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.

[pegr-834437]

Also not everyone is a business, a private seller can promote at 4% and with bpf included all fees are less than you pay so can charge less than you, you're basically playing on a sloped pitch constantly facing a battle. 

[modelrailwaysales]

Time for honesty to come along set up a better sales platform then ebay and see how ebay collapses and dissapears. I see it coming.

[tribalgiftsuk]

I switched off promoted listings in June and my sales for July and August were within 5% of the previous year. So it barely made any difference at all. Its only since end September when all the budget scare mongering started that the sales have dropped badly. I have taken a few more days off than i have previously too.

So all in all i don't think the promoted listings were really giving me more sales, yes more clicks and impressions but not converting as they were probably not properly placed or it was bots or competitors clicking a lot on them.

But also my faith in Ebay has been smashed and consequently i have been putting more effort into other things that will give me a more secure income. Its such a shame, Ebay used to be my favourite selling platform and it used to be straight forward to sell on here and the delivery dates shown used to be sensible.

One too many bad moves towards sellers in the last few years and its just getting too expensive to sell on here with the increasing posting costs also.

[carrapetfoods]

I listed an item a few weeks ago without promoting the listing. Around 3 days ago I edited the price and also attempted to send an offer to watchers. I got some sort of error message saying the offer didn't send and just left it. My item sold yesterday, to a buyer that had contacted me a couple of weeks ago and I was shocked this morning when I found a 14% promoted listing fee. I done some digging and found my ad was promoted 3 days ago - when I edited the price and attempted to send an offer.

I 100% didn't physically check any box to promote the listing. I've asked chatgpt and it seems to believe that ebay may have auto-checked the promoted listing offer when I edited the price and or attempted to send an offer.

I've spoken to ebay CS who appear to have acknowledged that I didn't knowingly promote the listing and am awaiting a call back to resolve this.

[vintage-emporium-jedburgh]

Call back? 🤣

[typo_lee]

I think its only promoted listings and forced advertising thats keeping ebay afloat. Its clear people have deserted the platform. Our impressions down 60% on same time last year and getting worst!

[nutrafituk]

Got there eventually... After months of fighting back and graduall reducing the number of promoting listings we just made it big fat ZERO for the first time. If asked - best decision ever, and nerver going back to it.

The saved money has gone into our website.

[louisianna]

Interesting. What has happened to your sales as a result?

[simplyessential_uk]

I removed Promos earlier this year - for the first 3 weeks you fall off a cliff and like an addict I would go back to promos and sales would return - Then I held my nerve and by week 4 all my organic impressions returned to the same lavel as they were with Promos.  I have been quiet this year but these last 6weeks Ive gone back to closing listings daliy and renewing (sell similar) and rewording titles, amend images, description etc - keeping all listings new and fresh (that arent selling) and my sales last 6wks have been fantastic.  My impressions shot up as you can see 6wks ago - sales up 62% so dont be fooled that promotions are the key to increased sales - its the old fashioned nurturing of listings.   If you are to drop promos the do it in January when its quiet and by Feb you will see the increase again 

[555njp]

Completely agree and this works even if like me you are a very small part-time business. Also worked on my private account.

I stopped all PLs 2 years ago. Sales fell off a cliff but gradually returned. Later that year my sales just died completely so I resorted to promoting again but it didn’t make any difference.

In November of that year I took all listings down until February then started again with freshly created templates etc. and was pleasantly surprised at how good sales were.

Yes, I still get the odd week when I seem to be invisible and a few listings that never attract a view! But that was happening even when I was promoting.

I asked a tech guy about this and he said the algorithm knows when an account promotes, so if it stops it’ll reduce visibility and sales giving the impression that you must promote in order to sell.

By de-listing everything and leaving it a few months it would appear that I was able to break the algorithmic link to my account completely as sales are now stable and fees much lower.

I certainly will never be promoting again!

[555njp]

Just an aside but linked to visibility of listings. Occasionally I’ll send out an offer on a product  that has stalled. I then regularly get a sale within 3 or 4 hours…….but for the full price?
I can only assume that when offers go out something kicks in that increases visibility to others who subsequently buy.

Very odd I know but this happens more often than not so I cannot see how it can be a coincidence?

[simplyessential_uk]

I asked a tech guy about this and he said the algorithm knows when an account promotes, so if it stops it’ll reduce visibility and sales giving the impression that you must promote in order to sell.

The cynical in me always thought this, that promos were money for nothing and they were removed hide the listings so sellers panic and switch promos back on, but to confirm it! wow.  I know new listings get a "bump up" for first 7 days so after a month it gets closed and restarted (as new) My sales are the best they've been all year. 

[nutrafituk]

Obviously they went down gradually as we had stopped promoting bit by bit until all gone. To put into perspective - pretty much 6 months of decline to hit the bottom, and then slowly but surely sales started picking up. Regardless, we could not justify spending an extra £1,000 pcm in return for nothing. Unless you can afford to go big percentage and it works there is absolutely no point as everyone accepts to pay additional 2% or so...

[lord_and_lady_m]

Now is the perfect time to try in my opinion. I've switched some off and now winding the xmassy ones right down along with putting up postage. I feel done now for Xmas as any order after today will be ones that people are willing to pay for tracked postage on at which point I'm fine with that.

Gives me 2 weeks to lose my mind over all the 'wheres my order' messages and relax a bit more before Xmas. 

Jan is always quiet so I don't want to encourage it to be busy as that's tax return time 😂

[nutrafituk]

Sounds great however do not put your feet up yet! Just last week we had c. 150 parcel gone MIA and they only surfaced 4-5 days later after collections over the weekend 130 miles away - the very first scan. All posted with Royal Mail and fully tracked. Now guess who gets blamed for that by eBay? 

[strangestash]

Is this even on internally promoted listings? i.e. a 'general' promoted listing, promoted at 2%?

[typo_lee]

We were promoting at just 30%. No sales after leaving it for 4 weeks to try. Updated just yesterday to dynamic 8% and sales are flying in. It really does seem that you do have to pay to play now. Well for us anyway as we simply can't afford not to leave it 6 months with no sales coming in.

[pegr-834437]

Sorry just to clarify you were promoting at 30%, then dropped to 0% for 4 weeks and no sales then dynamic and sales are back? Did you end the listings or anything and start fresh ones at any point? Have you kept the prices the same throughout? 

With dynamic can you set a limit on what percentage it charges?

Sorry for all the questions by the way.