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 

[tothemoonresales]

same for me, 18th fell off a cliff last 3 days started coming back today back off the cliff again.

This platform is beyond a joke at this point

[pre_worn]

I have spoke to the ads team.

The idea behind the beta test is to reduce overall impressions, but make the impressions gained more likely to convert.

The ads team do not believe that this beta test has reduced sales - Our sales figures do not agree with this.

It is not possible to be removed from the test as they have now confirmed that it is product based and not seller based (Obviously, sellers who sell a specific type of product that is part of the test will be seeing a bigger drop).

Test is due to finish August 7th.

[simplyessential_uk]

Thanks for the update and like you say our sales also disagree with this, my impressions slumped 18th but since post 29th july theyve doubled and way up but like many other sellers, not translating to sales, so that doesnt add up with what theyre saying, but lets see what happens post 7th Aug, will be interesting to see. 

[auntietootieblue]

Hi

I am exactly the same as you, impressions jumped at the weekend but no sales conversion for this. Wish they would have let us "chosen ones" know before they were doing it we might have been able to prepare for the slump in says instead of just choosing us without out knowledge and using us as guinea pigs.  I must always be one of the "chosen ones" as anytime they do any update it affects my account, why can't they choose someone else.  I would be quite happy to not be chosen for anything like all the other sellers that are getting sales who its not affecting and think we are making this up along with ebay.

[simplyessential_uk]

I like to think its "swings and roundabouts" This turn of being "chosen" hasnt been great but we never know if those past super sales days  (admittedly its been a while since thats happened) we have had were also when we were "chosen"  Im not going to dwell on it anymore, ebay have always done this and will again, at least I know its not my imagination, so Im just going to try and work on what I can effect.

[qualitycardsandgifts]

At least we now have a date when things should start to improve.   I have reinstated my featured shop and am relisting everything, but my cost of sales is now a staggering 66% !!!!!!    so I'll give it a month and see how it goes. 

[paul*tribesandvibes*]

@qualitycardsandgifts just out of interest, what are the benefits for you of a featured shop over a basic shop? 66% whoooo! 😲

[qualitycardsandgifts]

I have over 800 stock items so need the featured shop allowance to list them all.  I'm hoping that sales will get back to something like normal soon, if not it will be back to a basic shop 

[paul*tribesandvibes*]

@qualitycardsandgifts  Ah, yes I can see the advantage - it's a very tight numbers game with the number of listings and the monthly cost of a featured shop though. Nail biting stuff! Lets hope this current nonsense settles down to good sales at some point soon.

[british-ceramics-and-paintings]

When would you say sales were last like normal for a prolonged period ?

Thanks.

[goingfishing]

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@pre_worn wrote:

Test is due to finish August 7th.

---

Good news thank you. 

dave@ebay is this correct?  Would be the decent thing to do and report on this considering how much misery and financial hardship this has caused.

Thank you.

[qualitycardsandgifts]

Sales were good up till November last year.   December was a disaster due to postal strikes.     January was ok, but sales have been falling month on month since then.   If I can't make this work, thousands of £s worth of stock will end up in the charity shop. 

[british-ceramics-and-paintings]

My concern is things are unlikely to improve much on here, unless Ebay has a big shift in it's current trajectory I think things will continue much as they are.

The situation with impressions is just antother issue in a long list of things.

ps. I would agree with your timeline in terms of when things really started going downhill.

[qualitycardsandgifts]

Earlier in the thread, someone suggested that a test eBay is running ends on august 7th.   That may help sellers who have seen a dramatic drop in sales since 18th July,  but I suspect that's not going to affect me.    I'm ending everything, listing similar and lowering prices.    If that doesn't work then I don't think my account can be saved. 

[goingfishing]

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@british-ceramics-and-paintings wrote:

ps. I would agree with your timeline in terms of when things really started going downhill.

---

Indeed, this was the Great 'We will protect you against INR cases due to the postal strikes' but then admitted on these very forums they 'forgot.'  Loads of folk's accounts were hammered by INR cases and hence put on the naughty step = huge loss of sales.

March 2023 the new Promoted Listings Standard Dynamic introduced = massive loss of sales until you found out here that was possibly the problem and then you decided to pay to play.

July 2023 these apparent 'Promotions Tests' again not asked for, not wanted but still included = massive loss of impressions and sales.

Nov 2023 I can't even imagine what site busting 'new' improved feature will be brought out to lose us money.

All of this in 9 months or so.  So really can we genuinely expect to put our faith in eBay anymore?  I mean the lack of word from eBay themselves is absolutely astounding and shows pure disregard for their customers i.e. the sellers and to some extent the buyers here.

[dave@ebay]

Hi @goingfishing 

Ive reached out to the Ads Team for clarification on this. I'll come back to you as soon as Ive heard from them.

Thanks,

Dave

[caz1718]

My performance on eBay tracks exactly as your timeline above since March, this latest beta test for me has been dreadful. 

Whilst I'm pleased the trial will end on Monday, there is a long road to rebuild after the damage it may have caused. Whilst optimistic I am also cautious about celebrating the end to poor sales performance. We have no indication of whether the ad team achieved what they'd hoped overall and thus if the trial will be rolled out as the new norm.  I'm guessing as they published % increases for each of the PL tools the actual aim is to offer a. quarter of previous impressions for standard and half in return for dynamic so in reality impressions may never reach previous levels. I, as many, saw a good increase in promoted impressions over the weekend which is now falling way short and dropping again, the increase still presented a drop on the previous 12 months and didn't result in many sales.

We already know this trial has been poorly conceived given most on this thread have seen a very negative impact on sales, it concerns me the ad team can't see that and go so far as to deny the impact.

It also occurs to me that particular statement is a very silly one to make, the trial was designed to reduced impressions but couldn't directly affect sales?  If they don't see strangling impressions as directly impacting sales then what exactly are the tools designed to do?  Surely the whole point of PL is ultimately to improve sales conversion but if it has no impact either way what exactly are the selling? 

[the_book_seekers]

The idea behind the beta test is to reduce overall impressions, but make the impressions gained more likely to convert.

How can ebay reduce impressions. I get how the bots being blocked reduced number, what else can ebay do to reduce impressions - make items harder to find? 

[the_book_seekers]

@goingfishing I'd give up on trying to get an answer on this from the community team. The reaching out has been going on for weeks now. @pre_worn has the scale of items for sale/sold to get to talk to the people who know directly - makes a difference.

[the_book_seekers]

Nov 2023 I can't even imagine what site busting 'new' improved feature will be brought out to lose us money.

If ebay does have something up its sleeve it will probably be something fiendish to make us take up promoted listings. Perhaps this is what this beta testing is designed to do if it reduces impressions.