Throwing eBay’s rattle out of Google’s pram
by Sue Bailey
So, the Google story. Because this all kicked off while I was slogging from Brittany to Boston via Gatwick and Minnesota (and we’ll save that horror story for another post), I missed much of the to and fro. However, the BBC itself is now covering the story, which goes something like this. Google advertised a “let freedom ring” party in Boston, to coincide with the keynote speech last night. eBay pulled all their advertising from Google: they’re Google’s biggest customer, spending an estimated US$25million a year on keywords.
eBay’s spokesman Hani Durzy said that this was “part of an ongoing experiment to look at how we market across all media channels”, though he admitted that eBay were disappointed in the Google party plans: “we don’t view that kind of activity as an appropriate activity for one partner to do to another.”
Though the party was, in the end, cancelled, eBay’s paid ads are (at time of writing) still missing from Google. Normally affiliates would step into the breach, but as of June 1st, eBay.com affiliates were no longer allowed to use paid search advertising. While eBay and Google have their hissy fits, this is costing sellers visibility, and more importantly, money.
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Don’t be too hasty: this may prove to be an inspired move from eBay. We’ll see. eBay IS a big player, and it’s good to flex a bit of muscle vs the evil Google monster.
And from an eBay.co.uk point of view with google.co.uk the situation hasn’t changed, as I understand. The best of every world.
Hi Sue!
I’ve talked to two separate sellers who experienced drops of 40% and 80% in sales the day the Google ads were pulled. While it is certainly different for every seller sellers are feeling the pinch from eBay’s rash move.
[...] Advertising Age report that eBay’s high profile pulling of their paid Google ads last week has had little effect on their traffic. Figures from Hitwise reveal that: [...]
[...] In a Bloomberg TV interview aired on Independence day (Sounds a bit like Freedom!) Meg Whitman revealed that eBay may eventually use Google Checkout if more people are satisfied with the service! [...]
[...] Finally a mention… so what happened when eBay ran a “routine test” to withdraw advertising spend on Google and redeploy the funds on other sites such as Yahoo, MSN and ASK? Well it had no effect on the quarters performance and they gained valuable insights into redeploying spend on other sites. eBay are spending on Google again but will be spreading their advertising thinner in future both online and offline. [...]