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.

[therenewalworkshopltd]

We are being duped.  There was never a need to promote on Ebay, until Ebay introduced promotions!

And it's been pushed down everybody's throats so much, that everyone seems to think that the only was to sell anything on Ebay, is to use promotions.  It is just not true!

Especially when you consider their recommended percentages etc.  A very quick look at my listings and they are recommending a percentage of around 12%.  So even if I don't use their variable rate and stick to the recommended, they effectively want me to pay them 24% in fees when an item sells.  And that is ignoring other associated costs, such as listing, shop fee etc.

There really can't be many products that can cover 24% in costs!

But I promise you, it WILL bounce back up.  Going back quite a while now, I was constantly using promotions.  Though never at their recommended rate, it's far too high.

So pretty much a good 70% of sales were hit with those extra fees.

I turned it completely off and over the course of about 3-4 weeks, sales died (though not dead!), but picked back up over that period to where it was prior to stopping.

I really do think that it's something that Ebay does deliberately to put people off stopping promotions.

Don't get me wrong, there are definitely times when promotions should be used, but not 24/7.  It goes against common sense, at least to my mind anyway.

[pal_version]

ditto to the above. promotions are often not needed, heavily over used and miss used. its the great myth that eBay want us to believe but the reality is that eBay are the only ones that benefit from "promotions". 

don't believe in the hype about the inflated impression numbers. impressions mean next to nothing. listing views are where its at. you will be surprised how good your organic views actually are compared to promoted views. 

[jlovie]

My strategy is now to list without promoting and leave for a few months and only add promotion later if views are very low.

For my sort of stuff, there's no need to promote if it's the sort of thing people might be specifically searching for, but might help if it's the sort of thing they don't know they want till they see it.

[charmkeyrings]

I could be much more eloquent than this and explain.  However, in short you're quite correct.  We've been sold and PLs are *bleep* in the main.

[designedinashed]

quite a few people have tested the water here and they say within 4 weeks your organic sales will pick back up, eBay drop your listings down to make you panic to put PL's back on.

[designedinashed]

Im no expert, but your listings would do way better with longer titles keywords max out the 80 characters trust me.

[vintagechinashop]

I think the same can be said of shop fees. I downgraded my shop last month and obviously as I was going from 1500 listings to 250 I knew things would drop however until I end my current listings I still have 1200 but I’m leaving them till they are due to be automatically listed then end them so at the moment my sales should not have suffered much however they have and dropped down to a level when I’m still not in profit after the shop fee. Considering that I’m only paying £32 instead of £92 I still expected to see more of a profit by this time in the month

im convinced now because I’ve reduced my shop that eBay are punishing me on visibility. Really that’s tough as far as I’m concerned with promotions I was paying eBay a third of my sales and I’m not going to get back in that trap again. I refuse to play this game any more and if I sell at a much lower rate so be it because more of the money will be going into my pocket

im using another platform where I have a few listings at a time but pay no fees (we know which one that is )  I’ve sold more than double in the first few days of the month over there than I have on eBay. Granted my prices are lower but I’m still quids in because of zero fees and postage costs   I think eBay are going slowly down a slippery slope and I’m not prepared to pay a premium to slide with them 

[laptopsparesrepairs]

Absolutely disgusting and to be honest I've had it with this place.

Just like real bricks and mortar places you go to work at you hope its a job you enjoy.

Here at eBay I now dread loading the site, sales are next to non-existent in recent months, comply with legislation this that and the other, fees for everything but breathing and now underhanded ways to mug of your sellers like there making next to nothing as it is.

Sick to the back teeth of it, time for me to sack eBay off and start the looking for a *bleep*py job because that for me is becoming more desirable and lucrative than putting up with this constant garbage every week here at eBay!