Sponsored links downgraded, SIF upgraded
4/01/2008 at 13:50
In welcome news to sellers eBay have posted on the community forums that sponsored links will be moved below all eBay listings in the future.
In November eBay confirmed that sponsored links were here to stay but the placement was still under review. If they negatively impacted eBay sales they said they would “react quickly should we detect negative trends” and it appears that they have done.
The important part of the statement is “We have analysed the latest data and have come to the same conclusion as many of you: sponsored links should not appear above Shop Inventory Format (SIF) items. (As a reminder, SIF listings currently appear in core search results when there are 50 or fewer core results returned.) So from now on whenever any eBay listings are available in response to a user’s search (be it core auction or BIN listings, SIF listings, or listings from international sellers) these will be shown first. Sponsored links will appear only underneath eBay listings.”
Another bit of news gleaned from the statement is that SIF listings will appear below core search results if fewer than 50 items are returned. In the past SIF listings appear to have been displayed if only 30 core listings were displayed in search results. From now on sellers should notice more sales from shop listings from the increased visibility.
Kate says
6:31 pm on 04/01/2008
Thank goodness for that! It should have been obvious even to a 3 year old that sponsored links would negatively impact on sales – especially if as recently they have appeared at the bottom of the first page of results making buyers think that there aren’t any more listings.
Suz says
2:25 pm on 06/01/2008
Hurrah
About time,
At last eBay have noticed the number of peeps voting with their feet. One wonders, if this is too little too late to pacify some sellers
Only time will tell
Suz x
Sue Bailey says
5:32 pm on 06/01/2008
I don’t get to see most of the ads on .co.uk (I’m on the wrong server), but I’m hearing that sponsored links are still appearing between the eBay listings and the “next page” links – so it *still* looks like there is only one page of search results available. Is this correct?