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.

[solodesignuk]

This is absolutely ridiculous. I would say around 20% of my sales currently are via promoted and the campaigns run at around 20-25%.  I have no issues paying the fee if the ad worked but to expect me to pay it for sales where I am driving the traffic to the listing by advertising elsewhere is crazy.

The issue is, I previously switched off ads as a trial and my sales dropped by far more than just the approx 20% that sell via promoted. There must be some regular visibility boost by running campaigns as well as the obvious sponsored listings. 

[gameswap.shop]

I don't get it, at a time when platform competition is stronger than ever - they pull a move that will only push business sellers further away.

[fashionista27]

good observation re: competitors!

[superchallenge]

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@palison_123 wrote:

@superchallenge 

"If anybody (not just the eventual buyer, but anybody at all) has ever clicked on the promoted version of the listing within the last 30 days, yes."

No thats how it is now .

What this says is that they don`t even have to click on the ad and we will be charged .

Its effective a percentage increase across the board if you promote an item and because it last 30 days from one person clicking on an item, it effectively lasts forever.-or until you stop promoting it will stop 30 days after that point .

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That's not at all how it is now as far as I understand it.

As it is now, if User A clicks on an ad and then User A comes back to the item and buys it 20 days later, you get charged. If User A clicks on the ad and then User B buys the item (without clicking on the ad) 20 days later, you don't get charged.

Now it means that if User A clicks on the ad and User B or anybody else buys it within 30 days without clicking on the ad, you get charged.

[valleyrc1]

Absolutely outrageous.

I promote everything but a good 1/3 of my sales aren't promoted.

There is zero way to rationalise or justify this.

Someone finds your listing organically, and buys the item, and you get charged a fee because an entirely separate person looked at it via an ad 3 weeks ago?

The two things have absolutely no connection or relation to each other.

This is beyond the pale, way more so than BPF or SD.

The indirect sales thing at least had a plausible rationale behind it.

There is simply no way to justify this.

Of all the changes ebay has made, many controversial, this is the first time I've seen something so blatant and indefensible.

[palison_123]

@superchallenge 

Yes I agree with you.

I read your comment as if the buyer had to click on the ad.

Maybe I misunderstood your comment.

[louisianna]

Killing us all softly!! I recently lowered my % and sales were dead. Kinda between a rock and hard place, especially when you are selling low profit margin items. 

[threeeight-3d]

We've already reduced our ad spend on eBay to the minimum rate and shifted the majority of our advertising budget to more effective channels — primarily Google Ads, which drive traffic directly to our website. Ultimately, this is a loss for eBay.

[jonatjonatjonat]

I honestly can't logically see why someone would keep general promotions switched on unless you are happy to basically pay a higher percentage on all your sales (which for some, they may be happy with)

I'd say they are wanting to move us all over to PPC (which is fine, as they are the only large provider as far as I know who does the PPO style of advertising) but trying to get a bit more money out of general promotions while they can.

[angry-space-triangles]

Yeah this might be the tactic - moving us to PPC.

PPC sucks - especially if you sell only low value items, for obvious reasons.  I have ~50 clicks for each sale!

[blueskystore777]

It's another change that seems to make very little sense. No matter who the initial bright spark was, this will have been signed-off by several layers of decision makers. Where's the ebay business case logic to it?? What is the 3 year plan ebay??

Sooner or later sellers will stop drinking the Coolaid and dump PL in such numbers that some sort of simple search is reinstated organically.

In terms of products, markets naturally cycle between favouring complex and simple solutions. Ebay being the size it still is, could gain a new dominant position by leading the market back to a simple solution product. Starting with a classic search, a simple fee structure and then applying supportive value added products. They could even offer mandatory ad fees/premium exposure as long as it's linked to supporting/growing individual sellers. A mandatory ad product that applies only after a seller reaches a certain level of turnover might even be seen as desirable.

[ett1954]

"I can only imagine they must still be thriving in the States, because their share price is somehow still going up??  It makes no sense to me, I think they are fiddling their investors as well." - The share price is driven by short-term investor confidence.  For several years now eBay has maintained this through share buybacks which gives the investors an opportunity to make a quick 'killing' on their shareholding.  This has been financed by selling off acquisitions, and more recently by increasing revenues from promoted listings together with the increased fee take from postal price increases.  Promoted listings have been increasingly responsible for revenue and eBay have made no secret of this in their statements to Wall Street, and this appears to be a major part of their business plan.  The majority of 'profits' each quarter are ploughed back into the share buybacks rather than being invested into the business.

The timing of this introduction (end of June which is the end of the second quarter financials) would suggest eBay are concerned with falling revenues and feel this will generate extra revenue to maintain this strategy at the end of the third quarter by which time the hoped-for revenue increase would be known.  No doubt the second quarter statement (probably late July) will feature in the announcement to investors that eBay expect to see further revenue generation through promotions.

eBay is becoming the most expensive platform on which to sell whilst at the same time many sellers are seeing a significant fall in both sales and margins.  There comes a point at which sellers, of all persuasions, will say enough is enough and drop or significantly reduce promotions, or leave the site completely.  This could result in a spectacular implosion of the business, as once this revenue dries up and there is no revenue to replace it to maintain the share buybacks investors will dump their holdings quicker than rats leaving a sinking ship.

It will be interesting to see how this pans out as I note it is not being introduced in the US where the impositions of tariffs will be causing many sellers to either take a hit or be making them increase prices.

[palison_123]

@ett1954 

Good post !!!!

[ett1954]

"What is the 3 year plan ebay??" - eBay only have a simple 3-6 month plan; maintain revenue for share buybacks to keep an artificially high share price.  Convenient for senior executives as well as investors as I am sure their bonus payments will be linked to share price.

[greatgiftshampshire]

I have just spoken with seller support with regards to this and I would urge all sellers to contact ebay to log a complaint , apparently they are having a meeting regarding these changes this week  which are designed to get the maximum commissions out of us all with nothing to show in return , ebay's greed has now come to a point where it will no longer be viable to sell on this platform . 

[tabletop-hobbies]

eBay is really flushing it's integrity away with this one (it was already in the toilet!!).  Absolutely terrible behaviour towards business sellers, it's turning PL into a scam.  So I'll be paying out a load more in PL fees for no benefit whatsoever, with no additional service delivered.  eBay might as well just declare that 'we're going to rob money off you guys innit'.

[therenewalworkshopltd]

which are designed to get the maximum commissions out of us all with nothing to show in return 

Support actually told you this?  Or just the bit about a meeting?

[vintage-emporium-jedburgh]

 We get a little buzz whenOccasionally a buyer purchases  using generic search

that helped enhance the promoted listing process

this  loopholes  now closed

using promoted now guarantees doubling your fees 

With  Yet another bell tolling ebay

were developing tinnitus 

[jonatjonatjonat]

Can someone enter ebay themselves for the ebay for business awards?

They must surely be a shoo-in for Community Contribution Award – For those making an impact in the seller community

[comrie-antique-books]

I read this exactly the same way. It's seems utterly absurd and nothing more than an attempt to fleece more money out of already stretched sellers. As somebody said earlier it's probably to force people on to ppc. I have certain low value job lots etc that can get 60-100 clicks in a month which would make them worthless. This is nothing more than a stealth way of increasing fees on people.

I always promote for past 4 years at 5%. On books the recommended rate has gone from 5% to about 12.5%. When I first started selling on Ebay about 50% of my sales were through promotions. Now it's dropped to about 20% or less. I suppose this would push up add rate sales to in the margin of 75%.  

On a 10 pound book. Fees + advertising is £2.19, my average sales per month is 26 so shop fees per sale is £1.25 per sale. Now I have to pay 30p for Royal Mail collection pushing postage to £3.75.  Moreover my return is about 25% on a £10 item, 4 years ago it was about 50%. Not only does this make small business growth impossible, but it's just unsustainable. On top of this we have the obvious problems with Ebay 1) That they encourage bargain hunting with a userbase who increasingly want something for nothing and 2) An ever increasing drop in sales and users. 

Again 4 years ago I would make 2-3 sales a year on Biblio. Now I make 2-3 a month, obviously it's nothing in comparison to Ebay, but it's undeniable that Ebay's sales are declining, while others are increasing. The difference is Biblio the fees are lower and they don't require a subscription. On the other hand platforms like Abebooks charge far less in fees and £20 for a inventory of 500 items, £30 for an inventory of 4,000. Anyway my point is Ebay is increasingly become untenable for small business due to other platforms charging far less in subscriptions, fees and commission. Personally I wouldn't mind paying so much in fees and commission if Ebay shop fees were less and the listing allowances were higher in line with US shops. However, with such high fees, high shop subscription, low listing limits and declining sales I'm going to have to start migrating to more alternative websites.