myTarget Instead of Facebook Ads. Specific Features of Targeting on Russian Social Networks

On March 4, 2022, Roskomnadzor (Federal Service for Supervision in the Sphere of Telecom, Information Technologies and Mass Communications) blocked global social networks in Russia. A little bit later the Prosecutor General’s Office demanded to recognize Meta (that manages Facebook*, Instagram* and WhatsApp) as an extremist organization. What should companies do whose audience is located in Russia? First, you can look for domestic advertising systems, for example, myTarget.

UPD (August, 2023): Please, keep in mind that platform will stop working in the near future. Currently, the certification of MyTarget advertising specialists has already been finished.We advise to pay attention to the new service VK Ads from the developers, which combines all the useful features of MyTarget and PRO VKontakte. Check out the VK Ads Advertising Campaign Launch Tutorial and VK Ads Formats and Technical Requirements Overview.

myTarget Peculiarities

myTarget is an advertising platform by Mail.ru, where you can configure an ad display on the company's services (VKontakte, Odnoklassniki, My World) and on partner resources. On myTarget, you can scale up an advertising campaign and launch it on multiple platforms at one and the same time.

Where myTarget ads are displayed:

• VKontakte, Odnoklassniki, My World social networking sites;
• Youla ad website;
• Boom music app;
• Nativeroll video network;
• myTarget partner websites.

Before blocking the Facebook/Instagram* audience slightly met the VKontakte audience and advertisers needed to be placed on both platforms to cover the audience. After the news about blocking of Meta platforms, some of the audience has already returned from Instagram to Vkontakte and Odnoklassniki, and the social networking sites reported a significant increase in new audience.

The algorithm for running ads on myTarget doesn't fundamentally differ from Facebook Ads. Below we'll go into the key peculiarities of customizing advertising campaigns.

Goal selection

Goals are divided into two main blocks: "Conversions" (with an option of Payment per action (CPV) and Payment per impressions (CPM)) and "Awareness" (CPM ONLY). There are 14 goals in total.

Targeting Selection

There are 3 targetings:

• Gender;
• Age;
• Geography. myTarget allows you to select a region for targeting or specify a point (or several points) on the map (radius from 500 m to 10 km).

Also there are 5 extra targetings for a narrower audience segmentation:

• Advanced social features (occupation, income, family, education, etc.).
• Interests (Beauty and Personal Care, Car brands, Cooking, Video Games and other). Advertising will be displayed to those who have been interested in the chosen topic for the last 1-3 months. All interests complement each other and if you select several interests, the ad will be shown to users interested in one OR another topic.
• Context targeting. It makes possible to show ads based on search queries in the resources included in myTarget ecosystem fora certain period (from 12 days).

• Groups and applications in social networks allow you to target ads to users of social networks who are interested in a particular topic, are in groups, use applications or play games.
• Segments is a tool for creating your own list of potential customers. For example, you can configure ads only for users who have already bought something in your store, downloaded your app, or joined thematic groups on social networks. Audience segments are created based on sources: lists of your customers, members of groups on social networks, Top.Mail.Ru data counters. The sources can be combined according to different principles: : adding "OR”, the intersection "AND" and the exclusion "NOT". Segments can be also configured according to individual rules: "users consist of N of M audiences".

Ad formats

myTarget offers several ad formats depending on the chosen goal of an advertising campaign. Let's consider the main advertising formats.

Carousel

It is a mini-gallery. Instead of one static ad, a user sees up to six banners that can be scrolled. The user scrolls the ads and stops at those that hooked him. It is convenient if you need to tell more about the product.

Multiformat

It is a standard ad with a image, text and a button. Information is minimized, the task is to capture attention and induce to click on the link. The multiformat is convenient to use everywhere — it is universal and suitable for all myTarget platforms.

Banners

The format of targeted advertising, that represents a graphic creative with a signature used to promote websites. It can be in the form of an image, video or HTML5. When clicking on the image, a user gets on the page with detailed description of a product, service or event.

Teaser (Text and graphic banner, text and graphic item)

A small-sized ad that includes an image and a brief description. It is usually displayed on pages to the right or left of the main content. This format is displayed only in the full version of websites.

Supervideo

A multiformat that combines all the features of myTarget video advertising, standardizes and simplifies work thanks to the automatic adaptation of advertising to different placement formats. The format allows you to broadcast ads on all VK sites and in the partner advertising network.

Vertical video

A vertical video is broadcast in the Odnoklassniki mobile application for iOS and Android and in the desktop version of the social networking site, as well as in the feed of the VKontakte application.

Pre-roll

A short video clip (up to 30 seconds) that is broadcast to users before viewing the main video in the desktop and in the mobile version on the Odnoklassniki and VKontakte social networking sites, on VK projects and on the myTarget advertising network.

Audio Advertising

Audio advertising on social networks was launched on myTarget at the end of 2016 on VKontakte (VK), Odnoklassniki, My World sites, in the Boom application before audio content on desktops and mobile devices.

Source: myTarget

Payment models

There are 4 payment models available in myTarget:

• CPC — Cost Per Click.
• CPM — Cost per Mille.
• CPV — Cost per View.
• CPI — Cost per Installation. This model can be used if you get at least 4 installations for 2 days under CPM or CPC model.

Statistics and Reports

There is a section "Statistics "in the myTarget ad account that enables you to track the efficiency of advertising campaigns on the website. The report can be downloaded in a convenient Excel format for further data information and analysis.

The process of the ad efficiency analysis is the same as in other advertising systems:

• Collect costs and basic metrics;
• Count conversion rate (CR) to the application from ad;
• Count Cost Per Lead (CPL) for the advertising campaign;
• Count conversion to purchase and the average Cost Per Order (CPO);
• Count ROI in the context of an advertising campaign.

What Do You Need to Know Before Launch?

Besides configuration of an advertising campaign and targeting parameters, you need to remember about other important components of its success:

• install a counter or a mobile tracker,
• label UTM tags,
• prepare creatives and texts,
• constantly monitor the performance of advertising campaigns and, if necessary, optimize them,
• give up the hypotheses and audience which don't work.

To configure and launch an advertising campaign for Russian-speaking audience, contact RMAA experts. If you have already launched an ad, but its indicators seem insufficient to you, our experts will also help you with the optimization of the current marketing activities.

*Blocked and recognized as extremist social networks in Russia

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