Key goals in Yandex.Direct campaigns allow the advertiser to indicate which goals from Yandex.Metrica are most important for promotion and assign the value of the achievement to the business in monetary terms. Direct, relying on this data, seeks to provide as many conversions as possible at a given cost.

In 2018, key goals in beta testing were earned in campaigns for YAN, and in April 2019, the test ended. A month later, in May 2019, the tool began working in search campaigns in all accounts at once. In both cases, the launch was associated with a change in the work of the manual strategy – the automatic optimization of Yandex.Direct was connected to it, which should be oriented towards these goals.

Optimization means that the system independently lowers and increases bids, taking into account the likelihood of conversions. It should help advertisers increase the effectiveness of their campaigns: increase CR and decrease CPA.

The setting is available for strategies:

• manual bid management with optimization;
• weekly budget;
• weekly package of clicks;
• average cost per click.

The tool does not work with the strategies “Average cost per conversion” or “Average return on investment” – in which the advertiser already sets a goal for optimization.

How to set up key goals

You can assign a key goal in the campaign settings, in the “Metrics” block. First, make sure that a Metrica counter with configured goals is added to the campaign settings, and there is a checkmark next to the “Mark up links for Metrica” ​​option.

Now let’s move on to the key goals. By default, the system assigns as a key target involved sessions – visits in which the probability of targeted actions, according to the algorithms, is higher. Yandex notes that the indicators related to the sessions involved – their amount, price and share – help if goals in the Metric are not configured or the created goals are not suitable for assessing the results of advertising.

How the system determines the sessions involved

Direct automatically searches for targets on any site with Metrica. It separates key actions from ordinary ones, focusing on our own conversion classifier.

Further, thanks to machine learning, the system can study the session data of each user who clicked on the ad and predict the likelihood of conversion. Among other things, it takes into account the depth and time of viewing, as well as the URL of the pages visited.

Source: Yandex.Direct

Click “Change” to set your own key goal. A window like this will open:

Click on the arrow next to Engaged Sessions to expand the list and select a goal from Metrics, and enter the value of the conversion value.

If you want to add another goal for the campaign, click on the “+ Add goal” button.

You can add an unlimited number of key goals, including composite goals, as well as goals for e-commerce and by turbo pages. However, you should not specify many goals, this can negatively affect the optimization. Better to set one or two goals that are most valuable to the business: checkout, purchase, call. You should also avoid setting goals such as “Two Pages View” or “Time On Site – 5 minutes,” as they do not lead to contact with a potential customer.

How to calculate the value of a key goal

It is important to correctly indicate the value for the goal, since it is taken into account in the operation of the algorithm: the system will try to ensure that the goal is achieved no more than this value. It is calculated by the formula:

Key Goal Value X = Profit on Goal X / Conversions for Goal X

or

Key Goal Value X = Profit on Goal X * Conversion Rate for Goal X

Let’s look at an example. On the website of the seller of plastic windows there is an application form for a preliminary calculation. The advertiser knows that the average profit per sale is 10,000 rubles, and only every tenth user who sends an application becomes a client. This means that the conversion from order to sale is 10%. Substitute the values ​​into the formula:

Key goal value (filling out a form for calculation) = 10,000 * 10% = 1,000 rubles

Let’s imagine that on the site of the same advertiser there is a form for filing an application for installing windows. And here every second user who sent an application becomes a client. We consider the value of this goal:

Key goal value (filling out the installation form) = 10,000 * 50% = 5,000 rubles

You can specify both goals in a campaign as key, but their different value will signal which one is of higher priority and what result is expected from the ad.

If you assign the goal value a little lower than the calculated one (10-15%), then you will have some margin of profitability. But in this case, there is a risk that the figures will be incorrect in the income statement.

How to analyze the performance of key goals

To analyze the effectiveness of advertising for key goals, you can use the Report Wizard. Go to the page of the Wizard, select the desired goal in the “Target data” window, period, grouping and columns: Conversion (%), Goal price, Conversions, Profitability, Income and Profit.

Revenue and earnings in this report are based on the conversion value specified in the campaign parameters:

• Profit = Total Revenue by Goal – Cost of Clicks
• Goal Revenue = Goal Conversion Value * Goal Conversions

Therefore, statistics allows, among other things, to assess whether advertising solves business problems with the given settings.

Here is an example of a grouped report for the selected period.

In the report, you can select several goals and compare indicators on them. And the report can be built at the campaign or account level to get an idea of ​​the effectiveness of all advertising.

Conclusion

You need to assign key goals in all campaigns, both in search and for networks – and better in all available strategies. Use the most significant targeted actions on the site as goals – those that lead to contact with the client and convert well into sales.