EBay Announces Upcoming In-App Mobile Advertising

EBay has announced plans to launch an advertising network for its mobile app in this year’s final quarter, which has created an instant buzz among marketers who will have a new avenue to reach the app’s approximately 4.6 million daily users.

In the announcement, the company briefly described this exciting development. “Now, for the first time, we’re giving you the opportunity to connect with eBay users throughout their entire shopping journey,” wrote eBay on its website. “eBay mobile advertising will be a native experience, beautifully integrated into the eBay app.”

The website announcement explained that eBay is a leader in m-commerce, with $20 billion in mobile commerce generated in 2013 and 260 million (and counting) global app downloads. Additionally, the announcement says that eBay mobile users spend three times the amount of time on eBay compared to its nearest competitor, thereby illustrating that its users are highly engaged.

The website says that eBay can place advertisements across multiple mobile devices, including smartphones and tablets, and that the company is working with St. Petersburg, Fla.-based Triad Retail Media to place the ads.

EBay’s head of display advertising, Stephen Howard-Sarin, explained in an interview that the new network will provide marketers with the ability to more accurately target their advertising since the app requires a login, meaning that eBay knows about users’ activity within the app. The potential for marketers is massive. “We know what these people bought, what they looked for, what they want to buy,” said Howard-Sarin. “We know exactly who the users are, so we know that the targeting will be relevant.” Howard-Sarin said that eBay has lined up Berkshire Hathaway’s Geico Insurance unit as one of the first advertisers, but declined to name any other participants at this point.

The in-app ad product will be added to eBay’s current offerings, which include programmatic programs on eBay sites and via its private ad exchange, which leverage its audience data for targeting, as well as off-site advertising via an ad network of desktop and mobile sites and apps. The addition of native-style mobile ad inventory is going to allow eBay to offer advertisers comprehensive exposure to users across eBay properties, whether users are logged in on the web, on the mobile web or on the mobile app. Since eBay’s ad targeting relies on account logins rather than cookies, it can target and track users across all devices using first-party data.

While other sites already provide these types of capabilities, marketers will be interested in exploring the potential on eBay considering its massive scale and usage, and the latest in-app mobile advertising offering will very likely appeal greatly to brands who want to reach mobile consumers in a buying mindset.

EBay’s announcement ends with, “Reach your ideal audience anytime, anywhere and on any device,” and considering the power of the company’s reach, it’s highly probable that a wide variety of marketers will soon be utilizing this new ad product to its full potential.