SEO and ad account setup for a product launch

For a new product to be found, the site must be ready for search before launch: a separate URL for each language, a sitemap, Schema.org markup and fast loading. Ads go live once goals and conversions are set up, so you can see which campaigns bring requests and installs. Budgets should start with a test and grow only for the campaigns that pass it.

SEO starts in the site architecture

Most technical SEO cannot be bolted on at the end: it is built in together with the site structure. Done from the start, search engines see the pages correctly from day one.

• A separate URL for every language and hreflang links between versions.
• Schema.org markup — organization, service, FAQ, breadcrumbs — generated from the visible page text, with no mismatches.
• A sitemap, robots.txt and canonical URLs so duplicates do not compete.
• Fast loading and a mobile-friendly layout.
• Keeping pages that are not ready out of the index.

More about websites and product pages in “Company and product websites”.

Indexing: getting into search faster

After launch the site is verified in Google Search Console and Yandex Webmaster and the sitemap is submitted. The IndexNow protocol notifies Yandex and Bing about new and changed pages right after a release, without waiting for a crawl.

Then the copy matters: a page should answer the query people arrive with — what it is, who it is for, what it costs and how to start. Guides and FAQ answers cover related queries and link pages together.

Analytics and goals before ads

Without goals, advertising is spending without feedback. Before the first campaign, events are set up on the site and in the app: request, sign-up, download, payment. Counters load only after the visitor consents to cookies, in line with the laws of the audience’s country.

Once events are passed to ad accounts as conversions, the platforms learn which impressions lead to results, and you see the cost per request, not just the cost per click.

Ad accounts: Google Ads, Yandex Direct, VK Ads

For each platform we set up the account for the product and audience: search campaigns on target queries, video and display formats, geography and languages, negative keywords and placement exclusions.

• Keywords come from real query statistics, not guesses.
• The ad and the page say the same thing: the promise in the ad matches the first screen.
• Copy and videos follow platform policies: wording that moderation may read differently is better replaced in advance.
• Links lead to product pages, not a generic home page.

This is how we launch ads for our own products — Wallet, Legal and the Content Factory.

Test budget and scaling

New campaigns start with a small share of the target budget. Within a few days you can see which ad groups and ads bring requests at an acceptable price: their budget is raised step by step, the rest are fixed or paused. Automated conversion-based bidding is switched on once there are enough conversions per week — before that the system has nothing to learn from.

Regular reviews — search terms, placements, frequency and cost per request — cut wasted spend before it shows up in the report.

Keyword research: which queries to collect

Keyword research produces the list of queries people should use to find the product in search and in ads. It is built from platform statistics — Google Keyword Planner and Yandex Wordstat — and after launch it is extended from reports on real search queries.

• Commercial queries: the person is already looking for a solution — order, price, development, the name of the product category.
• Informational queries: the person is learning about the topic — how to choose, what is, how long does it take. Guides and answers are written for them.
• Brand queries: the product and company name, including common misspellings. They are worth covering in both search and ads.
• Comparisons and alternatives: alternative to, versus, instead of. They should be answered honestly, without attacking others.

Queries are grouped by meaning: one group means one page on the site and one ad group. Then the query, the ad and the page talk about the same thing, platforms rate the ad quality higher and the cost per click goes down.

Content: service pages, guides and answers

A site with only a home page answers just a small share of queries. That is why the content structure is built from the keyword research.

• Service and product pages answer commercial queries: what is included, who it is for, how to start. An example is the web app development page.
• Guides cover informational queries and lead toward a decision, for example the guide on software development cost.
• Answers to frequent questions give short, precise wording that search engines and AI assistants can show right in the results.
• Internal links connect the pages: a guide leads to a service, and a service leads to related guides.

Each language version is written for its own audience rather than translated word for word: people phrase queries differently in English, Chinese and Arabic. Schema.org markup for articles and questions is built from the same visible text, so the data for search engines never contradicts the page.

Ad moderation: how to avoid disapprovals

Every platform reviews the ad, the video and the landing page. A disapproval is not a disaster in itself, but it stops impressions and delays the launch, so copy is best prepared with the rules in mind from the start.

• No absolute promises or unverified superlatives: moderation rejects this kind of wording most often.
• The ad's promise matches the page: if the ad mentions a price or a feature, it is visible on the first screen.
• The landing page loads quickly and without errors, including on a phone, and shows contacts, company details and a privacy policy.
• For financial, legal and medical topics, platforms may request additional documents — collect them before launch.
• Videos are reviewed in full, including sound and subtitles: one unfortunate phrase in the middle of a video gets the whole ad rejected.

If an ad is disapproved anyway, check the reason in the account, fix the wording or the page and resubmit it for review rather than creating a copy to get around moderation.

What to check in reports every week

A weekly review takes little time, but it is what separates campaigns that grow from campaigns that just spend.

• Search terms: which phrases actually triggered the ads. Irrelevant ones become negative keywords.
• Placements: sites, apps and channels that send clicks without requests go to exclusions.
• Cost per conversion by campaign and ad group, not just cost per click and the number of visits.
• Conversions per week: this number decides whether you can switch to conversion-based bidding.
• Moderation status: disapproved ads and limited impressions.
• Organic search: indexing of new pages, queries and impressions in Search Console and Yandex Webmaster.

After each review, change one thing at a time: the budget, the bid, the set of ads or the page. Otherwise it is impossible to tell which change produced the result.

How we work

We set up the site, search optimization and ad accounts as part of our custom software development service — together with the product, or separately if the product is already built.

Our experience is first-hand. Our own site runs in four languages with separate URLs and reciprocal hreflang, Schema.org markup, a sitemap and IndexNow notifications after every release. We advertise Wallet, Legal and the Content Factory ourselves in Google Ads, Yandex Direct and VK Ads.

The routine we have arrived at: a test start with about 40% of the target budget, more budget for campaigns that pass the test on cost per request, a switch to conversion-based bidding once a campaign reaches about 10 conversions a week, plus negative keywords, placement exclusions and a moderation check every week. Ad results depend on the product, the market and the budget, so we give cost-per-request benchmarks after the test, not before it.