Network ads without draining the budget
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A budget drain on networks is often confused with an ordinary placement price and with a block that narrows the audience. In Direct you can block impressions on chosen YAN placements and in external networks. You cannot block impressions on Yandex search projects. You cannot block an external network as a whole, only individual placements. The help text warns that excluding placements can narrow the audience. Beside that, it says that reviewing placements by hand and turning off the ineffective ones is not a rational use of time: instead it offers “Maximum conversions” or key goals, with a lower bid where the conversion forecast is worse.
Click fraud is not measured by this block. Below is the order that separates the Placements report, two different list limits, the search click price, and the rules for a site to enter YAN.
What you can block, and what you cannot
For banners the block list is up to 1,000 domains, for video ads up to 100. A site on the list closes both its topical pages and search on that site. That is the wording of the blocked-placements help, and it is the one to keep for banners and video.
The network Q&A counts differently: no more than 1,000 impression places, and the limit includes sites, apps and external networks. While the help texts diverge, apps use this wording of 1,000 places. Yandex search projects cannot be blocked in either wording. An external network as a whole cannot be blocked either, only individual placements.
Click fraud and sklikivanie do not add a hidden “block the whole network” to the list. Invalid clicks stay on the antifraud help: the rules for entering YAN are not a column of invalid clicks.
The report that shows spend
The Placements report is filtered by the type “Networks” and the statuses “Active” and “Stopped”. Groupings: placement type, name, campaign number and campaign name. Metrics: spend, impressions, clicks, conversions, CR, CPA. You can add revenue and DRR. A column can be filtered by spend; the example filter is more than 1,000 rubles. That is an interface example, not a threshold of a suspicious placement and not a threshold of a drain.
On one or two conversions the price can differ sharply from a stable one. The help text treats manual switching-off of ineffective placements as not rational and offers a strategy that lowers the bid where the conversion forecast is worse. That is not a ban on excluding a placement. It is a recommendation not to decide from one conversion.
The price on networks and the price on search
On topical YAN placements and in external networks the click or conversion price depends on the quality of the placement’s audience, competition, and how many placements of the needed topic there are. Ad CTR on networks does not affect the click price on YAN search or on Yandex search: the search click price includes only impressions and clicks of the main search result pages. A lower CTR on networks does not raise the search click price because of that.
That is a boundary between two auctions, not a promise that a network click is cheaper. A low network CTR is not treated by fearing for search. And high network spend is not explained by “it spoils search”.
What entry to YAN promises
YAN accepts visited, quality sites. After an application each site goes through multi-step moderation. The site must have a Russian-speaking audience and paid hosting. On this help text Yandex does not accept sites with poor content or sites created specifically to earn from placing ads.
Those are entry rules, not a statistic of violations and not a click-fraud report. How many placements break the rules is not said here. Invalid traffic that has already happened stays on the antifraud help, not in this paragraph.
A week on networks, in order
Open Placements, type “Networks”, and name the statuses. Write down spend, impressions, clicks, conversions, CR, CPA. Revenue and DRR if you added them.
Use the filter “over 1,000 ₽” as an example of dropping small rows, not as a list of the guilty.
If a placement has one or two conversions, do not call the price stable and do not turn it off only because of that spread.
For ineffectiveness the help text offers “Maximum conversions” or key goals, not a manual review of every row. Excluding a placement is not forbidden along the way.
Before a block, check the limit. Banners up to 1,000 domains, video up to 100, apps up to 1,000 impression places together with sites and external networks, while the wordings diverge.
Do not try to block Yandex search or an external network as a whole. A site on the list will close topical pages and search on that site. Exclusions can narrow the audience.
Do not carry a low network CTR into the search click price: only impressions and clicks of the main search go there.
Do not replace entry moderation with a drain report. The quality of a placement at application time and today’s spend row are different sheets.
Do not write who clicks and the refund into the placement block instead of these steps.
An example of a block that narrowed the wrong thing
A teaching example.
A banner campaign. The list already has 1,000 domains. One more “bad” domain does not fit: the blocked-placements limit for banners is the one in use. There is no video in this campaign, so the limit of 100 domains does not apply. Apps are counted by the other wording, up to 1,000 places, and they are not mixed into this example.
A placement with 1,200 ₽ of spend and one conversion fell into the filter “over 1,000 ₽”. The price on one conversion can differ sharply from a stable one. Instead of a block that also will not fit the list, the example leaves the placement and relies on “Maximum conversions”: a lower bid where the forecast is worse. The audience is not narrowed by an exclusion.
CTR on this placement is low. The click price on Yandex search is not raised because of it: search includes impressions and clicks of the main search. Yandex search cannot be excluded from delivery anyway.
The example does not separately write “the placement would have failed moderation”. Entry rules are about the application, a Russian-speaking audience, paid hosting, and refusing sites built to earn from ads. A spend row does not prove that.
The two list limits, without mixing them
The mix-up starts when a banner, a video and an app are folded into one block and someone says “a thousand for everything”. The help texts count the thousand differently.
Banners. Up to 1,000 domains. A domain closes the site’s topical pages and search on that site. Domain number 1,001 is not added.
Video. Up to 100 domains. A banner campaign with a thousand domains does not occupy this limit and does not extend it. If there are video ads, the video list is kept separately and stops at one hundred.
Apps and external networks, in the network Q&A wording. Up to 1,000 impression places, and that thousand includes sites, apps and external networks together. An external network as a whole cannot be turned into one place: you block individual placements. An app, a site and an external-network placement compete for the same place limit when you rely on this wording.
Yandex search does not take a slot, because it cannot be blocked. You cannot free a thousand by “throwing search out”: search is not on the list.
An exclusion that fitted the limit can still narrow the audience. A full list is not a sign of protection. It is a sign that there is nowhere further to block in this format, and the help text has already warned about narrowing.
The second week of the example
A teaching continuation.
In the second week the placement with 1,200 ₽ has a second conversion, and CPA jumps. The help text says exactly that on one or two conversions the price can differ sharply from a stable one. A block is not set again: the banner list is full, and manual switching-off of ineffective placements is called not rational. The bid stays with the strategy that uses a conversion forecast.
A neighbouring placement spent 400 ₽. The filter “over 1,000 ₽” does not show it. That is not a “clean” placement. The example filter simply did not include it. In the report without the filter it is there, with the same metrics: spend, impressions, clicks, conversions, CR, CPA.
CTR on both placements is below search. The search click price is not touched. It includes only impressions and clicks of the main search, not network CTR.
If a video list is started, it gets no more than 100 domains, and the thousand banner domains are not copied into it. If an app appears, it is counted in impression places together with sites and external networks, up to 1,000, and the banner domain limit is not promised to be the same counter.
Moderation of entry does not become a report during the week. The placement is already being shown, so the week’s question is the bid and, if needed, a separate block within the list, not a new application to enter YAN. A Russian-speaking audience, paid hosting and the refusal of sites created to earn from ads remain admission rules, not a CR row.
A week on networks ends without the word “drain” where there is a list limit, an unstable price on one conversion, and a search auction that networks do not spoil. A drain as invalid traffic is not sewn into this order: it is read on the antifraud help, and it is brought here only once it is already separated from the placement price and from the block.
Before you send a client the sentence “the networks are draining”, check three numbers from the example, even if the sums differ. First, how many domains are already blocked for banners, and whether you have hit 1,000. Second, how many conversions the placement you want to turn off has: one or two is not yet a stable price. Third, whether the search click price changed. If the third number rose, the cause is not network CTR: the help text separates that link. If the first number is already 1,000, a new domain is not the remedy. If the second is one conversion, the remedy in the help text is a strategy with a lower bid on a worse forecast, not one more domain on a full list.
The audience is not infinite along the way. Every domain you did exclude can narrow impressions, including the site’s topical pages and search on it. A full block for the sake of a calm report easily leaves the campaign without placements and with the same search that could not be blocked. That is the practical sense of the warning: an exclusion is not a free “no drain” button.
Checklist
The report type is “Networks”, and the statuses are named.
1,000 ₽ is not called a drain threshold.
The decision was not made from one or two conversions as if the price were stable.
For ineffectiveness, a strategy that bids on a forecast was considered.
The list limit was chosen by format: 1,000 banner domains, 100 for video, 1,000 places for apps.
Yandex search and a whole external network were not put on the block list.
Narrowing of the audience was taken into account.
Network CTR was not carried into the search price.
Entry moderation was not called a click-fraud report.