Advertising & Marketing Policy
We believe ads should help vendors grow their businesses and contribute to their overall selling experience. We offer vendors various advertising channels to promote their webstores and listings. This Advertising & Marketing Policy explains your rights and responsibilities when using our advertising services.
This policy is a part of our Terms of Service. By using any of SMEMPNG’s advertising services, you’re agreeing to this policy and our Terms of Service. This Policy may change over time, by continuing to use SME Marketplace Ng services you agree to those changes.
1. Onsite Marketplace Ads
Sellers can purchase paid advertising on SME Marketplace Ng through the Advertising Dashboard in Shop Manager. Marketplace Ads display a seller’s listings or shops prominently on our websites, mobile apps, and social media channels. Marketplace Ads are displayed in one or more locations, such as users’ search results and homepage, based on some ranking factors: search relevancy, listing quality (including compliance with our policies), the bids (or amount budgeted for bids) to display the listing, and for some listings, likelihood of views or sales. You may choose to promote some or all of your listings or shops as Marketplace Ads.
You can select which listings to include in Marketplace Ads, decide on your budget, or stop your Marketplace Ads campaign at any time, in Shop Manager.
Your listings or shops may also be included, at our sole discretion, in other marketing and third party advertising programs.
A. Purchasing Marketplace Ads
Marketplace Ads fees are charged on a cost-per-click (or “CPC”) basis, and you are responsible for paying for any clicks your ad receives. This means that you will be charged only when your ad is clicked, not simply when it is displayed. By providing a budget for SME Marketplace Ng to display ads on your behalf, you agree to pay any amount up to and including the amount for a click on your ad. Your daily maximum budget can be set at or above a predetermined minimum determined by the Marketplace and you will not be charged more than your maximum budget on a daily basis. You may pause an ad campaign at any time, but you will still be responsible for any charges incurred prior to pausing your campaign. We will not be able to grant refunds for any charges related to clicked ads.
Your ad costs will be visible in your payment account and on the attribution page of the Marketplace Ads dashboard, typically within 24 hours of when the fee has been incurred. These costs and fees may be charged on a recurring basis. You can learn more about these, and other fees in our Fees & Payments Policy.
B. Setting Ads Budget
You can set a budget to limit the amount you’re willing to pay for SME Marketplace Ads to promote your listings or shops on SME Marketplace. Your daily budget can be set at or above a predetermined minimum set by us and you will not be charged more than your maximum budget on a daily basis.
By default, all of your listings will be promoted, including any new listings you create. You may also exclude one or more listings manually via your Ads dashboard. If you make any edits to your listings during your campaign, your ads will be updated automatically to reflect those changes, although those updates may not be instantaneous.
2. Offsite Ads
We purchase offsite advertising from a network of participating providers, such as social networks and search engines. Under the Offsite Ads program, we pay all of the upfront costs of advertising on these providers. If such advertising includes your listing, a buyer clicks on it, and then orders from your shop within 30 days of that click, you will be charged an advertising fee on these orders.
Our network of participating shopping engines may change at any time. We currently syndicate listings to a variety of channels, such as: Google, Facebook, and Instagram.
A. Participation in Offsite Ads
All Sellers are automatically enrolled in Offsite Ads. Some sellers are able to opt-out of the program, others are required to participate based on the following criteria: (1)
We may promote your listings or shops under the Offsite Ads program on third-party platforms at our sole discretion, even if you sign up on the start-up plan.
All of your listings or shops may be promoted, including any new listings you create. If you make any edits to your listings or shop, your ads will be updated automatically to reflect those changes, although those updates may not be instantaneous.
Advertising on third-party platforms is subject to the terms and policies set forth by each participating platform, which may be different from ours. You are responsible for complying with the terms and policies of the participating third party sites, which are linked above. By failing to do so, your listing may be removed from Offsite Ads. If your shop, listing, ad, or account violates our policies, Partner policies, or we determine, in our sole discretion, is not appropriate for Offsite Ads, you, your shop, or one or more of your listings may be restricted from appearing in one or more partner’s channels, or prohibited from participating in Offsite Ads altogether.
3. Shop-Specific Promotions
A. Sales and Coupons
Sellers on our marketplace may choose to offer promotions specifically for their own shops and/or listings. We currently offers two promotional tools: Sales and Coupons.
A Sale is a promotion that offers free shipping or discounts your listing price(s) by a percentage. You can run a sale on a single listing or on multiple listings. Sales are public and will be displayed to all buyers, or, if certain seller-selected features are available, to a selected category of buyers. On occasion, we may aggregate Sales and promote them through our websites, apps, social media accounts, and emails. When you run a Sale, you are obliged to follow not just these Our Terms but all laws (including consumer protection rules) that apply to sales and promotions in your jurisdiction.
A Coupon is a code that may be redeemed for a discount on an item or free shipping. Coupons are not displayed publicly; as a seller, you may create and distribute Coupons at your discretion. Please note, however, that a Coupon code can be used by any buyer who redeems the code and that a buyer can use a Coupon code on multiple listings and on multiple occasions until any expiration date that you set when creating the Coupon.
Sellers are responsible for following our policies and all applicable laws associated with Sales and Coupons. For Sales, it’s your responsibility to set the terms and conditions for the promotion in the “Sale/Product details” section. For Coupons, it’s your responsibility to communicate any terms or limitations for the promotion to buyers when sharing the Coupon code. You can however use our free blogging feature to promote your listing sales and coupon.
Sales and Coupons may not be used for fee avoidance.
- Targeted Offers
Our Targeted Offers is a free marketing tool that allows you to offer a Coupon to specific audiences of buyers who have interacted with your shop by either favoriting your store or one of your listings or adding one of your listings to their cart. As with all Coupons, a coupon sent through the Targeted Offer tool can be used by any buyer that redeems the code. It can also be used on multiple listings and on multiple occasions. Targeted Offers is a free service to you, but please note that you will not be able to limit the number of sends if you opt-in to sending coupons through the Targeted Offer tool. If you wish to discontinue Target Offers, you can manage or turn off your campaigns at any time from your Sales and Coupons dashboard. You also have the option to automatically send a Coupon free of charge as a thank you to buyers who have made a purchase from your shop. We may change or stop this service at any time upon notice to you.
Please note that Coupons will only be sent to buyers who have opted in to receive Coupons via email from the Marketplace sellers.
4. Disclaimers
We reserve the right to change the terms of these advertising programs at any time, including the addition of fees, addition or removal of platforms, or end the program (in whole or part) at any time. We will notify you of major changes.
Using advertising and promotional services through SME Marketplace Ng does not constitute an obligation on our part to display an ad or promote your listings or shops. We can’t guarantee that a displayed ad or promotion will be clicked, and we can’t guarantee that if a user clicks that the related listing will be sold.
Our advertising services and advertising policies change over time, as do those of our third-party channel partners, and neither we nor our third-party channel partners guarantee any particular program’s features, results, or third-party channels. We reserve the right to change or terminate any campaign, incentive offer, or a program in part or as a whole at any time.
You may be given the opportunity to participate in beta tests of advertising services offered by us and/or third-party channels. Those beta services are subject to separate terms for a particular program provided to you as part of your participation in that program, as well as this policy and the overall Marketplace Terms.
From time to time we may test or experiment with additional advertising products and the advertising services offered by us, as well as the look and feel of any type of advertisement, may change as our programs and platforms evolve.
Ads and promotions may not include content that infringes upon or violates the rights of any third party, including copyright, trademark, privacy, publicity, or other personal or proprietary rights.
Please see our Intellectual Property Policy for more information. You are responsible for ensuring that your ads and promotions comply with all applicable laws and regulations.
We reserve the right to reject or remove any ad or promotion for any reason, in our sole discretion, including marketing that negatively affects our relationships with our members or partners.
Updated May 1th, 2020
