Negative Keywords In Yandex.Direct
Last year, Ekaterina Chikulaeva already wrote about creating effective contextual ads with the CTR above 20%. The formula of success is simple:
- write unique ads for each query;
- properly compose ad texts;
- add negative keywords;
- set up keyword operators.
So you used this formula. It would seem that you did everything right, but your ad campaign is still stuck. According to the statistics, some ads have never been shown at all and others have a relatively low CTR.
In this article I will discuss one more tool for setting up an advertising campaign in Yandex.Direct. It is called cross-matching.
Cross-matching in Yandex.Direct
Cross-matching prevents keywords from competing with each other. Essentially, we tell Yandex.Direct not to show ads for similar keywords.
I will give you an example. Let's say you are setting up an advertising campaign for a plumbing store. Your keywords are:
- buy bathtub
- buy bathtub cheap
- buy bathtub cheap in Moscow
Take a look at the numbers for clarity:
If you leave it as it is, the ads will compete with each other, and Yandex.Direct will choose to show the ad for the search term "buy bathtub", the most expensive one, and ignore the rest. As a result, all your work will come to nothing.
To get the most out of your ad impressions, make your keywords look like this:
- buy bathtub -cheap -!in -Moscow
- buy bathtub cheap -!in -Moscow
- buy bathtub cheap in Moscow
Then the search engine will show the ad you need, not the most expensive one. This way your client will buy a cheap bathtub in Moscow, and you will buy a cheap advertisement in Yandex.Direct.
Cross-matching in Direct.Commander
If your campaign is small, you can cross-match manually, but if it’s a big-time, full-time thing, you can not do without special tools. Perhaps the easiest one to understand is Direct.Commander.
Open the list of advertising campaigns and go to the Phrases tab in the third column of the interface, then click Adjust Phrases.
Then choose the level of cross-matching (campaign, group, or phrase) and the operation you need to perform:
- if you want to remove duplicate keywords in addition to cross-matching, select the first option: Adjust matches and delete duplicates;
- if cross-matching alone is enough, choose “Adjust matches”;
- finally, the “delete duplicates” option will examine the campaign for identical keywords.
The result appears in the Negative keywords column.
The final step is to upload the changes to the server.
Devil is in the details when it comes to ad compains
Key queries, ad texts and headers, negative keywords - all this is crucial when you are setting up an advertising campaign in Yandex.Direct. But you should not overlook more precise settings, which oftentimes determine your expenses and the campaign success.