Google and online auction Web site eBay have signed a multi-year agreement that will place Google text ads on the search results pages of eBay’s non-U.S. Web sites.
The deal will also lead to a joint development project between eBay’s Skype IP voice platform and Google’s Google Talk to develop a “click to call” function that can be deployed on the pair’s search and shopping pages. Experts say the partnership brings Google much closer to rolling out a fuller-fledged pay-per-call ad offering.
The alliance will make Google the exclusive provider of text-based pay-per-click (PPC) ads on search results pages for eBay’s divisions outside the U.S. Last May, eBay signed an agreement that gave rival search engine Yahoo! the right to deliver PPC ads to eBay’s U.S. Web sites. Those ads began appearing on eBay search results pages for some products last month.
Financial terms of both the Google and Yahoo! deals are unknown, but revenue-sharing will play a part in both agreements.
The joint development project between Skype and Google Talk will aim to produce click-to-call ads that will work on both eBay’s shopping pages and Google’s search results, both in the U.S. and abroad. Yesterday’s deal will combine Skype’s large installed base of 113 million IP voice users around the world with Google’s strength among advertisers, many of them small or local marketers who will prefer to receive phone calls than clicks to a Web site. The companies said they will begin testing both the text-based advertising and the click-to-call initiatives in early 2007, and then evaluate them over several months.
“People continue to evolve how they shop, communicate and advertise online,” eBay president and CEO Meg Whitman said in a release. “By combining the power of eBay in e-commerce and Skype in communications with Google’s leadership in search and advertising, we can increase the usefulness of the Internet for shoppers, merchants and advertisers around the world.”
Greg Sterling, founding principal of Sterling Market Intelligence, said he sees that deal with eBay as Google’s announcement that they are focusing their attention on developing a monetized phone ad product. “This is Google’s way of announcing their adoption of calls as an advertising vehicle. This certainly adds momentum to pay-per-call advertising. Google and Yahoo! are the search ad leaders, and this is about lining up enough ads for consumers to see and then potentially act on the calling technology.”
“Click to call” is a communications technology that allows shoppers to advise that they are ready to receive a phone call from a merchant or advertiser. If the shopper uses a computer that has the software and microphone needed for voice calling, the two can be connected immediately. If not, the merchant can call back over a landline or start a text chat with the visitor.
On the other hand, pay per call is a marketing business model resembling PPC ads, in that merchants only pay the ad network when a prospect calls them. Most pay-per-call programs involve using a set of toll-free phone numbers that the provider can add to advertisers’ phone systems and then base charges on the resulting traffic. But calls coming over the Internet can’t be metered in the same way.
Through Skype, eBay has been offering its sellers a free “Skype Me” click-to-call function, but has so far not monetized the feature in any way. The deal with Google would put a Skype button on the popular Google tool bar.
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