eBay AdCommerce Placements to be Discontinued.
Question: What do Ipod Nanos and Japanese Trapdoor Snails have in Common?
NOTHING!
(Unless you ask eBay…)
Hello fellow eBay sellers, Travis here.
eBay has just announced they are ending AdCommerce Ad Placements. While I have I never used eBay AdCommerce, I have seen a lot of other peoples ads, and considered using it to help drive traffic to eBay listings for myself and my clients.
But, my hang up was always this; eBay is already charging to use their site, why should I need to pay more? Some people would say eBay already charges too much. Historically eBay has always offered a way to pay more, and increase the exposure of a listing. For example; not long ago, for an extra $20.00 anyone could have their listing at the very top of the search results. This was called “Featured Plus”. I used this trick many times to get extra traffic to some of my listings. But, then they removed the option. More recently for a few pennies or dollars you could place an AD on the bottom of search results. But, now they are removing that option too. Why? Well, to check it out how well it was working; I did a search for an iPod Nano. At the end of a long list of jewel colored Apple goodies there was one sponsored link- for an algae eating Japanese snail. Really eBay??? Clearly probably not the most pressing issue for people looking for an iPod Nano. Perhaps it is because of a lack of interest from the part of advertisers, who like myself, didn’t see any value in advertising eBay listings for an extra fee on eBay.
But, there could be a second reason. One of the things eBay has always struggled with, and one of things that Amazon got right, was the ability to put the buyers first, and show only the most relevant items to potential buyers. NOT the items from sellers with the deepest pockets who were willing to buy their way to the top of search results.
What does this latest change mean for us?
While I, and a lot of other eBay sellers are frustrated at the sheer volume of changes eBay has made in the last several years- more or less since Meg Whitman stepped down as CEO in January of 2008, I believe they are trying to make the site more buyer centric, and moving towards a system with no easy way to buy your way to the top of the listings, instead showing only the most relevant search results from a buyer’s perspective. And, on the whole, what is good for buyers should in turn good for us sellers.
Hope you found this post useful. Either way, let me know.
“Your Goal is My Goal.”
Travis.
