After blocking the automatic optimization of advertising campaigns on Wildberries, including the removal of ineffective keywords, sellers record a systemic drop in key performance indicators. We are not talking about isolated failures, but about a massive decrease in conversions, CTR and traffic quality in various product niches.
An illustrative example was the "tablecloth" category, where, when comparing two consecutive weeks, negative changes were recorded in several metrics at once. The basket conversion decreased from 8.99% to 8.44%, and the order conversion decreased from 22.34% to 20.9%. At the same time, CTR decreased, which is a direct indicator of an increase in the proportion of irrelevant impressions and a deterioration in the quality of advertising traffic.
The reason is that after disabling the function of deleting ineffective keys, advertising campaigns began to accumulate low-quality requests. These keys continue to participate in the auction, consume the budget and dilute the funnel, reducing the final margin. In conditions of high competition on Wildberries, this is especially sensitive, since even a slight drop in conversion dramatically worsens the economics of the product.
Experts recommend switching from the tactics of "cleaning" campaigns to the mode of constant manual bid management. Instead of removing ineffective keywords, it is suggested to lower the bids for them to the minimum acceptable level. This way, the key remains in the campaign, but it has virtually no effect on budget allocation. At the same time, it is necessary to increase the rates for the most productive clusters by 10-15% in order to intercept high-quality traffic and restore the focus of advertising spending.
An additional tool is the strict limitation of the hours of impressions. Practice shows that low-quality keywords are most often activated at night, when the audience conversion rate is minimal. Transferring impressions during peak hours — for example, from 16:00 to 21:00 — can result in a 1-2% increase in conversion. To do this, it is necessary to analyze the heat maps of orders and adjust the schedule to the actual behavior of customers.
CTR in the current conditions is becoming the main indicator for daily monitoring. Its decrease is the first signal of campaign clutter or loss of relevant keys. Ignoring this indicator leads to the fact that the drop in conversion is recorded after the fact, when the budget is partially lost.
Special attention needs to be paid to the DRR analysis of glues and associated conversions. Within the marketplace, traffic is often redistributed between the cards of one seller, and formally unprofitable advertising can make a profit through other positions. Associated conversions are often underestimated, which distorts the real picture of campaign effectiveness.
In conditions where conversions, the planned funnel and the unit economy are changing, sellers have to regularly recalculate margins and decide on the expediency of further product promotion. The lifecycle of products on marketplaces continues to shorten, and those who adapt more quickly to manual bid management and daily performance monitoring benefit.
