Last August, eBay announced an agreement with Google which allows select international market sites (including eBay Canada) to display Google text ads on Search results. (Please read our previous announcement.) Soon, we’ll begin a testing period in which our teams will be experimenting with the display of Google text ads on certain Search results pages to learn what works best for the eBay marketplace.

While eBay has vast amounts of inventory, there are still many instances when a Search query will not return with any relevant listings. We’ll be testing ad placements at the bottom of these null search results pages, as a way to improve the buyer experience in these situations. We’ll also be testing other placements on a limited number of other search results pages, too, when we know there is a high likelihood that the search will not result in a bid or purchase.

As a result of a similar agreement between Yahoo! and eBay.com in the US, our teams have done a significant amount of testing and analysis with text ads over the last several months. We will be leveraging what we’ve learned as we begin to test with Google ads. Our number one concern is ensuring that the changes we make are right for our sellers and buyers. As we test, we’ll be monitoring the impact of any changes carefully, as well as listening to your input.

Testing with shopping.com ads, too
As you might be already aware, several sites including DE, UK, FR, AT, and AU have been running similar tests with ads for shopping.com, eBay’s own price comparison site. Preliminary results are very encouraging and we will likely extend this test over the course of February. Over the next few weeks, you may see either Google or Shopping.com ads on the site as we continue our testing.