YAN: what the Yandex Advertising Network is and how to advertise in it

What YAN is in plain terms

YAN stands for «Yandex Advertising Network.» It isn’t a separate advertising system, but one of the places where Yandex Direct shows ads: alongside search and Maps. In Direct’s help documentation, YAN together with external networks is broadly called «the networks,» and specialists in conversation call it «the net» or «the Yandex net.»

Ads in the network can appear in several places:

• on Yandex’s own services;
• on partner sites, in mobile apps, and in Connected TV apps;
• on the search sites of the Advertising Network’s partners;
• on placements of external partner networks.

A placement is the specific site or app where the ad runs. A partner is the owner of such a placement. According to Direct’s help documentation, only high-traffic, quality sites are accepted into the Advertising Network, and every site goes through multi-stage moderation after applying.

From a marketing point of view, YAN is a way to show an ad to a person when they aren’t searching for a product right now: they’re reading the news, checking the weather forecast, using an app. That determines what to expect from the network and how to evaluate it.

For site owners who want to place Direct’s ads on their own site, Yandex offers a separate program with its own participation rules. That’s a different topic: here the focus is on how to advertise in the network.

How advertising in YAN works

Who ads are shown to

In search, the ad answers a query the person typed in themselves. In the network there’s no query, so impressions are selected differently. Placements are chosen by thematic or behavioral targeting — the term for the setting of who and where an ad is shown to. The ad’s topic matches either the topic of the page the person is viewing, or their interests and behavior online.

Impression conditions are set at the ad group level. For the networks, Direct’s help documentation describes these options:

• Keyword phrases. For impressions in the networks, the system selects ads whose keyword phrases match the placement’s topic or the user’s interests.
• Interests and habits. You describe the audience: what topics they’re interested in, which organizations they visit, which sites and apps they use.
• Audience segments. Groups of users built from Yandex Metrica goals and segments and Yandex Audiences segments. These power retargeting — showing ads to people who have already been on your site or taken an action on it.
• Impression geography — the regions where the ads will be visible.

One detail changes the setup logic. In search, audience segments work together with keyword phrases on an «and» basis, while in the networks they combine with other conditions on an «or» basis. That means in a network ad group, a segment adds impressions rather than narrowing them.

Direct changes the set and names of settings, so check them against the current help documentation before launch.

How impressions and payment are determined

There’s no fixed price in Direct: the cost of clicks is determined through bidding between advertisers. Such bidding is called an auction. It runs in real time while the user loads the page. A bid is the amount you’re ready to pay for a click.

On YAN’s thematic placements and in external networks, the click price charged to your account is determined by GSP auction rules: based on the nearest competitor’s bid. On YAN’s search placements, the same settings apply as for Yandex search. The price of a click or conversion on thematic placements depends on the quality of the placement’s audience and the competitive situation.

You can pay per click or per conversion — a target action on the site, such as an inquiry or an order. So the «Maximum conversions» strategy offers both options: paying for each priority action on the site, or for each ad click. A strategy is the rule by which Direct manages bids. Paying per conversion requires a Yandex Metrica tracking tag with goals set up.

Ad formats

Both PPC (paid search) and display advertising run on the Advertising Network’s placements. There’s a separate set of formats for mobile sites and apps, and video advertising too. Display advertising is a separate line of work; what follows is about ads set up for inquiries and sales.

In a Unified Performance Campaign — a Direct campaign type that combines promotion in search, on Maps, and in the Advertising Network — the help documentation names these ad types:

• Combinatorial. You provide several titles, texts, images and videos, and Direct assembles many variants out of them.
• Graphic. The offer is shown as a single image.
• Neuro-ads. Generated from information on your site.
• Product. Created automatically for each product or service from the catalog.

In the network, an ad sits alongside the page’s or app’s own content and competes with it for attention. That’s why the image and the opening phrase matter more here than in search.

YAN and Yandex Direct: what’s the difference

Yandex Direct is the advertising system, the account where you create campaigns, set bids and pay for ads. YAN is one of the places where Direct shows those ads, alongside search and Maps. So comparing «YAN or Direct» isn’t quite right: advertising in YAN is advertising in Direct, shown outside the search results.

More on what Direct is and what an ad campaign consists of in a separate article. In a campaign, you can choose the placement: search only, the Advertising Network only, or both at once. So the practical question is different: how a network impression differs from a search impression.

	Yandex search	Yandex Advertising Network
Where it shows	In Yandex’s search results and on partner search sites	On Yandex’s services, on partner sites and apps, and in external networks
What the person is doing at the moment of impression	Searching for a product, service or answer — they typed the query themselves	Reading, watching, using an app; not searching for the product right now
How the impression is selected	By the user’s query and impression conditions	By the placement’s topic, the user’s interests and behavior, audience segments
How the click price is determined	VCG auction rules	On thematic placements and in external networks — GSP auction rules
What to pay attention to in the ad	The text answers the query	The image and the opening phrase: catching attention and getting the offer across
Typical role in marketing	Answering demand that already exists	Introducing the product, reminding, extending reach
How to evaluate	By target actions and their cost	Also by target actions, factoring in that the person may not have been ready to buy right away

The rows on the person’s behavior, the channel’s role, and evaluation are our own observation about the mechanics, not a Yandex rule. There are deliberately no figures in the table: search and network metrics form differently, and comparing them directly isn’t correct.

When YAN fits a business

The decision doesn’t depend on whether the network is «good» in general, but on your task. The network is worth considering if you recognize your situation:

• The product is easy to show. Food, clothing, interiors, training with a clear outcome are easier to explain with an image or video, and the network supports such formats.
• You need to remind people about yourself. A person was on the site but didn’t leave an inquiry. Retargeting by audience segment lets you show them the ad again.
• There aren’t many queries in search, but it’s clear who the customer is. If the product is new and people aren’t searching for it yet, you can find people with a matching profile through interests and habits.
• Search is already working, and you need reach. The network adds impressions for people who didn’t type in a query but fit the impression conditions.

If a person is searching for the product right now and decides quickly, search is usually closer to the task. Channels often work together: the network introduces and reminds, search catches demand that’s already formed.

The network has features worth accounting for in advance. An ad may appear on a site unrelated to your topic: with behavioral targeting, the person’s interest matters, not the page’s topic. You can’t choose placements yourself, but unwanted ones can be excluded in the campaign settings. Yandex, though, doesn’t recommend excluding placements: it’s a risk of losing your target audience. So it’s better to base an exclusion decision on target-action data for the placement, not its name.

How to launch advertising in YAN: general plan

Below is the order of decisions, without interface instructions.

1. Set up goals in Yandex Metrica before launch. Without them, you can’t see which impressions bring in inquiries. For pay-per-conversion, a tracking tag with goals is required.
2. Decide where to show. You can choose only the network, only search, or both. Separate campaigns for the network and search make analysis easier: the data doesn’t mix.
3. Choose the impression conditions. Keyword phrases, interests and habits, audience segments — matched to your task.
4. Prepare images and texts. Ads go through moderation: the rules cover texts, keyword phrases, images and the landing page.
5. Tag your links. That way analytics will show which campaign and which placement a person came from. Here’s how to tag links to tell campaigns and placements apart in reports.
6. Check placements after launch. Where impressions happened is visible in Report Wizard, grouped by placement name.
7. Evaluate by conversions, not by clicks and impressions — more in the next section.

Impressions in the network can be set up in a Unified Performance Campaign. The setup process itself is covered in the breakdown of launching a campaign in Direct step by step. If a contractor will be running the ads, it’s useful to understand in advance what the work involves: for example, how setting up and managing Direct advertising works at OrganicOps.

How to evaluate YAN results

«Market average» figures for the network won’t tell you much about your campaign. Metrics depend on the product, the offer, the images, the chosen audiences and placements.

It’s especially easy to get click-through rate wrong — the share of impressions that ended in a click. In search, the person is looking for the product themselves; in the network, the ad distracts them from something else. So you can’t compare network and search click-through rates directly. Direct itself separates these metrics: ad CTR in the networks doesn’t affect the click price in search. More on what ad click-through rate shows and how to read it, in a separate article.

What to look at instead:

• Target actions and their cost. Inquiries, orders, sign-ups by Metrica goals, and how much each one costs.
• Placements. Which ones bring in conversions, and which only produce clicks.
• The network and search separately. In a combined total, a strong channel can hide a weak one.
• The customer’s path. A person may see the ad in the network and leave an inquiry later, coming from search. Which channel gets credit for that inquiry depends on the attribution model you chose.

It’s better to base the decision on whether to keep running network impressions on target actions over a comparable period, not on the first few days or a single metric.

FAQ

Can you launch advertising only in YAN, without search?

Yes. In a Unified Performance Campaign you can choose the placement: search only, or the Yandex Advertising Network only.

Why do YAN ads show on sites unrelated to my product?

Placements are chosen not only by the page’s topic, but also by the person’s interests and behavior online. If you use retargeting, a visitor to your site may see the ad on a placement with any topic. The region is still respected: the ad only shows to visitors from the regions you selected.

Can you block impressions on specific placements?

Yes, you can exclude selected placements in the Advertising Network and external networks. You can’t disable an entire external network — only individual placements within it. Yandex warns that excluding placements can make a campaign less effective and lose additional audience.

How much does advertising in YAN cost?

There’s no fixed price: the cost of clicks is set through bidding between advertisers. On thematic placements, the price of a click or conversion depends on the quality of the placement’s audience and competition. You limit your own spend: for example, the «Maximum conversions» strategy can hold to a set weekly budget.

Is there moderation in YAN?

Yes. All ads in Direct go through moderation — a check against the requirements for ad materials. Sites wanting to join the Advertising Network also go through separate moderation.

Does YAN fit B2B?

It depends on the audience and the deal cycle. If customers can be described by interests, or brought back to the site with retargeting, the network can help with recognition and reminders. If the deal is long, evaluate the network by intermediate target actions, for example a consultation request, not just by sales.