StudyQA — Adversiting for the universities: Yandex.Direct overview

Even though Google continues growing in the Russian speaking countries, Yandex has still a good position on the local search engine market. Google is only slightly ahead with 20,5 million users a month, while Yandex is used by 20,4 million. This means that the universities recruiting students should consider Yandex as a tool for reaching them.

On Yandex one can reach target audience through organic research results by improving SEO level, or through paid advertising. SEO needs constant improvement independently of the season. Paid advertising, on the contrary, comes handy in the hot season when the applications are about to be open.

To make paid advertising for universities on Yandex more effective, we at StudyQA have prepared an overview of its advertising system, Yandex.Direct.

Where the Yandex.Direct ads displayed

Yandex.Direct works with contextual advertising. It means that only people interested in the ad content can see it. Yandex divides its ads into two groups:

• Search ads: displayed in the search system, when the user puts a respective query in the search field.
• Content ads: displayed on websites that correspond to the interest of the user. These websites all belong to Yandex Advertising Network (YAN) or external partners.

YAN is Yandex’s own advertising network, in which thematic ads are displayed. It includes websites, mobile apps, apps SmartTV and videos. Here are several examples of the big resources that participate in the Yandex network: mail.ru, Rambler, Livejournal, CTC channel, RenTV channel.

Search ad:

Content ad:

How is the payment done

Advertising model

The Yandex.Direct advertising work only on PPC (pay-per-click) basis, a university itself sets the bid for these clicks. After the ad and its bid are defined, they participate in the auction with other ads based on the same keywords and the ones that have better bids combined with better clickability are displayed.

The minimum bid is only 30 kopeck without VAT which is less than 0,01 euro according to the current currency exchange rate (22.01.18). The minimum ad investment is 1000 rubles or 14,44 euro.

Payment methods

The payment can be carried out in three ways:

• Bank transfer in euros, Swiss francs, or dollars;
• The card in euros, Swiss francs, or dollars;
• PayPal in euros, Swiss francs, or dollars.

These payment methods are avaiable not in all the countries. American clients, for example, have nly bank transfer and PayPal at their disposal, as well as the Turkish ones.

What are the ads formats

There are five ad formats in Yandex.Direct, one of them belonging to the search ad type and the rest - to the content ads, that can be displayed only inside YAN and partner websites.

• Search ad: the classic ad that is displayed in the search results in textual format. A university can add a vCard to the search ad, which displays the contact information, such as phone, address and opening hours.
• Image ad: the ad that allows a university to convey its appealing image with great photos. Can be combined with text.
• Smart banner: a new ad format which is still in beta testing. Can be requested through a Yandex manager/ad agency. For now, they are used only for these product categories: retail products, realty, automobiles, hotels, and flights, which makes them not so much applicable to the university reality.
• Dynamic ad: another ad type that is still in beta testing. It has the following algorithm: the system analyzes the content of the website and automatically updates offer in the ad. Right now it is not available for the education services but is worth keeping an eye on. Can be used for presenting various study programs.

vCard: source

Tips on Yandex.Direct from StudyQA

Here are several tips from us on how to start successfully with Yandex.Direct:

• Choose the type of the ad wisely:
  • Search ads could work well for the year-round advertising if the university does not want to limit itself to the organic reach. They help to raise awareness about the university and thanks to vCard to get in touch with it easily.
  • Image ads are a good choice for a campaign right before the application opening. This is a period when potential students are actively scanning blogs, websites with application tips and study program aggregators. Showing an attractive ad at this moment could bring them one step closer to the application.
• Keep in mind that Yandex.Direct does not work with Youtube, which in Russia is used by 47,4 million. For reaching them the university needs to turn to Google AdWords.
• While creating the image ad, the university can upload 12 images of different formats. We advise uploading all of them to ensure that the ad is displayed on all the possible platforms.
• Image ad allows using the GIF-animation. When well done, it can be used for a student recruitment campaign, as this year they promise that 84% of communication already this year will be visual.
• In a search ad, universities can add additional links, which will refer the user to several website sections. This raises CTR from 10 to 40%. The links could lead on the most important pages, such as application, funding and program overview.