eBay is resurrecting its keyword advertising program that it had dropped 2 years ago. eBay AdCommerce is a pay-per-click system that allows eBay sellers to advertise their listings and eBay Stores via a text ad on eBay search result pages. The system works like other ad networks, with advertisers bidding on keywords. When shoppers enter keywords into the system, ads from the highest bidders for that particular keyword are shown. However, unlike the old eBay Keywords program, ads will appear at the bottom of the search results pages.

It will be interesting to see how sellers react to the new program. Many have complained that the new eBay search system is bringing back inconsistent results due to the Best Match algorithm. With listing fees always on the top of sellers' minds, some may ask themselves why they must pay more fees for exposure. Others may simply welcome the chance to show up on the search results pages, even for an additional fee - although the ads are displayed near the bottom of the search results page and sellers will be competing with Shopping.com and Yahoo Ads for placement.

eBay will begin a 2-month test of AdCommerce placements with a small group of beta testers in the next few weeks and to be ready to open up the program to all eBay sellers afterwards.

I'll be covering this in tomorrow's AuctionBytes Newsflash newsletter, so comments are welcome.