By claiming that paid search is largely “ineffective,” eBay has attracted a lot of attention and buzz with media outlets repeating the findings.
Anyone who isn’t familiar with eBay’s history of throw-it-at-the-wall-and-watch-what-happens paid search advertising strategy may be able to take the company’s final release of a report that first made the rounds last year at face value. Those familiar with eBay’s paid search efforts (i.e., “Bid on Cancer now”) have taken the study with a grain of salt, if not discounted it outright.
The problem isn’t with the research or testing, it’s the fact that the study relies on eBay’s paid search campaigns and then proceeds to extrapolate the findings to the effectiveness of paid search for large brands in general– as if eBay’s paid search results are a proxy for all major brands.
A look at the historical ad archive in SEMRush provides a sampling of the types of keywords eBay’s ads were showing on and the Dynamic Keyword Insertion at work in both the ad headlines and ad copy in 2012, when the study took place. (Note that SEMRush displays archived ads the way they would appear today with the yellow “Ad” icon.)
These ads below — for Winning Lotto Numbers, Scanners Police, Pink Roses In A Vase and Base Ball Babe Ruth — are from the January 2012 archive.
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