Regards,
My experience with PLS was great prior to early 2022 when they:
-Fully launched PLA
-Changed how Views were counted
-Magically doubled and tripled the PLS "Suggested ad rates"
Prior to 2022: I ran one PLS campaign per quarter putting ALL my BIN listings on it for 30 days. I averaged 2-3 sales per day. Right after the PLS would end BIN sales would tank for 7-10 days before returning to normal. This went on for a few years. I picked ONE common ad rate between 5%-10%.
2022 to present: in 2022 PLS stopped performing and average sales drop to 1.5 or lower per day. I did NOT use the inflated Suggested rates, just my own. BIN sales started to tank for longer periods in between my quarterly 30 day PLS campaigns ... eventually almost until I ran my next quarterly campaign.
in late 2023 I ran a 17 day TEST PLS campaign where I jacked up my ad rate to at or above the inflated eBay rates. This was done in between quarterly campaigns ... guess what, sales shot back up to 2-3 per day but as soon as the PLS ended BIN sales tanked. The down side was my jacked up ad rate was 12% ... add about that for normal FVS and the total was around 24% ... NOT sustainable with my target profit margin.
So for 2 years I watched my account slowly and steadily decline and often 30-40% of my listings had (0) Views and items with 0,1, 2 Views in total were between 50%-60%. Well, if half your stuff is virtually never seen what are the chances they would sell? Rhetorical question of course. I sensed (and in my mind proved) that listings were being manipulated, hidden. buried, etc. in hopes I would use higher ad rates.
So in 4th quarter when I did not run my regular 30 day PLS I got two messages (below): "We've missed you - try Promoted Listings Standard again.".
Since I did not run my 1st quarter PLS campaign around the time I normally would I got that message again once plus this one ... twice:
Now that I am past my normal PLS window a got the following message a few days ago ... for Offsite ad fees ...
So yes, I know what has been done, I know why it has been done but I am no longer interested in doing what they want me to do with PLS or paying extra fees in general for something they should already be doing from the fees I pay.
I hope in time organic or natural sales and more importantly growth, recovers. I have pushed more inventory elsewhere in the last 2 years then during any other selling time here. I love to Sell on eBay but the operative word is "selling".
Sorry this was so lengthy but my experience wasn't a normal blip or dip in sales, it happened over a long period of time where I observed trends, tested processes, etc.
Everyone's experience and results can and will be different. Some are still experiencing great success with PLS and I say good for them. All I can say is keep a very close eye on how PLS performs for you and what trends you notice before, during and after a campaign.
@oldedale wrote:Very good comments. Our cost increased from 25% 2021 to the current 41%. This does not include cost of goods to list, packing/boxes/tape...An estate sale charges 35-40%, and there is no associated shipping costs (packing/boxes). It is no longer profitable for us to use eBay. (unless we find a real nice item cheaply)
Sorry I missed this reply, you can @ mention members to let them know you replied specifically to them.
You are spot on with your assessment of cost of goods verses price points on this or any venue.
I acquire most of my inventory from auctions where the Buyer's premium can vary from 13% up to 28%. Then on the Selling side the price has to absorb eBay fees.
When I buy I calculate a "multiplier" I use based on the Buyer's premium of the auction and what I think I can resell something for. It tells me what my max bid can be and if the item(s) bid higher than that I'm done and wait for the next item. That part is painless, the hard part as you already figured out is getting items at a price you can resell for. Anyone who says sales are off because of the economy might change their mind if they try buying inventory at a good price to resell for a profit.
@oldedale wrote:Ended PL on all listings. Organic impressions dropped to almost zero. More than 90% drop.
Sellers really HAVE to use suggested PL rates(10-15%) to get any traffic. Sadly, eBay once gave us PL traffic levels for free. And items were shown via goggle searches. Cost to do business has increased to 41 percent, up from 20 percent in 2018. Basically a doubling of cost in 6 yrs. 18 year TRS. zero defect rates.
@oldedale BINGO! You figured it out ... Tested and proven on my account over a 2 year period. Yep, the venue is looking to gain between 20% and 35% PER sale (Total of FVFs plus PLS ad fees) by manipulating listings once PLS ends ... with 1.7 BILLION listings they can hide millions of listings without affecting their bottom-line. I am in month 8 of NOT running any PLS campaigns and am STILL waiting for BIN sales to return to anywhere close to pre-2022 levels. The disparity between Auction and BIN sales is staggering ... here are some of my March numbers about a week before the month ended.
I have since STOPPED Sending offers via the Send offers eligible link on the Active list. April numbers for total sales are worse ... this is my 9th April selling and at present it is in the 3rd from last out of 9 ... in order to move UP the April list sales will have to MORE than double in the reaming 8 days of the month ...
