Yesterday (2013.07.25) Yandex released their Second Quarter 2013 Financial Results. The overall company revenue increased by 35% comparing to the same period of 2012.
The revenues from contextual advertising on Yandex own properties grew by 37% comparing to the same period of last year.
According to the company press-release, the increase can be, to a large extend, explained by changes in Yandex.Direct layout. In April 2013 Yandex moved ad blocks from the right side of the organic search results to the bottom of the page, which resulted into 2.5 higher CTR on the ads below 3rd position.
The revenues from Yandex Ad Network, their analog of Google’s AdSense, have increased by 25%. The ads on Yandex Ad Network also got a facelift earlier this year, when new image ad format was launched.
Apart from changes in ad layout, in Q2 Yandex also reduced commissions for agencies reselling Yandex.Direct [in Russian], which, presumably, also had a positive effect on company’s earnings.