Wednesday, September 24th, 2008

eBay to Launch AdCommerce program for Sellers

Advertising on eBay has come a long way since the first AOL deal 9 years ago. To prove it, later this Fall, eBay will roll out a Beta program for sellers in Germany and the US that will give them another way to increase visibility in the online marketplace. eBay AdCommerce is the latest advertisting optimization tool from VP Matt Ackley’s Internet Marketing team and will allow sellers to take advantage of the 4 billion keywords in eBay’s database.

Beta program participants will be able to pay for search terms and get ads placed directly into existing ad space that is currently served up by Google and Yahoo!*. Essentially, the AdCommerce program will act as another way for good sellers to raise visibility on eBay.

“We wanted to build something dynamically based that actually gives sellers a new tool that will immediately show them positive results,” said Matt Ackley, VP Internet Marketing. “This will represent a much more action-oriented form of advertising for our sellers than straight-up CPM models.”

Click above to view full image

From Caroline Malifoud’s AB post today:
How eBay AdCommerce will work
Let’s say you want your ad to appear when buyers search for “computer.” You would need to decide how much you’re willing to pay each time a buyer would click your ad after running a search for “computer.”

If you’re one of the highest bidders for that keyword, your ad – which can include a title, a short description, plus an optional image – will appear. You can create a campaign for that keyword and set a budget for that campaign.

Your eBay AdCommerce ads will show up near the bottom of the page when a buyer searches for a particular keyword or is browsing in a particular category. Depending on the keyword and the buyer’s purchasing history we will either display eBay AdCommerce, Shopping.com or Yahoo! Ads.

With AdCommerce, there is no up-front fee, and no minimum payment or deposit. Sellers pay only when a buyer clicks your ad and goes to your listing or eBay Store.

For more information, check out the AdCommerce information page.

Cheers,
RBH

*This post has been updated to reflect that the ad space is currently served up by Yahoo! and Google, but not MSN as originally stated in the post.

Tagged: AdCommerce, ebay, ecommerce, google, MSN, sales, SEO, yahoo

(21) Comments

21 Responses on this post. Click to add yours.

DawnOn September 24, 2008 at 10:24 am Said:

This sounds like an “improved” version of the old Ad Marketplace program. The only difference I can see is the old Ad Marketplace ads appeared at the top of the search result page, where you currently see those annoying monster.com ads and such. This “improved” version puts the ads at the very bottom, where they’re less likely to be seen.

It’s a shame, because the ads at the top of the page really increased our business, but I don’t think having them at the bottom will help. Visibility is such a problem right now with the broken search, it would have been nice to see the old program brought back, as it was.

Richard Brewer-Hay On September 24, 2008 at 5:25 pm Said:

Hi Dawn,
Thanks for the feedback. I wanted to make sure I stress that this is a beta product and I’ve been told that we will likely experiment with different placements over time.

I did go back to the team with your comment and was informed that there is empirical data that suggests strongly that bottom placements do in fact work. That said, they are certainly going to be experimenting and will ultimately land in the place that works best for our buyers and sellers.

Cheers,
RBH

Doctor DealsOn September 24, 2008 at 2:30 pm Said:

Can’t see any value in paying extra to be at the BOTTOM of search results.

Already our “Raised” search status, 4.9 & 4.8 30-Day DSR, FREE SHIPPING and lots of Recent Sales items are far too often at the bottom of search when they are supposed to show up at the top of Best Match according to eBay.

Why would I pay even more to be at the BOTTOM of the search results page when I get that for only $0.35 now?

Put my relevant targeted ad at the TOP of search instead of Monster or Vonage and you have a value proposition there.

My 2 Cents…(still too much for a BOTTOM of search ad)

Richard Brewer-HayOn September 24, 2008 at 5:30 pm Said:

I received a number of questions both on Twitter and in email after posting earlier today. I sent the 3 key comments/questions to the team to find out more information. Here is the resulting feedback.

“Why would a seller pay a listing fee, a FVF fee and a CPC fee?”

A: First and foremost, this program is optional, no one is required to participate. Second, this a beta program from which we expect to learn a great deal more about seller needs and buyer actions. Third, we expect that many sellers will in fact welcome the opportunity to bid on dynamically priced keywords and want the additional exposure with which they can drive traffic to their stores, cross sell specific merchandise in different categories or via different key words. This is additive in nature and at the end of the day, sellers and buyers will determine whether or not this is a winning model, we believe it is.

“It makes no sense to me if they aren’t going to let sellers advertise their websites.”

A: People come to eBay to shop. Buying an ad on eBay gets your product in front of them when they are actually shopping for things you are probably selling. These ads have a similar look and feel to regular listings and we think buyers would be concerned if they clicked on one and were taken offsite. Rather, we think that a consistent shopping experience that is under PayPal’s buyer protection plan makes buyers more confident and more willing to buy more stuff from smaller businesses. Small business is the engine of eBay, and our ad network is here to serve their needs for more exposure to likely buyers.

In addition, ProStores users who sign up for our new Pay Per Sale model will be eligible to receive exposure on eBay. In this way, they can advertise their off-eBay items, and we think we have a very compelling opportunity for ProStores users to monetize eBay traffic as well.

“So, if eBay pages only, why would I do that? After all, they’re finding me through Best Match, aren’t they?”

A: Sellers who are looking to drive additional traffic to their stores or looking to cross-sell their merchandise under alternative categories and key words may find Ad Commerce is a compelling opportunity. For instance, a seller with mp3 accessories might find it advantageous to bid on the keyword mp3 player and get exposure to buyers who are in the market for a player and perhaps some accessories as well.

Wanted to make sure I got this back to readers in a timely manner (and to be honest, I’m home sick so technically it was Usher who tracked down all the information for everyone).

As always, keep the feedback and questions coming.

Cheers,
RBH

Patricia1On September 24, 2008 at 7:04 pm Said:

I think its time Ebay stop squeezing money out of sellers. I don’t know the present overall sell thru rate but my friends and I see sales as stagnant. We need buyers! Something needs to be done to lure and entice buyers back to the site….otherwise more and more sellers will leave. I would respectfully like to ask the powers-that-be what in the world they are doing to bring buyers on the site!

GailOn September 24, 2008 at 9:44 pm Said:

Personally, I don’t see why anyone would pay eBay another fee for those ads. More and more people are using ad blocker programs. I’ve used one for years. I don’t see any of that clutter on my pages. I don’t even see the paid ads on the right side of Google search results. I wouldn’t click on them anyway.

Patricia1On September 24, 2008 at 11:03 pm Said:

@Gail – I agree – I also use ad blockers and I haven’t seen any of the ads either.

mindelecOn September 25, 2008 at 12:47 am Said:

to me this just illustrates the disconnect. at a time when seller trust is at an all time low they come up with a program where i have to trust them to accurately report the number of clicks *if* my ad shows up.

plus i can’t remember the last time i saw the bottom of an ebay page. i usually stop at the “listings from international sellers”. poor real estate and requires me to give ebay an open checkbook.

i’ll pass….

oh and about this comment….

“These ads have a similar look and feel to regular listings and we think buyers would be concerned if they clicked on one and were taken offsite. ”

yet there also might be a yahoo or shopping ad there which will take them offsite. i guess if you pay enough it is ok to confuse buyers ;-)

JayOn September 25, 2008 at 6:27 am Said:

Guys, relax. It’s an optional feature.

They’re only “squeezing” money if you elect this as an option.

DawnOn September 25, 2008 at 7:06 am Said:

Thanks for the additional information, Richard. (And I hope you feel better!) If they eventually put the ads at the top of the page, this is something I will likely try.

Do you know if we will be able to direct our ads to a particular search in our eBay store, like we could with the old Ad Marketplace ads? Or will we have to link to either one particular listing or the store home page?

EricOn September 25, 2008 at 8:33 am Said:

I don’t click through on ads either, but keep in mind that Google makes almost all of its multi-billion dollar revenue on ads. It’s a big business. Someone is clicking them.

EstebanOn September 25, 2008 at 8:58 am Said:

How much will ‘diamond’ sellers pay for these ads?

Richard Brewer-Hay On September 25, 2008 at 10:50 am Said:

@ESTEBAN Although the pricing will be dynamic (and not from a flat-rate card) it will not be dictated by PowerSeller status. Rather, it will be dictated by the seller itself.

As Caroline explains in her original AB post (and above), “you would need to decide how much you’re willing to pay each time a buyer would click your ad after running a search for “computer.”

If you’re one of the highest bidders for that keyword, your ad – which can include a title, a short description, plus an optional image – will appear. You can create a campaign for that keyword and set a budget for that campaign.”

As with the eBay Auction model, the price of an ad will be determined by the second-to-last bidder.

Cheers,
RBH

GailOn September 26, 2008 at 9:09 am Said:

Posted on my favorite eBay discussion board:

“I think I understand this correctly.. I pay ebay to list an item then they hide the item during a buyers search and then I purchase adwords to advertise my item on the like item search page so the buyer can find my listed item on ebay.. Thats billy logic at its finest… ”

————
billy logic: along the same lines as billy math
billy math: 60% increase = a decrease in your fees

GailOn September 26, 2008 at 9:18 am Said:

Incidentally, the above was posted by a seller with over 20,000 99.9% feedback, 4.8 DSR rating.

AmberOn September 26, 2008 at 2:17 pm Said:

Ah Richard, you made my day:

we think buyers would be concerned if they clicked on one and were taken offsite.

The sponsored links in search results (and now the item page links on UK and AU)do exactly that.

They take buyers off site to directly competing sites/products/services.

We knew this was coming when the original ad program (that, incidentally, worked well) was replaced by the Yahoo sponsored ads and Sponsored Links garbage.
Now you want us to buy back into a seller sponsored ad service? For those of us who remember the old program, this one lacks value and visibility.

And could someone please explain to me why ended listings now show Shopping.com matching products instead of ebay.com products? I realize shopping.com is owned by ebay, but showing relevant ACTIVE EBAY listings would make far more sense rather than directing buyers offsite as soon as they’ve arrived via the web.

You are welcome to email me for more info/screenshots etc

Dan BuchannonOn September 26, 2008 at 10:31 pm Said:

@Patricia – Just a reminder that much of the company’s revenue now flows from NON-seller or NON-eBay.com sources. There isn’t any squeezing and if there is…less and less is coming from sellers.

Dan

Patricia1On September 27, 2008 at 7:54 pm Said:

@Dan – “There isn’t any squeezing and if there is…less and less is coming from sellers.”

You’ve got to be kidding. Don’t even ask me – ask other small sellers and you’ll get the same answer! Fees raised twice this year – more junk traffic from sites like buy.com to smother the life out of us…manipulation from best match so we get even less exposure. Now they are discussing whether or not they should pay for 30 day feature plus on FP30! An extra 40.00! Now they want money for ads to get us the exposure we PAID for in the first place? All without one word of advertising – without one new buyer on the site and with a whale of a lot of seller/buyers leaving! Now, tell me again how we’re not being squeezed for money? WHERE ARE THE BUYERS? Its a logical question that is not being answered! Sorry if there is a note of frustration. I feel I’ve been inside of a loony bin for the past 8 months!

AnnOn September 27, 2008 at 7:59 pm Said:

Incidentally – I am Patricia1 !!!!!

What I said to Dan was that sellers experienced two fee increases this year – they’ve found their listings hidden in the manipulation of Best Match and they’ve found them smothered under the likes of buy.com listings! Now they want money for ads to give us the exposure we’ve been paying for all along? Where are the buyers they promised us? Where? We’re busy altering listings to conform to the most god-awful policies and we’re being smothered, hidden and manipulated – about the only good thing about sellers these days is their MONEY!!!

AmyOn September 28, 2008 at 7:57 am Said:

“we think buyers would be concerned if they clicked on one and were taken offsite”

Then WHY are the Yahoo and Shopping.com ads still going to show?

Either:
A) Dump those PPC ads
B) Allow us to advertise our off-eBay sites

C) At least be HONEST that this is all about money & greed instead of treating the lot of us like we are not smart enough to see this!

Grrrrrr. Unbelieveable, really.

Patricia1On September 30, 2008 at 12:07 pm Said:

I would like an answer to this one (I guess when Hades freezes over cause I haven’t had an answer to any of my questions).

Where are the buyers and why is Ebay doing this:

Well, I’m no powerseller but I just noticed my standing went from raised to standard. My dashboard says 4.98, 4.97, 4.99, 4.95 and my 3,000 feedbacks are 100 percent and if they think I’m going to pay for this type of exposure or pay extra for ads, they’re out of their mind! I have 15 items at present – 1 auction and 14 FP30’s and I’ve had exactly 1 view today between all 15 of them. If they don’t want us why don’t they just cut us off! Why the downgrade, Ebay…what is the reason? I’ve heard others complaining about the same thing and Ebay seems to give a different answer to each one…in fact auctionbytes is blogging it!

DaveyOn October 2, 2008 at 2:33 pm Said:

How about a disruptive ideal for eBay HQ? How about focusing on delivering value to your customers, and let the revenue take care of itself? Like others I would never pay an unknown amount for additional exposure given the poor results my fees have had to-date in that regard. Why would I give eBay a signed, blank check?

Dustin JonesOn October 3, 2008 at 7:16 am Said:

Ebay is going to have to do alot of tweaking to their catalog and item specifics if people are going to use this feature across the board.

For us in cell phone category, phones have TONS of variants, unlocked, colors, multimedia packages etc. The stock specifics give all t he features and we cant use them 20-30% of the time. We aren’t going to use the specific categories till ebay fixes this because then we have customers telling us it wasn’t as described so we have to use manual inputs so we get our product specs correct. Maybe we’re a needle in the haystack on t his but I doubt it.

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