eBay have begun testing a new service to enable sellers to promote their listings on key eBay pages, in addition to search results. The new program is called “” and is in Beta on eBay.com.
Whilst we don’t have full details of how the program works, we suspect it will be based around bidding for keywords which when your bid is selected promotes the listings you’ve linked the keywords to.
This is the third such program eBay have run, the first was a keyword program launched on eBay.com in the summer of 2003 and retired in September 2006 due to low adoption rates. Then in 2008 came eBay AdCommerce which shut down in 2010 in the US and in January 2011 for all eBay EU country sites. In both the previous two programs eBay sellers could bid on selected keywords and those that bid the highest may have an advert displayed at the bottom of search results.
eBay Promoted Listings is interesting as it will enable sellers to have their listings displayed “on key eBay pages, in addition to search results”. We don’t know which page these might be, whether it be category landing pages, help pages, specific product pages or perhaps even on pages such as My eBay. All the eBay info says is that it give the opportunity to have your listings shown “beyond search results” giving “the chance for more buyers to see your items in new places on eBay”.
How to sign up for eBay Promoted Listings Beta
Beta participation is by invitation only. Invited sellers will need to opt in to indicate interest in participating in the beta launch of promoted listings. Selected sellers will then receive an email to confirm their participation by September 30, 2014 and will be required to actively participate in the beta from October 1st, 2014, until December 31st, 2014.
Bonus – It’s free for invited sellers
There is no cost to participate in the beta. During the beta period, each selected seller will be allocated a free budget.
If you’re invited then we’d suggest that you take eBay up on their offer. At best you’ll increase sales and at worst it’ll make no difference so there’s nothing to lose! It’ll give invited eBay.com sellers the opportunity to test the program for free for tree months in the busiest period of the year.
Will it come to the UK and Europe?
The chances are high that it will. AdCommerce was initially tested in the US in 2008 and came to the UK in 2009.
Will eBay Promoted Listings be any good?
Personally I never managed to get AdCommerce to work, but that was because I was selling rare products and AdCommerce only displayed them at the bottom of the relevant search results page and invariably that meant my AdCommerce listings only appeared below my own products in search results. Even though AdCommerce didn’t work for my particular products, I’d jump at the chance to test eBay Promoted Listings and have my products displayed on eBay pages where buyers wouldn’t normally see them.
Others had great success with AdCommerce and were disappointed when the program ended. Either way the only way you’ll find out if eBay Promoted Listings works for you will be to try it. If you can get on the Beta in the US then do so and if eBay give any free trials in the UK (AdCommerce was a £50 trial) then sign up the day it’s announced.
4 Responses
It would be great if third party ads were replaced by sponsored listing ads. It would keep customers on ebay.
Is it not just another super tax ? You already pay 10% and then they add more advertising costs, in our industry I couldn’t possibly see how we can squeeze our margins anymore combined with free postage that’s not actually free. Bit off topic but how does anyone pay to promote on Amazon given there initial 20% selling fee ?
Was really disappointed to see AdCommerce end, for us it was the best ROI we got from any PPC campaign we had previously done anywhere! Would love to see something similar again. It was easy to use, clear stats and ROI reports.
I think to replace third party ads by sponsored listing ads is not fair for buyers. they should have a choice of vendors, and not one of those who paid more.