Promoted Listings Changes - You Must Be Joking, eBay

[superchallenge]

Email from eBay this morning. 

If I read it correctly, from 24th June, if you use promoted listings and ANYBODY clicks on the ad one time...if the item then sells to ANYBODY ELSE within the next 30 days, you get charged as if the first guy bought it.

That means that if Bob in Scotland clicks an ad and doesn't buy, but Steve from Wales rolls in 29 days later and finds the item in search and buys it without clicking on a promoted listings ad, you get charged because Bob clicked it almost a month ago.

It's all well and good saying "You'll still only pay when your items sell" eBay, but that isn't the point. We pay for promoted listings in order to help find A BUYER, not a browser. If somebody comes in and buys an item organically, then the ad hasn't done its job and we're not paying for it.

We'll be removing all of our promoted listings campaigns later today, as this starts in 32 days, which is extremely underhanded. The reason being that there's a 30-day attribution window, so if Steve clicks on one of our ads this Sunday, on June 24th when Bob buys the item without clicking an advert, we'll get charged.

[iceblue_uk]

Surely it must be 1 click results in 1 ad fee on the next sale. 1 click cannot possibly mean that all subsequent sales attract an ad fee. However there will always be more clicks than sales, so it looks like well now pay the ad fee on every single order of a promoted item. This also means of course

that ebay don't have much incentive to target the right buyers, so conversion rates may suffer as well. 

[tribalgiftsuk]

I would like to hope that is the case but sadly i think it will be every subsequent sale within the 30 days of the original click. Hope for clarification soon.

Theres a lot of questions that need to be answered about this.

marco@ebay  dave@ebay kate@ebay 

[jonatjonatjonat]

Personally I read it as 1 click and then any subsequent sales will accrue a promotion fee. Doesn’t matter how many.

i dare say this will be a hot topic on the Wednesday chat. Though I also don’t foresee getting any clarification either.

[pidgeun1]

No doubt, eBay will charge the Ad fees for the same click multiple times as
the attribution happens at item or listing level and not at click level.
Remember, eBay is always be looking for ways to maximize Ad fees. Too
convenient for them.

[iceblue_uk]

Sorry but I must disagree. I've been at this for 15 years and in that time we have carried out extensive ad promotion research and testing. In the categories we sell in you simply cannot sell in volume, compete with other medium/large volume sellers and avoid declining sales unless your listing stays on the first page of search results, if not the top 4. Constant monitoring and adjustment to the ad compaign is required if you want to be, or get near to, the top seller; at least that's how it is in the categories that we sell in. 

[valueaddedresource]

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@tribalgiftsuk wrote:

Trying to process this new idea on promoted listings standard and what is the best way to go forward.

What i would like to know is how this will work with multi quantity listings - say i have a listing with 8 in stock and one person clicks the add and doesn't buy and then i sell 3 to organic sales. Will the 3 all be seen as promoted sales or will it be 1 click = 1 promoted sale regardless of who clicked on the ad.

Either way its dreadful but will be worse if you have multi listings and multi sales and included in the 1 click.

This is all as clear as mud! 

I hope for clarification from the moderators soon.

I just saw your post above @valueaddedresource  which answered the question but i will like that confirmed by the moderators. 

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@tribalgiftsuk totally understand why you would like official confirmation from the moderators and I do hope dave@ebay  kat@ebay  or marco@ebay oblige.

However, even if they don't - you don't just have to take my word for it, you can look at what sellers in Germany have reported actually occurring since this same exact change went into effect there in February.

https://community.ebay.de/t5/eBay-Advertising/Anpassungen-bei-eBay-Anzeigen/m-p/4908756#M1543

I've exchanged messages with a few German sellers and they have told me that they are seeing it work exactly as I described on their multi-quantity listings (with the major caveat that I am not a German speaker and rely on Google translate 😂)

Like I said, it's one of the big reasons many German sellers' sales charts started looking like this after the change which went into effect February 26.

The wording of the German policy is exactly the same as what they have now announced for UK, Australia, France, Italy, and Spain so I think it's fair to assume that it will work the same way in those locations as it has been working in Germany.

I would be *very* happy to be wrong about that and would welcome the moderators providing a correction if needed, but unless/until they give explicit info to the contrary, I would advise sellers here to set their expectations according to the information at hand.

[simplyessential_uk]

I must of missed this announcement but just updated myself - honestly is there anything more Ebay want from us? I removed ALL promos about a year ago - I refused to get into this treadmill of paying for very little but there are some ppl who will specify promos on some items but not others (small margins for example) so Ebay will take regardless if the buyer clicked on any other listing but bougth something else? - This makes me so mad - one thing after another from a multi billion $$ company, its never enough is it??

[tribalgiftsuk]

Thanks so much @valueaddedresource 

I have several good returning customers and i would be charged for those as if i had promoted with this new scheme regardless of the fact that i have retained them to buy from me on Ebay.  Seriously looking at tinkering and not promoting as much. It's sad really, you dont mind taking a hit now and then but not constantly.

[tackle3d]

This change is ridiculous and damn right out of order. Why should eBay take a cut from a sale that was not supported through a click on a promoted listing? Soon it will be any add any item... Item Z was clicked so you give us a cut of Item A's Sale!

Just because Bob clicked my AD does not mean Cecil who did not should cost me and line the pocket of eBay. I am all for paying if the buyer has clicked my ad but not if they have not. This is laughable! 

I am really hoping that the office intern was asked to write this email and he made a mistake....

[art2own]

I am never going to promote anything. Just thinking outside the box here, looking for a spanner that might deservingly break eBay’s logic.

Reading the wording for an attributed sale: "The item must be promoted at the time of click and the time of sale."

Does this mean a savvy seller could promote a listing, and if they later receive an offer they’re happy with, end the promotion on that listing and wait a few hours before accepting the offer—thereby avoiding the ad fee, since the item would no longer meet both the conditions (be promoted at time of click and the time of sale)?

[messier44000]

I would expect as per usual on Weds they will have done no advanced research or 

anticipating questions, and simply pass concerns on to the team and get back to us.

Hence why for some time I have watched from a safe distance rather than banging 

my head against a wall hoping for a straight answer. 

[bazinga-games]

I've never used PL, but this change seems ridiculous from what I've read in the first few posts.

Really, though, what is the point of PLs?

Every day I receive emails from eBay regarding items I have glanced at - and some I don't even remember clicking on - encouraging me to 'take another look', or showing me similar items, or telling me 'this seller is accepting offers', etc, etc.  All these emails are effectively promoting all these sellers' listings anyway...

[prelovedsentwithlove]

Thank you for this have removed my promoted listings now. 

[triple512]

Apologies as I did post this elsewhere but the content is more relevant on this thread:

We stopped all PLs over 18 months ago. Sales initially dipped but recovered after about 4 weeks which, as I was told by a techie expert, was likely to eBay’s algorithm linking my account with promos and hiding my listings when I wasn’t promoting.

BUT, and this is going to be a serious problem for everyone I think - On occasion when our sales stop dead for a few days, I’ve found search to be so heavily manipulated that I can only find certain items by literally typing in the listing title word for word. Leaving out one word or even a gap (eg lawn mower or lawnmower) means the item doesn’t show. All I can see is ‘broadly’ similar (but not what I want) promoted items.

I assume they are testing search again to find a way to ensure buyers can now ONLY find promoted listings? 
Aside from wanting to charge a promotion fee, irrespective if that buyer actually clicked the promoted item and basically hiding everyone’s items if they don’t promote, how can they deliver the other promise in that email of putting your promoted listing to the top?

Put simply, if a buyers normal search reveals say 300 results and 20% are promoted, even if eBay do hide the other 80%, you can’t have all 60 items at the top…!
Someone will be in position 60 which could be on page 3!
I guess they’ll plaster those PLs over every listing clicked, be it relevant or not and hope a buyer clicks it somewhere along the line?
IMHO all that does is annoy buyers so they go buy elsewhere.

As a business, if can only sell via PLs, my margins won’t be sustainable to continue selling here.
Why can’t eBay see that PLs and manipulated search only give a very short term gain but at the cost of permanently losing both buyers and sellers. 
Surely that’s the real cause of eBay’s loss of revenue, more and more account holders driven away by stupid, complex and unnecessary changes.

[triple512]

Just reread the email which says only priority campaign users will have “access” to the top advertising slot. Basically means the general campaign will be even more pointless than it was previously as you’ll now get even less visibility, will not be at the top of search and be more likely to be charged an ad fee….what an absolute con!

[madcello]

That general promo money grab is one problem, but in my opinion increased importance of PPC promo, or how they call it "priority strategy promotion" it's even bigger problem, as it will be abused by dodgy sellers. Competitors will click on your promoted listings without intention of buying anything and drain your PPC promo budget in no time. This is really scary and ebay I guess will do nothing about it, as if your listing is clicked by genuine buyer, or if your listing is clicked by your competitor, ebay get paid the same in both cases and of course ebay get paid from your PPC budget. Not to mention that all that search manipulation is moving the buyers away from ebay. It will be much better if they go for a simple promo model like on Etsy, where you just setting a daily budget for all your listings, or some listings of your choice and Etsy does all the job for you, one simple adjustment per week is plenty enough and only take few seconds, on ebay you have to adjust them twice per day to make sure you not robbed and spent at least extra hour per day positioning promos, when really you should spent that time on new listings, or improving the quality of existing ones...

[ventexclutches]

Plus this top slot will attract the General Fee AND Priority fee in ALL cases if using both campaigns (the listing would only have needed to had one click on a General Ad in the last month which is almost 100% likely for any half decent listing).

Before this change a double fee would only occur if the buyer visits the item twice in that 30 days, where one click was on a Priority slot and the other was on a General slot.

[lupo-store]

Regarding the invalid click issues you mentioned I have had several ‘attacks’ over the last 2 weeks on ads general. 
now I have switched it off due to this change I have had a few little spikes on priority.

spoke to concierge and they said anything above 4 clicks gets invalidated but that means you can have 20 items on priority and get 4 invalid clicks on each resulting in 80 invalid clicks.

something like that happened this morning and my conversion rate was half its normal rate as a result 

[sheba-knows-best]

Hi. Yes I agree - annoying, worrying, another cost just when so much about online selling is already bleak. BUT I'm a firm believer in taking stock, then decide a way forward. So I love an excel sheet...

2020 - my PL sales made up 56% of sales

2021 - 52%

2022 - 55%

2023 - 70%

2024 - 75%

2025 - YTD 85%

(I should point out I  monitored these PL figures on the basis of driving sales to below VAT threshold which I achieved each year. I tried turning off PL but this resulted in crashed organic visibility too - I did post graphs at the time proving this - I spent a month waiting for the promised recovery with no-PL . It never came.)

So now lets look at costs focusing on 2 most comparable years:

2023 - PL costs £5,166 (70% of sales were PL)

2024 - PL costs £5,518 (75% of sales were PL)

Let's pretend 2024 had 100% of sales with PL:

£5,518 (75%) becomes £6,897 (100%) ie an additional £1,379.50 

Let's work with this extra £1,379.50.

Divide it by 12, it is an extra £115 per month.

Divide it by number of items sold (1,225 items for me in 2024) it is @ an extra £1.13 per item.

Whilst no one wants this extra cost, by working out what this new measure means for your business, the choice of what to do with PL - how to cope and allow your business to thrive - might become clearer. I hope this helps.

[fatbobfan]

I have posted further up the thread an impressions performance issue I have with PL and organic and will be monitoring and will post accordingly

However for a small period of time I will be keeping my PL on and have noted a 25% increase in PL impressions since the announcement

How has anyone elses PL impressions been performing since the announcment?