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]

They've gone too far this time, we've paid through the nose just to get
listing visibility on this platform for long enough. They haven't even
bothered to try and dress up this change as being of some kind of benefit
to sellers like they did when halo sales were announced, even though it was
clear that the only benefit of that was to eBay. We are expected to just
suck it up or leave, despite thanking us so much for our loyalty every time
we call in.

This change again appears to have no purpose whatsoever except to
significantly increase ebay's ad revenue without them having to improve the
service they provide, or indeed doing anything at all to benefit their
members.

What have eBay done for us lately?

[nutrafituk]

Spot on. What have eBay done for us lately? I'm sure you know the answer.

[charmkeyrings]

I think people are generally tolerant but you can only push them so far. Without doing a survey, I would imagine that business sellers will reduce PLs to the minimum or switch them off altogether. I think eBay have shot themselves in the foot with this one. I hope it was just pure greed and not a cash grab before the platform dies.

[leminkainen2010]

Promoted listings is one big con. If the buyers are not there, then no amount of promotions are going to make the slightest difference. How big can you dig a hole??

[therenewalworkshopltd]

No, very much disagree with this.

Promoted listings work well, if used correctly.

Though you are technically correct, that it won't work if there are no buyers.  But that statement is patently untrue, or literally nobody would be selling anything.

The problem with advertising on Ebay, is that so many seem to think that the only way to sell anything, is to use promotions.  I've said it before and I will keep saying it, this is a fallacy and just not true.

Or to look at it another way, how many brands do you see advertising permanently?  They all have campaigns that run for fixed periods.  None of them (or very few), will run advertising 24/7!  It's an insane idea to do so.

Ebay had blinded so many.  

[pidgeun1]

Another Ads Change (weekly to monthly) to maximize and burn your Ads Budget

https://www.ebayadvertising.com/en/2025/05/30/seller-announcement-introducing-monthly-budget-pacing-...

https://www.valueaddedresource.net/ebay-monthly-budget-promoted-listings-priority-cpc/

[watchfan700uk]

is this being rolled out in the usa ?

[pidgeun1]

Yes, this change is across the board 

[pal_version]

not yet. UK, EU and Australia are just the Guinea pigs on this. the Germans have had it longer apparently.

[onlineflowerseeds]

Promote fees will be changed to be charged at time of sale at CURRENT promotion rate

Not when the buyer clicks if for first time

Only change will be Organic listing will most likely pay the CURRENT fee if the promoted has been clicked on in the last 30 days

If the Promotion is not running , then the fee is 0

Otherwise , sellers would promote at 2% , get a click then for 30 days promote at 80% and pay 2% fees

That`s why it is always the CURRENT fee and if promotion is paused or ended then it is 0%

[charmkeyrings]

Personally, I'm hugely disappointed with eBay. We live in a capalist society and the idea of running a business is to turn a profit. For me this has crossed the line and turned into "grubby".

[blueskystore777]

" I hope it was just pure greed and not a cash grab before the platform dies."

Amazingly, I don't think the platform is gonna die anytime soon. Net profit YOY is 13.54%!

How the hell did that happen when the engine for profit generation 'business sellers' are mostly suffering or leaving?

[therenewalworkshopltd]

Because an awful lot of their profit is now coming from advertising revenue.

Share price is also being buoyed up by regular buy backs.

Ebay is not in an ideal situation currently and really does need to get their arxx into gear soon.

Though they won't be going under any time soon.

Aside from which, just because you see it on a forum, does not mean that sellers are leaving in their droves.

What you are seeing, is those that are posting their dissatisfaction, which is generally not a great indicator of overall feeling etc.  As it represents a pretty small section of sellers.

[british-ceramics-and-paintings]

That figure is for Ebay globally.

I'd be very interested to see the UK only numbers, I think they would be very very weak.

[stbrelade]

I completely agree with you on this - That's why we used the fixed price on the general promoted listings ( Dynamic ad rate is too wild & uncontrollable) - We set our rate at 5%, and ended up with, roughly, a 50/50 split between items sold through PL and organic sales.

This resulted in a broad 2.5% fee on each item we sold. Now, we will be paying 5% on everything, regardless.

[555njp]

Agree! Simple example: 10 years ago I worked in an office of 40 or so people, most used eBay at least to buy from and quite a few used it to sell. Personally I was selling off a large automobilia collection, car parts and items from my grandfathers home after he passed.

In parallel I had started my small online business at that time selling new, used and refurbished garden equipment. Everything sold as soon as you listed it.

Last Thursday I met up with a cross section of ‘retirees’ from that same office (about half of them) and not one of them uses eBay to either buy or sell on anymore. All preferring to buy from the river and those still involved in selling use Vinted or Facebook and one guy told me he cleared a parents house and sold the lot at a car boot over two visits.

Yes we are all retired so that may have a bearing but the new employees (youngsters) in the office don’t use eBay either. 
To me that’s the most fundamental problem - far less buyers on the platform than there was.

You can promote all you like but what’s the point of topping a list if no one is looking?

[custom-giftsuk]

If management at eBay UK had access to the sales numbers, which I am very sure they have, they should be dusting down their CVs. looking for other work. The sales figures in the last year are horrible and I dont need to see the actual figures to know this. 

If you go into any sector, any item and do research on any item over the last 12-24 months, you'll see a declining graph. My own field - nearly a 40% drop in a 2 year span. 

Items like trainers, which eBay are pushing hard, have gone up slightly. but things like USB cables are dropping, phone cases, wallets, purses, card holders.... lots of sectors declining heavily. HOWEVER..... because of inflation, postal charges, etc prices are actually increasing in nearly every sector, so it looks better if you look at the average price of an item sold - ignoring the actual numbers sold. 

[therenewalworkshopltd]

To be fair to Ebay, competition since 10 years ago is just a tad different now....

The stupid thing is, that it is still the only half way decent place to sell a lot of things such as collectables and so on.  There really is still a place for Ebay.

[simplyessential_uk]

If you look at Ebay share price its the same as it was 5yrs ago BUT increased about 25% on prev year so this if they are on the same trajectory they are doing something right.  As we all know as sellers thats not what we are experiencing but Ebay are making a LOT of money off PLs / dynamics which is why I think the share price has increased over the past year.  Ebays sales seem to be irrelevant if they are making alot on Ads.  Its like Amz once said "Were a data collecting company that happens to sell books" - I think Ebay is following suit - we sell advertising space and you may sell items too.  Sometimes it takes people a little longer to realise the act is all smoke and mirrors.  I switched off PLs months ago and after a month see no difference, but maybe Im not in a category where its a fight to the top.  I definitely dont understand why someone would pay 10% PLs when they could reduce their prices by 10% or send out 10% Vouchers and more likely get a sale - Personally I dont have the profit margins to spare 10% to start with.

[charmkeyrings]

Strangely enough, I don't think ebay will fold any time soon either. That probably was a bit dramatic on my part. They'll keep fleecing business sellers as far as is legal though. That, I'll bet my life on 🙂