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 

[swiss_expert_uk]

@valueaddedresource dave@ebay Interesting information thank you, I'm still seeing sponsored items from other sellers but only  25 items. Promoted and organic impressions continue to full yesterday despite listing new items. 

[wakeson]

Be carefull using to much Ai, there will most deffinatly be a robot that can scan these and show which items and descriptions have been made usnig Ai, i use it to get a good description on some items but i then re wright it using this as a referance and to get the keywords relevant to the page that the Ai has giving and the amount of times they show...

sounds a bit paranoid i know but you know what these sites are like, they change it without telling you and more impression dops..

[swiss_expert_uk]

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@valueaddedresource wrote:

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.

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dave@ebay 

[simplyessential_uk]

interesting and exactly what I suspected.  Ebay will always be doing "tests" sometimes and tweaks on selective groups. In all my years Ive seen peaks and troughs (switched on or off) every now and again.   This must be a rather big test if ppl in US are experiencing the same drop so I guess it depends if Ebays bottom line is effected.

I am trialling since yesterday moving from 2% PL to 4% and woken to 6 order, more than Ive had in 2 days (normally have 10-12 these days) .... Ill switch back in a few days and see what happens. 

[simplyessential_uk]

Bard is Googles AI, so why would google penalise a website who used their AI, well thats my logic and Bard tells me which searchwords to use, what competitors use, where they rank etc so its a resource thats very useful even if just to get that info. In my experience so far sales have improved. Btw I thought I wrote good descriptions and when I read Bards and meta titles I thought they were rubbish but I tried a few non sellers and they sold a week later, checked ranking and increased to first few pages on google, so rolled out gradually throughout my categories and they started selling too.  I know algorithms are always changing so its a case of constant tweaking, but its nice to make good profit, my website will be making more than Ebay if things carry on being so poor here.

[goingfishing]

Again the graphs/sales continue to drop and again no reply from eBay.  I really think this is the end this time.  My first protrader phone call is going to be very interesting this afternoon for sure.

[dave@ebay]

Hi All,

I don't have an update on this yet but I'm still looking into it.

Ive taken all the newer reports from the thread and shared them with the promoted listings team to be reviewed.

Thanks,

Dave

[wearenowclosedthankyou]

Is it a case of "we can't have it both ways?"  We complained about other adds on our listings but if removed.... that means our adds are not on others listings..... hence a drop🤷

[pre_worn]

We also have a huge drop off in impressions since the 17th - We are down 90 million impressions over the last 3 days.

[swiss_expert_uk]

Well yes, quite so. I'm happy to have less ads shown on my items but my sales are down.

[the-archive-club]

Sales completely unpredictable this month. Stop and start, stop and start. Thought I'd check out my traffic for the first time in a few days and noticed what everyone else has been experiencing...

[best-range]

Everything is almost 50% down; promoted impressions, views & sales. 

The very few sales I got in the last 3 days were 90% from repeat buyers.

This is happening on both business & private account, similar graphs as everybody else:

 

What's the point of the promoted adds ???

I thought it was better exposure, more impressions/views more sales, but the very opposite is currently happening.

It's beyond belief that yet again there is no announcement from ebay's towers about this situation. It's obvious some new experiment is going on globally or something is gone seriously wrong affecting promoted listings visibility & income for those used as a guinea pigs,  yet not a whisper.

[lord_and_lady_m]

We all know the stock answers are 'we're not aware of any issues', 'we've passed this on to the relevant teams and will report back', and the fav 'everything is working as it should'. 

eBay UK can't help us. I'm very sure they have zero control over any of the algorithms, website code, changes etc. I do think all they can do is make suggestions. So we have to reply of .com to make changes to suit and hope the UK team really stand up for our market and it's differences to other markets. 

So as I have thought, impressions aren't broken. It's clear they're not. I think this because if it was just an impressions count issue, most of us wouldn't have noticed really. However there are people commenting that have highlighted they decided to look after their sales dropped. 

So actual exposure of our products to customers is clearly up the spout!

[simplyessential_uk]

Unfortunately we will never get an acknowledgement, to say theyre testing new algorithms, tech issue, change in ads etc = ppl wanting compensation/refunds for subs & fees.

You will never get a response on this issue.   I can only hope its temporary and not the final nail in the coffin.

[swiss_expert_uk]

Impressions getting lower everyday. 

[wakeson]

Yep, sam here....getting slightly fed up wit this BS.

eBay CS dont give a care in hell, keep fobbing us off with stupid excuses, even asked me if i had refreashed my screen !!

[tackshackuk]

Keep up the great work guys, i noticed this too and have been keeping an eye on your updates. 

I have been having problems of different things since the middle of june, could list them all but it would like like a kids christmas list!!!

Todays one, and i am wondering if its connected is payments time...wierd. This out of every problem cs cannot say it's US! even though they tried to tell me i have changed to different time settings.

In the seller hub under payments my time is different from the time of the awaiting despatch page for the same item. 

Under payments - 

Recent activity

21 Jul 2023 9:16am

Order 

Orders - under awaiting dispatch

21 Jul 2023 at 5.06pm BST

 it looks like my account is split in different time zones, these times have varied from the 21st to the 22nd but  time has stayed the same.  According to cs i am the first......

[wearenowclosedthankyou]

https://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/Technical-Issues/US-time-showing-on-all-UK-transactions-this-week/td...

[sheba-knows-best]

I'd be interested to see people's 13months impressions so that we can see a y-o-y trend. We all know the last week of school is a minefield. I'll start with mine:

Mon 18th 2022 vs Mon 17th 2023: 262,337 / 370,943

tues 19 2022 vs tues 18 2023: 242,780 / 228,321

Wed 20 2022 vs Wed 19 2023: 249,973 / 221,180

thu 21 2022 vs / thurs 20 2023: 268,681 / 203,751

Fri: results still coming in

True we are seeing a slide but only down to pretty similar levels as seen in 2022 (maybe about 10% down over all, although Monday's blip 2023 would offset that % for me). I wish ebay would let us go back more than 13 months with this chart. The generally slightly lower numbers is what I might expect for a recession year and we know ebay is having to compete for market share. 

Seriously, please would people share their 13 months screen shots and quote the same figures that I just have and see how much lower this week in 23 is vs in 22.

[swiss_expert_uk]

 I'm down around 100,000 impressions per day compared to this time last year. I will add this time last year was not making much effort with my eBay business, you can probably see when I started to focus on the run up to Christmas 22 and the highs I achieved, until Easter when eBay broke something and the subsequent decline to the lowest point in 13 months (bar periods when I ended my promotions)