Online auction giant eBay has today announced the soft launch of a new self-serve advertising product, helping local services and independent traders reach targeted audiences.
According to the platform, small business owners such as plumbers, hairdressers, DJs and cleaners will be able to serve their own ads on the platform and offer their services to potential customers in their local area.
By inviting local businesses to advertise, eBay is promising access to its wealth of data and insights on customer search and purchase behaviour.
By showing users ads for services relevant to products they are viewing, eBay hopes to generate more leads and sales for traders through improving the customer experience.
Commenting on the launch of eBay Local Services Ads, project lead Bert Bassett said: “eBay wants to become a marketplace for services as well as products – and we think that this is a great place to start.
“Our Local Services Ads will particularly help small service-based businesses to use our inventory to target local, relevant customers. And crucially, we’re helping them reach users when they’re already in a buying mood, and when we know they’re in the market for a particular service, to deliver maximum ROI.”
Small business owners will be able to advertise by signing up to the eBay Local Services Ads website. Users will have the option to upload their own ads to the self-serve platform, or alternatively use a standard native format supplied by eBay.
They will be able to choose who they want to target, segmenting their audience by product category and searched keywords on eBay, as well as by location and various demographic categories. Users can then choose where on eBay they want their ad placed, and will have access to a detailed FAQ, tutorial videos and webinars, and will be able to contact support services online with any questions.
eBay Advertising is currently offering a £50 discount on first-time orders over £70. Traders can access the discount by using the promo code “JUNE50”, valid until June 20 2018.
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