eBay Announces June is Traffic Month – Insights on How Sellers Can Grow Their Business

eBay announces June is Traffic Month, a month’s worth of insights on how sellers can partner to drive traffic to their listings and connect buyers with what they’re selling.

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Over the next month, sellers will find helpful content across eBay for Business Facebook, podcast, YouTube, and on its announcement board, including chats with eBay leaders and sellers, and more.

Sellers who have questions can share them in Community, and eBay says they will address the top trending questions in Week 5.

What is “Traffic”?

eBay believes one of the benefits of selling on its platform is the 174 million buyers and millions of more potential customers the company platform supports and works to keep them coming back.

Traffic is the number of users who visit the site organically or because of its marketing efforts.

eBay says it focuses on new and repeat customers who they think have a higher likelihood of buying on eBay. Using its own and third-party data, the company targets its marketing to higher-potential buyers.

How Does eBay Find The Right Traffic?

eBay told the world that small businesses are open and selling on eBay.  This is especially important during this transition in the economy as more people are stuck at home looking for products to buy online.

Public relations plays an important role in amplifying the news. Also, eBay says it spends tens of millions of dollars every month getting the word out through paid media and owned channels.

What Channels Does eBay Use?

To bring in the right traffic and convert them to buyers, eBay mostly uses a targeted approach via digital marketing.

It believes the best investment of the company’s marketing dollars is using them to put eBay and its seller’s listings at the most critical moments of customers’ shopping journey

Digital Advertising

• eBay uses digital advertising formats like web banners, the mini ads that play before YouTube videos (which have the visual impact of TV, plus the advantage of being able to link to the site) and online radio ads on platforms like iHeartRadio (which drive awareness).
• The company targets digital ads to customers who will have the highest likelihood of buying on eBay, including previous ecommerce shoppers and people interested in certain items and categories.

Search engine marketing

• When shoppers search for products using sites like Google, Yahoo, and Bing, eBay listings show up in those search engines’ results, in places like Google Shopping.
• eBay says it spends millions of dollars optimizing search results and paying for text and listing ads to show up.
• Sellers pay nothing for this additional exposure from eBay, unlike with some other selling platforms. Week 2 of Traffic Month will focus on Google Shopping, including how to ensure seller listings show up.

Social media

• With nearly 13  million followers, eBay’s social media channels provide extraordinary access to shoppers interested in the brand at a very low cost.
• eBay says it uses organic and paid social media ads for two primary reasons. 1) To target broad audiences with more general promotional or marketing messages. 2) To target specific customers who have shown interest in specific items or categories.
• Week 3 of Traffic Month will talk more about how sellers can leverage this powerful channel to drive traffic to their listings.

Email marketing

• eBay claims it sends around 650M targeted emails each week tailored to customers’ viewing and shopping habits.
• The company also sends targeted emails encouraging customers to take another look at listings they’ve shown interest in.

Onsite marketing

• Once traffic has reached the site, eBay needs to convert browsers into buyers by surfacing what they are looking for or providing inspiration for items they may like.
• eBay has a number of banners across the site they can target and personalize to different buyer segments and shoppable special interest pages it creates for seasonal moments, like the Fourth of July.
• The company also incentivizes additional buying through programs like eBay Bucks, PayPal Credit offers, eBay Mastercard, and coupons.

eBay Seller Benefits and How to Learn More

One of the biggest benefits of digital marketing is how quickly it is possible for eBay to see results from the promotional efforts.

The company can determine which channel performs best, then make quick decisions to optimize how it spends marketing dollars.

For a deeper understanding of eBay’s marketing efforts, eBay posted this week’s Traffic Month interview with the company’s Head of Marketing, Andrea Stairs on its podcast. The interview is also available to watch on Youtube.