eBay Australia bring back ads on view item page

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eBay Australia have announced today that they will continue with their controversial third party adverts on view item pages. Earlier this week, ads beneath the bid box were removed after complaints by eBay members to the advertiser, digital television network Foxtel.

eBay have now said that the trial of these ads will continue, though they will be positioned lower on the page and “will be clearly marked as a sponsored link”. Sellers in the Sports, Movies and Electronics categories can expect to see “sponsored links” appearing on their listings.

eBay Australia add “similar advertisements are already running in a number of markets, including Austria, Switzerland, France, Italy, and the UK.” Well, that’s alright then. Let me tell you, if I need to: the Austrians, the Swiss, the French, the Italians and the British don’t like the ads either.

Foxtel’s online marketing manager left a comment on TameBay, expanding on the company’s position. He said:

being a reputable company we didn’t think they would place them in a way that would annoy their members. As soon as the complaint came in we looked at the placement in question and agreed it was intrusive to the sellers (who like us are online marketers)

Foxtel get it. Don’t annoy your users.

eBay, however, don’t get it. eBay see the ads as purely a revenue spinner, a source of extra cash. They need to look beyond this week’s balance sheet. The message of these ads, on the very page where sellers are trying to sell, is that eBay do not care about your sales. Even though you’ve paid eBay for that page, they still believe they have the right to siphon off your traffic for the sake of a few pence per click. And they do: it’s their site. But how much longer are sellers going to put up with a company that demonstrates its contempt for its paying customers quite so blatantly?

Sellers are already suffering from change fatigue after a year of constant policy, fee and listing strategy change on eBay. Telling us that our sales matter less than flogging their own advertising is really not what eBay should be doing right now.

26 Responses

  1. the more i see of the changes, the more obvious it is to me that no one at ebay (that matters) has actually used the site in any meaningful way.

    Has anyone that has a hand in the changes actually traded on the site?

    It sure as hell dont look like it.

  2. @ Sue

    I noticed a lot of typos. Very unusual for TameBay. Emotional?

    Didn’t eBay say earlier that those ads were a glitch?

    I wonder how eBay would feel if we referenced the ads within our auctions? I know programs like Adsense state you aren’t allowed to refer to their ads (can’t say “support us by visiting our sponsors,” etc). Seems like an easy an easy way to get eBay in trouble with their advertisers without violating eBay policy.

    Are these PPC or PPA? Does eBay have a way to system in place to detect click fraud?

  3. Ebay is slowly going down the tubes – its definitely getting desperate for revenue to replace the money lost by all the sellers moving on – and with its “disruptive” ruler at the helm we can expect just about anything. My suggestion is still – diversify! Start building the other sites and make sure you take your buyers with you! It doesn’t look like anything is going to stop this trainwreck!

  4. Ads in the search results is annoying but not a deal killer. But ads near the bidding and/or buy it now buttons is a terrible idea. When a buyer needs to make a purchasing decision, please do not introduce alternatives. Give the buyer the simple choice to click buy it now. If the advertisements continue, this will kill the sell through rate on all sites that run these ads.

  5. # 6 Sue

    ‘Syphon’ sounds really, really, really GREAT to me and I suspect ‘most’ grateful Tamebayers who read your columns agree.

    With regards to ebays’ 3rd party ads, many people (sellers) all over the globe have complained & if ebay won’t listen, then as ‘yell’ says, let your fingers do the walking’.

    This, beleive me will be ebays’ MISTAKE TO FAR………………….just wait and see.
    HEAD THIS Ebay or you will come to VERY dearly regret it!!!!!.

  6. @ #6

    Foxtel get it. <– gets?
    eBay, however, don’t get it. <– doesn’t?
    eBay see the ads <– sees?
    eBay do not care about your sales <– does?

    So what I’m seeing is that you view these entities as plural. I’m from the US and am not aware of anyone that speaks or writes that way here. Maybe they weren’t mistakes and maybe that is just how it is in Europe like color vs colour. This is what I was referring to in #1. Since I thought they were mistakes and I know people tend to make mistakes when they are angry that is what I was getting at.

  7. … and given the lack of consistent information that seems to emerge from eBay, I think that a plural verb is far more appropriate in these contexts than a singular one!!!

  8. # 13 Chris.

    This is strange, as I just pasted the number from # 11 above into the Ebay UK home page for the 1st time and got the ad up on the listing
    as here ( i hope);

    https://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=350101287604&ru=http%3A%2F%2Fshop.ebay.co.uk%3A80%2F%3F_from%3DR40%26_trksid%3Dm38%26_nkw%3D350101287604%26_fvi%3D1

    Then scrolled back using the browser and clicked again on the previous page after reading you comment and hey, it’s changed as here;

    https://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=350101287604&ru=http%3A%2F%2Fshop.ebay.co.uk%3A80%2F%3F_from%3DR40%26_trksid%3Dm38.l1313%26_nkw%3D350101287604%26_fvi%3D1

    Seems ebay Uk don;t want UK sellers to see it twice????

  9. #16 Well I could see it on both links.

    In fact it’s annoying enough that ebay are advertising Paypal on our listings, under the heading “helpful information”. I think other, outside links would be worse.

  10. # 17

    I just clicked on both links above (16.15pm Sunday) to check what you say
    & both the links have now GONE. No column for ‘helpful information).

  11. Surely the easiest way to stop these ads is to click on them every time you come across them? If the ROI for the advertisers isn’t good with lots of PPC activity resulting in no sales they’ll all stop advertising. Won’t they?

  12. @ # 19

    That is kind of what I was suggesting earlier. ePN affiliates get expired for poor ROI, I would expect eBay to be held to the same standard with their advertisers.

  13. #18 You have to scroll right down to the bottom and “Helpful information” is just above where you place your bid or click buy it now. It says “eBay recommended services.”

    On the Aussie site the link says ” Join Sky & get £40 PayPal Account Credit.”
    In the UK it says “Free protection on your purchases when you pay with Paypal” and a “Learn More” button.

    In both cases it’s close to where you can make a bid or buy, customers could get distracted and click the links, then they are off somewhere else and not buying your stuff.

    I think it’s just as bad what they are doing with the UK site as the Aussie one. Links for Paypal are still advertising! On our listings!

  14. # 22

    I have been having some prolems with this PC terminal’s browser that refuses to display all web page contents, BUT having clicked on the links again today (Monday 1.99 pm) both the links have gone……………..

  15. @ # 14


    #12 There is a difference between British English and American: I refer you to Wikipedia,

    Thanks for pointing that out. I apologize for the inferences I made earlier. Like I said I didn’t realize that our grammars were different.

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