How to set up offline conversions in Yandex Direct
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Offline conversions in Yandex Direct are read in the Conversion Center. Direct describes it as one window for conversions from offline, from calls, and from online: you can see which ads brought them and what they cost. A CRM upload in CSV also goes by FTP or SFTP, by an HTTP or HTTPS link, and through Google Sheets. The data lands in Metrica, and conversions and goals are created from it. Statistics and optimization on these goals are available to every Direct login that has access to the counter the data was uploaded to.
The upload does not subtract click fraud on its own. It writes into the visit what you passed: an identifier, a goal, and a time. Below is which identifiers are accepted, how many days the file has, and why a goal goes somewhere other than Direct by default.
What to pass so the conversion sits in the visit
An offline conversion can be written into a visit by passing ClientId, UserId, yclid, or PurchaseId, the identifier of a “goal event” goal, and a time in Unix. For yclid, the conversion attaches to the visit with that ad, not to the last visit. The data lands in the visit if no more than 21 days pass between the visit and file processing. The help calls ClientId the most accurate identifier for offline data: it is a random anonymous browser identifier. A CRM order already added to a visit can still be changed for another 111 days. Twenty-one and one hundred eleven days are deadlines for supplementing a visit, not a personal-data retention period.
The Conversion Center does not add a new deadline. It shows where in Direct to look at the upload. The 21 days for yclid and the 111 days for editing an order stay the ones set for supplementing a visit.
By default Metrica assigns a goal to the visit in which it happened. If a person arrived from an ad without a goal and bought later from search, the conversion goes to search. Through yclid you can assign the conversion to Direct by hand, including when it happened off the site. The file has to be passed so that no more than 21 days pass between the visit with that tag and processing. Under the “last click” model, some of those visits are not visible in the report, because the ad click was not the last one. A manual link is not the same as the last visit: it attaches the conversion to the visit with the tag, and the “last click” model can hide that visit.
| Identifier | What it attaches to | Deadline |
|---|---|---|
| yclid | The visit with that ad, not the last visit | No more than 21 days between the visit and processing |
| ClientId | Offline data; the help calls it the most accurate | Together with the goal and a Unix time |
| An order already added to a visit | An edit of the CRM order | Another 111 days |
A CRM separates a payment from a filled form
A CRM upload adds clients and orders to the statistics. The help lists why: tie sales and deal statuses to the on-site history, optimize Direct toward redeemed orders, signed contracts, and payment after a lead, build segments from offline data, including lookalikes and people who did not visit the site before the purchase, and look separately at “good” leads, because not every form fill becomes a payment. A “good lead” here is one whose status was passed from the CRM, not an automatic phone check.
ClientId for forms and orders on the site is taken with getClientID and written into a hidden field. The page asks you to look at the share of linked conversions in the counter settings on the “Data upload” page. Linkage statuses in offline-conversion reports, it says, can display incorrectly at the moment. If the share in settings and the status in the report diverge, the help asks you to look at the setting, not at the report column.
An offline conversion does not answer whether a click was invalid, and it does not replace the question of whether Yandex returns the money. Who clicks without a purchase is in the article on who clicks ads. The difference in terms is in the article on click fraud and sklikivanie. The upload says which goal and which status reached the visit, if the identifier and the deadline matched.
Setting up offline conversions means uploading CSV to the Conversion Center by one of the listed channels, passing an identifier, a “goal event” goal, and a Unix time, and making the 21 days for yclid. The help treats ClientId as the most accurate. The last visit on its own will not keep a Direct ad if the purchase arrived from search later.