A product feed for Yandex is a structured file from which a third-party system receives information about a product. It includes a list of all products and their characteristics, and is presented in the form of a table or text. The data is organized so that another platform can retrieve it and display it in a certain way. Uploading a feed to Yandex simplifies setting up advertising in Yandex Direct and helps to increase the position of product searches in the search results.
Why use a Yandex product feed?
Uploading a feed to Yandex Webmaster or Yandex Direct simplifies the work of advertising specialists and helps:
- effectively create more ads automatically;
- follow the update of information in the ads: current prices, availability of goods and more;
- flexibly manage advertising of individual categories or brands.
In addition to using feeds in Yandex ads, they are used for:
- improving the speed and quality of updating the assortment of the company’s website;
- product feeds for the online store are used to synchronize the characteristics of the assortment with the sales center;
- prompt placement of up-to-date information about goods on trading platforms.
Feed formats
- CSV feed is mainly used in Google Ads and is a table where all fields are separated by commas;
- YML feed — stands for Yandex Market Language and is used when creating a feed for Yandex Market, the format is based on XML markup;
- XML feed is used in online stores to compile a list of products, and to create a sitemap, it is similar to HTML code.
How does the Yandex product feed work?
Adding such a data file to Yandex services will bring a lot of benefits for setting up advertising and save a lot of time, thanks to the following work algorithm:
- the service for creating contextual advertising automatically analyzes the information in the product feed for Yandex Direct, and also studies user behavior;
- if user actions meet certain criteria, the system shows him relevant advertising;
- The service creates ads automatically based on the uploaded feed to the Yandex system.
This algorithm facilitates the process of creating ads, because it offers the following features:
- all settings are changed once for all groups or only for one category;
- adding a feed for Yandex Direct helps to quickly update the cost and range of products;
- saves a lot of time when setting up advertising creatives.
For such a mass product template, smart banners and dynamic creatives are best suited. In addition to creating contextual advertising, feeds can also be used in Yandex Market or any other trading platform, when creating dynamic ads on VKontakte or myTarget.
Creating a product feed for Yandex Direct
In order for the data file to contain all the information necessary for the service and be correctly formatted, consider the requirements for Yandex feeds that need to be taken into account:
- in order for users to pay attention to the proposed product or categories, you need to use the name that is familiar to them, that is, to increase product recognition, you need to adapt to the “language” of potential buyers;
- The assortment name for the Yandex Direct product feed should contain only key information and be compiled taking into account the length limit. The category name should be short, concise and contain important product features. A well-chosen name will help you reach the target audience and not waste your budget;
- Product attributes must be entered strictly in the appropriate fields, because if there is a mismatch, the feed generator for Yandex Direct will ignore the data you need when creating creatives, which will lead to unnecessary problems.
Below is an example of a Yandex feed in YML. The data file must contain the following mandatory product characteristics:
- product id;
- link to the page with the desired product;
- the availability of goods for purchase;
- link to product photo;
- the name of the service or product;
- product category id.
You can also upload a feed to Yandex with additional parameters:
- age restrictions;
- price and currency, brand;
- delivery, pickup;
- product model, USP.
Adding a feed to Yandex Direct
To place a data file in the required service, you need to go to the main page of Yandex Direct and select «Feeds» from the «Library» item in the left menu.
After adding the feed to the Yandex service, you need to fill in the fields in the window that appears, entering the name of the file and the type of activity of the company. After uploading a feed, which must contain a large amount of detailed information, in order for the system to work effectively with the generation of creatives, you need to save all the changes.
Before uploading the feed to Yandex Direct, the system will enable moderation, which will check the following criteria:
- the presence of mandatory items about the product;
- correctness of information filling;
- no duplicate products or services.
If there are errors, you need to make corrections and send a non-rescan. After successfully passing the check, you can see the number of processed online positions and compare them with the real assortment. The product feed for Yandex Direct has been loaded and now you can attract visitors through dynamic ad impressions.
Uploading a feed to Yandex search
For an informative and attractive display of products and offers in Yandex search results, you need to transfer information to the system using a YML feed. A detailed augmented view will help the Yandex Product Search service to create an attractive offer for interested users.
People will be able to explore the presented categories directly in the search results, make comparisons, see the price, and sellers to get leads and increase sales. Offers based on uploaded feeds in Yandex are promoted in the top line of search results, in the «Pictures» and «Products» sections, as well as in the extended announcement of the site page from the search results.
The advantages of placing a feed in Yandex search are as follows:
- offers are placed above the search results in a convenient and noticeable format with useful information;
- uploading a feed to Yandex is available to businesses of any size;
- users do not need to go to other sites and search for the right product, since all offers are on the same search page.
Features of connecting a feed to Yandex Webmaster
Before uploading a data file, it is necessary to collect all information about the goods or services provided in the YML file format. It is important to take into account all the features when compiling a feed for Yandex Webmaster so that the system does its job correctly.
The next step to upload a feed to Yandex is to select the desired field of activity:
- goods — sale of electronics, household appliances, building materials, books, spare parts and more;
- online educational courses and lessons — announcements about educational courses or lessons that are conducted online;
- real estate — sale or rent of apartments, offices, houses and other buildings;
- vacancies — job offers;
- performers — announcements of performers of household and other services. For example, furniture transportation;
- vehicles — sale of cars, motorcycles and other vehicles;
- doctors — information about the services of doctors.
Uploading a feed to Yandex Webmaster
To place a file with information about the products of an online store, you need to add a site to Webmaster. On the «Products and offers» page, go to the «Data sources» category and click on the «Download feed» button.
After filling in the necessary information, namely: the category of business and the region in which the offer is valid, you need to add a link to a file like https://example.com/feed.yml. If the offers in the Yandex Webmaster feed are available at the same price in all regions, you can select Russia, and if the products have different prices in different regions, then you should select several values.
Yandex Webmaster will check the feed. If it contains errors, then an error message will appear in the service on the «Products and Offers» page and the «Data Sources» category. After correcting all inaccuracies, the service will check the file again.
When to optimize a feed for Yandex
If an advertising campaign based on feeds in Yandex fails, then you should think about adjusting the assortment data file. But you don’t need to make changes to all categories at once, it will be better if edits and adjustments are made pointwise. At the same time, it is necessary to carefully monitor their effectiveness before moving on to editing the rest of the data. It is also worth remembering to save the original feed for Yandex.
If you want to achieve effective website promotion in Yandex search using various SEO methods, then contact the experienced specialists of the Optima-Promo™ IT company. We will carry out comprehensive work on the site and help improve the result of the search results of your resource.