Beware of deliberately deceptive advertising performance metrics! | Business Seller Board

jungle-records · 2025-10-12T10:48:25.315000Z

Ebay's advert performance metrics seem like a good idea - a quick glance to see that your adverts are paying off. But are they? Look at the small print (the tiny (i) dot):* On the fees side, costs exclude VAT. Fair enough, we get that back. But on sales side, it includes VAT (that's 20%). And postage - we charge approx what we pay. And for returned items. And ... the sales figures include ebay fees. So ebay fees feature on BOTH sides of this equation! Sales figures inflated by VAT at 20%, postage by say 8%, ebay fees at ... approx 17% ? - suggests that income the seller receives may be only 55% of the figures displayed. This seems deliberately designed to lull people into advertising with ebay by suggesting it works - when the real sums may show that it's just lining their pockets. *it's on Promoted Shops where they define the sales income.

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Beware of deliberately deceptive advertising performance metrics! | Business Seller Board | eBay UK