Activate long-tail sellers: Strategies and success stories

Why you can’t ignore long-tail sellers

Activating long-tail sellers is not merely a matter of inclusivity but a strategic imperative for platforms seeking sustained growth and competitiveness. Long tail sellers contribute to product diversity, cater to niche markets, and cover unique offerings that appeal to diverse consumers. Ignoring this segment means missing valuable revenue streams and limiting your overall market reach.

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Even if an individual seller’s daily or monthly budgets for advertising might seem small in comparison, when you add up those contributions across tens of thousands, or even millions, of sellers, it can far surpass your biggest spenders — with much less hand-holding and fewer sales resources.

Three key considerations for growth

Three essential considerations are in play when devising strategies to activate the long tail of sellers.

1. Processes

Streamlining processes is essential to enabling long-tail sellers to onboard and manage their advertising efforts independently. Platforms can empower sellers to create and manage campaigns without requiring extensive support or intervention from the platform's team by providing intuitive and user-friendly interfaces.

2. Incentives

Finding the right incentives is crucial to making advertising attractive for even the most minor sellers. Whether through discounted rates, promotional offers, or enhanced visibility, platforms must incentivize sellers to invest in advertising and maximize their reach.

3. Guidance

Providing guidance and support to new advertisers ensures a smooth onboarding process. Platforms can offer educational resources, tutorials, and assistance to help sellers navigate the complexities of campaign management. Invest in step-by-step materials and instructional guides with rich-image screen captures, FAQs, and pro tips.

Overcoming common seller objections

Several common refrains often hinder the activation of long-tail sellers. These prospects are worried about size, budgets, or learning curves. Addressing these challenges is critical to unlocking their full potential.

"My products won’t be shown because of bigger brands"

Platforms with machine learning targeting can improve product discovery and impact for all brands, including long-tail advertisers. ML algorithms prioritize not only bid rates or spend volume but also the likelihood of user engagement, enabling even the smallest sellers to compete for targeted searches and audiences. 

Platforms can also address this concern by dedicating separate ad slots specifically for long-tail sellers. This will improve product discovery and further level the playing field for all sellers.

"I’ve never run a campaign before and don’t have time to learn"

Simplified self-serve platforms, like Moloco, enable sellers to set up campaigns in a few minutes. Comprehensive self-guided resources and training sessions can facilitate and speed up onboarding, even for busy industry veterans.

“My margin is razor thin, and I can’t spend more on advertising”

For sellers who worry about increasing advertising expenses, platforms like Moloco offer features like Target-ROAS, ensuring profitability while maximizing overall growth margin. Alternative pricing models such as pay-per-order (PPO) or cost-per-sale (CPS) can also mitigate risks and concerns by removing upfront costs and charging advertisers only after a converted purchase occurs.

"We don’t have the manpower to reach out to all the long-tail sellers"

Partnering with agencies can alleviate this challenge, leveraging their expertise and resources to efficiently recruit and onboard long-tail sellers. An agency-friendly UX and proven success stories further enhance the appeal of such partnerships. Platforms can also use scaled marketing strategies like web pages, social media, seller portal integrations, events, and partnerships to convert sellers into advertisers.

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Build and grow your advertising business with Moloco Commerce Media

Success stories in long-tail activation 

Sponsored commerce ad listings have already improved product discovery for long-tail advertisers across verticals and geographies. Using our MCM Sponsored Ads product, we’ve seen the following results: 

Home interior marketplace

By collaborating with select agencies, a leading home interior marketplace successfully recruited and retained advertisers, driving significant growth in ad revenue and product visibility. Compared to new products with no ad support, this platform’s advertisers saw:

• 13x increase in users reached
• 32% less time to purchase 
• 13x product detail page views

Luxury and fashion marketplace

Through a partnership program offering exclusive benefits, a top luxury and fashion marketplace incentivized sellers to increase ad spending, resulting in a substantial rise in ad revenues and the number of advertisers. New advertisers achieved as much as 88% average market share gains while existing advertisers saw a 27% increase — and non-advertisers suffered a 2% dip over the same period.