The second market we visit (following the first part) is Russia. Another market where Google is trying hard to gain more market share but so far it has been unsuccessful (Google has about 21.9% of search engine generated traffic). The main search engine in Russia is Yandex www.yandex.com . Yandex recently launched a new version with the option to search in English, German, French and other European languages.According to research studies conducted by TNS, FOM, and Comcon, Yandex is the largest resource and largest search engine in the Russian Internet market, based on audience size. Yandex currently has over 64% market share in search and has over 10 billion web pages indexed. Recently opened their first offices in US and they have plans to expand to the US and other European markets in the coming years.Yandex Numbers

• In Russia: the leading portal according to independent research;
• For Russian-speaking audience: 57 % (world), 86% across Russia, 92% across Moscow
• In Europe: №3 in TOP-10 European Search Engines
• Yandex growing at the fastest rate among the top ten – 94% per year

Yandex use their own alogirthm which according to some analysts is more robust due to the complexity of the Russian language. They do offer PPC ads on a CPC model, the interface is available in English and simple to use. So far we have found that with the right optimisation some good results could come out from Yandex.PPC Ads In more detailAds placed via Yandex.Direct can be found on the right side of the Yandex Search Results Page (up to 9 ads can appear simultaneously and 1-2 above Search Results).The text consists of a header (up to 33 characters in length including spaces) and the description (up to 75 characters in length including spaces). The header contains a hyperlink to the advertised site.If there are more ads than ad space for the same keyword by different clients, only the 'best' 11 ads will appear when the user types in a matching keyword as part of his/her search request. You have an option to advertise in the premium position above search results or run your advertisement in the guaranteed 1st (top) position on the right or guaranteed positions below that. The lowest right position with no guaranteed placement appears in rotation with other advertisers. Usually, the higher positions cost more per click.The ads from different clients with the same keywords are in an auction, thus the ad with the best bid (the price paid for each click) has a better chance to be displayed. The ad's CTR (click-through-ratio, the average possibility for a user to click on a particular ad) is also counted when selecting the 'best' ads to be displayed.