March 2022: Current Advertising Opportunities in Russia

Currently it is no longer possible to promote your services on the Russian market using the familiar platforms: Google Ads, Facebook, Instagram. If you are concerned about this issue, in this article we will describe other popular promotion methods and platforms.

First of all, the largest search engine in Russia is Yandex and it has its own advertising platform Yandex Direct. Yandex provides a wide range of services most of which are used almost daily by the Russian population so it’s visibility is exceptionally high. Working with Yandex advertising services has it’s differences from the Google Ads platform and it requires high-quality local expertise though. However, the current circumstances leave it as the most obvious and accessible source of paid traffic for your business.

When it comes to social media marketing, the largest social network we have at our disposal is VK (Vkontakte). It’s remarkable audience coverage (about 50% of the Russian internet users visit it daily, about 80% - at least monthly) is rapidly growing as other social media platforms are leaving the Russian digital space. However, its advertising platform is quite different from the Facebook or Instagram ones, for example. Not to waste your budget trying to figure out how the platform works, you’ll need to find an advertising specialist, well versed in the works of the VK.com’s advertising.

Last but not least of our mentioned options, Telegram has long been a very popular social network in Russia. This platform has a large presence of business accounts and many influencers of different scale making it a great source for native advertising. Telegram also has its own advertising platform that they recently launched. Currently it is not as accessible as the previously mentioned ones, but it still makes sense to pay some attention to it since Telegram has a huge and engaged Russian audience, being both the second most popular messenger in Russia after Whatsapp and a social platform where audiences and businesses connect.

Sure, those platforms can seem intimidating since they are unfamiliar, but they are the main sources for paid traffic in Russia right now, and these platforms’ audience are definitely worth the effort.

If you would like to advertise in Russia but feel unsure how to start working on these platforms, contact us. We offer a wide range of digital marketing services and can help you choose the right platforms, analyze your target audience, develop and run a digital advertising campaign.

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