Creating catalog pages

You can add only one active ad for catalog pages to a group. You can set up ads for catalog pages based on:

• Site: For products only.

• Feed: For products (YML feed) and the “Auto” and “Real estate” categories (XML feed).

• CSV file: For all categories allowed for advertising in Yandex Direct.

1. Specify the source for creating ads:

   Catalog pages found on the site

   Feed uploaded via a link or from desktop

   The Yandex robot crawls catalog pages on the site. In order for the robot to accurately identify the catalog pages, they must be marked up in special structured data format.

   Ads for catalog pages found on the site can only be generated for products.

   • CSV file

     You can use a CSV file to generate ads for catalog pages in any category that can be advertised in Yandex Direct. You can only upload one file per group.

     File requirements

     • CSV format with UTF-8 encoding.

     • Use commas “,” or semicolons “;” as the separator. If you choose to use commas as the separator, check if any field contains commas in its text. If it does, the entire text of that field must be enclosed in quotes. For example: "Dairy, plant-based drinks".

     • The file header must include the full list of columns: Url, Title, Description, Offer minimal price, Currency, Image url 1, Image url 2, Image url 3, Image url 4, Image url 5.

       Name and description of fields

       Name	Description
       URL	Link to the catalog page. Each link must be unique. Required field.
       Title	Catalog name. Up to 56 characters including spaces and punctuation. Required field.
       Description	Description. Up to 81 characters including spaces, and up to 15 punctuation marks. Recommended field.
       Offer minimal price	Minimum product price in the category. Integer without separators. If the number is a fraction, round it to a whole number. For example: 150000.
       Currency	The currency that the product price is indicated in. Letter code, for example, RUB, USD, EUR. Required if "Offer minimal price" is filled in.
       Image url 1, Image url 2, Image url 3, Image url 4, Image url 5	Links to images on the site. These must be direct links to an image, rather than links to a page where the image can be downloaded. For example, you can't use links to Yandex Disk. Recommended field.

     • The maximum number of rows is 1000.

     How to create a CSV file

     Enter your data in any spreadsheet editor, like Excel or Numbers. Save the file in the CSV format with comma delimiters.

     In Excel (Windows)

     1. In the top menu, select File → Save as.

     2. Name the file using the File name field.

     3. Under Save as type, select “CSV (Comma delimited) (*.csv)”

     4. Click Save.

     In Numbers (iOS)

     1. In the top menu, select File → Export to → CSV....

     2. In the Export Your Spreadsheet window, go to the CSV tab and open the Advanced Options.

     3. In the Text Encoding field, select “Unicode (UTF-8)”.

     4. Click Next...

     Possible errors when uploading a file

     • Invalid encoding: Make sure that your file has UTF-8 encoding.
     • File can't be empty: Make sure that your file contains rows with catalogs.
     • List can't include more than 1000 rows: Make sure that your file contains less than 1000 rows.
     • Field can't be empty: Make sure that all required fields are filled in.
     • Title can only include characters supported in banners: Make sure that the file doesn't contain invalid characters.
     • Word length can’t exceed: Make sure that there are no words longer than 56 characters in the file header and 81 characters in the file body.
     • Loose comma: Make sure that all commas and quotes adhere to the CSV schema.
     • Enter different values: Make sure that all links in the URL field are unique.

     Download sample file

   • YML or XML feed

     To transmit data about catalog pages, upload your feed in YML format (for products) or in XML format (for vehicles and real estate).

     Use a feed with a special <collections> tag to pass information about catalogs: collection id, link, image, title, and description. More about catalogs of products, vehicles, and real estate.

   1C-Bitrix users can quickly generate a feed with catalog pages by following the instructions.

   If you work with the InSales platform and have set up automatic feed updates, catalog info will be automatically added to it, with no additional actions required on your part. You can also create a feed with catalogs using a custom export to Yandex Market by following the instructions.

2. In the Filter section, select which catalogs you want to advertise. If you are transmitting data about catalog pages using a YML feed, you can filter ads by link to catalog page (url), offer name (name), and catalog (collection id). For CSV files, you can set up filters by title and URL. For pages found on a site, filters by name (in the site microdata) and by URL are available.

   Filtering conditions are joined using the “AND” operator, so only those catalogs that match all the conditions will generate impressions.

3. For ads from a YML or XML feed, set up titles and texts in the Texts section:

   • When creating ads, you can use titles and texts that Yandex Direct will automatically generate from the elements within the <collections> feed, rephrasing them as necessary. As part of manual setup, the title is taken from the <name> element, and the text is taken from the <description> element.
   • Set the default text. It'll be used in ads if it's possible to generate text automatically or compose it from feed fields.

If needed, you can replace the feed when creating or editing an ad. To do this, select the desired feed from the sources or upload a new one. Yandex Direct will try to reuse filters that were previously set up in the ad. If the information about categories and products in the feed has changed, check and adjust the filter. If there are no elements in the feed that match the filter, it will be reset.

As an advertising data operator, Yandex assigns each creative a unique identifier referred to as "token" when creating campaigns. It uses this token to aggregate all your placement data and send it to the Unified Register of Online Advertising (ERIR). Learn more about ad labeling.

Ad moderation and launching a campaign

After you create an ad, it is reviewed by a moderator to make sure it meets our requirements. Click Send to moderation and confirm that you accept Yandex terms for placing your ads. Moderators usually review an ad within a few hours. On weekends and holidays, moderation may take longer than on weekdays.

Your moderation results will be emailed to the address you provided when you created the ad campaign.

Once your ads are checked, you will receive a notification at the email address you provided when you created the ad campaign; the campaign status in the list will change to “accepted by moderator”.

Your ads will begin displaying as soon as Yandex receives your payment.

Try it out

Questions and answers

I can't create ads for catalog pages

I can't create ads from a feed (via a link or uploaded from a computer)

• Ads for catalog pages may not generate if the feed requirements or the CSV file requirements aren't met.

• If you used separate catalogs selected using filters, check the filter conditions, making sure that:

  • Catalog matches the catalog ID in the feed (collection id).
  • Catalog name matches the one in the feed (name).
  • Catalog link matches the catalog links in the feed (url).

I can't create ads for catalog pages found on my site

Make sure that the conditions are met:

• Your site meets the requirements.

• Your site has catalogs that match the filter conditions:

  • Catalog name matches the name of the catalog page on the site.
  • Catalog link matches the catalog links on the site.

Questions?