When Promoted is Price Gouging

[pillarboxred]

My item had the place name in the Listing, in the Item Specifics and in the item Description. The buyer lives in that place and searches for items related to it by keying in the place name. My item sold with Buy It Now. There was a handful of Watchers  and I repeatedly slashed the price and I think it was the price slash that swung the sale not the Promotion.

My buyer told me he found the item by keying in his favourite Search keyword, the place name. EBay''s Search engine ought to have found the item without Promoted. I paid about a seventh of the Final Value price for an unnecessary  service. If he had been looking for, say, another place in the same county, and was shown my item and bought it, then "fair enough". I feel fleeced and conned.

[pillarboxred]

My buyer has messaged me to say that the picture has arrived and  "a lot" of people want to view it. Whatever Promotion went on, it didn't do much.

[jonatjonatjonat]

It doesn't matter. If the customer clicked on a sponsored listing and went on to purchase - you'll be charged.
If the customer typed in 'blackpool' its highly likely a product of blackpool might appear as a sponsored product.
In no way have you been conned.

[pillarboxred]

The buyer ran a simple keyword seach on the placename and scrolled down looking for things that interested him. He tells me that a lot of people are now eager to view the picture. What he means by "a lot", I do not know but in spite of eBay's Promotion there was hardly any interest in it on eBay and it cost me £21 to find that out. I have been conned. 

[jonatjonatjonat]

No you haven't. You have full control over what you spend on advertising. 

Irregardless of whatever the customer searched for, your product would have still appeared in a prominent position. It may well be that the customer might have found your item organically that's true, but this is a negative of advertising.

take it as a learning exercise and maintain more control over ad campaigns from here on in. 

[pillarboxred]

Their algorithm, written differently, could identify Exceptions where organic Search leads to a sale and then not charge. This is the difference between "ordinary" advertising and the new advertising and the way the new advertising works: now the seller of advertising has the ability to know when their advertising hasn't worked and was thus not necessary. A publisher of newspapers or an advertising agency, in the olden days, did not have that kind of data: the data is there today so the morality is different.  Promotion is not necessary when a Search Keyword is in the Title, Item Specifics and Description and an item would be displayed to a user using the simple Keyword Search. It would be necessary and valuable where simple keyword search hasn't worked.

It is also important to note that it didn't find any bidders when the listing was an Auction.

[jonatjonatjonat]

I don't think you understand how promoted advertising works.
Sponsored Listings will almost ALWAYS appear.

I've just typed in Birmingham. Right at the top is an old map with Birmingham in the title. But its still a sponsored listing which comes with additional costs to the seller. because they CHOSE to set that product to appear in sponsored listings. As such, it appears right at the top of the listing and you hope it sells quicker.

You listed a product. YOU CHOSE to allow it to be promoted and YOU had control of spend. You could have even set it to not be promoted on searches containing the town name. If you'd done that, its possible the buyer would have found the item organically instead. But you got charged more, because the customer clicked through on the sponsored listing - simple as that.

If you didn't exclude any keywords - then I'm sorry, I would suggest you need to research ebay advertising more. because ebay aren't going to go - oh, hang on, this customers searched for Birmingham - lets just return items that only show Birmingham in the title and forget about any sponsored listings.

[pillarboxred]

Yes, if the customer, instead of buying the item displayed in the Search Returns, clicked and bought the Sponsored item, a payment for the successful Sponsored promotion would be due and fair. I get that. That is not what happened in my case and I don't think it is fair to be charged as if had. As I explain in another post, the data available to eBay is far more in quantity and detail than was available in traditional advertising which broadcast widely at great expense and is usually wasted in that readers of magazines often don't buy anything they have seen in the magazines they have just read. EBay can tell when organic Search has worked and therefore should take it into account and not ignore the data their system creates.

[jonatjonatjonat]

And your listing was for 'Anstruther' I take it?

On a search for 'anstruther' it returns 1,600+ listings. And sales seem to be about 2-5 a week.

You were lucky - yours sold, data would suggest many don't!

[jonatjonatjonat]

Assuming you used General Promoted Listings (ie pay on sale not pay per click) then you will have only been charged the Promoted Listings fee IF the customer clicked the promoted listing and then proceeded to buy within the time. And given it was for Anstruter - your product would have been promoted over and above the vast majority of the 1,600 other listings currently available if you search for anstruther.

I honestly don't understand what you believe has happened in your case.

It may however be worth noting the following from ebays details on attribution...

'If a buyer clicks on a general ad and then purchases any of your promoted items within 30 days, it will be considered a promoted sale and the ad fee for the purchased item will be charged.'

[vinylscot]

If I pay 50p to the shop down the road to put an advert in their window to sell something, I don't get that back if I manage to sell it to some bloke from the pub. 

You chose to pay for promotion. You got that promotion. It is immaterial that your sale came from elsewhere.