Google Adwords or Yandex Direct

Google or Yandex?

Google Adwords vs Yandex Direct for student recruitment

When recruiting students from Russia and CIS for degree programs, conventional instruments may not always work as efficiently as in Europe or in the United States. The main reason for that are some specific preferences of Russian users: the most famous ones are vk.com, the biggest social network in Russia, which is more popular than Facebook, and Yandex, the leading Russian search engine, which competes with Google. In order to create an efficient recruitment campaign itis necessary to use these resources andutilize in the best possible way. We have already discussed the difference between Vk.com and Facebook and we shall now approach the difference between two biggest contextual advertising systems – Google Adwords and Yandex Direct.

First and foremost, it should be noted that in order to make your recruitment campaign as efficient as possible, you have to use both services for two reasons. Firstly, any additional client from any of these services is usually more and more costly, since the total amount of potential clients is limited. Secondly, you wouldn’t be able to reach everyone, who is interested in your services using just one of them. However, there are some substantial differences between two services and you may prefer one to another.

Demographics

Yandex and Google have almost equal number of monthly users, but Google’s share of market is growing.  However, Google is far more popular among mobile users, while those who use laptops prefer Yandex. If you have a mobile version of your site or for some reasons are interested in mobile users Google is the most optimal choice. An interesting fact is that Google is more popular among teenagers – those between 12 and 17 old. If you’re trying to attract students for your Bachelor’s programs it may be  important..

Advertising networks

Both Yandex and Google allow you to post your ads on search engine pages and on external websites (which are usually cheaper). Yandex Direct has more requirements for these sites and provides more control over the quality of traffic from these sites. In contrast, Google’s external websites are more numerous and, as a result, have lower quality. You have to spend more time in order to guarantee that the traffic you get would be useful for your recruitment campaign. If you plan to post your ads on external websites, Yandex Direct may be a better choice for you.

Ads on search pages

In general, Google Adwords is cheaper than Yandex Direct. There are several reasons for that. Firstly, Adwords’ interface if more difficult for users, and many of them just prefer to use Yandex’s service. Its interface is more intuitive and simple, but more experienced advertisers may prefer Google Adwords, since it has more tools for mass editing, optimization and flexible configuration. Secondly, many of them use Yandex Direct by inertia – several years ago this search engine was dominant on the Russian market. As a result, the competition on Google Adwords is not so fierce.

Conclusion

As a result, if your recruitment campaign is large enough it is more efficient to use both Google Adwords and Yandex Direct – working in tandem, it will probably be the cheapest way to reach your audience. However, if your campaign is small, you may choose just of these two services. Yandex Direct interface is easier to use for those who have no previous experience in advertising, but Google’s system is more powerful and flexible. If your budget is limited, Google Adwords may be an optimal choice, since itis slightly cheaper comparing to Yandex. Finally, if your audience is young, you may prefer to use only Google, which is more popular among teenagers.

02/28/17