Impressions broken again??

[swiss_expert_uk]

Can you please check if there is another problem with impressions? Another counting glitch? These stats can not be correct. Organic impressions promoted views down to under 3000 views today at time of writing. This time last week almost 73000 views. Please help.  dave@ebay kat@ebay 

[best-range]

It's interesting how all those graphs are almost identical, how strange, as we all sell different things in different categories, the only thing in common is the "promoted listings" we use.

I use Dynamic Promotion, what's the point of using promotions if they dont work  & now you get 50% less impressions when using them ?

I thought using promotions you supposed to get more impressions & as consequence more views & sales ??

but it seems the opposite is now happening.

Also why so many different "promotions" types? almost every week there is a new type of "promotion" in addition to all the others already in place, maybe this is causing the problems as simply too many promotions going on at the same time. 

It seems to me the problem is with the promotions,

david@ebay is the "Promotion Team" even aware of what's going on, are they working on fixing it ???

Until this is fixed I'm going to remove the promotions from most of my listings & see if this helps with sales.

[oceanartsnorthdevon]

Let us know what happens when you remove promotions and if it has any effect.  I have always thought the issue is do with the promotions, they relaunced the dynamic promotions mid June which is when they appeared on the listing template for the first time along with the advanced promotions plus I received an email the same time advertising and pushing to use the dynamic promotions, since then sales/impressions dropped and never recovered (I still use standard promotions).  I wonder if all the promotions - advanced, dynamic, standard are conflicting with one another and causing a software/algorithm issue? Maybe the new promotions are blocking the standard promotions ?  I wonder if we will get a refund on shop subscription because of this issue!!!!!

[simplyessential_uk]

Yep same - like a cliff drop 2 days ago - so weird - Maybe not my tinkering if you experienced the same but very suspicious - Im one of the positive one and always trying to change listings, improve them and not blame ebay, had good upturn on the last tweak amonth ago up 25% impressions,  but you know I genuinely believe they do tests on chunks of accounts, sometimes ppl get spikes of sales, some get drops and I suppose we all get our fair share of them over time but it certainly accounts for why ebay will never acknowledge anything, I can sometimes have listings that suddenly pop into the "add more specs" and I know they must have changed something for it to ask  - If theres been such a drop I try to remind myself to wait and all will rectify itself (cross fingers) soon

Also weird thing is see that dip in my graph 9-14th July - thats when I trialled the advancd promos maybe coincidence who knows

[simplyessential_uk]

advanced, dynamic, standard are conflicting with one another and causing a software/algorithm issue? 

I weirdly noticed a dip (on my graph) 9-14th When I trialled the advanced promos and left the standard ones running - you may have a point but I did a small trial so Ebay wouldnt cost me a fortune like google clicks

Results of Advanced  : extra 272 impressions - 13 clicks - no sales - £1.07 cost. 

Weirdly the 1st day I enrolled 

day 1  - 69 impression

day 2 - 72

day 3 - 53

day 4 - 37

day 5 - 13

On day six you can see the upturn when I stopped it.  This doesnt account for my sudden slump but I certainly didnt see a 50% increase as Ebay tried to make out would happen

[oceanartsnorthdevon]

Interesting to see the results of your trial, certainly not what you would expect when paying the extra to promote!  Like I said I think the issues are down to the promotions, maybe we should all stop promoting on mass Ebay may take note and realise there are issues they are ignoring, you never know it may be a great exercise to come out of the promoted trap/mess that is going on to see if things stabilise if this is the cause.

I have just emailed customer services to see if we are entitled to a refund on the shop subscription due to the problems on site and loss of sales and visibility but I'm not holding my breath!  It would not be so bad if they acknowledged that there are issues and that they are dealing with them at least it would give us hope that it is at least being looked at.

[ojewellery]

I contacted eBay to see if there were any account issues on my account and I'm told not.  They do try to be helpful and I guess in such a large operation those answering queries aren't going to have details of infrastructure changes or trials that are ongoing.  They did suggest  I revisit optimising for best match;

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/listings/listing-tips/optimising-listings-best-match

I guess revisiting all these things, working on listings and getting promotions in place will be effort worthwhile when the corner turns, to date it always has.  Its a rollercoaster

[wearenowclosedthankyou]

 😅 oh the irony isn't lost on me 

[fatbobfan]

Just adding to back up the cause. Promoted listings standard

[wearenowclosedthankyou]

Could this just possibly be how it's supposed to work? Some report no changes to sales, I report that also as I don't really get any anymore! 😂

If 90% of sellers are promoting then it's absolutely impossible for all those sellers to be on page 1, in all advertising spaces etc....  so what if there's a cycle? and this high low impressions is how its supposed to be to give all 90% of promoted listings a chance of being top?? 

There's only a tiny number of us who come here who check the graphs regularly ...  most others won't even notice the drop unless sales completely dry up ..... on thier turn of the down cycle??

Just putting a thought out as ebay keep saying nothings wrong which means it's working as it should..... a bit like EDD....

[simplyessential_uk]

Id agree if the drop wasnt so drastic on all the graphs for the same last 2 days

[wearenowclosedthankyou]

I'm just wondering as so far it's the 5th July and then about 2 weeks later exactly same thing..... if it happens again like this in another couple of weeks with no word from ebay that it is actually an error I'm going to assume it's a cycle of "seen a lot" and "not seen much" 😁

[goingfishing]

Just because I'm trying to be proactive here and willing to try anything to 'fix' this.  I'm using standard dynamic as that was the big release in March and if you did not you basically vanished.  My sales have nosedived since 4th July.  I was using Dynamic, Advanced and 'Offsite ads' - no one seems to mention this offsite ads campaign, does anyone else have these?  

My graph for offsite ads goes up and up click wise but like advanced the sales are neigh on 40%-50% of sales so no way offsite and advanced are worth it.

Still preferred last year and previous years standard only 2%, no problems, no tinkering and making eBay loads of money.  Now making eBay next to nothing... wake up and smell the coffee eBay 'we miss out = you miss out' very simple economics.

[simplyessential_uk]

I did a little weeks test (see my prev post) very cautiously and manually chose keywords etc, think I unticked 50% of their suggestion.  I have used google ads in the past with my website and boy can you go through money its ridiculous, the set up is very similar so if anyone is trying dynamic with no experience of Google ads, tread lightly and do not chose automatic, im guessing the off site ads are tapping into google seaches or those silly ones I see at the bottom of google, just plonked all over.  My 1 weeks trial did not give me results but as soon as I stopped my ebay impression increased, not sure if coincidence but prob not

[wakeson]

I have used all there promotional advertising and i have to say the Advanced PPC is the biggest rip of, when i first started using it it wasn't to bad, PPC bids on some keywords were £0.20, but i found after a year they had gone up to £2.30....

I use larger listings for items around the £30 as for smaller listing around £5 its was a waste of money, and also the same keyword in Google Add was £0.45 to £0.55, so ebay are raking it in on this type of promotion.

My advise is use the keywords in Phrase with the highest impressions, leave the rest, as don't use eBay's recommendations.

Standard is better as you only get charged as you get a sale, but now i am finding i have to have my rate set at 20% - for instance one sale for £28.70 - eBay Fees cam to Transaction Fee £4.06 and Ad Fee Standard £6.48 !! 

£28.70 and i am left with £18.16 - They make £10 out of one order and you cant even get an answer off them, i had an argument with on last week form eBay as they consistently kept telling me they had raised the issue with there manager, and no response, went on for weeks and no answer, doing around £45k a year in fees and Thats the treatment you get.

Just set up a new website and one order for £34.99 cam with a £1.40 fee !! i know were I'm putting my energy.

[simplyessential_uk]

Standard is better as you only get charged as you get a sale, but now i am finding i have to have my rate set at 20% - for instance one sale for £28.70 - eBay Fees cam to Transaction Fee £4.06 and Ad Fee Standard £6.48 !! 

My goodness thats shocking - I never go about 2% - Ive trialled it in the past and it makes no difference in sales just how much I pay in fees - Have you tried 2-5%? 

Just set up a new website and one order for £34.99 cam with a £1.40 fee !! i know were I'm putting my energy.

Same - Btw ask Bard (google AI) to write your SEO.  I have had my own website for a couple of years and there are some items I never sell on there. Asked bard to re-write it all per category and shot up the search results - shame it couldnt help me with Ebay😃

[lord_and_lady_m]

This is interesting, I've never heard of bard. I've had a look at chatgtp but only for help writing a poem haha. 

I have a website I'm working on now too so I shall go on a hunt for this and see how it works..thanks

[paul*tribesandvibes*]

@simplyessential_uk  we have the same - sales dropped off the cliff in last 2 days. It seems that we have a ceiling on our impressions too.

Sales this month have been awful, and tbh most previous July's have been like Christmas for us for years. But not last year, and definitely not this year.

[lingerie0nline]

Here is my traffic stat's, as you can see a massive drop off the last 3 days, impressions mirror this..........has anyone found a workaround this glitch?

[shirtaddict101]

Hi all

 

Looking after my brother in laws account for a few weeks whilst he's off travelling.

Same thing happening on his account with Promoted Impressions nose diving out of the blue

Went from average daily 90K to 50K daily promoted impressions, starting on the 18th.

16th July - 135K promoted impressions

17th July -116K promoted impressions 

18th July - 58K promoted impressions 

19th July - 55K promoted impressions 

For context.

Standard promoted ads

All fixed %s

Running since 16th June according to the advertising dashboard

Nothing has been changed or tweaked since then, ads wise. I'm not allowed to touch these anyway. 

N.B Page views are consistent, even with the huge drop in promoted impressions. 🤷‍♂️ 

Anyway, See screenshot mirroring everyone else's. 

Hope this helps cooborate with others, if anyone from eBay actually sees this thread. 

[valueaddedresource]

Note: This reply is specifically for sellers who have seen a drop off in Promoted Impressions just in the last few days.

Over on the US boards, we're discussing what appears to be a test in which for some users/in some scenarios eBay has removed the majority of Promoted Listings ads on the View Item page.

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Anyone-else-seeing-these-changes-to-Promoted-Listings-on-View/...

For those who are seeing this apparent test, where there used to be 60+ ads shown below the description and feedback modules, there are either no other items shown at all or only 25 items shown that appear to be organic display, not sponsored.

These screenshots are from the US .com site, but I've been able to replicate it on UK as well.

eBay has very candidly said in earnings calls and other presentations in the past that the majority of Promoted Listings Standard impressions are *not* from search pages, but rather other places where those ads are shown across eBay - primarily the View Item page.

So when eBay staff here are telling you (this time) it's "not a technical issue" they may technically be right - if eBay is in fact running a test that removes PL ads from the main source of impressions, then drops in Promoted impressions would be "working as intended" and not a techincal issue.

We've asked for additional info or even just acknowledgement if they are in fact running a test, but have not received any responses yet.

Of course this may not be the main or only cause of the issues you all are seeing, but hopefully this info will help those who are being affected try to figure out what is going on.