A million books — one search approach. How Yakaboo took control of search and outperformed the competition

Сергій Чердінцев — Head of PPC Department в Inweb Олена Сергєєва — PPC Team Lead в Inweb Костянтин Скобелєв — PPC Client Project Manager Team Lead в Inweb Віталій Панченко — PPC Client Project Manager в Inweb Олексій Бялош — Head of Digital в Yakaboo Тетяна Горобець — PPC Team Lead в Yakaboo

The national book platform Yakaboo is the largest online bookstore in Ukraine. Yakaboo's mission is to make Ukraine the most read country in Europe. After all, a nation that reads even in times of war is invincible. In the face of strong demand for paper books and increasing competition, we were faced with the challenge of increasing the share of search advertising revenue. Maintaining the target level of advertising spend at 20%, while reducing our dependence on Performance Max. The use of PMax limited the control over impressions, and due to the potential risks of blocking the Merchant Center, there was a threat of a complete advertising shutdown. The main challenge was the scale of the assortment (over 1 million books). In such cases, many advertisers use dynamic search campaigns (DSA) or Performance Max, which provide wide coverage but do not allow detailed management of bids and ad content. However, we have seen the potential for maintaining the effectiveness of search campaigns, which can still produce excellent results in the book industry. ✅ What we have done. • Increased the share of impressions in auctions — we analyzed the competitive environment in detail and optimized bids to take the top positions in search results for key queries. • Covered all search traffic for top books — thanks to Search Ads 360, we automated the collection of semantics for popular books, authors, and genres, which allowed us to collect the most relevant queries. • Increased the number of impressions by publishers — we created special campaigns for key publishers that led users to the relevant landing pages. • We were the first in impressions for new releases — thanks to dynamic search campaigns (DSA), we ensured automatic ad updates, instantly picking up new book releases and pre-orders. The campaign for Yakaboo was unique due to the combination of personalization, automation, and relevance at every stage of search advertising. We created customized ads for each popular book, publisher, and new release instead of using standard template approaches. This ensured the effect of a book consultant that helps the user find exactly what they are looking for. Automation played a key role in scaling the campaign: Search Ads 360 generated accurate semantics and personalized ads for over 1 million books, and Dynamic Search Campaigns (DSA) adapted to changes in the catalog. Scripts automatically monitored product availability to ensure that ads were always relevant. ✅ Key results of the campaign. The campaign exceeded expectations, achieving its main goals. The share of search advertising revenue grew by 25.7%, which demonstrates the effectiveness of bid optimization and improved relevance of ads. At the same time, the share of advertising expenses amounted to 19.53%, remaining within the planned level (20%), which ensured efficient use of the advertising budget. Also, the share of impressions received in auctions increased by 28%, which confirmed the improvement of advertising positions and its visibility in search. By minimizing the dependence on Performance Max, we retained full control over campaigns, which allowed us to avoid the risks of blocking in the Merchant Center and flexibly manage the budget. This case study proves that search advertising can be not just a sales tool, but a means of popularizing reading in Ukraine.