June is Traffic Month on eBay

eBay US have announced June will be Traffic Month, a month’s worth of insights on how eBay can partner to drive traffic to your listings and connect buyers with what you’re selling. eBay have just upped their Q2 forecast to a stunning range of 23% to 26% compared to last year – way above any growth that eBay have seen in recent years and now they want to capitalise on this opportunity.

Over the next month, you’ll find helpful content across eBay for Business Facebook, podcast, YouTube, and the eBay US announcement board, including chats with eBay leaders and real sellers.

Here’s some of what they have planned but look out for updates on a weekly basis throughout June. This first week of Traffic Month is about what eBay are doing, but in coming weeks there will be actionable insights on what you can do.

eBay Traffic Month – What is “traffic”?

One of the benefits of selling on eBay is the 174M buyers — and millions more potential customers— eBay bring onto the platform, and how we make sure they keep coming back. Traffic is the number of users who visit the site organically or because of eBay’s marketing.

But it’s not about traffic for traffic’s sake. eBay are focused on new and repeat customers who they think have a higher likelihood of buying on eBay. Using their own and third-party data, eBay can target their marketing to higher-potential buyers.

How do eBay find the right traffic?

eBay tell the world that small businesses are open and selling on eBay. This is especially important during this transition in our economy. Public relations plays an important role in amplifying the good news so eBay also spend tens of millions of dollars every month getting the word out through paid media and owned channels.

What channels do eBay use?

To bring in the right traffic and convert them to buyers, eBay most often take a targeted approach via digital marketing. The best investment of their marketing dollars is using them to put eBay and your listings at the most critical moments of customers’ shopping journey. Here’s how eBay do that:

Digital advertising

• eBay use digital advertising formats like web banners, the mini ads that play before YouTube videos (which have the visual impact of TV, plus the advantage of being able to link to eBay) and online radio ads on platforms like iHeartRadio (which drive awareness).
• eBay target digital ads to customers who will have the highest likelihood of buying on eBay, including previous ecommerce shoppers and people interested in certain items and categories.

Search engine marketing

• When shoppers search for products using sites like Google, Yahoo, and Bing, eBay listings show up in those search engines’ results, in places like Google Shopping.
• eBay spends millions of dollars optimizing our search results and paying for text and listing ads to show up.
• Sellers pay nothing for this additional exposure from eBay, unlike with some other selling platforms. Week 2 of Traffic Month will focus on Google Shopping, including how to ensure your listings show up, so come back for a deep dive next week.

Social media

• With nearly 13M followers, eBay’s social media channels give thrm extraordinary access to shoppers interested in the eBay brand at a very low cost.
• eBay use organic and paid social media ads for two primary reasons.
  1. To target broad audiences with more general promotional or marketing messages.
  2. To target specific customers who have shown interest in specific items or categories.
• eBayWeek 3 of Traffic Month will talk more about how sellers can leverage this powerful channel to drive traffic to their listings.

Email marketing

• eBay send around 650M targeted emails each week tailored to customers’ viewing and shopping habits.
• eBay also send targeted emails encouraging customers to take another look at listings they’ve shown interest in.

Onsite marketing

• Once traffic has reached the site, eBay need to convert them into buyers by surfacing what they are looking for or providing inspiration for items they may like.
• eBay have a number of banners across the site which they can target and personalise to different buyer segments and shoppable special interest pages they create for seasonal moments, like Fourth of July.
• eBay also incentivise additional buying through programs like eBay Bucks, PayPal Credit offers, eBay Mastercard, and coupons.

One of the biggest benefits of digital marketing is how quickly eBay can see its results. eBay can determine which channel is performing best, then make quick decisions to optimize how to spend their marketing dollars.

For a deeper understanding of our marketing efforts, listen to this week’s Traffic Month interview with our Head of Marketing, Andrea Stairs on the eBay podcast, or watch it on Youtube.