Do you know that in Russia unlike in the rest of the world, the global leader Facebook is not the most popular social network? Yes, it’s true! Russia is a unique case as over 50% of the network traffic are generated by Russian social networks and not by the American Facebook.
Recent statistics shows that the Russian vKontakte (vK.com) has remained the most widely used social network among the Russian Internet users within the past six months, with a steady share of the network traffic of over 40%. This is 10-15% higher than the traffic from Facebook. Another Russian social network Odnoklassniki (OK.ru) is also quite popular: It overruns such giants as Twitter and YouTube owning some 12 % of the traffic.
Mail.Ru Group and myTarget
Both vK.com and OK.ru alongside the third Russian social network Moi Mir (my.mail.ru) belong to Mail.ru Group, the country’s biggest provider of entertainment and communications services on the Internet. In 2015, it launched its own advertising platform myTarget, which offers targeted advertising on all the three social networks and in the Mai.ru mailbox. Its outreach equals to nearly 140 mln people in Russia and CIS. Thus, if you are planning to expand your business to Russia or if your company or brand is already present in the country, that could be a good idea to advertise on Russian social networks.
Main advertising Formats in myTarget
Starting an ad campaign, you will however face a dilemma: the choice of an advertising format. Some of them are available for both desktop and mobile resolutions, others are possible in either of them. In this blog post, we are going to familiarize you with the most popular advertising formats available on both OK.ru and vK.com, so that you could choose the right one(s) for you.
Desktop formats
Let us begin with the formats available for the desktop resolution only.
- Teaser
This format consists of three elements: the title, the text description and the image. The title may contain up to 25 symbols and the text description up to 90 symbols, including spaces. The image should have the size of minimum 90×75 pixels, weighting not more than 60 KB. Only JPG or PNG file formats are allowed. The teaser format allows URL links either to external websites or to a community, event or a video channel on the social networks Ok.ru and Moi Mir.
- Source: target.my.com
- Banner
The banner format doesn’t contain a description text or a title. It only consists of a single image of 240×400 pixels; the maximum file size is 60 KB. In this format, you are free to choose between the JPG or PNG file formats for static banners and the SWF for flash banners. You can also use a GIF file format if you like instead of the JPG or PNG. As well as the teaser, the banner format requires a URL to an external website or to a community, event or a video channel on OK.ru or Moi Mir. There is also an option for a 240×400 HTML5 banner in myTarget.
- Banner in a Video
Your banner will be shown in videos on vK.com only. The allowed formats are JPG and PNG, the banner size is 1000×120 pixels with the maximum weight of 15 GB.
- Multiformat Placement
This ad type is displayed in the newsfeeds of the social networks. It contains a title of up to 25 symbols and a text field of max. 90 symbols, including spaces in both cases. There are three images that should be uploaded by the advertiser as each time the system choses one of them automatically depending on the available ad space on a social media platform. All three images should be either in the JPG or PNG formats:
– a small image: size at least 256х256 pixels;
– a large image: size at least 1080х607 pixels;
– a medium image: size at least 1080х607 pixels.
Besides, there is a customizable call-to-action button, unavailable in other formats. The advertiser is free to choose a suitable option for the button text such as “buy”, “visit website”, “play” etc.
Mobile Format
The most popular advertising format available on mobile devices only a so-called native mobile ad format displaying your advert in mobile newsfeeds of all the three social networks. The ad consists of a 25-symbol-long title and a 90-symbol-long description text two images: a small one of 256х256 and a big one of 1080х607 pixels in a JPG or a PNG format. The link can lead either to a mobile website or to a mobile app.
Cross-Device Formats
Now let’s have a look at the most popular cross-device formats which are available for desktop as well as for mobile campaigns.
- Video pre-roll ad
This is a short video ad in the MP4 format with the resolution of 640×360, 1280×720 or 1920×1080 pixels. Its duration may not exceed 30 seconds and the size 10 Mb. With this format, one can advertise an external website (for a desktop or a mobile resolution) as well as a mobile app.
- Carousel
The carousel format allows you to place 3 to 6 slides, 600×600 pixels each. If you create a carousel to advertise a website, your ad will be displayed on the social network OK.ru in both the desktop and the mobile version and as an in-app advert on vK.com on mobile devices only. However, if you advertise an app instead of a website, only a mobile carousel for vK.com and OK.ru is available and your ad will not be displayed on desktops.
As you can see, there are quite a few possibilities of advertising your business on Russian social networks. Don’t be afraid to try them all and decide which formats work best for you. Should you need any help, contact us! ONMARUS is an experienced digital marketing agency with the HQ in Hamburg, Germany. Since 2009, we’ve been managing successful display advertising campaigns on the Russian Internet for big and middle-sized European companies. We are open for your questions on the phone or by email and we are always at your disposal if you need professional advice: https://www.online-marketing-russland.de/en/contact_us/
Online Marketing in Russia 