eBay has announced it plans to test out pop-up ads on its website over the next few weeks. The ads will appear when visitors leave the company’s home page and will direct them to merchandise on eBay or other sites.
In a note to its members, the company said: when properly used, this tool can help retain users who are flowing from eBay’s home page out to the Internet. We will evaluate this new tool to create better merchandising programs in the future.
In recent years, pop-up ads have become increasingly popular on mainstream sites. They were introduced as a result of the downturn in online advertising and the criticism of the effectiveness of banner advertising.
However, many net surfers find the ads annoying, and a number of companies have developed software designed to block pop-up ads. eBay plans to limit the number of times any particular viewer will see a pop-up ad.
eBay began offering banner ads on its site under an arrangement with AOL Time Warner, which sells the ad placements. Last week the company announced that has renegotiated the commission it pays AOL on selling ad placements and shortened the length of the companies’ agreement.
