Search & Ad Ranking Disclosures

Search & Ad Ranking Disclosures

How Does Search Work?

When a user searches for an item on Reverb, Reverb’s search algorithm works to identify the items that match the user’s search query and rank those items to return the most relevant items.

Search terms are matched against many fields from each item in Reverb’s catalog. Those fields include: item title, brand, model name, item category, item year, item finish, and others. Reverb translates certain fields on each item into a set of supported languages; those translated fields will be considered when they match the user’s preferred language. Items are also excluded from search results based on any filters that a user may have selected, such as a price range or category filter.

When ranking items, Reverb aims to show the most relevant items by default. Reverb’s search ranking algorithm considers many factors, such as:

  • the relevancy of the item’s category, brand and model;
  • the seller’s location;
  • customer experience indicators for the seller, such as buyer reviews;
  • historical buyer engagement with the item, similar items, or the shop;
  • and how recently the item was listed.

Users may also explicitly choose to rank search results by price or recency.

Reverb does not offer sellers a higher ranking placement in organic search results in exchange for any compensation or fee. Sellers can, however, purchase on-site ads, called Reverb Bump, which are identified separately as ads on Reverb.


How Do Bump/Ads Work?

Bumped listings are chosen based on an auction for ad space on Reverb’s properties.

Sellers enter “bids” on their listings to indicate the percentage of the final sale price they will pay as an advertising fee. The Bump auction system considers both an item’s likelihood to sell and its bid to determine ranking and item placement. Items with higher bids receive more visibility and preferred placement in search results, comparison shopping pages, and other areas of the Reverb site. Likelihood to sell is a measure of item quality, relevance, and other factors.

Reverb Ads are distinguished to users from organic content by being marked or referred to as Bump ads, sponsored content, or using other distinguishing languages. To learn more about how Bump ads work, check out our Help Center.



Effective Date: July 1st, 2022

Updated: May 25th, 2022

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