eBay’s reintroduction of offsite advertising is a burr in the saddle to many e-tailers there. Though it was there once before, back in the late Nineties, Google and Yahoo’s contextual ads are so dead-on that sellers fear they are losing business because of them.
Until the past year, advertising on eBay was handled in-house and only linked to in-house sales, but PPC ads that generate a reported $76 million per quarter for the company speak rather loudly as a second revenue stream, according to PC World.
The company puts the appropriate spin on it, at least how you’d expect them to defend it, by downplaying the revenue gained from the ads, and playing up how the ads benefit visitors looking for the best deals alongside claims that the ads have had very little or no impact on in-house sales.
“Make no mistake – above everything else, we want buyers to transact on eBay,” writes eBay’s Steve Hartman in response to the concern. “But we also want to offer alternatives when we believe it will improve the buying experience. Our advertising efforts have shown no significant impact to our core transaction business, and subsequently to our sellers’ revenue, which further convinces us that we are on the right path.”
Sellers beg to differ, however, seeing no benefit to having off-site competition appear next their e-stores advertising the same product(s) for less. But perhaps 250 million clicks in a quarter make a racket loud enough to drown out the protest.
Hat tip to TechDirt
