Here I am, minding my own business (literally!) and checking my eBay sales and bam, the latest eBay advertising hits me between the eyes. Well ok, maybe not between the eyes, but it’s there at the bottom of the left hand navigation bar.
I have a number of objections to this, not least of which is why do I want to waste my valuable bandwidth downloading adverts in which I have no interest? Perhaps it’s time to invest in an ad blocker to zap the annoying things?
Whilst downloading adverts when I’m trying to click dropdown links that don’t work until the entire page has loaded is annoying, I’m more interested in what eBay intend to do with the adverts for the future. It’s the first spot on the site where they could easily serve up adverts personalised to me.
That’s not personalised to the search terms I as an eBay user enter, not personalised based on generalised buying or selling behaviour. I’m talking about personalised based on what eBay know about me as an individual!
I have to question if this is a good move on eBay’s part, they already have off site links in search results which are justified on the basis of a better buyer experience. This isn’t benefiting buyers though, the adverts are appearing in the selling section of My eBay. It’s purely and simply a way to raise revenues, whether it be with eBay owned services or with third party advertisers.
I don’t like it, it’s unwelcome and intrusive, it’s my personal space on eBay where I manage my business and don’t forget I *PAY* for the privilege of listing and managing my auctions. If it was a freebie service fair enough, but I don’t expect to pay for a service and still suffer a string of adverts stealing my bandwidth.
22 Responses
I always have my ebay page on the SMP summary page, and that is still ad free, if I change it to Basics, then I get the same HUGE ad. I agree, it is not what we expect to get.
Put them on the eBay Home page if they like, but not on MY page…
So, we get to pay for the fees AND the are pushing ads on us at the same time… some things just don’t make sense and you wonder what they are thinking when they do stuff like that.
Thanks for the post, I actually hadn’t seen anything yet.
You have to wonder what the next daft idea ebay are going to come up with. it seems to almost be a new hair-brained idea every day currently.
Probably the reason you don’t see them on SMP is because that’s a service you pay for, unlike My eBay which is free.
I’m fast coming to the conclusion ebay is losing the plot in a big way. Stay tuned for tomorrows daft idea. LOL 😀
We pay fees and get ads on the our website? Outrageous.
How dare eBay think they can run a profitable business as they see fit. I feel they should at least lose as much money as I do.
LOL Henry, you are right of course, I don’t like people telling me how to run my business, why should ebay be any different?
A tad smaller and faster loading would do it for me, anyway.
Of course it’s eBay’s site and they can do what they want, but that doesn’t mean we all have to like it, does it 😀
And from the number of people complaining about how slowly these ads load, there’s a pretty serious usablity problem.
pay a fiver for smp and they disappear
I get SMP for free, but I still like the basic “My eBay” as it’s easier to perform many tasks in that view. I simply just don’t like the adverts having to load before the drop downs function correctly.
The other point to make is that I don’t think these ads as they are at the moment are going to be terribly effective. Web users are pretty good at *not* clicking on banner ads.
Ooh, look, this morning I got the National Lottery. What kind of message does that put across?! “The National Lottery: a better investment for your quid than eBay fees.” 🙁
I thought you’d won for a moment there Sue…! 8)
If I had, Lynne, do you think I’d be here? 😀
Of course m’dear!
Could you possibly miss out on our company…. (looking for tongue in cheek smiley…)
Oh hell now I have an equally massive advert for capital one credit cards with an annoying red flashing beacon at the top 🙁
I really wish eBay would realise that sidebad adverts make them look desperate for every penny they can screw out of the site.
An eagle eyed poster on the psb has just spotted that you can block these ‘my eBay’ ads in your preferences. 🙂
Off to see if this works for the offsite links in the search and browse…
… the answer seems to be ‘no’…
Oh. I’m still getting them in ‘my eBay’ too. 🙁
I agree with all that’s been said – I use Forefox as a browser which has a little add on you can download called Add Block Plus. With this I find I can kill the ads with a right click. Hope this helps.
And it’s free…..
Ebay is cheating you.
https://www.hi-tech-it.com/2007/11/25/ebay-bites-the-hand-that-feeds-it/
I seem to have a lottery ad on my ebay page, a gambling site! what next alcohol, drugs, pornography?
But there’s nothing anyone can do about it, when a company gets big it turns into a greedy psychopath treading on anything or anyone that gets in it’s way : (
hi –
are sellers listings not in effect small ads?
are sellers not paying to sell in this so called ‘venue’, whilst ebay then take even more money from ‘big league’ advertisers that aim to drive the buyers off the site to buy elsewhere.
slapping huge posters across the sellers wee shop windows!
are ebay not playing with semantics and related nonsense to camouflage their bad practices!