eBay’s first ad modules in search, and the four that followed

Top Picks, launched in October 2023, was the first carousel ad module on eBay’s search results. There was no placement like it before. Its auction, relevance filtering, de-duplication and surface-rate mechanics became the template for every module after it, including the AI-designed ones.

Each module has its own value proposition, and that decides everything else: which items qualify, the title, and which searches it shows on.

1. 1Top Picks, for buyers who don’t want to scroll: strict quality filters (free shipping, established sellers with strong feedback, relevance, image quality, proven sales).
2. 2Picks for you under $X, for shoppers sorting by lowest price: good items at what people actually pay for that search, like “Picks for you under $85.” The first sponsored module in a price sort.
3. 3Popular Brands, for brand-aware buyers: the brands that matter for that search.
4. 4Deals, for value seekers: verified discounts, checked against the going price so inflated “was” prices don’t qualify. It doesn’t rely on keywords, so it works as search becomes more conversational.
5. 5Power Buyer Picks: items chosen by the category’s highest-volume buyers. In testing and confirmed for launch.

Each module has its own slot and moment in the scroll, so they add to each other rather than compete. Where two share a slot, the stronger buyer intent wins: Deals takes priority over Popular Brands. Launch was never the end. Top Picks got query-level thresholds, Picks under $X expanded to long-tail searches, and Popular Brands got clickable brand names.