eBay Promoted Listings video ads: review time and a sound-off clip

A Promoted Listings video ad is reviewed before it appears: eBay's help page says most videos clear within 48 hours, and during busy periods it can take up to 7 business days. Video ads are for the Priority campaign strategy, cost-per-click pricing does not change, and eBay's own guidance is to aim for 5 to 15 seconds, show the item early, and design for sound-off viewing.

The length limit itself (one video per listing, up to 60 seconds, MP4 or MOV) is already covered in eBay listing video length. This post is about the parts that decide whether the ad runs on time: review, creative guidance and the campaign API, plus a Sume recipe for a clip that fits.

What do eBay's two pages say?

The April 2026 Video Ads Format Update announces video for Priority-strategy Promoted Listings, which previously used static images only, and gives no start date beyond "starting soon". The help page covers set-up and review.

Is there an API for it?

The Marketing API release notes list version 1.24.0, dated 2026-07-21, as adding video preferences to Cost per Click campaigns under Promoted Listings. eBay's `upsertVideoAdsPreferences` reference lists upsertVideoAdsPreferences and bulkUpsertVideoAdsPreferences, at PUT /ad_campaign/{campaign_id}/upsert_video_ads_preferences and PUT /ad_campaign/{campaign_id}/bulk_upsert_video_ads_preferences. The reference page lists the endpoints but no request fields, so check eBay's Marketing API reference for the body before you build against it.

What should the creative look like?

eBay's guidance is short and specific. Show your item within the first few seconds, keep videos at 15 seconds or less, use clear visuals and captions because many viewers will not hear audio, and focus on the product included in the listing rather than unrelated items. The review step also checks the video against eBay's video format requirements and its images, videos and text policies, so a clip that wanders from the listed item is a rejection risk, not just a weak ad.

How do I build that clip with Sume?

Start from your real listing photo as the first frame, so the item is on screen at second zero. Submit POST /v1/videos with a first_frame entry in frame_images, a duration of 8 seconds or so, and a prompt that moves the camera without changing the product. Video generation lists seedance-2.5 at 4 to 30 seconds and gemini-omni-flash-1.1 at 3 to 10 seconds; GET /v1/videos/models tells you which aspect ratios each accepts, and 16:9 is eBay's recommendation.

Sume's current Auto family always generates audio, but treat it as a bonus and design the clip as silent. Add the captions yourself with Video captions: speech-based captions need audible speech, and a silent clip fails as caption_no_speech, so send cues with text, start and end instead. Cues skip speech-to-text and burn exactly the copy you give them.

curl -X POST https://api.sume.com/v1/video-captions \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SUME_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Idempotency-Key: ebay-ad-$SKU-captions" \
  -d '{
    "video_url": "https://example.com/clip.mp4",
    "cues": [
      {"text": "Vintage brass lamp", "start": 0, "end": 3},
      {"text": "Works, tested", "start": 3, "end": 7}
    ]
  }'

Plan for the review window

Upload at least two weeks before a sale you want the video to run in, since eBay says review can take up to 7 business days in busy periods. Keep the ad-only upload and the listing video as two decisions: an upload made just for ads expires when the campaign ends. I did not find an eBay page that sets a rule for AI-generated video, so this post makes none; the AI-generated video disclosure checklist is a way to keep a record of how each clip was made.