Facebook users who 'like' ebay Canada: what do you see for items 'Inspired? Take Another Look!'

[momcqueen]

If you're a Facebook user who has 'liked' ebay Canada or someone who sees ebay Canada 'sponsored' ads in your Facebook newsfeed, what items do you see being promoted to you lately? 

[katlover1952]

Have not seen any items for a couple of weeks but I actually did see some of my own items this winter & spring a number of different times. Not all the same kinds of items lots of different items. Also saw some items in ad ad on the weather channel (some of my own & others - is this the promoted listings??)

One ad I am seeing on FB right now is for some type of cross selling business for eBay sellers where they will promote cross selling & send emails to your buyers etc for a few. Have you seen this one. I looked briefly at it but did not go as far as to check out the fees. With promoted listing , eBay & Paypal fees did not think I could afford any more fees!!

[kawartha-ephemera]

Have never liked or followed the ebay FB page but some months ago FB started serving ebay ads on my news feed... Sometimes my own listings, I took them up on their option to not show me that kind of thing. Surprisingly, I have not seen another ebay ad.

It is interesting how the "Traffic" stats often show dramatic spikes in outside eBay traffic. I wonder how much of it comes from FB.

[momcqueen]

Interesting.

Just this week I began to see my own items served to me in the ebay Canada ads, the ones that recently sold as part of multi-item listings or had offers pending but ebay has no way of knowing via Facebook that they are my ads specifically; I don't have a Facebook page for my business or anything. Therefore, I wonder if the Facebook app is able to communicate with the ebay app on my iphone. Or scours the router for IPs.

Of course, my Facebook newsfeed is already all about similar product lines I've liked a hundred times so it stands to reason that I'd be shown items such as this by ebay Canada. That the items were my own is what I found odd. 

I've not seen the one about cross-promoting. I don't think that offer is available to ebay.ca sellers, what little that I know about that offer makes me think it is exclusive to ebay.com sellers or users. 

[kawartha-ephemera]

Cell phone apps are notorious for tracking their users' habits.

Typically by default when we download an app and install it on our phones the app gives itself free access to just about everything... our email, texts, camera, browser, calendar, Phone calls, GPS etc.

So it's not all that difficult for the likes of Google and FB to track our habits and sell that info.

Ever go to the store and buy an item or maybe call or text someone about the item, then return home, logon to FB and there's an ad for the exact item you only just returned home from looking at?

Many users don't bother checking an app's permissions after installation , all but the bare bones permissions should be disabled. If the app insists on access to areas not required for the app's operation I won't install them.

[momcqueen]

I'm pretty careful about disallowing all permissions not critical to operation on the few apps that I use. Also, I don't utilize cloud services, siri, the mic or bluetooth and I'm never logged into apps that I'm not actively using. Still, there must be some logic behind me seeing my own listings featured on ebay Canada beyond that these product lines are the ones for which I shop and surf regularly. 

You'll never find me with an Alexa here, that's for sure. I'm probably the last person on earth with anything to hide but that kind of technology only serves to annoy me as a time-waster. And I do not need anyone to automatically order me more laundry detergent, I haven't completely lost my marbles, I think I can still do that for myself. 

[kawartha-ephemera]

I'm with you on the whole siri, alexa and cortana idea... seems silly plus I don't really want to have to watch what I say around my own house haha.

As for FB serving us our own ads, if ebay buys FB ads from time to time it might seem sensible to FB artificial intelligence to show us our own stuff.

After all, I know I tend to talk about, comment on, join groups that are related to subjects and categories that I enjoy and I my ebay listings also focus on the very same categories.

So perhaps FB notes my interests and uses their ebay ad revenue to show me my own stuff .... it does perfectly match up to my FB behaviour.
In a roundabout way it kind of almost makes sense ... except for the fact I'm not likely to buy from myself !!