Earned & PaideBay
eBay spent $1.40B on advertising and marketing in fiscal 2025, up 0.0% on the year before. That's 12.6% of revenue.
Marketing spend by year
Bars: advertising and marketing expense, $B (10-K). Line: spend as a share of revenue.
What they told investors
“Importantly, a portion of this investment is being funded by allocating existing marketing spend to Depop, which mitigates the incremental pressure on consolidated operating income.”Peggy Alford · 2026 Q2 · transcript
“The investments that we're making are primarily within full funnel marketing and shipping affordability.”management · 2026 Q2 · transcript
“Sales and marketing expense increased in the quarter, primarily reflecting higher marketing investment behind strategic priorities like C2C and eBay Live, as well as incremental spending to capitalize on favorable returns in lower-funnel marketing.”Peggy Alford · 2026 Q1 · transcript
“We've invested in full funnel marketing to drive awareness and consideration of eBay for consumers shopping pre-loved.”Jamie Iannone · 2025 Q4 · transcript
“I think it helps better calibrate the return on ad spend levels between CPA and CPC.”management · 2025 Q3 · transcript
Say vs do
eBay's management has talked about its marketing budget, but in ways annual filings can't check: one quarter, one brand or channel, or the mix.
What they said
“Importantly, a portion of this investment is being funded by allocating existing marketing spend to Depop, which mitigates the incremental pressure on consolidated operating income.”
Peggy Alford on the 2026 Q2 earnings call, Aug 12, 2026 · transcript
Can't tell from annual filings Filings don't split brand from performance or report spend by channel.
“The investments that we're making are primarily within full funnel marketing and shipping affordability.”
Management on the 2026 Q2 earnings call, Aug 12, 2026 · transcript
Can't tell from annual filings Filings don't split brand from performance or report spend by channel.
“Sales and marketing expense increased in the quarter, primarily reflecting higher marketing investment behind strategic priorities like C2C and eBay Live, as well as incremental spending to capitalize on favorable returns in lower-funnel marketing.”
Peggy Alford on the 2026 Q1 earnings call, Apr 29, 2026 · transcript
Can't tell from annual filings It's about part of a year; filings report full years.
What they did
| Year | Marketing spend | Change | Share of revenue |
|---|---|---|---|
| FY2025 | $1.40B | 0.0% | 12.6% |
| FY2024 | $1.40B | +16.7% | 13.6% |
| FY2023 | $1.20B | 0.0% | 11.9% |
| FY2022 | $1.20B | +9.1% | 12.2% |
Against its peers. Compared with the 3 other Marketplace advertisers we track (Etsy, Wayfair, Chewy): last year 0.0% (median +2.6%).
How we check: a statement gets a verdict only when it's clearly about the size of the whole company's marketing budget over a full fiscal year; we compare it with the advertising and marketing expense in that year's 10-K. Statements about one quarter, one brand or channel, or the mix between brand and performance can't be checked against annual filings.
What they say about media
The marketing channels it talks about using for itself on earnings calls and in its 10-Ks and 10-Qs, since 2019; counts are statements, not spending.
- CRM, loyalty & first-party data “It is also helping in our own marketing and CRM.” Jamie Iannone on the earnings call · Apr 29, 2026 · source
- Creative campaigns “As one example, AI-generated subject lines and creatives are driving around 40% more engagement in some tests.” Jamie Iannone on the earnings call · Apr 29, 2026 · source
- Sponsorships & athletes “We have also driven engagement through our sponsorships of the new Saturday Night Live and Love Island All Stars programming in the U.K.” Jamie Iannone on the earnings call · Apr 29, 2026 · source
- Experiential & events “We have been driving really interesting activations across social media—we were at all the popular events from the Grammys to the Oscars.” Jamie Iannone on the earnings call · Apr 29, 2026 · source
- Paid search · SEO & AI search “In addition, we rely on Google search to direct a significant amount of traffic to our platforms.” 10-K · Feb 19, 2026 · source
What they see in the market
What its leaders and filings say about the ad market: its own ad business, or the channels advertisers use, since 2019; counts are statements, not spending.
- Retail media · AI in marketing “And we've been bringing AI technologies in both on the ability to improve the yield that our sellers are getting on the ad placements, but also to just improve the overall experience from the seller side to leverage AI for recommendations, for campaign building, for suggestions…” Jamie Iannone on the earnings call · Aug 12, 2026 · source
- CRM, loyalty & first-party data “The increase in first party advertising revenue was driven by increased adoption and attribution changes that enhanced our ability to convert first-party ads, which increased monetization during the period.” 10-Q · Aug 6, 2026 · source
- Programmatic & display · Creative campaigns · Paid social “You see us doing the OpenAI ads pilot, and we have expanded more of our inventory to Facebook Marketplace as the space evolves.” Jamie Iannone on the earnings call · Apr 29, 2026 · source
- Measurement “And then just a near-term one, I think you rolled out halo attribution in the U.S. and, like, other North American markets starting in 2026, and I think you had a lot of success with that in other countries around the ad product.” Michael Morton on the earnings call · Oct 29, 2025 · source
- Affiliate & lead gen “Through the eBay Partner Network, we are testing tools and incentives for affiliates to drive enthusiast buyers to existing promoted listing sellers.” Jamie Iannone on the earnings call · Oct 27, 2021 · source
In the news
- eBay Opens Custom Promoted Stores Ads To All Sellers, Adds Influencer & Live Landing Pages Value Added Resource · Sep 29, 2026 · platforms & adtech
- EBay looks beyond cookies with new programmatic targeting system Campaign UK · paywall · Sep 28, 2026 · platforms & adtech