The other day we started experimenting with AuctionAds.com’s real-time, targeted eBay auction ads. What I didn’t realize was that I could supply any keyword in the AuctionAds (AA) code so that the keyword would generate eBay ad links in real-time as the AA ads were served. So, I was setting up individual ads in their campaign manager for 1978 Ford Bronco, 1979 Ford Bronco, 1980 Ford Bronco, etc. I was testing the ranges of years that Ford Broncos, Ford Excursions, and Ford Crown Victorias were in production (70’s, 80’s, and early 90’s). This mean for a lot of ads and a very time-consuming setup process.

Then I read about their WordPress plug-in. All this was was a way to allow WordPress users to dynamically insert keywords into the AA ad code. This provided even more relevant ads for bloggers because they could provide keywords that were relevant to the post/article they were writing.

So, we did something similar on SuperMotors. Instead, we dynamically insert targeted keywords based on the year/make/model or make/model of a registry entry, album section, or individual image or video posted by our user (you may need to scroll down on a couple of these links to see the AA ads). This eliminated my need to individually setup ads in our AA account, so I simply created a global campaign in our account that these targeted ads would run under. Targeted ads (on SuperMotors) have always outperformed generic ads by leaps and bounds with our visitors. Since the automotive crowd are generally heavy eBay’ers, we are hoping with this tighter, more strategic integration of ads throughout the site, that we see increased click-through rates and revenue.

High Click-through Rate (CTR)
We are pleased with the 1.55% CTR thus far during our test. Now that we have an expanded implementation of AA ads, we’ll see more impressions (and presumably a slight drop in CTR). Regardless, due to the highly-relevant ads, the CTR of 1.55% is much higher than Google (which ranges from 0.10-0.15% CTR on a daily basis for us). Many of the automotive items are higher-ticket items, so we should also see a fairly decent revenue share on items sold.

More updates on AuctionAds.com as we get further into the month.