Marketplaces (also known as Portals) have long been relying on featured listing ads as a premium value-add to boost revenue, but these approaches are becoming less effective as they reach their limits. To stay profitable and keep growing, portals need to explore new avenues. One promising solution is off-site featured listings.

Why marketplace inventory is limited

Featured listings are premium ads that appear at the top of the search results on a marketplace’s site, offering the seller more visibility and a better chance of a sale. There are, however, limited slots available, leading to a cap on revenue potential for marketplaces and limited reach beyond the marketplace’s website. These offerings are rapidly running out of runway as they reach saturation point which is why marketplaces are exploring alternatives like off-site featured listings integrated with social media platforms.

Unlocking new revenue streams with off-site featured listings

So, what exactly are off-site featured listings? These targeted ads reach the marketplaces existing audience, where they spend most of their time...on social media. This means that a listing's position on the marketplace's website becomes irrelevant. Whether it's on page 1 or buried on page 345, the right buyer will see it at the perfect moment. Once a user clicks on an off-site ad, they’re directed back to the marketplace’s website, ensuring that only those genuinely interested in the ad's content are exposed to the listings. Off-site featured listings allow marketplaces to significantly expand their reach, increase traffic to their platform and leverage their retargeting audience.

By integrating with social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram, marketplaces tap into the vast user bases of billions of active users. This allows them to reach their own audience, but with a significant difference: while users spend only about an hour per month on the marketplace, they spend three hours per day on social media. This contrast in engagement is the reason why off-site featured listings enable marketplaces to exponentially expand their ad inventory and unlock new revenue streams. Importantly, this growth does not lead to a cluttered user experience, as users can browse their social media feeds without being overwhelmed by excessive ads.

Tech Platforms: Simplifying Off-Site Ad Integration

While off-site featured listings present a clear solution, implementing them effectively requires additional automation, targeting, and optimization capabilities. Fortunately, tech platforms like Flow have emerged to streamline this process. Partnering with platforms like Flow allows marketplaces to quickly leverage the power of off-site advertising with minimal integration complexity. We handle the heavy lifting, empowering marketplaces to quickly and effortlessly embrace off-site featured listings with a set-and-forget solution.

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