Conversion value: how Yandex Direct calculates profit
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Conversion value in the Yandex Direct glossary is a money estimate of reaching a goal, and the margin that goal brings the business. The higher it is, the larger a role the goal plays in the campaign. Profit for the "Maximum conversions" strategy is calculated from it: (conversion value minus conversion price) times the number of conversions.
This is an estimate you set, not a cash balance. How to get CPA from the cost of a lead is covered in How to calculate CPA. Where this margin sits in the channel's unit economics is in Advertising unit economics.
What to put in the formula
Value is the margin of one goal, in currency. Conversion price is what the strategy spends on average for one conversion. Conversions are how many goals the strategy collected in the period you are reading.
Until value is passed in, a Direct performance report has no revenue, profit or ROI. It can already show conversions, CR and CPA. CR is the share of target visits among all visits. CPA is the average cost of one target visit. "Conversions" is how many target visits the ads brought. The report is built in Report Wizard: period, goals, attribution model, then metrics. CR and CPA need Metrica goals.
These fields are about Direct target visits. They are not the "per goal completion" CPA or the "per visitor" CPA from Metrica's expenses report. If two numbers both named CPA disagree, check which report each one came from.
The help's example: value equals price
The strategy help calculates its example on 100 leads, 50,000 RUB of spend and a value of 500 RUB. That is the help's example, not a normal lead price.
The price of one conversion in this example: 50,000 / 100 = 500 RUB. Value is also 500 RUB. Substitute:
Profit in the formula is zero: the goal's margin matched the average conversion price. Inside the formula this example shows neither profit nor loss. The 50,000 RUB of spend is still there. Zero here means "value caught up with price", not "the ads cost nothing".
A teaching example where value is above price
The second calculation is a teaching example. It is not the help's example. The same 100 conversions and the same 50,000 RUB of spend, so the conversion price is 500 RUB again. You set the goal value at 900 RUB, because that is how you priced the lead's margin.
The formula returns 40,000 RUB of profit. That is not a Direct forecast and not a bank statement. It is the same expression on different inputs, so the sign is visible. If you set value at 200 RUB with the same price of 500 RUB, profit comes out negative: (200 - 500) × 100 = −30,000 RUB. A negative sign means the goal's margin is below the conversion price, not that the account found fraud.
| Input | Help's example | Teaching example |
|---|---|---|
| Conversions | 100 | 100 |
| Spend | 50,000 RUB | 50,000 RUB |
| Conversion price | 500 RUB | 500 RUB |
| Value | 500 RUB | 900 RUB |
| Profit from the formula | 0 RUB | 40,000 RUB |
Where profit shows up in the report
Revenue, profit and ROI in the performance statistics breakdown appear once conversion value has been passed in. Before that, read conversions, CR and CPA: they are counted from target visits and do not need a margin.
If profit is missing from the report:
Check that Report Wizard has a period, goals and an attribution model.
Make sure Metrica goals are connected. Without them this report has nothing to calculate CR and CPA from.
Pass in conversion value. After that, revenue, profit and ROI appear in the same report.
Put your own numbers into the formula and compare the sign with the report. A mismatch is not a reason to panic until you have checked that both places use the same value and the same period.
The higher the value, the larger the role the goal plays in the campaign. An inflated estimate inflates profit in the formula and the goal's role in the strategy. An understated one makes a lead that is profitable at the till look unprofitable on the strategy's paper. The glossary calls value the margin the goal brings the business, and the advertiser's estimate. A cash fact does not follow from it.
How to read zero, plus and minus
Zero in the help's example means value and conversion price matched. A plus means the goal's margin is above the conversion price, a minus means it is below. None of the three signs says whether money for clicks will be returned, or which CR is "normal". CR next to them in the same report is the share of target visits, a separate fraction.
If CPA in Metrica's expenses report and CPA in Direct diverge, they are different fields, as above. Feeding the profit formula some other CPA, instead of this strategy's average conversion price, produces a different profit. The formula wants the conversion price from the same strategy and the value you passed in.