direct

Yandex Direct — PPC Audit & Management (API v5 / v501)

Authors: Nick Serebrov & Kobe 🐍 Version: 2.0.1 — актуально на октябрь 2026

Full-cycle Yandex Direct management: account audits, campaign CRUD, keyword management, reporting, optimization, and budget analysis.

Quick Reference

Command	What it does
/direct audit	Full account audit (all campaigns), scoring 0-100
/direct campaigns	List campaigns with type, strategy, weekly budget and stats
/direct create	Create a Unified Performance Campaign with groups, keywords, combinatorial ads
/direct keywords	Keywords and autotargeting (list, add, bids, categories, pause)
/direct report	Performance stats by priority Metrika goals (CTR, CPC, CPA, spend)
/direct optimize	Optimization recommendations (pause losers, adjust bids and limits)
/direct budget	Weekly budget spend analysis and forecasting
/direct negative	Negative keywords (campaign, group, shared sets) from search queries

What changed in Direct (know this before acting)

Date	Change	Consequence for the agent
2023-11 → 2024	Unified Performance Campaign (UNIFIED_CAMPAIGN, ЕПК) replaced text-image, dynamic and smart-banner campaigns	Read UnifiedCampaignFieldNames; search and YAN live in one campaign — split stats by AdNetworkType
2024-07-01	Manual bids in YAN disabled	Manual strategy (HIGHEST_POSITION) is search-only
2025-06, 2025-09	New strategies: AVERAGE_CPA_MULTIPLE_GOALS, PAY_FOR_CONVERSION_MULTIPLE_GOALS, MAX_PROFIT	See references/bidding-strategies.md
2025-11-13	bidmodifiers.toggle removed	Use set (100 = off) or delete
2026-03-20	Combinatorial ads (RESPONSIVE_AD): up to 7 titles, 3 texts, 5 images, 6 videos	Request ResponsiveAdFieldNames, otherwise the API returns them as TextAd with only the first title/text/image
2026-06-30 / 07-14	Text-image ads in ЕПК are edit-only; existing ones converted to combinatorial	ads.add with TextAd creates RESPONSIVE_AD; Title2 is merged into the title (≤ 56 chars) or lost
2026-06-22 / 07-06	Weekly budgets for manual-bid campaigns and shared account; up to 30% of unspent budget rolls over	Analyse WeeklySpendLimit, not a daily budget
2026-03-01	Russian language rules for consumer information	Flag foreign words without Russian equivalents in ads (references/compliance.md)

API Configuration

Credentials: ~/.secrets/yandex-direct.json (chmod 600)

{ "client_id": "...", "client_secret": "...", "oauth_token": "...", "client_login": "optional-for-agency" }

• Endpoint: https://api.direct.yandex.com/json/v5/<service>; Unified-campaign structures (UnifiedCampaign, UnifiedAdGroup, ShoppingAd, ListingAd) in add/update go to /json/v501/ — scripts/yd-api.sh routes them automatically.
• Auth: Authorization: Bearer {oauth_token}; agency or representative access: Client-Login: {client_login}.
• Sandbox: YD_SANDBOX=1. Env overrides: YD_TOKEN, YD_CLIENT_LOGIN, YD_API_VERSION, YD_SECRETS.
• Money in API requests and responses is in micro-units (× 1 000 000). Reports use rubles (returnMoneyInMicros: false).

API limits that break naive requests:

• adgroups.get, keywords.get, ads.get, bidmodifiers.get: CampaignIds ≤ 10 per request, AdGroupIds ≤ 1000.
• Every get returns ≤ 10 000 objects; continue with Page.Offset = LimitedBy.
• negativekeywordsharedsets.get: Ids ≤ 30; omit SelectionCriteria to get all sets. Same for sitelinks.get.
• ads.get: TextAdFieldNames has AdExtensions, not AdExtensionIds (that is a filter / an add field).
• Reports: Goals ≤ 10; AttributionModels only AUTO, LSCCD, FCCD, LC; ≤ 5 offline reports in queue.
• keywords.get: Productivity is always null; AutotargetingCategories is deprecated — use AutotargetingSettings (AutotargetingSettingsCategoriesFieldNames, AutotargetingSettingsBrandOptionsFieldNames).

Troubleshooting:

• Empty HTTP 204 to every request, even with a wrong token → the Direct API is turned off on Yandex's side (e.g. the special mode after the October 2026 data-center incident: only the web interface and the mobile app work, see https://yandex.ru/support/direct/ru/special-mode). Not a token, IP or script problem — wait, and meanwhile use the web interface for read-only checks.
• yd-audit.sh says «no campaigns found» → all campaigns may be archived; rerun with --include-archived (the script prints the archived count when it can).
• The campaigns grid labels strategies «Оптимизация кликов» / «Оптимизация конверсий»; the API type is in BiddingStrategyType (see references/bidding-strategies.md).

Safety rule for changes

Every write call (add, update, delete, suspend, resume, archive, moderate, bids, set) is made only after the user approved that exact change: show the request JSON (or a readable diff of what changes) and wait for an explicit yes. Audit, report and optimize are read-only.

Orchestration Logic

/direct audit

1. Run scripts/yd-audit.sh <dir> — collects all objects (chunked by 10 campaigns, paginated) and 4 reports for the last 30 days using the campaigns' priority goals (--goals to override).
2. Read <dir>/summary.json: errors, campaign and ad types, goals used.
3. Hand the directory to agents/audit-yandex.md (or run its steps): 55 checks from references/yandex-audit.md, scoring from references/scoring-system.md.
4. Report in Russian: grade (A–F), findings, Quick Wins, prioritized action plan.

/direct campaigns

1. campaigns.get: FieldNames Id, Name, Type, State, Status, StatusClarification, Statistics; UnifiedCampaignFieldNames and TextCampaignFieldNames: BiddingStrategy, PriorityGoals, CounterIds.
2. Table: type, state, search/network strategy, weekly limit (WeeklySpendLimit / 1 000 000), goals.
3. Spend and conversions — from scripts/yd-report.sh campaign --by-network --goals <priority goals>.

/direct create

1. Gather: name, geo, weekly budget, strategy and goal, landing URL, keywords, 3–7 titles, 2–3 texts, images.
2. adimages.add (base64, Type: AUTO) → image hashes; see references/image-specs.md.
3. campaigns.add with UnifiedCampaign (v501): BiddingStrategy.Search/Network, CounterIds, PriorityGoals, Settings (ADD_METRICA_TAG, ENABLE_SITE_MONITORING), TrackingParams with UTM.
4. adgroups.add with UnifiedAdGroup (v501): RegionIds, negatives.
5. keywords.add: phrases and/or ---autotargeting with AutotargetingSettings (categories, brand options).
6. sitelinks.add (up to 8 per set) and adextensions.add (CALLOUT).
7. ads.add with ResponsiveAd: Titles, Texts, Href, AdImageHashes, SitelinkSetId, AdExtensionIds, BusinessId if there is a Yandex Business profile. Do not use TextImageAd for this — it is an image-only banner.
8. ads.moderate — only after the user reviewed the drafts.

/direct keywords

1. keywords.get by AdGroupIds or ≤ 10 CampaignIds; include ServingStatus and autotargeting settings.
2. Operations: add, suspend, resume, delete, bids (keywordbids.set with manual strategy), autotargeting categories.
3. Performance — scripts/yd-report.sh criteria (Criterion, CriterionType), not the deprecated Productivity.

/direct report

1. scripts/yd-report.sh <preset>: account, campaign, adgroup, ad, criteria, search_query, placement, custom.
2. Always pass --goals with priority goals (from campaigns.get → PriorityGoals): without it conversions are summed over ALL Metrika goals, including micro-goals.
3. For Unified campaigns add --by-network to separate search and YAN.
4. Dates: --from/--to (default: 30 days ending yesterday) or --period LAST_7_DAYS. Offline reports are polled automatically (retryIn header).

/direct optimize

1. Reports for 30 days with goals: criteria, search_query, placement, campaign --by-network.
2. Find: conditions and queries with spend > 2× target CPA and no conversions; YAN placements to exclude; network vs search CPA gap inside one campaign; groups with RARELY_SERVED; rejected ad elements.
3. Compare with the account's own medians first, then references/benchmarks.md.
4. Recommendations sorted by impact; 3× Kill Rule: flag anything with CPA > 3× target.
5. Do not touch strategy, its spend-limit type or payment model during learning (references/bidding-strategies.md).

/direct budget

1. Weekly limits from BiddingStrategy.*.WeeklySpendLimit (or CustomPeriodBudget for flights).
2. Spend by day — yd-report.sh campaign --daily --from <Monday>; run rate and weekly forecast.
3. Flag: limit hit before the end of the week; spend < 70% of the limit; pay-per-conversion budget < 10 × CPA; weekly budget < 300 ₽. Unspent budget of CPC campaigns rolls over (up to 30%) since 06.07.2026.

/direct negative

1. Campaign and group negatives (NegativeKeywords) and shared sets (negativekeywordsharedsets.get, all sets).
2. yd-report.sh search_query --goals … → irrelevant queries with spend and no conversions.
3. Propose negatives (campaign level or shared set); apply via campaigns.update / negativekeywordsharedsets.update after approval.

Quality Gates

• Write operations only after explicit approval of the exact change.
• Conversion analysis only on priority goals; never on the all-goals sum.
• 3× Kill Rule: flag keywords/groups/placements with CPA > 3× target for pause.
• Strategy learning: goal ≥ 10 conversions a week; don't change strategy, spend-limit type or payment model in the first 2–3 weeks; a pause > 7 days restarts learning.
• Budget: weekly budget ≥ 300 ₽; pay-per-conversion ≥ 10 × CPA.
• Moderation: check Status/StatusClarification of ads and of each combinatorial element before optimizing.
• Tracking: ADD_METRICA_TAG on, UTM via TrackingParams (campaign or group) or in Href.

Reference Files

Load on-demand, NOT at startup:

• references/yandex-audit.md — 55 audit checks (YD01-YD55) with data sources
• references/scoring-system.md — Weighted scoring (0-100, grades A-F)
• references/benchmarks.md — How to compare metrics; rough Russian market references
• references/bidding-strategies.md — ЕПК strategies ↔ API, weekly budgets, learning, bid modifiers
• references/compliance.md — Yandex moderation rules, ad marking, Russian language rules
• references/image-specs.md — Images and video for combinatorial ads

Scripts

• scripts/yd-api.sh — Generic API call wrapper (v5/v501 routing, Client-Login, item-level error detection)
• scripts/yd-report.sh — Reports wrapper (presets, goals, attribution, offline polling)
• scripts/yd-audit.sh — Automated audit data collection (all objects + 4 reports)

Requirements: bash, curl, jq.

Subagents

• agents/audit-yandex.md — Audit subagent for parallel campaign analysis