Trade Me Sponsored Listings Overview

Sponsored Listings help your products appear in high-visibility spots across Trade Me, but only if promotion improves their position. You set a daily budget and campaign strategy, and optionally add an end date, or let it run until paused. Each time a buyer searches, an auction determines which listings appear. Advertisers bid for top spots, and your placement depends on your bid and the quality of your ad. You’re only charged when someone clicks on your listing, and you’ll pay just slightly more than the next highest bidder. The cost per click is influenced by factors like item price, competition, and buyer demand. Charges are applied to your linked Trade Me account, and you can track performance with clear, real-time reporting.

Your daily budget is the maximum amount you’ll spend on Sponsored Listings per day. GST is charged on top of your daily budget.

• Your daily budget promotes your eligible listings in Marketplace “Buy Now” categories. It doesn’t apply to:
  • Auction listings
  • Motors, Property, Jobs, or Services listings
• You are charged only when a sponsored listing is clicked, on a cost-per-click (CPC) basis. This CPC is determined by an auction, based on factors like:
  • Item price
  • Buyer demand
  • Competition from other sellers
• If there’s unused money in your daily budget, it’ll roll over to the next day. For example, if your budget is $100 per day and you spend $50 on day 1, day 2 can spend up to $150.
  • You’ll never be charged more than the cumulative budget over the campaign duration. GST is added separately. (Daily budget x Number of days + GST).
  • The roll over amount resets if you change the daily budget.

• Tradevine
• My Products
• New Goods Feed (NGF)
• Trade Runner
• Trade Me

We’ve created Sponsored Listings as a tool exclusively for our professional sellers, and is enabled for all in-trade sellers, regardless of the platform you list from.

These are the prime spots in search results where your listings get seen by more buyers. Think of them as the storefront window of Trade Me. We'll only promote your listing if Sponsored Listings can actually improve its normal position in search. These placements are highly visible and have a higher chance of being clicked compared to your regular search position. You'll see them on keyword and category browse searches across our iOS, Android, and web platforms, and they might even span multiple pages. We'll keep you updated if this changes.

Campaign insights help you understand the effectiveness of Sponsored Listings and how your budget is being used.

• Impressions: The number of times your products have been displayed in a Sponsored Listing placement in search.
• Clicks: The number of times your Sponsored Listings have been clicked.
• Purchases: The number of purchases that have been made from a click on your Sponsored Listing. Note: that at this stage this does not include purchases made using the cart.
• Total spent: The amount of money you have spent on Sponsored Listings. This price includes GST.
• Total Sales: The amount of sales revenue you have generated through your Sponsored Listings.
• ROAS: Your return on ad spend. This is calculated by dividing your total sales from your ad spend by your total ad spend. This is an indication of how efficient your Sponsored Listings spend is driving revenue. A higher ROAS indicates better performance, with each dollar spent on advertising resulting in a proportionally higher revenue return.

Sponsored Listings is a paid feature, but you're in control. You can set a daily budget, and we'll only charge you when a buyer clicks on your sponsored listing. The cost per click will vary based on things like buyer demand and the item's price.

Sponsored Listings offers a more flexible approach to promotion for our Professional Sellers. For example, you'll be able to:

• Set your own budget.
• Reach relevant buyers in premium search positions.
• Get ad reporting (impressions, clicks, purchases).
• See a transparent return on ad spend.

Yes, absolutely. Our full range of promotional products is still available, and we have no plans to change or remove them.

Your Sponsored Listings will be charged against your Trade Me account balance. To avoid a negative balance, we recommend setting up Autobiller. If you're on invoicing, your spend will still be charged against your Trade Me account balance, and charges will be applied weekly.

If there’s unused money in your daily budget, it’ll roll over to the next day. You’ll never be charged more than the cumulative budget over the campaign duration. GST is added separately. (Daily budget x Number of days + GST).

When you set up your Sponsored Listings, you'll choose a campaign strategy that guides how your budget is used.

• Cost-conscious: This setting keeps your bids lower, helping you manage your budget tightly. You'll get steady visibility for your listings without overspending. Expect a higher ROAS (Return on Ad Spend). This strategy is great if you want to make every dollar count and ensure your ad spend is highly efficient, even if it means slightly less overall exposure.

• Maximise exposure: You'll use higher bids to significantly increase the chances of your listings being seen more often. It's all about getting maximum visibility for your products. You'll likely see a lower ROAS. While you're aiming for the most eyeballs on your products, the higher bids might mean each dollar spent doesn't generate as much direct revenue compared to the "Cost-conscious" approach. It's ideal when broad reach is your top priority.

• Balanced: This is a well-rounded bid strategy that aims to find the sweet spot between managing your costs and getting consistent visibility for your listings. You'll typically see a moderate ROAS. This strategy gives you consistent reach and a good return on your ad spend, making it a reliable choice for ongoing promotion.

ROAS means Return on Ad Spend. It's the value of sales you get compared to the money you've spent on advertising. For example, if you spend $10 of budget and get $50 in sales, your ROAS is 5x or 500%.

Sponsored Listings will give you high-level information including how many times your products were displayed (impressions), clicked, and purchased. We will be adding deeper reporting in the future, and we'll let you know if that becomes available.

A click on your listing in search means a buyer is highly interested in your product. We feel that charging per click is a fair value for promoting your listing in those highly visible search spots.

Several factors determine the cost per click, including (but not limited to) the number of buyers searching and how many sellers are promoting listings in that search.

Category selection functionality will be available in upcoming product phases. For this first stage, we've kept development as streamlined as possible to get it launched quickly. By leveraging our machine learning to select relevant products, we can test the market quickly and effectively.

Sponsored Listings will only apply to "Buy Now" listings within a Marketplace Category. This means it won't apply to listings with an auction, or within Motors, Property, Jobs, or Services categories. We use Trade Me's relevancy, along with buyer and seller quality factors and other criteria, to decide which listing to display. Sponsored Listings are selected through an auction process. Our goal is to display the most relevant listings in high-visibility placements.

No, you'll still see organic search results in these positions, as not all searches will have Sponsored Listings.

Sponsored Listings are optional, and you have complete control over your spend. Our transparent data lets you see your ROI, so you can decide whether it's right for your business. This is a powerful marketing tool designed to boost your sales and help you make more money. It's a product that sellers have actually been asking us for.

If you're looking to improve your overall search presence, you can check out our guide to help you improve your position in search results. If you're looking to improve your overall search presence, you can check out our guide to help you improve your position in search results.

Several factors determine what sponsored listings are displayed. The product runs an auction on each search and considers multiple factors, including (but not limited to) how many times a particular product has been shown and its relevance to the buyer's search criteria.