustments.

For example, you use the “Maximum conversions” strategy and specify an average CPA of RUB200. You also raise the bid by 100% on smartphones. In this case, the average CPA will be RUB400 for smartphones and RUB200 for other devices. If you enable pay per conversion, with settings and CPA similar to RUB200, you'll be charged RUB400 per conversion on a smartphone.

If you use the “Maximum conversions” strategy capped only by the weekly budget (with no average CPA) and add an upward adjustment of 100% for smartphones, then the bid can be increased twofold when serving ads on mobile devices. In this case, the strategy will try to maintain the specified weekly budget.

In the Maximum conversions strategy limited by the cost-revenue ratio or ROI, the adjustments will affect the target cost revenue ratio or ROI maintained by the strategy for the selected cross section.

For example, when the adjustment is plus 100% on smartphones and the cost revenue ratio is 10%, the strategy will maintain a 20% cost revenue ratio for smartphones and 10% for other devices. If you enable pay per conversion, the strategy will bring you conversions at a fixed cost corresponding to the preset cost revenue ratio in view of adjustments.

Using multiple adjustments

You can apply several adjustments to a given bid, CPA, or conversion value (for mobile impressions, by gender and age, by display region, by time of day, and others). Adjustments are applied in succession (they are not added together).

The table shows an example of how the bid is calculated if the bid on a display condition is 15 rubles and the bid adjustment is the following:

• For men ages 18-24: “Decrease the bid by 40%” - that's 100% − 40% = 60% of the bid (or bid × 0.6).
• For women ages 25-34: “Increase the bid by 60%” - that's 100% + 60% = 160% of the bid (or bid × 1.6).
• For impressions on mobile devices: “Increase the bid by 30%” - that's 100% + 30% = 130% of the bid (or bid × 1.3).
• For Moscow and the Moscow region: “Increase the bid by 200%” - that's 100% + 200% = 300% of the bid (or bid × 3).

	Gender and age		Mobile	Display region	Bid
	Men ages 18-24	Women ages 25-34		Moscow and the surrounding areas
Male 18-24 years old + Desktop + Moscow					15 × 0.6 × 3 = 27 rubles
Female 18-24 years old + Desktop + Yekaterinburg					15 rubles
Female 25-34 years old + Mobile + Moscow					15 × 1.6 × 1.3 × 3 = 93.6 rubles

	Gender and age		Mobile	Display region	Bid
	Men ages 18-24	Women ages 25-34		Moscow and the surrounding areas
Male 18-24 years old + Desktop + Moscow					15 × 0.6 × 3 = 27 rubles
Female 18-24 years old + Desktop + Yekaterinburg					15 rubles
Female 25-34 years old + Mobile + Moscow					15 × 1.6 × 1.3 × 3 = 93.6 rubles

Add bid adjustments and coefficients

You can add adjustments on the following pages:

• Ad group editing page: in the Adjustments section.
• Campaign settings: Under Advanced settings, go to Adjustments.

Click on the name of a bid adjustment to read more about it:

Target audienceGender and ageVideoDisplay regionSmart adsDevicesInventoryWeatherExclusive placementIncome

You can set bid adjustments for specific retargeting lists.

For example, let's say some users on your site put items in their shopping carts but did not end up purchasing them. You can add an adjustment based on the “Put items in their cart” condition and set a raised coefficient. This way you'll increase the probability of reaching an audience that's interested in your product.

You can set up a retargeting list on the page where you edit ad groups in Retargeting & Audiences.

Select a retargeting list and set a coefficient. To add a bid adjustment, click New adjustment (maximum of 100 adjustments total). Above the adjustment list, you can assign the same coefficient for all conditions.

The bid adjustment can range from -100% (it means that impressions are disabled) to +1200% of the bid, CPA, or conversion value.

For example, if a keyword is assigned a bid of 40 rubles and the adjustment is set to increase by 1000%, the actual bid is 440 rubles.

Please note that sometimes users may be served ads based on retargeting lists that you disabled using bid adjustments (i.e. you set a "decrease by 100%" coefficient).

If the user meets multiple adjustment criteria, an adjustment with the maximum increasing coefficient among them is applied.

If your target audience consists of users of one gender or age group, then you should use adjustments that match these characteristics. You can use cross-sections of gender and age statistics found in Report Wizard, as well as demographic reports from Yandex Metrica to help determine your audience makeup.

For instance, let's say that almost all customers who buy cosmetics from your online store are women around 30 years of age. You can set your gender and age criteria and apply a bid adjustment to “increase by 120%” in order to ensure that your ads display more frequently in favorable positions to women ages 25-34.

Choose your target gender and age and set the adjustment percentage. To add a bid adjustment, click New adjustment (maximum of 12 adjustments total). Above the adjustment list, you can assign the same coefficient for all conditions.

Note.

The All field includes men, women, and users whose gender could not be determined. The Any field includes users of all ages including those whose age could not be determined.

The adjustment can range from minus 100% (in this case, impressions are disabled) to plus 1200% of the bid, CPA, or conversion value.

Please note that ads may sometimes be served to those users that you have excluded through adjustments for age and gender.

In “Text & Image Ads” campaigns, you can experiment with adjustments to get the desired number of click-throughs from videos. You can't fully disable impressions for videos.

Adjustments can range from minus 50% to plus 1200% of the bid, CPA, or conversion value.

For example, if a keyword is assigned a bid of 40 rubles and the adjustment is set to increase by 1000%, the actual bid is 440 rubles.

To disable bid adjustments, enter a value of “0%” or delete the value.

Advertisers can use regional adjustments to increase or decrease the bid, CPA, or conversion value when serving ads to users in specific areas. Yandex Metrica reports can help you determine the best adjustments and the best times to use them.

Regional adjustments can be set at the campaign level, but not for ad groups. To do this, open adjustments for the display region and set coefficients for the relevant regions.

The adjustment is applied to the selected region and all its subregions, unless a separate adjustment is set for them.

The adjustment can range from minus 90% (in this case, impressions are disabled) to plus 1200% of the bid, CPA, or conversion value.

For example, you're using an automatic strategy. Your maximum bid is set at 20 rubles per click and your coefficient for impressions in Moscow is set to “increase by 100%” (so that the adjusted bid is 40 rubles). In this case, impressions in Moscow will display at the 40 ruble bid rate.

Regional adjustments do not affect how extended geotargeting works.

For example, let's say you want the keyword amusement park to trigger your ads for an amusement park in Moscow and your bid is 20 rubles. You set a coefficient to increase your bids for ads served in Moscow by “100%” (so that the adjusted bid is 40 rubles). If extended geotargeting is enabled, then a 40 ruble bid may be used when a Moscow-based user enters amusement park or a user outside of Moscow enters amusement park in Moscow.

You can set an adjustment for smart ads (individual ads for products that are part of a “Smart banner” campaign). The adjustment will not apply to your bids and costs for other smart banner templates.

Adjustments can range from minus 80% to plus 1200% of the bid, CPA, or conversion value.

For example, if the bid is 40 rubles and the adjustment is set to increase by 1000%, the actual bid is 440 rubles.

To disable bid adjustments, enter a value of “0%” or delete the value.

You can set adjustments for impressions on different types of devices. To find out which devices users are on when they engage with your ads or open your website, use the Device type segment in Report Wizard and the “Technologies — Devices” report in Yandex Metrica.

Bid adjustments allow you to increase or decrease the bid, CPA, or conversion value for impressions of:

• On smartphones: Only on iOS, only on Android, or on all smartphones (iOS, Android, Windows, and others). In display video ads: On all smartphones only.
• On tablets: Only on iOS, only on Android, or on all tablets (iOS, Android, Windows, and others). Not available for any display campaign.
• On desktops: this category includes desktop computers and laptops, Smart TVs, and other devices.

The adjustment can range from minus 100% (in this case, impressions are disabled) to plus 1200% of the bid, CPA, or conversion value. However, you can't decrease the bid by 100% for all types of devices at once.

For example, if a keyword is assigned a bid of 40 rubles and the adjustment is set to increase by 1000%, the actual bid is 440 rubles.

To disable a bid adjustment, delete it or set its value to “0%”.

Examples of use

If you advertise a mobile app for iOS and want to show ads only to those who use devices running iOS, disable impressions on Android and desktops.

To use a special landing page for mobile devices, specify it when creating your ads and use an adjustment to disable impressions on desktops.

You can set adjustments for certain types of inventory in your display campaigns. Bid adjustments allow you to increase or decrease the bid for impressions of:

• Image and HTML5 banners of all sizes.
• Instream web video ads which are embedded in the video stream and played back before, after, or in the middle of the main video.
• Inpage video ads embedded on website pages.
• Rewarded videos usually shown in game apps. The user receives an award or in-game currency for viewing such videos.
• Interstitial video ads are played back in mobile apps before loading or changing content. Adjustments are only used for interstitial units.

  When you set up adjustments for device types, you may sometimes receive some traffic that you restricted in the campaign settings. For example, viewing an instream video ad in an app might count in statistics as the “Applications” traffic type.

The bid adjustment can range from -100% (i.e. impressions are turned off) to +1200% of the bid. However, you can't decrease the bid by 100% for all types of inventory at once.

For example, if a keyword is assigned a bid of 40 rubles and the adjustment is set to increase by 1000%, the actual bid is 440 rubles.

To disable bid adjustments, enter a value of “0%” or delete the value.

You can set adjustments of bids, CPA, or conversion value based on weather conditions, such as air temperature, precipitation intensity, and cloud cover.

For example, you can use weather adjustments to:

• Increase the bid or CPA on ads for food delivery when it rains or snows.
• Advertise garden furniture only when it's sunny and warm.
• Add creatives for different products and use them depending on the weather: advertise winter clothing when it's cold and snowy, and lightweight clothing when it's warm and sunny.

Read more about ways to use bid adjustments.

Adjustments use data from Yandex Weather with granularity down to the hour and are applied based on the user's region. They are available at the ad group level for display banners, Text & Image ads, and image ads.

You can specify whether all the criteria or just one of them must be met. If multiple adjustments can be added, the adjustment with the maximum bid or CPA change is applied.

The adjustment can range from minus 100% (in this case, impressions are disabled) to plus 1200% of the bid, CPA, or conversion value.

For example, if a keyword is assigned a bid of 40 rubles and the adjustment is set to increase by 1000%, the actual bid is 440 rubles.

Ad design in search results is determined using SERP layouts. You can set up adjustments for bids, CPA, or conversion value for exclusive placement or ads in autofill suggestions:

• Exclusive placement is the largest and most noticeable ad format in search results. It appears above the search results and occupies the only advertising space. This design brings in about 30% more clicks.

  To advertise in this format, specify 8 sitelinks and their descriptions. Depending on the user's device, an exclusive placement includes up to 8 sitelinks.

  • On desktops
  • On mobile devices

  

  
• Ads in autofill suggestions appear in the list of suggestions when the user enters a query in the search bar. It's available in the desktop search, mobile search, and the Yandex app. This format brings 5% more traffic, and its CTR is about 16%.

  

To see how often your ads receive this placement, look at the Placement type cross-section in the Report Wizard. If you want your ads to get this placement more often, enter a bid adjustment.

Adjustments can range from 0% to plus 1200% of the bid, CPA, or conversion value.

For example, if a keyword is assigned a bid of 40 rubles and the adjustment is set to increase by 1000%, the actual bid is 440 rubles.

Adjustments are available for such campaigns as “Text & Image Ads”, “Dynamic ads”, and “Ads for mobile apps” at the campaign level.

The final cost per click is determined by the general VCG auction rules in Yandex.Direct.

You can set up adjustments for bids, CPA, or conversion value for a high-income audience segment. The system analyzes different parameters of user behavior and assigns them to different purchasing power segments. The adjustments let you increase or decrease your bid, CPA, or conversion value on impressions for 10% of such Yandex audience split into 3 groups:

• Top 1% (users with the highest purchasing power)

• 2-5%

• 6-10%

Adjustments for income are good for businesses whose price on products or services is higher than the market average. They are also good for companies offering premium products.

To see whether to use adjustments for income in general or only for a specific segment, look at statistics for the Income level cross-section in the Report Wizard. It shows the distribution of targeted actions between users from different segments.

Select one, two, or all three segments and set coefficients for them. You can set the same coefficient for all conditions.

The adjustment can range from minus 100% (in this case, impressions are disabled) to plus 1200% of the bid, CPA, or conversion value.

For example, if a keyword is assigned a bid of 60 rubles and the adjustment is set to increase by 100%, the actual bid is 120 rubles.

To disable bid adjustments, enter a value of “0%” or delete the value.

Adjustments are available for such campaigns as “Text & Image Ads”, “Dynamic ads”, and “Ads for mobile apps”, “Smart banners” at the campaign and group level.