EBay prioritises own ad sales to freeze out third-party sellers
EBay is beginning the process of banning product ads that link to third-party sites in favour of offering its customers ad placements for products listed on its site. The company will recruit an advertising sales team to develop a tool kit to encourage brands to invest in the new model, according to Bridget Davies, vice-president of eBay advertising, North America. The move resembles Amazon's use of various customised ad products to boost sales for big brands on its platform. In Q4 2016, eBay spent just $313m on marketing, a 4% drop on the previous year.

Online auction house eBay has taken a leaf out of Amazon’s playbook by prioritising its own in-house advertising business for the first time, beginning the process of banning product ads linking to third party sites and bringing its own ad sales in-house.

eBay is in process of recruiting for its own advertising sales team to bring in the changes to assist brands in making sales directly from eBay.