eBayAdCommerce Blog

It’s no secret that advertising with AdCommerce is getting more competitive, and we’ve been getting a lot of mail from new users wondering how to make sure their ads and campaigns are good enough to be displayed. With that in mind, here’s a list of DOs and DON’Ts which will ensure that not only will you get displayed on AdCommerce, you’ll get the most out of your money. You’ll need a smart bid, a smart ad, and smart targeting.

Bidding DOs and DON’Ts

In terms of Bidding, the first things you’ll need are a competitive CPC bid and a solid daily budget. Here’s how to figure them out:

• DO use the reporting features of AdCommerce to monitor your ad’s average position in the AdCommerce box (Avg Pos). An Avg Pos of 1 means you have the top spot in the box; 5 means you’re on the bottom.
• DO set your Daily Budget at or above 20 times the amount of your highest CPC bid to ensure that your ad will be served.
• DON’T set your Daily Budget any lower than that, or our server will choose not to serve your ad to avoid busting your budget.
• DON’T assume you need a sky-high bid to show up; enter an amount you’re really comfortable paying, and read on to find tips for increasing its effectiveness.

Ad Quality DOs and DON’Ts

Although Bidding is critical to making sure your ad is displayed, it’s not just a question of money. Buyers respond to the quality of the ads they’re seeing, and AdCommerce takes that very seriously. We will take decisive action against an ad if we decide it’s irrelevant or misleading, but we’ll also give a boost to well-crafted, relevant ads- giving you more impressions for the same bid. Here’s how:

• DO ensure that your ad is informative. Good info can include item descriptions, price points, or any special offers such as free shipping that buyers would want to be aware of.
• DO use an appealing image, which is specific and relevant to the item you’re selling; images of the product are always better than logos.
• DO use Keyword Insertion to increase relevance and raise your Click-Through Rate.
• DO read the Ad Quality Guidelines to make sure all your ads are compliant.
• DON’T use profanity or suggestive language/images.
• DON’T advertise eBay-prohibited items.
• DON’T employ empty phrases like “click here!” or “buy now!”

Any of the DON’Ts can lead to your ad being given a status of Terms Violation, which means they won’t show up on the site. We use automatic ad reviews, human ad reviews, and user reports to ensure that we don’t let any Terms Violations by us, but also to give boosts to great ads we’d like to see more of.

Targeting DOs and DON’Ts

The final thing you should do is make sure your ad is targeted correctly. Just like we give a boost for a high-quality ad, we boost ads that are well-targeted, meaning that some effort went in to finding the best Keywords and Categories to display the ad on. Making the Keywords and Categories relevant to your ad is a great way to reach the best potential customers. Here are some targeting tips:

• DO ask yourself whether a buyer would find the ad relevant to the keyword or category they’re searching on. Consider whether your landing page fits naturally with the user’s search.
• DO use the Keyword Recommendation Tool to automatically generate a list of keywords relevant to your eBay listings. (Word to the wise: this is especially effective when paired with Keyword Insertion.)
• DO make sure the categories you pick are within the same metacategory as your product.
• DO create different ads for different products or stores.
• DON’T spam! Spamming means doing things like bidding on keywords that have nothing to do with your product just because they’re popular, or bidding on every eBay category.
• DON’T bid on categories that are only quasi-related to your product in order to attract “browsing” customers; please trust the buyers to know what they are looking for.

As with the ads themselves, use of targeting DON’Ts will result in your keywords and categories receiving a Terms Violation status. Use of the DOs, however, will result in a helpful boost from our review team.

So if your ads aren’t showing up, or you’ve received any Terms Violation notices on your keywords, categories, or ads, make sure to follow all of the DOs above in order to get your ads onto the network, avoid deactivation, and get the most ad value for your money!