What is a "priority fee"?

[robbtyke132010]

Does anyoneout there know what this is? I sold absolutrely nothing yesterday but was charged £16.03 on "priority fees" fot items that have not sold. Have a signed up for another of eBays's so-called putz promtions?

[1956glyn]

Hopefully this will make sense to you

After an online search....

Priority ad fees are based on your bid, the level of competition for queries in which your ad appears, and the clicks your ads have received. For each campaign, the total ad fees charged each day for clicks on your priority ads cannot exceed the daily budget you set each day

[robbtyke132010]

So basically a tax on items that are looked at but remain unsold? Crikey what will eBay think of next - I need to streamline my store.

[theelench]

It doesn't make any sense to me.

Did you actually sign-up for something based on Pay Per Click or is this another of ebay's "We've auto- enrolled you" schemes where you pay if you don't opt out? 

[robbtyke132010]

Makes no sense to me either - I am being charged for people to "look"! To be honest I am trying to just get rid of my stock & get the hell off here. I will do what it takes - if it pops up then I will sign up!

[myriad*seller]

This link explains that you are opted into a fee paying service and you pay per click to advertise your items 

As I understand it, you are supposed to set your own budget for how much you want to spend on promoting your listings 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/selling/ebay-advertising/promoted-listings/priority-campaign-strategy?id... 

[theelench]

Thanks for replying so quickly but can you clarify whether you signed-up for a PPC  scheme or not?

I've got an auction finishing tonight, its had 4 views in a week and doesn't have any watchers so, as usual, I doubt if it will sell and I shouldn't have anything to pay.  I'm hoping I haven't been auto-enrolled for any PPC scheme and due to get a fee for the four views?

[theelench]

@myriad*seller 

You replied while I was typing.  Thanks for that link, as my listing is an auction it looks like it's ineligible, so no auto-enrolment.

[the-nutwood-collection]

With Promoted Listings you only pay when the item sells.  With Pay Per Click, you pay when someone views the listing.  With PPC you're charged when someone clicks by accident, clicks because it looks interesting and they'd buy it if they could afford it (which they can't), clicks because they have one to sell.  PPC is a risky thing.

I got caught out this summer.  My website recorded loads of clicks and only one page viewed.  I investigated and found out that my european supplier - who is also a retailer - was running a sale.  It's a branded item, so buyers were searching to see if they could get it cheaper in the UK.  Because of the volume of traffic, it was costing me £1+ per click each time someone price checked.

Fortunately, I caught it quickly because I watch the numbers daily, and swiftly put an end to paying for people to price check.

[theelench]

"Fool me once, shame on you.

Fool me twice, shame on me."

Why is anyone going to try what looks very much like a con-trick try it more than once ?

Ebay should get back to making its money by selling items.

Not smoke and mirrors, incomprehensible deals or hanging onto sellers funds.

Stop screwing up squewing the search results and let everyone have a fair chance of selling their stuff for the advertised fees, without lining ebays pockets with bribes.

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[razzadoc]

Can I ask, how do you actually get out of this? 

[the-nutwood-collection]

Sorry @razzadoc , I can't be of any help because I don't use eBay's promotional tools.  When eBay PPC was introduced I read all the blurb - just out of curiosity to see how it worked, and how it compared in functionality to Google PPC.  However, I didn't learn much because the information given was rather vague.  Maybe there's lots more info if you look for it, but I wasn't that motivated.

I'm sure a more knowledgeable seller can help you, but my guess would be that if there's a switch to turn it off you might find it under the Advertising tab.  I think there's a separate dashboard for PPC.