Blasphemy at eBay
What with all the exciting stuff going on in the Web world of late — Google (GOOG) laying a rare earnings turd, Facebook becoming the next Google, Yahoo (YHOO) losing altitude fast — a morsel from eBay’s (EBAY) earnings call last week was undereported. CEO Meg Whitman, vowing to rejuvenate eBay.com’s core listings, promised to market more offline. She also commented briefly on eBay’s recent spat with Google. Consider this from the New York Times:
Last month, eBay temporarily stopped buying keyword advertising on Google, the Web’s largest search engine. EBay said the suspension did not have had significant effect on its bottom line. “We learned a great deal from that test,” Ms. Whitman said. “It actually had no impact on the financials of the quarter, and we learned a lot about where we want to spend money and where we think we can save money on Internet marketing.”
Think about that. eBay, once and perhaps still Google’s largest advertiser, saying that perhaps online advertising isn’t all it’s cracked up to be anymore. That’d be fine, say, if Procter & Gamble (PG) decided it had had enough of this newfangled form of advertising. But not eBay, an Internet pioneer. Internet advertising taking a back seat to offline marketing? The horror, the horror.
Ebay should discourage sellers from charging too much for shipping. As a consumer a lot of times I would like to buy something there and see the shipping cost is ridiculous. So I just don’t get the item.
eBay has lost my interest as it now is a main retail outlet rather than the home-grown garage sale site it use to be. All the offers are now slick and clean, you can’t find any deals anymore because most of the sellers are now professional retailers.
Google’s paid searches make a joke of their entire premise — at the expense of the fools that think Pay-Per-Click is a worthwhile marketing tool. Oh, PuHLeeZe!
Add me, my husband, and all of our eBay clients to the list of those who think eBay should STOP purchasing keyword advertising, once and for all.
It’s even more ironic (as well as really sad) when you consider the fact that Keyword Spamming violates eBay policies…but eBay is doing so virtually and virtually at their own expense~{{:<}~!!!
Mike: you need to get your facts straight, please.
eBay doesn’t encourage Sellers to overcharge for shipping.
In fact, excessive shipping charges are considered to be a form of fees circumvention because the Seller is taking profit from those charges rather than from the Final Value of the item sold. eBay makes its money by taking a percentage of that final value fee. Penalties for Fee Circumvention include having your listings pulled, loss of PowerSeller status, and temporary or even permanent suspension.
We’ve successfully concluded ±13,000 eBay transactions as Buyers — and so far, all of our Sellers have been 100% honest.
Yes, we’ve encountered our share of dishonesty and/or scam auctions…but we just report those Sellers’ listings, we don’t bid on or buy them!
Shop wherever you prefer, but always remember: Caveat Emptor — Let the Buyer Beware. Especially when shopping online, at eBay or elsewhere.
There simply isn’t anything of interest to buy on ebay anymore. I was buying about $1000/mo., but now I find it cheaper/faster elsewhere. Most good sellers have set up their own web sites. Ebay encourages sellers to charge too much for shipping. Ebay is non-existent when a buyer gets taken by the ever increasing number of dishonest sellers.
EBay may or may not benefit this move in long-term. It is now grown up and would take care of its own brand. The rest of e-world however, still needs a G to breath. Not everybody would rely on its own brand name for sales without G’s help and G is not going to cease bringing dots back / to life because of a single sad divorce.
seriously, google ads are annoying and I know that if i see one that I will be paying more for what I need, or will get spamed by some phishing company. I don’t click Google ads, also, with Ebay charging as much as they do, new auction houses are opening where the people make money! Take for example, cashback, you can go to http://www.hawgtions.cashbackauctions.com and list up to 1000 items for $19.99 and NEVER EVER have to pay for extra crap, Ebay’s days are numbered with or without google pay for ads if they don’t change their ways, that is the real story here.
Wow… hilarious column. I’m buying and selling more than even on ebay, and not once have I ever decided to go to the site based on a banner ad. Google is all smoke and mirrors, and I think the end is near for the largest HYPE company to be created since the dot com bust.
I’d be curious to see how many new Ebay users are actually buying anything.
If I was Meg Whitman, instead of paying millions to Google I would give that money back to ebay users as coupons or prizes. Then everyone would be flocking to ebay and ebay could be making money from sponsored links!!
Like junkies, many believe the hype, but more like junk mail, in tangible USPS form, most internet ads end up like junk mail - in the trash of oblivion, 97% of the time. We could lower tax rates for the middle class if taxed advertising and political contributions at, 38%…AGREED???
Well, I am not surprised. It’s been two and a half years we have stopped our small scale (30.000/40.000$ year) Google Adwords campaign, as well as a similar Overture/Yahoo one.
Our ads were very specifically targeted, the click through rate was adequate, we were relatively early adopters… but after tracking visits and conversion very precisely for a couple of months, I noticed we were just barely breaking even most of the time and we were losing significantly as soon as someone (either a competitor or a webmaster) engaged in click fraud.
Of course, there are many factors that come into play, such as actual keywords costs vs actual margin on the product sold. I never thought my small scale experience would was the only and final truth on “keyword advertising”. But I am definitely not surprised.
Did we really need a link to a synopsis of the Heart of Darkness? I mean really?
What eBay learned was they had an idiot on their staff that bought the most ridiculous keywords and keyword combinations known to man. Of course they didnt see a drop in hits by eliminating words like broken light bulb, dirty rag, etc.
If it has no impact then why did they resume buying ads unless she likes giving money away???
Especially since most of eBay’s Marketplace revenue growth is coming from Advertising (Yahoo, Google ads, Shopping.com and Classifieds)
Seems quite odd doesn’t it?
Sure, it’s a fair point… but you have to look at where they have spent much of their advertising dollars in the past. “Buy Mormons @ Ebay”, “Buy Air @ Ebay” etc.
In many cases the ads are at best poorly targetted, and at worst either amusing or insulting. The broad brush approach obviously costs money but makes enough to remove the need to improve the copy and keywords targetted. Perhaps simply switching off G brought this to the attention of the money guys.
Ask eBay sellers their opinion! A noticeable drop off in page views and sales for auctions. As usual with eBay, save a $1 lose $10 for the sellers.
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Wall Street watchers think of capital markets and financial players out west as being on the "other" coast. That's not how it's viewed in the Pacific time zone. From the venture capitalists of Sand Hill Road to the bond kingpins of Orange County to the corporate finance department at a certain software company in Redmond, Wash., there's plenty going on "out there." Adam Lashinsky should know. A native of Chicago, he has covered West Coast finance for a decade, with an emphasis on money matters in Silicon Valley. If it involves money and it's happening west of the Mississippi, look for it in Go West. 
I buy and sell on ebay. They key is shopping around on the site to find the seller that has the item you want the cheapest. Always check shipping or ask before you buy, if not your an idiot.
As a seller, shipping costs have increased. I no longer ship international due to high rates. I charge domestic by package weight via USPS, yet people still complain. Unless you sell a very high amount of items each day, seller profit margins are very low.