The question we get most often at the start is “Direct or Google Ads?” The usual answer is “it depends on your niche,” followed by a shrug. Useless. Let us do it honestly, with specifics — here, for the CIS market.
Start where your customers actually are
The first thing to understand: this is not a fight between two platforms, it is a question of where your audience physically sits.
In the CIS, search is split between Yandex and Google — but not evenly, and not across the same people. Google is stronger on desktop and with a younger, more tech-leaning crowd. Yandex holds mobile and the regions firmly, and its ad network (RSYA) covers enormous reach on sites where Google banners never appear. Mass-market product for a broad audience? You will likely run both. Narrow B2B service? Look at where people actually search for you, and do not spread thin.
A short cheat sheet by business type
An online store almost always needs both, and here is why. Google has Shopping product ads with product cards — the most direct and, per lead, cheapest format for e-commerce. Skipping it is leaving money on the table. Direct then adds search and network reach on top.
Services and local business — repairs, dental, legal — I more often suggest starting with Yandex Direct: in our CIS experience it brings cheaper leads there, and the network does a good job catching people who are still thinking it over.
B2B and anything around IT, hardware and software is usually livelier in Google Ads: the audience is there, search is cleaner, fewer accidental clicks.
These are not laws of physics. They are starting hypotheses. The numbers decide from there, not the logic.
Why “pick one” is often a false choice
There is a temptation to save money and launch on just one. Sometimes that is right: on a truly small budget, running one platform well beats running two badly. But in many cases the choice between Direct and Google is a choice between two different slices of demand, not between “better” and “worse.” The person searching for you on Yandex and the person on Google are often not the same person. Turn one off and you are not saving — you are walking away from half the market.
The right question is not “which is better” but “what does a lead cost in each, and how many are there to begin with.” Reasoning does not answer that. A two-week test run with proper analytics does — so you see leads and sales, not clicks.
What I would do in your place
Short version. Store — Google Shopping plus Direct, both, no debate. Service in the CIS — start with Direct, add Google when you hit the reach ceiling. Exports and the US — that is a different conversation, and it is Google, with its own specifics.
After that you watch the reports and move budget to wherever leads are cheaper. Advertising is not faith in a platform. It is arithmetic.