JOKE information popup windows in Seller Hub -and- What ARE organic impressions exactly?

[gurlcat]

REALLY Ebay???

Kinda like: 
SPELLING BEE HOST: The word is "pear." 
SPELLING BEE CONTESTANT: "Could you please use the word in a sentence?" 
SPELLING BEE HOST: "The spelling bee contestant was given the word "pear". 

LOL!  So, here's what I already do know.  I know they don't mean impressions that lack pesticides or antibiotics.  I know they mean impressions that occur "naturally" so to speak, in other words impressions that weren't "pushed" by my ad promotions.  I THINK (but am not sure) that when my listings are shown as thumbnails via promotions, it says 'Sponsored' above them, and if it doesn't say that, then they are organic.  
If I'm already wrong, please correct me. 
Now what I definitely don't know is, does promotion ad rate apply just as much to whether or not your listings get shown down-screen in other listings, as they do in search results?  
And what about whether or not they are shown in google searches?  I ask because it's pretty rare that I see my listings there, even when it's a fairly rare item.  In fact, maybe half the times that I DO see my items on google, they're ones I already sold or ended.  And yet I do promote my listings.  

[dhbookds]

yes, organic means not promoted.........  it's just appearing in the search the normal way......

Google "chooses" what appears there........I believe.......don't know what the criteria is except that auctions won't appear..

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

In this context an organic listing is a listing that you included in your Promoted Listing campaign, but which was displayed as a regular listing rather than a "sponsored" listing. This location will generally be on the search results page, although it could be elsewhere. 

Promoted listings ---"sponsored"---can show up in search results, on other listing pages, at checkout, on Google and other external sites (unless you've opted out of external display). Regardless of where they show up, if the buyer came from a sponsored listing and purchased the item within 30 days, you are charged the PL rate in effect when the buyer clicked on it. 

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

And I'll add: you can generally expect that in any PL campaign, your PL impressions number will be larger than your organic impressions, primarily because they are shown on more pages than organic (which are usually only on the search results page)

[stainlessenginecovers]

ORGANICALLY  (organic)  is the same word, same meaning as 'NATURALLY' (natural) and can be used in many aspects of life and has been for many years,  and not just a term used for food.

[gurlcat]

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@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:

In this context an organic listing is a listing that you included in your Promoted Listing campaign, but which was displayed as a regular listing rather than a "sponsored" listing. This location will generally be on the search results page, although it could be elsewhere. 

Promoted listings ---"sponsored"---can show up in search results, on other listing pages, at checkout, on Google and other external sites (unless you've opted out of external display). Regardless of where they show up, if the buyer came from a sponsored listing and purchased the item within 30 days, you are charged the PL rate in effect when the buyer clicked on it. 

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Yes I did know all that.  But you remind me of something else I'm still confused about, but keep seeing: this word "campaign."  I know I set something called a campaign about this at least a year ago, but I don't really know what it means.  I just know that whenever I create a new listing I decide what percent ad rate to set the item, and then post it.  I better make a whole new post about that, because it seems like if so many people use the word 'campaign' it could be very important. 

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

If you knew all that already, then what exactly was your question? Because evidently I didn't answer it.

You are setting up your Promoted Listings individually, as you list. I'm guessing ebay is putting all those listings into a "Default" campaign. "A campaign is a simple way to organize your promoted listings into a single group and allows you to track performance and manage all of your listings at the same time on your promoted listings dashboard."

Basically, it's an "ad campaign"

You can create campaigns. Go to Seller Hub>Marketing Tab>Advertising Dashboard and click the blue button on the upper right that says "Create Campaign". Ignore the Advanced choice. You want Standard.

You can track your campaign using the Advertising Dashboard.

[gurlcat]

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@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:

If you knew all that already, then what exactly was your question? Because evidently I didn't answer it.

You are setting up your Promoted Listings individually, as you list. I'm guessing ebay is putting all those listings into a "Default" campaign. "A campaign is a simple way to organize your promoted listings into a single group and allows you to track performance and manage all of your listings at the same time on your promoted listings dashboard."

Basically, it's an "ad campaign"

You can create campaigns. Go to Seller Hub>Marketing Tab>Advertising Dashboard and click the blue button on the upper right that says "Create Campaign". Ignore the Advanced choice. You want Standard.

You can track your campaign using the Advertising Dashboard.

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 I knew how the seller gets charged, and I knew the "can" and "could" things you mentioned.  I was asking (copy-paste from my original post):  "Does promotion ad rate apply just as much to whether or not your listings get shown down-screen in other listings, as they do in search results?"   
So my question was not a yes/no, but of a comparison.  I know I see 'Sponsored' thumbnails at the bottoms of listings for similar items, I'm just trying to understand whether ad rate makes them more likely to appear there by the same magnitude that they show up higher in search results.  Sorry if confusing or unanswerable, I realize ebay keeps things secret. 

[eleanor*rigby]

I'll take a stab at this one, if you promise not to post "ugh" in response to my reply.  😄

"You’re not charged until a buyer clicks on your promoted listing and purchases the promoted item within 30 days."

In other words, if a buyer makes a purchase from a promoted listing, no matter where it appears in the search results, you'll be charged the PL fee. Down-screen, up-screen, doesn't matter. 

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

@gurlcat 

"I know I see 'Sponsored' thumbnails at the bottoms of listings for similar items, I'm just trying to understand whether ad rate makes them more likely to appear there by the same magnitude that they show up higher in search results.  Sorry if confusing or unanswerable, I realize ebay keeps things secret." 

OK, I still may be wrong, but I think what you are asking is: Would a higher ad rate put your PL listing in a higher slot and a lower rate put you in a lower slot?

There's no definite answer to that. The ad rate is one factor in determining whether your PL shows up as sponsored at all, and it is a factor in just where it shows up, but there are a LOT of factors ebay looks at, and it basically does it on the fly---it even includes whatever data ebay has about the particular buyer. And of course, it also includes how does your ad rate compare to other seller's ad rate for the same or similar items? But those are just two factors, there are many more. 

[zamo-zuan]

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@dhbookds wrote:

yes, organic means not promoted.........  it's just appearing in the search the normal way......

Google "chooses" what appears there........I believe.......don't know what the criteria is except that auctions won't appear..

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It's true that organic means not promoted.

But considering this is the case, then as I posted on here before:  Why is eBay's Promoted Listing investment altering organic impressions???

I'm not a lawyer, but I suspect there may be legal implications here, considering it's manipulating the very definition of an organic impression, and truly is making us pay for ORGANIC traffic!

[gurlcat]

I won't say ugh, but I did not ask anything about how PL charges work.   Just about the potency of their results. 

[gurlcat]

LOL, once again, your reply is like a crystal ball of what I was going to ask AFTER making sure I understood an important part of it.  Well, you've seen my current Impressions graph, so you know exactly what I'm talking about.  Both organic and inorganic impressions (of ALL my listings collectively) plummeting literally overnight, for no clear reason, and staying down. 

[ducks2k]

Hi everyone - I see about the same group of inquiring minds as on the more current PL topics.  I viewed this thread to attempt to answer my most basic questions (before getting to things like organic/promoted sales).

I can't find a simple definition anywhere on eBay of the word "impression".  It is used frequently, but never defined.  I see various posts that could probably be termed "informed speculation", but is the term ever actually, officially defined? anywhere (link?)?

I SPECULATE that an "impression" is the creation/serving of one of the little item ad blocks that can be clicked on to get to an item.  I SPECULATE that the returns from a typed-in search, or all those little ad blocks in the individual item page are "impressions".  I also SPECULATE that on those rows of "related items", even the ones not actually visible until the viewer clicks on the arrow are also "impressions". 

I SPECULATE that when a buyer clicks on an item listing and gets 40 or 50 ads served up below the bottom of the visible screen, that these are also "impressions", even though they may never get in front of an eyeball.  The reason I speculate this is that I suspect that eBay serves up the entire item page to the buyer's browser, including all of the ads, and then the browser handles showing them as the user scrolls (or not).  If not, the eBay counters would have fits deciding if something was actually visible - and what if a viewer just sat there scrolling those ads up and down off the screen - are each of those "impressions"?  It is possible that eBay individually serves up each buyer screen view and can know precisely what is visible and what is not, but it would be nice to clarify this.

The point of my question is that, unless we can understand the definition of basic terms, it is impossible to make rational decisions about higher level questions - like ad rates.

It is possible that I can deduce some of this by trial and error - in the dead of night - on a non-logged-in browser clicking on my own items should increase my impression count.  There are some groups of my items that predictably get 25-30 suggestions of others of my items, so I could click on those items and deliberately not look beyond the first screen to where all the "impressions" would be and see how the counts are affected.  It would be easier if the term was just defined....

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

@ducks2k  You can call in one of the blues for a more definitive answer (hopefully), but I believe an impression is when the viewer is looking at a webpage that contains a link to your item. I believe, but am not sure, that if the page requires scrolling to see everything, an impression is counted only if the viewer has scrolled down far enough so that your item is visible.

Of course, just because the viewer is on the page does not mean the viewer actually took note of your item on that page. So I'm not sure that the distinction I mentioned---about scrolling---is really that important. You can probably think of it this way: an impression means the viewer had the opportunity to see your link (whether because he scrolled down, or because he COULD have scrolled down, isn't really that significant, because either way he may or he may not have actually noticed your link.