To use myTarget ads, you create an advertiser account, install tracking (the Top@Mail.Ru counter for websites or an SDK or MMP for apps), build audiences, choose a campaign objective and format, set a budget and bid, and pass moderation. myTarget is VK’s ad platform, serving VK, Odnoklassniki, Mail.ru and partner apps; VK has moved much advertising into VK Ads, so check your interface first.
What is myTarget and who should use it?
myTarget reaches audiences mainly in Russian-speaking markets. It serves ads in social feeds, on portal pages, in mobile apps through its ad network, and in video placements. For advertisers selling to users in Russia and parts of the CIS, it has been one of the main paid social options next to VK’s own ad tools.
It fits app developers, ecommerce shops and service businesses that already have Russian-language landing pages and support. If your site, checkout and customer service are not ready for these users, the cost of clicks will be wasted regardless of targeting quality.
Before starting, also check legal requirements in your own country and the target market. Payment rules, sanctions and advertising labelling laws can affect whether and how you can run campaigns, and the rules have changed several times.
Step 1: Create and verify the account
Register an advertiser account and choose between an individual advertiser profile and an agency account. Agency accounts let you manage several clients under one login. Fill in legal details carefully, because Russian advertising law requires ad labelling with advertiser information, and incorrect details can block campaigns at moderation.
Top up the balance. myTarget and VK Ads work on a prepaid balance in roubles, and the available payment methods depend on the advertiser’s country. Keep a margin above your planned daily spend so campaigns do not stop when the balance runs low over a weekend.
Step 2: Install tracking before launching anything
For websites, install the Top@Mail.Ru counter, which acts as the pixel. Then set goals in the counter: page visits for thank-you pages, button clicks or JavaScript events for form submissions and purchases. Link the counter to your ad account so campaigns can optimise for those goals.
For apps, integrate with a mobile measurement partner such as AppsFlyer or Adjust, which list myTarget as an integrated partner, or use the platform’s own SDK where required. Confirm that installs and in-app events appear in both dashboards before spending.
- Install the counter on every page, ideally through a tag manager
- Create at least one conversion goal that reflects real business value
- Add UTM parameters to destination URLs for your own analytics
- Test a conversion yourself and check it appears in the counter within a few hours
Step 3: Which audiences can you build?
Targeting options cover demographics, geography down to city or radius, interests, and custom audiences. Custom audiences include customer lists uploaded as hashed email or phone numbers, website visitors collected by the counter, app users from your MMP, and lookalike audiences built from any of these.
Start with two or three audiences rather than ten. A common opening structure is one broad audience defined only by age and geography, one interest-based audience, and one retargeting audience from site visitors in the last 30 days. Keep each audience in its own ad group so results are readable.
Lookalikes
Lookalikes need a seed audience of reasonable size. Upload your best customers, not everyone who ever signed up, so the model learns from people who actually buy. Test a narrow similarity setting first, then widen it if volume is too low.
Step 4: Choose an objective and format
The objective tells the system what to optimise for: traffic, conversions on the site, app installs, video views or reach. Choose the objective that matches the action you want, not the cheapest one. A traffic objective will bring clicks from people who rarely convert.
Formats include multi-format ads that adapt to placements, carousels, video and banner units. Multi-format ads are a sensible default because one set of assets can run across many placements. Prepare square and horizontal images, short text in Russian written by a native speaker, and a clear call to action.
- Image: square and 16:9 versions, minimal text on the image itself
- Video: short cuts, with the main message in the first seconds
- Headline and text: native Russian copy, not machine translation alone
- Landing page: same language and offer as the ad
Step 5: How should you set bids and budgets?
You can choose automatic bidding, where the system aims for the lowest cost per result, or set a maximum price per click, per thousand impressions or per conversion. Automatic bidding works well when tracking is reliable. Manual caps help when you need tight control over cost in a small test.
As an illustrative example, a small online retailer might begin with a daily budget equal to 15 to 20 times its target cost per order in one ad group, so the system has room to find conversions. If the target cost per order is 300 roubles, that suggests a starting daily budget of roughly 4,500 to 6,000 roubles. Adjust after the first week of real data.
Step 6: Get through moderation
All ads go through moderation. Common reasons for rejection are claims that cannot be supported, missing advertiser labelling, landing pages that do not match the ad, restricted categories such as finance or health without required documents, and poor grammar. Submit ads a day or two before you need them live.
If an ad is rejected, the reason is shown in the interface. Fix exactly that point and resubmit. Repeated rejections for the same reason can slow down future moderation.
What should you check in the first two weeks?
Look at cost per conversion by ad group, frequency, click-through rate and the placements that delivered. Pause ad groups that spend without conversions after a reasonable number of clicks, and move budget to those with the best cost per result. Refresh creative when click-through rate drops while frequency rises.
Compare platform conversions with your own analytics. Large gaps point to tracking problems that should be fixed before any scaling.
Keep a launch log
Record every setting at launch: audiences, bids, budget, creative versions and the date. When results change later, the log lets you link the change to a cause instead of guessing.
Where to start this week
Confirm which interface your account runs in, myTarget or VK Ads, and check the legal and payment requirements for your business. Then install the counter, create one conversion goal and test it with a real form submission. Only after the goal records correctly should you build the first three audiences and launch a single campaign with a modest daily budget.
Keep reading: Mytarget Ads · Social Media Marketing