EBay To Help Advertisers Target Mobile Consumers

By Christine Kern, contributing writer

EBay to Serve In-App Ads on Mobile Devices

According to MarketWatch, eBay will begin to run ads in its mobile app in this year's fourth quarter, to help advertisers target consumers on both smartphones and tablets.

The online market place has always had a strong presence in the mobile space. According to Stephen Howard-Sarin, head of display advertising at eBay, its shopping app has generated more than 200 million downloads, and it has about 4.6 million visitors on a daily basis. Its major drawback has been in its in-app advertising capabilities.

"We wanted to extend our advertising to mobile. And we wanted to open up this treasure chest for advertisers to target eBay consumers," says Howard-Sarin.

Howard-Sarin explains that this initiative is not an ad network, despite some reports to the contrary.  Rather, he explains, it is "advertising in eBay's owned and operated property," and the "mobile ad program" will not extend to non-eBay affiliated apps.

To use eBay's shopping app,  users need to enter the same single login used across all devices, enabling advertisers to better tailor ads. Login data will be gathered by the company's in-house data management platform to monitor user activities, recording consumers' past purchases, most recent searches, and what they are browsing for.

"EBay has a vast reach, so the execution will determine the success," says Ben Reubenstein, chief executive officer (CEO) of digital agency POSSIBLE Mobile. "Digital ads often lack innovation. Banners on mobile web and native iOS or Android feel dated. So if they can bring the consumer data and deliver the ads in a non-intrusive, engaging manner that leads to conversion, then they will succeed."

And the average eBay app user spends 150 minutes per month on the app, three times any longer than the average use time of any other app. An EBay executive is quoted as saying the company is not worried advertising will drive its app users away.

EBay is working with Triad Retail Media to place the mobile ads, in a revenue-sharing arrangement in which EBay will receive a larger portion of the revenues.

Ebay's Howard-Sarin believes that the mobile initiative will be complementary to the company's growing online advertising business.