Yandex. Direct. Props or how to help a stupid competitor to drain the budget

So again imagine the situation.
We produce any product (this time - nuclear warheads :)) and sell it with the help of Yandex.Direct. Our advertising campaign has been working for a long time and successfully, the CTR has settled down at a high mark, the cost per click is low, orders for our warheads pour in from Direct, money flows like water, the grass is green and the sun is shining.
And then one day you receive a letter from the robot Direct that someone ousted you from their familiar positions. This is our old rival rival, the company "Bobruisk warheads" saw how well we are doing, decides to win back part of the market. This proud mission was entrusted to the secretary Luce, since "she knows how to receive mail and generally fumbles in all these computers."


The secretary Lucy spending half an hour reading the Help. Direct makes up a bad ad, hangs a long wrapper on it from the keywords (operators and negative words were at the end of the help and Lucy doesn't know anything about them). Then, realizing that Direct is an auction (and in the auction, as you know, the one who paid the most - he got the coveted lot), especially without bothering to understand the details, he sets the maximum bid of $ 50

And this is what we see when we log into our account:

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Just yesterday, we felt great on the first special placement, getting targeted traffic at 3.06 US dollars for the head. And today we are forced to switch to the second or third special placement and, moreover, to pay for these positions more than before, since Lucy's bid has led to the heating of the auction.

How can you quickly turn off Lucy with her wonderful wrestling company?

For a start, let me remind you that in Yandex.Direct there is the Autobroker function, which is enabled by default in all campaigns (you can also turn it off, it’s not at all clear for whom this feature can be useful)

Extract from Yandex.Direct help
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Consider a simplified situation, for example, we have 2 bidders. The rate of the first 10 US dollars (located on the first special placement), the second 8 US dollars (located on the second special placement). Entrance to the special - 6 cu. When the autobroker is enabled, the first advertiser with a click deducts 8.01 US dollars instead of 10. And the second 6.01 US dollars instead of 8.

Thus, we can well use this in order to quickly ruin a competitor.

We do like this. On contextual slang, this is called "backup"



What does this lead to? The difference in positions between us and the guys from Bobruisk is minimal. The amount of target traffic received differs slightly or not at all. But a competitor pays $ 50 per head, while we get traffic at 4 cu. The budget of the "Bobruisk warheads" quickly cries out, Lucy writes an angry message on the forums about the fact that Direct is a scam, the management decides not to contact Direct any more and continue to advertise in the Goods and Prices directory. The auction quickly cools and everything returns to normal. . All the same orders, all the same pleasing grass and sun

Conclusion 1. Exposing super-large bets in the desire of everyone to win is impossible. Smart competitors will boost instantly.

Conclusion 2. posting a backup for a competitor's ad - you need to follow, follow and follow this ad. You get lost - and they can already support you, simply by changing the rate from $ 50 to $ 49.98. You can of course re-support a competitor (putting 49.97 cu), but not worth it. The risks of catching a couple of super-expensive clicks are too great. If the prop is opened it is better to lower, wait, put down the vigilance of the enemy and in a couple of days - strike again, if by that moment the enemy is still alive (and in the case of Lucy it is very unlikely). This game is dangerous, but very exciting.

Good luck to you!

Ps. All the above information is relevant only when the “Highest available position” strategies are included in both advertisers. In the case with the “Minimum cost block display” strategy enabled, there is no benefit from backups.

Pss. The whole situation is simplified, we do not take into account the accumulated CTR and its impact on the cost of a click with us and with Lucy. The operating principles of the backups do not change, just the exact click price for Lucy and her CTR in a real situation, we will never know.