AdCommerce

[coxengines]

So..... just activated a campaign to see if and how this works.

One has to leave it to eBay management when it come to ways of making sellers part with money 🙂

Cheers
Bernie

[pierrelebel]

Take a look at this http://forums.ebay.com/db1/topic/Adcommerce-Discussion-Board/Why-Am-I/510088677

It may explain why we see different results!

[pierrelebel]

I sell postage stamps and only advertise in the "Stamps" category and all levels of sub-categories.

So far I have been running several campaigns on eBay.com (good results), eBay.uk (fair results), eBay.ca (poor).

Today I started a campaign on eBay-Australia.

However, the rules seem to be different over there. Taking a look at " Stamps > World Stamps > By Region, Country > North America > Canada>" where my advertisement should be, I find five advertisers all with links to their off-eBay websites!:

Sponsored Links

stamps america
+ 6.000.000 Sales & No Listing Fee Buy & Sell Collectibles Online
www.delcampe.com

Herrick Stamp Company
the leading stamp dealer since 1946 1000's of Worldwide Stamps,Topicals
www.herrickstamp.com/

World stamps @Collect4all
Stamps from almost every country. Prices start at only 75 cents!
www.collect4all.com

Stamps Online
All Types Of Rare & Antique Stamps. 1000's Of Lots - Visit Sandafayre!
Sandafayre.com

Canada Stamps
Find Canada Stamps info Searching with Ask gets Results!
www.ask.com

---

My question is: are rules different in Australia? Can I link my website instead of my eBay store?

If not, why not?

[ds2286]

That is exactly it! I didn't catch that before.

If I am not logged in I get ads for off ebay sites. If I log in and do the same search I get ebay ads.

Kind of strange.

[pierrelebel]

The question is Is eBay really putting the ads on the site? or is it window dressing.

Please take a few minutes today to test what eBay really does.

Step 1) sign out from eBay (that's important)
Step 2) click on the BUY link (top of the page)
Step 3) click on "Canada" in the Stamps category
Step 4) go near the bottom of the page in the "sponsored links" section

What do you see?
eBay sellers advertisements with links to their stores or non-eBay advertisers with links off-eBay?

Now, sign in on eBay with your seller ID and repeat four steps above.

What do you see?
eBay sellers advertisements with links to their stores or non-eBay advertisers with links off-eBay?

[pierrelebel]

I will be the first to post my results.

When signed out, I see links to off eBay sites

When signed in, I see links to eBay store advertisers

I have tried it on eBay.ca, eBay.com, eBay.uk and eBay.au with identical results!

Links to eBay stores only show up when I am signed in. Not sure if it relates to being an eBay seller, store owner or AdCommerce advertiser.

What do you see?

[coxengines]

That is interesting, Pierre, and thanks for providing this information.

I was certain that there were links to off eBay stores but was not able to find them again until I logged out of eBay and searched our keywords after reading your comment.

When logged in, our imprint always shows first. When logged out, it never does.

Since one needs an eBay account to buy, I am fine with the way it is. Seems to be working for us. Today's stats:

Performance for 1. Apr 2009 through 24. Apr 2009

Total cost C $39.10 *
Impressions 409,749
Clicks 537
Click-through rate 0.13%
Average cost-per-click C $0.07
Account StatusActive

For $50/month we seem to have increased our sales at least $1,000. However, I concede that this is difficult to quantify.

Two competitors have already "complained" that our ads show up on every search they make and asked how we got there 🙂

Bernie

[pierrelebel]

Hi Bernie

"Since one needs an eBay account to buy, "

That would be great IF a user with a regular buyer account were to see your AdCommerce links at all times.

However, it appears many do NOT.

Check again using a poster ID or a friend's ID (someone who is not a seller or does not use AdCommerce).

[pierrelebel]

"For $50/month we seem to have increased our sales at least $1,000."

Selling "stamps" is an area for little interest on eBay with relatively little traffic so my ads cost me much less (only $0.01 per hit) since few competitors use that marketing tool:

Total cost C $6.24 *
Impressions1,738,328
Clicks 463
Click-through rate 0.03%
Average cost-per-click C $0.01

The low click-through rate does not bother me as my ads are meant to build name recognition on the long term. While most competitors in my industry complain of slow sales, my eBay sales are UP from last year but it is impossible to determine the reasons for the increase as I have been discounting most store listings (over 2,800 of them) by 10% - 20% this year.

What really bothers me at this time is the lack of appearance of my AdCommerce advertisements when not using my seller ID. The problem is on all four sites used for AdCommerce campaigns (.com, .ca, .uk, .au).

[ds2286]

Morning guys!

I have 2 ebay accounts. This one, that I do almost all of my selling with and am using adcommerce. When logged in I get ebay links in sponsored results.

Now on my second account I buy and sell a little (not using adcommerce on it). When logged in and do the same search I get totally different sponsored results. They are all OFF ebay links.

Dean

[ds2286]

So to me it looks like even when buyers are logged in and ready to buy on ebay, they may still get OFF ebay links in sponsored results.

[coxengines]

H, Pierre, you are right. When I try this logged in under a buying account, our ads don't show at all but I do see off-eBay links.

Which brings me to the question, when the heck do our ads show and how do we manage 16,000 impressions a day if I cant find any at all?

Perhaps I should pause the campaign to see if sales drop or not.

Bernie

[pierrelebel]

"Which brings me to the question...." Let me ask.

Is it a SCAM?

If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, quacks like a duck.... 😞

[coxengines]

OK, I just paused all campaigns. Let's see what happens. The off eBay ads are described as follows:

Sponsored Links are provided by Yahoo! Search Marketing, which generates sponsored search results by allowing advertisers to bid for placement order based on specific search keywords. Matches are based upon relevance to the specific search terms used in your query.


Bernie

[coxengines]

Pierre, I do not believe that a company such as eBay would deliberately scam and risk being exposed in the media.

I am sure that the impressions show but somewhere I read "at certain times" as disclaimer. Perhaps the giants have bought prime times?

I know that our ads show at times because the competition mentioned it.

Bernie

[pierrelebel]

"such as eBay would deliberately scam "

eBay contracts out AdCommerce

[ds2286]

"I am sure that the impressions show but somewhere I read "at certain times" as disclaimer. Perhaps the giants have bought prime times?"

Maybe giants have bought prime times, but why does it matter how we are logged in. It seems to matter more how we are logged in NOT what search terms you use. So how are search terms relevant.

[pierrelebel]

"I know that our ads show at times "

Every time I checked the many sub-categories on several sites where my ads are meant to show, they always show, morning, afternoon, evening, because I am always signed on with the same User ID.

However, yesterday, while visiting eBay.au I was NOT signed on and did not get to see my ads. That's when I started checking and testing.

Came up to a simple comclusion: if I am signed in - I see the ads; if not, I don't.

[pierrelebel]

There is obviously more to it than the obvious.

I suspect, eBay is programmed to always make sellers see the sponsored ads with links to eBay stores - if we purchase advertisements from AdCommerce.

If not, it may be a matter of allocating slow time (time not sold to Yahoo!) for AdCommerce advertisements. That is the only way I can explain the relatively large number of impressions we get.

[coxengines]

I have begun to do some thinking...

Our keyword "Cox" allegedly triggered 373,000 impressions in 23 days. That's 16,000 per day. I realize that the vast majority would have been for "Cox Communications", a giant. But still...

460 clicks in 23 days is 20 per day. They cost us 8 cents and our 5 competitors say they do not subscribe to Adcommerce.

Question is, why are we then paying 8 cents instead of one cent if no one else is bidding against us?

Perhaps it's the giants?

Bernie

[coxengines]

OK, our ads no longer show.

What is interesting is that, when logged into the UK site and searching for "Cox", no impressions whatsoever show. Why on earth are we being charged 10 cents per click instead of one cent?

I am sure there is more to this than meets the eye but I will keep our campaign paused for a couple of weeks and report back.

Bernie