- massive brand recognition
- over 300 product categories and billions of items to promote
- great range of affiliate tools and creatives
- easy to use dashboard
- the affiliate payout threshold is one of the lowest
- VIP status available
- mobile app
- complicated commission structure
- commission cap
- 24-hour cookie duration is too short
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What Is eBay Partner Attribution?
With Amazon reducing their commission rates, you are probably looking for other affiliate programs to monetize your traffic.
Amazon is not the only big player when it comes to e-commerce platforms with a wide range of products. eBay is a noticeable player too.
You rarely see other affiliates talking about it though.
I’m curious to find out the reason behind this so let’s find out.
Here Is My eBay Partner Attribution Program Review
Watch our video on how to earn money through eBay by joining the eBay Partner Attribution Program:
eBay’s Affiliate Program
eBay was founded as AuctionWeb.com by Pierre Omidyar in 1997.
Two years later, they rebranded and eBay as we know was born.
They went on acquiring multiple competitors even, PayPal.
At the time of writing this article, eBay has 183 million active buyers.
Its growth over time has been tremendous.
What Products Can You Promote?
Imagine eBay like an online garage sale. But better.
eBay sellers are not limited to selling items they no longer want on the site only. The dropshipping model with products from China has been embraced as well. This applies for both new and used products.
There are more than 300 product categories to choose from covering collectibles & art, electronics, entertainments memorabilia, fashion, home & garden, motors, sporting goods, toys & hobbies and other categories.
Most items sold are brand new.
Can you guess what the top-selling product category on eBay is?
Electronics & Accessories:
- Smartphones
- Headphones
- Digital Cameras
- Tablets & eReaders
If you are not interested in promoting electronics & accessories, there are other product categories worth considering as an affiliate marketer.
Here are some examples:
- Power tools
- Video games
- Golf clubs
- Movie action figures
- Perfume and cologne
- T-shirts
- Pet supplies
- Travel luggage & accessories
- Scrapbooking supplies
eBay Partner Network Explained
This is an in-house affiliate program, so you don’t need to open yet another account with a third-party affiliate network.
You will need an existing eBay account though so if you don’t have, create one.
The sign-up process is quick and easy.
Also, expect to hear back from them quickly, they won’t waste your time.
They offer a 24 hour cookie but I need to explain how this works.
When It comes to Buy It Now items, your referral must buy the item within 24 hours of clicking your affiliate link.
When it comes to Auctions, an item’s winning bid, must take place within 24 hours of your referral clicking your affiliate link.
As a result, you will benefit if you focus more on auctions that are finishing within 24 hours or have a short duration.
Focusing on Buy Now Items is easier overall ensuring high long term performance.
Affiliate Marketing Tools
The eBay partner attribution program offers a complete list of affiliate marketing tools.
Link generator – To create deep links for any page, store or item on eBay.
Smart Placements – To create custom banners to match search intent.
Smart Links – To create a code snippet to incorporate in your site so that all of your eBay links are monetized. To also, create mobile specific ads.
Smart Share – An extension for Chrome with the same functionality as that of the Bookmarklet tool but the links are ready to be shared on your social media channels.
Bookmarklet – To create any eBay page links directly from your browser.
Creative Gallery – A database of existing creatives that are available.
Unlike other affiliate networks, with eBay you have a whole range of ways to generate any link you wish and promote them on your site or social media channels.
Affiliate Payment Methods
Once you earn money, you get paid on a net 30 days basis.
So, if you make a sale on December 20th, you will get paid for it on January 20th.
You can choose between PayPal or Electronics Fund Transfer (EFT) to receive your payments.
PayPal fess are capped at $20 and the payment threshold is $10 that is not much.
eBay APIs For Advanced Affiliates
This is covered in detail on eBay’s help document so I’ll briefly mention it for your information as it is more for advanced affiliates.
They offer a number of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs).
Here is what they offer:
- Finding API
- Trading API
- Shopping API
- Merchandising API
- Buy API
eBay Commission Rates
eBay’s commission rates structure is a tad complicated, but I’ll do my best to break it down so that it is easy to understand.
Apart from the commission rate, eBay also, places a cap on the earnings for each product category.
For example, the cap for electronics is $550. Even you earn commission that is worth more than $550, you will only get $550.
You should always check out this eBay rate card when planning your promotions.
In terms of commission rates, the range is between 1% – 4% so it is similar to Amazon.
eBay Partner Attribution Program Reviews
Let’s have a look at what affiliate marketers have to say about the program.
Here is a review where the user states that eBay is better than Amazon when it comes to commission rates but not all countries are accepted.
I found another review that also states that it is difficult to get accepted if you are not based in the United States.
An experienced user prefers Amazon as they have experienced higher conversion rates compared to eBay.
On the other hand, there are users who seem to love it.
Overall, it seems that it is hard to join if you are not based in the US and users are finding more difficult to earn decent money due to the drop in commission rates at Amazon level but running a successful online business based on eBay is still doable.
Pros & Cons
Let’s summarize the pros and cons of the eBay partner attribution program.
Pros
- Massive brand recognition
- Over 300 product categories and billions of items to promote
- Great range of affiliate tools and creatives
- Easy to use dashboard
- The eBay affiliate payout threshold is one of the lowest
- VIP status available for affiliates who drive a lot of traffic
- eBay partner attribution mobile app
Cons
- Complicated commission structure
- Commission cap limiting how much you can earn
- The 24-hour cookie duration is too short
What Next?
Hope you found this eBay partner attribution program review useful.
The range of tools available, including the mobile app, together with the easy-to-use dashboard make this partner network a fantastic option.
However, the low commission rates combined with earnings cap and 24-hour cookie complicate matters.
EBay Inc’s affiliate program is a decent alternative to Amazon though and a good option if you want to diversify.
Are you just getting started with affiliate marketing or want to learn more about how to select your niche, do keyword research and publish a basic affiliate website?
Check out this free web-class.
It is 100% free, there is nothing to pay for.
| Image | Network/Program | Score | Join |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Affiliate marketing | 9.8 | Join SiteLearn More |
| EBay Partner Attribution Program Affiliate marketing | 9.2 | Join SiteRead Review |
 | Affiliate marketing | 9 | Join SiteRead Review |
 | Affiliate marketing | 9 | Join SiteRead Review |
 | Affiliate marketing | 8 | Join SiteRead Review |
 | Affiliate marketing | 7.7 | Join SiteRead Review |
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