eBay

a_c_green · ‎03-31-2024

Our local newspaper website subscribes to one of those two-bit advertising outfits that pastes random ads into the middle of news articles that you're trying to read, and in this case it was an ad for eBay, in a format that pairs two random listing images from random sellers (as far as I can determine) in the hopes that you'll click on one or the other of them.

I'm not going to clutter up the main page of the Selling group by adding a screenshot of the ad to this first post, so I'll add it in the first reply following here, and then we can try to guess what the ad software thought these two images had in common.

gloryglorygifts · ‎04-01-2024

Not quite the exposure I would be looking for but all righty then.......

my-cottage-books-and-antiques · ‎04-01-2024

@gloryglorygifts As I said, as a vintage seller, I'd prefer seeing some vintage items. But the reason there is so much click bait out there, whether it is scantily clad ladies or cute puppies, is because it is effective.

The item being sold is a legitimate item, found on the site. The woman is a legitimate film and TV actress and celebrity (in part because of her marriage to an even bigger celebrity, Tom Cruise). Would I buy it? No. And I doubt I'd buy the air horn either. But if I haven't been to ebay in a long time, and I see this as a reminder: "Oh yeah, ebay..." I might go to ebay.

So, no, neither of these two items would be my top choice for representing ebay's vast selection. But as the OP has noted, the ads seem to populate with different things. So again, to me, what is really "newsworthy" about this is not "Tut-tut-tut, look at that photo!" but " Hey, ebay has apparently quietly decided that confining their ads to the Focus Categories might not be such a good idea after all." So I have some hope that maybe ebay is going to finally realize that they need to market the SITE, not just the focus categories. We've had at least three Holiday Seasons with NO site advertising...I don't think that has helped me very much. So, I welcome non focus category ads.

ittybitnot · ‎04-01-2024

Hey, ebay has apparently quietly decided that confining their ads to the Focus Categories might not be such a good idea after all."

@my-cottage-books-and-antiques

I think eBay is quietly deciding to post ads for those that PAY to promote. In this instance likely PAY PER CLICK subscribers?

my-cottage-books-and-antiques · ‎04-01-2024

@ittybitnot Maybe so. Fine by me. It's still better than promoting only the focus categories.

a_c_green · ‎04-01-2024

@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:
So, no, neither of these two items would be my top choice for representing ebay's vast selection. But as the OP has noted, the ads seem to populate with different things.

Right; given enough time, the ad space repopulates by itself. I went back to that same news article this morning to see if the ads would load any differently this morning. They didn't, really, although this time Ms. Holmes was on the right and the horn was on the left. Both were genuine eBay listings, as it turned out (and the Katie Holmes photo has apparently sold 27 times at $9.95 a pop, and no, I don't want to know why).

Neither item has anything to do with me or the items I buy and sell on eBay, so I think that particular advertiser just starts with the most eye-candy/clickbait-y images they can find. If you want to see what images are served up to you, here's the link to the local news article (about an Easter Sunday fire at a popular local restaurant near us):

https://www.lakemchenryscanner.com/2024/03/31/4-injured-after-fire-erupts-inside-popular-restaurant-...

The eBay ads should pop up partway through the article, not in the usual clickbait junk at the bottom of the page.

ittybitnot · ‎04-01-2024

The eBay ads should pop up partway through the article,

@a_c_green

FWIW

I used your link and didn't see a single eBay add. At the start there were five that advertised how to refinish wood furniture or some such. These were in the news article. As time progressed some of these would morph into something else:

Some were for 'travel' (Expedia to dive locations in Mexico etc.) Others turned in to automobile ads, and Florida pre-paid tuition programs. I would suppose the ads (Ad Choice) are more targeted since I live in FL, am a scuba diver, and looking for a new ride...LOL.

retro_entertainment_collectibles · ‎04-01-2024

@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:
Agree with @richard1rst : the really interesting thing about this is : it is an ebay ad, and it is NOT tied to the focus categories---to me, that's very good news.

Both items are actually for sale on ebay (celebrity photos, such as this one, seem to be quite popular items on ebay).

As the OP notes, the selection appears to vary, and so I'm guessing it is is determined by an algorithm that may take into account (among other things) a viewer's history or the site's demographics, etc.

As an ebay vintage seller, would I be a lot happier if the ad displayed a couple of vintage items? Sure.

But evidently the ad is an attention getter as is. I'd be curious to know what other pairings ebay is displaying in that spot.

eBay no doubt farms out a firm or firms that manage web advertising and there are literal plethora's of algorithmic splendor towards targeting and not varieties of demographics.

In fact I dont know if some of them still exist but back when I was actively building websites and coding up Wordpress Plugin's there were a few applications that were open source code and free that were quite spectacular. One even included a advertising marketplace whereby one could wrangle deals with potential advertisers, other web sites benefiting from mutual exposure and more. I believe the client/server side applications were enterprise ready with at least one of them but not necessarily enterprise hosted by them per se.

a_c_green · ‎04-01-2024

@ittybitnot wrote:
I used your link and didn't see a single eBay add. At the start there were five that advertised how to refinish wood furniture or some such. These were in the news article. As time progressed some of these would morph into something else:

Some were for 'travel' (Expedia to dive locations in Mexico etc.) Others turned in to automobile ads, and Florida pre-paid tuition programs. I would suppose the ads (Ad Choice) are more targeted since I live in FL, am a scuba diver, and looking for a new ride...LOL.

That sounds about right; yes. This machine I'm on is probably loaded to the gills with eBay-related cookies, as it's used almost exclusively for eBay work, so I imagine the context-sensitive ads would lean heavily towards eBay stuff on this particular desktop.