eBay Partner Network Tips from The Source
The eBay Partner Network is the new affiliate manager of eBay. And the eBay Partner Network blog is up and running providing eBay network affiliates with timely information about how to optimize their affiliate sites and drive quality traffic to eBay.
Apparently eBay has determined that a great deal of the traffic which was derived from Commission Junction affiliates prior to the switch to the eBay Partner network was of low quality. To eBay this is an issue because if a buyer is driven to the site from a link or a page totally unrelated to eBay or any product on eBay to which the buyer had no intention or interest in when they clicked an eBay affiliate link. Obviously people who follow links such as those described above will not be engaged or interested in buying anything and simply click back off the site.
We have all seen and been the unwitting victim of these links on sites which are simply built to scrape traffic and send it to wherever the site owner thinks he/she could make the most affiliate commission. eBay is very interested in making sure there sites are no longer part of their affiliate network.
eBay wants more product oriented informational sites within the eBay Partner Network. Sites with up to date content related to the products promoted via affiliate links.
One such site (full disclosure the site is designed by iBusinessLogic.com) which we believe provides the kind of quality traffic generation eBay is looking for.
FavoriteTeamwear.com is a NASCAR focused website blog which provides unique and interesting content related to the sport and offers merchandise and apparel from several sources including eBay.
The web visitors to FavoriteTeamwear.com are not tricked into following links to merchandise, when they choose to follow a product link it is very obvious the item they are viewing is for sale. The site also provides more than a simple place for people to find NASCAR or Sprint Cup merchandise. Keith Bloemendaal writes topical and interesting articles about the sport and current events relating to NASCAR. This content is what brings viewers and the content is the primary focus of the site. This is what we believe the eBay Partner Network is looking for in its affiliates.
For more information about what eBay expects from its affiliates in the new era of the eBay Partner Network read the latest post on their blog below, or drop on over to the eBay Partner Network blog
Tips for Sending Engaged Buyer Traffic to eBay Sites
September 5th, 2008
As many of you are aware, last week we made the decision to expire a small
number of affiliates from eBay Partner Network, because the traffic they were
sending to eBay was in the lowest tier of the program for quality and did not
generate enough engagement with the site. We had a lot of dialogue with our
current affiliates on our discussion boards after the action, so wanted to use
this as an opportunity to further open our lines of communication moving
forward.
Our philosophical approach at eBay Partner Network is to pay generous
commissions for quality traffic that drives incremental buying activity on eBay,
i.e., purchases that occurred due to the affiliate’s actions. Thus, we’ve
looked closely at how engaged the traffic is from our affiliates and in the
interest of eBay’s sellers and the overall health of the program, we made the
decision to expire a small number of affiliates who were driving the least
engaged traffic. Moving forward, should we notice that any affiliate is driving
low quality traffic according to our metrics, our goal is to provide help in
improving the affiliate’s site(s) before taking any action such as
expiration.
In the interest of helping you maximize the impact of the traffic you drive
to eBay, and enjoying in the financial benefits, we also wanted to re-post some
of the tips from our board posts which some folks found to be very helpful.
What does “engagement” mean?
“Engagement” is how we look at a user’s experience on eBay once directed via
an affiliate link. Among other metrics, we look at the time that users spend on
eBay, the number of pages that they view, and their bidding and buying activity
after coming through an affiliate link. For example, a user who visits eBay and
then leaves the site immediately is not “engaged”, whereas a user who comes and
browses the site and places a bid or makes a purchase is highly “engaged.”
Can affiliates affect engagement and conversion?
Definitely and there can be a big difference in performance on these metrics
between affiliates. To illustrate the point with an extreme example, a site that
helps potential buyers find and research stereo receivers and then points them
to great deals on eBay will drive more engaged buyers with better conversion
rates than an eBay banner on a ringtone site. Also, a user is far more likely
to be engaged if they knew prior to the click that they were going to be driven
to eBay.
How can affiliates improve engagement from their sites?
Many of you are already using these techniques and others, but for those who
may not be, here are some tips to improve engagement.
- Maximize the amount of unique content to your site. Create commerce-oriented
content for your site that engages the user in the shopping experience.
Conversely, avoid putting eBay affiliate ads on pages that have little to do
with shopping – e.g. ringtone sites, non-commerce oriented social network sites,
e-mail services, etc. Also, sites that do little other than offer links to
redirect to eBay generally don’t perform well and remember to always make it
clear on the affiliate links that they will be redirected to eBay to shop
- Use more targeted creatives and tools. If all you have is a simple text link
to eBay or a static eBay banner ad on your site, consider using one of our flash
creatives. Use what you know about your users and your content, so consider
using our banners targeted to specific demographics (e.g. male vs. female) or
categories. Also, consider using our Editor Kit and eBay To Go (US only)
widgets, which can be customized to show specific eBay listings for a given
category or keyword right on your page.
- Integrate eBay links within your content. Sites that find a way to work eBay
advertising into the content, rather than just as a simple ad at a top, side, or
bottom of a page, tend to perform better.
- Optimize your landing pages. Use what you know about your users to help them
find what they want on eBay. If your site is about tennis rackets, avoid landing
your users on the eBay homepage, and instead send them to a search results page
on eBay for targeted tennis queries.
- Use our geotargeting functionality. Sending a visitor on your site who is
from the UK to ebay.co.uk (our British site) rather than ebay.com (our US site),
will significantly improve conversion rates and engagement. You can select this
option when you’re generating eBay links in the “tools” tab.
- >Avoid simply incentivizing visits to eBay or registration with eBay –If you
are going to give your users cash back or points, tie those rewards to actual
valid purchases on eBay. If you incentivize visits or sign up, a user’s primary
motivation is typically not browsing or purchasing from eBay, so their value to
us is low.
How can affiliates test & improve their performance?
- Set up specific campaigns to test out any new sites, links, content, etc.,
and ideally, test these new approaches in smaller volumes than your overall
traffic. This way you will be able to evaluate the performance of each new
campaign separately, ramp up the ones that perform the best, and prune the ones
that don’t perform.
- Leverage the custom ID reports to further segment your testing. In an
upcoming release, additional category reporting will be made available that will
help you identify at campaign, tool, and program levels the categories whose
traffic is most likely to convert into sales, which will help you further
optimize your content and affiliate links.
Lastly, as we have set high standards for the program, we are also taking
this into account as we screen new registrations. We are committed to growing
the number of quality affiliates in the program, and we want to make sure our
newest partners can meet those expectations. As a result going forward we are
paying close attention to all aspects of applications – especially the
descriptions of affiliates’ business models and URLs that affiliates are
planning on sending traffic from. If you are interested in applying, please
keep this in mind as you fill out your application.
We hope you find this communication helpful and wanted to thank you for your
work in driving great traffic to eBay. We remain committed to working with you
to continue to build and strengthen eBay Partner Network.
The eBay Partner Network Team
