eBay is reintroducing ads on its app in the second half of 2014, letting brands target users on tablets and smartphones, after a two year break from the format.
eBay’s app has notched up 260m global downloads so far, representing a huge, highly engaged market that has not been fully tapped by mobile marketing.
As part of the announcement that it was returning to the world of mobile ads, eBay emphasised the large amount of user data it has access to, stating: “eBay is one of the world’s largest online marketplaces with more than 149m active users driving nearly $75bn (£46bn) in sales volume in 2013. As on of the only ad-targeting platforms to naturally possess first-part data, we have enormous insight into user interests and intent based on actual shopping and purchase behaviour.”
The new platform will employ cross-device targeting, leveraging eBay’s single, universal login to track users across channels without the need for cookies. It will also offer programmatic buying, and off-site solutions, and promises to be a ‘native experience’, with ads designed to fit in with the existing aesthetic of the app.