eBayAdCommerce Blog

Thanks to all of you who attended our optimization webinar on April 6! “Get Results: Optimizing Your AdCommerce Campaigns” dug a little deeper into how to use the ROI Reporting feature, and we provided a number of tips and best practices on how to get the best possible return from your advertising investment.  If you missed the webinar or would like to take a second look, you can access the presentation here.

A few tips from the webinar:

• Ad campaigns aren’t something you should set and forget. We recommend checking in weekly or biweekly to see how your ads are performing, but monthly will work if you’re short on time.
• When you’re checking on your campaigns, step back and look at the big picture, going back a full 6 months.
• Look at the reporting both by keyword and by campaign to get a complete view of what’s working best.
• Take your best performing keywords and brainstorm 10 more variations for each. For example, “digital camera,” “SLR camera,” etc.
• Check eBay Pulse for daily updates on what people are searching for on eBay. 

We realize we covered a lot of ground, so we’ve included a detailed Q&A below to go back over your questions and answer any we missed. If you have additional questions you’re welcome to check out our help page or contact us here. 

Questions & Answers

What is ROI?

ROI stands for Return on Investment. It tells you how effective your advertising is by measuring the number of bids or items sold that result from clicks on your AdCommerce ads. ROI information is only available when your ad directs users to an eBay Site.

How can the new ROI reporting help me manage my AdCommerce campaigns?

ROI reporting gives you insight into what’s working for you, and what isn’t.  It helps you make decisions about how to most effectively focus your advertising spending.  Now you have the insight to expand your efforts and spend more on keywords that work, and cut out the keywords that aren’t profitable for you.

What are the ROI metrics available to me in the portal?

On the Reports tab in AdCommerce, there are 4 measurements captured: # of Bids, Items Sold, Sales Amount, and Sales/Cost. “# of Bids” is the number of Bids that came from users who clicked on your Ad. Similarly, “Items Sold” is the quantity of items sold as a result of clicks on your Ad.  “Sales Amount” is the total dollar value of the items sold as a result of clicks your Ad. “Sales/Cost” is the total amount of Sales divided by the total amount spent on advertising.  This number tells you how much you made in sales for every dollar you spent in advertising.  Use this to help understand the efficiency of your Advertising campaign.

Why does the BID/BIN column matter for ROI?

BID means the number of bids generated on your auctions.  BIN means the number of times an ad click led a user to click “Buy It Now” and complete a sale.  While BIN activity is easily measured (it’s the sales price received as a result of the ad click), the BID number is not as easily assigned a value.  Both BID/BIN together illustrate how effectively your advertising is working for you.  Driving ad clicks to your auctions means more bids and a higher closing price.  You’re exposing your auctions to users who may not have otherwise found it – thereby driving up demand.

Why can’t I see sales results immediately?

Two reasons.  You won’t see anything right away because data reporting lags a few hours.  Second, the window of time sales events may be associated to a click is 30 days.  For example, if a user clicked on an ad on Tuesday March 9 and then made a purchase from you on April 8, that sale would be counted toward the click on March 9.  This is why it’s important to take a 30+ day historical view of your account; all of today’s sales won’t be reported until 30 days from now.

Why do you say that results might not happen until 30 days later? 

The window of time sales events may be associated to a click is also referred to as latency.  Our ROI latency is the industry standard 30 days. 

How do I know if the ROI I have is good?

Each advertiser has to determine this for him or herself.  If your ROI (sales/cost ratio) is less than 1.0, you need some optimization within your account because you’re paying more for the ads than they are generating in gross sales.  You have to determine whether an ROI of 2.0 or 5.0 or 10.0 is the minimum acceptable ROI for you, based on the advertised product’s costs (the wholesale cost of the product, plus your other seller fees, etc.).

Does the ROI report display which items were sold through AdCommerce?

AdCommerce reporting does not identify specific purchases.  Once a user clicks on your ad, a sale is counted when the user buys anything from you – not necessarily the item featured in your ad.  For example, if your ad displays on the keyword “watches” and a user clicks, but she ends up buying earrings, a sale is counted and reported for keyword “watches.”

How far does the ROI data go back?

Six months.

I looked at my ROI and it is not meeting my objectives.  What should I do?

Don’t panic, it can be fixed.  Don’t delete or cancel your campaigns – just pause them (this will preserve the historical data).  Review the help section on ROI and implement changes to your campaigns to improve performance.  If you need help, you can reach us from within your AdCommerce account: click the “help” tab and click “contact us.”

We hope you found this Webinar and follow-up useful in optimizing your AdCommerce campaigns, look out for our next Webinar next month!

Happy Selling!

eBay AdCommerce team

Attention AdCommerce users: A quick heads-up for this week – due to a planned database maintenance, our Sales Reporting updates will be delayed starting Friday, April 23 at 6 p.m. Pacific Time.  Normal sales reporting updates will resume by the end of the day on Tuesday, April 27.    Please be assured no sales data will be lost during the scheduled maintenance.

We’re committed to providing the best possible platform and service to all of you, which occasionally requires us to take a quick time-out to work on the system. We apologize for any inconvenience and expect to be up and running with your reporting data on the 27^th, as planned.  If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us.

The AdCommerce Team

Last week we had the chance to spend several days meeting eBay sellers at the PESA/ECMTA Ecommerce Summit in Las Vegas. We learned a lot about what sellers are looking for in their pay-per-click advertising and got some great insights into how we can help more in the future. It’s always nice to meet in person and hear firsthand about your businesses, how you’re using AdCommerce, what’s working and where you’d like to have more support.

Our team will be going over your feedback in the coming weeks, so please keep it coming! You can contact us directly or follow us on Twitter (www.twitter.com/ebayadcommerce) and engage with us there.

If you were with us in Vegas, we hope you were able to catch the panel appearance by Alexis Van De Wyer, director of advertising for AdCommerce. Alexis talked about ways to better manage pay-per-click campaigns, and he offered tips to help sellers be more effective with their advertising, including three things to consider as you’re getting started:

1. Know your objectives: Think about whether you want to drive traffic to your store, your listings, by category, by product, etc.
2. Set your budget: Know what makes sense for your margins. Our ROI Reporting can help, because you can see exactly what you’re getting out of the dollars you’re investing and make changes accordingly.
3. Choose keywords carefully: Spend time finding the most relevant keywords for your business. Consider what words you use in your listings and be specific. If you need more help, consult the AdCommerce wizard for suggestions.

Here are some pictures from the ECommerce Summit – Enjoy!

ACommerce Booth

Alexis Van De Wyer speaking on the Pay-per-click panel

If you’re interested in catching us live again, our next trip is out to Dallas for eBay On Location, May 7-8. We’re looking forward to talking with sellers, learning about your businesses and hearing more feedback about AdCommerce. We’d love to see you there!

The AdCommerce Team

Next Tuesday, April 13, we’re heading out to Vegas for the Ecommerce Summit 2010, a great event for anyone who sells online. The conference is put on at the Flamingo Hotel & Casino by PeSA and the Ecommerce Merchants Trade Association, April 13-15.  They’ve organized a solid agenda of educational speakers and sessions, including a panel entitled, “Managing Your Pay-Per-Click Campaigns for Success,” which features our own Alexis Van De Wyer, director of advertising for eBay AdCommerce.

You might have gone into business for any number of reasons, but we’re guessing that learning how to advertise wasn’t one of them. Alexis and his co-panelist will break this down for you, offering tips and best practices to help you get your ad campaigns performing beyond your expectations. PeSA Australia founder and president Phil Leahy – eBay Australia’s No. 1 seller in 2007 and 2008 – will be moderating. The panel takes place at 4:15 p.m. on Wednesday, April 14, in the Community room. 

We’ll also have a team there to meet and talk with current and potential AdCommerce partners, so please stop by and see us! We’ll be heading over to the cocktail reception at the Harley-Davidson Cafe from 6 to 9 p.m. on Tuesday, and throughout the show we’ll be in booth #20 in the solution hall. Looking forward to seeing you there!

The AdCommerce Team

Our next webinar is quickly approaching!  If you’d like to find out how to get the most out of your AdCommerce ads, join us for “Get Results: Optimizing Your AdCommerce Campaigns” on Tuesday, April 6, at 11 a.m. PT/ 2 p.m. ET. You can sign up for the webinar here.

While it’s easy to get started with AdCommerce, it’s not always easy to figure out what works best with any type of advertising, and what could be changed. That’s where we come in, and that’s the idea behind this webinar. During the session we’ll be providing detailed instruction, optimization tips and best practices to help you become a more efficient and effective advertiser on eBay.

Our new ROI Reporting feature, which compares how ads are performing with how much an advertiser is spending, will be explored in more detail. Of course, you’re always welcome to visit our enhanced Help content for more ROI best practices to learn more about this new tool.  

Hope to see you at the webinar!

The AdCommerce Team