Ask HN: Market to ebay sellers

[devcom]

Hi,

First, some context: I launched my web app a few days ago. My target market is eBay sellers. My app is a tool for them to find out which products are the most popular at the moment.

The Problem: No one has clicked on my ad. Not 1 person! Now I'm no marketeer, but I am extremely motivated to learn! I decided that the best way to target my market is to use facebook. I've used the parameters People over 25 who have liked eBay. And I created a cliche ad trying to attract people who like making money. Here is a pic http://devcomsystems.com.au/fb_ad.png . One constraint on the ad is you are not allowed to use the word "eBay". FB have already suspended one account because of this.

The question: How do you effectively market to eBay sellers? What are my best paths? How do you construct a good ad?

Hopefully other keen learners can pick something up from this if we treat it as a case study. Hope you can help HN!

Best Regards,

Peter

[ScottWhigham]

I think you are seeing what so many people have learned through the years of Facebook advertising: when people are on Facebook, their "mental state" is "goofing off, catching up with friends, and just blowing off steam". What you are advertising is work - which is always going to be hard for your audience to switch back into. Advertisers like Coca-Cola, Budweiser, Crown Royal - those are advertising "goofing off, catching up with friends, and just blowing off steam" thus their CTR/effectiveness is going to always be massively higher than "work" related ads: they are matching the mindset of the audience. When those companies advertise in another medium ("Fortune" magazine, for example), they will certainly use different ads - a different message, more sophisticated, older models, etc.

As an advertiser, you need to go where your market is and you need to be there when they are actively trying to work. Your sellers are most certainly in Google searching, searching, searching for this and that. Find out what they are searching for, and market to that need. Go to Adwords and find out what people are searching for when they use the term "ebay store", or "ebay seller's" or other prefixes that your market would use. For example, someone searching for "ebay fee calculator" is probably a seller - so buy that keyword and craft ads/landing pages around it. There are tons more...

[devcom]

Hi Scott,

Thanks for the great advice and examples. It all seems to make perfect sense when someone spells it out for you. I spoke to one of my friends on the weekend and they said the same thing about facebook, "they are there for entertainment". But thanks for taking it one further with the ad words keywords like "ebay fee calc", I think I can start to get the hang of it!

[monkeyspaw]

If you had gotten a CTR on the low end of reasonable, I'd suggest optimizing your copy. Since you didn't, my impression it's one of two things: 1) people who liked ebay != ebay sellers and/or 2) facebook ads aren't very effective for this market

Try a more sophisticated targeting on facebook (can you target by people who have posted a link to an ebay item?)

If that doesn't work, I'd try a totally different channel. Seems like there should be lots of forums, blogs, and websites where ebay sellers congregate. Shoot for those.

[devcom]

quote - "(can you target by people who have posted a link to an ebay item?)" That's a great idea.

Your first two points are slowly dawning on me, I removed the people who liked ebay filter, and I seem to be getting more clicks now, however still no signups (but that is another issue!).

I posted on the eBay forum. It was really, really effective!!.. until I received a warning from ebay to stop and the post was removed. However, as you say, there must be other forums where sellers hang out. I will get my google on. Thanks for the advice.

[devcom]

I'll go first. I've updated the ad here are the words.

Title: Always sell the hot items

Content: The most current list of best selling products on auction sites. Selling hot products easy

and you can see the updated ad here: http://devcomsystems.com.au/fb_ad2.png

I struggle to think "would I click on this?" because I never click on any ads!

Again, any help would be MOST appreciated!