Promoted Experiment Results In Worst Sales In Years

[new_spin_boutique]

Hi fellow eBayers. 

Due to the increasingly crippling site issues and erratic behavior of our platform, I decided to cross list my entire store. Then, I decided, let's just try promoting the 2/3 of my store that is not promoted, at 3%, just to see. If eBay is demanding I pay a little more in addition to the standard fees(which is charged on shipping & tax) + store subscription, then maybe it's worth playing their game so that I can avoid having to worry about managing two platforms. 

After two days, here is the data that I have from my performance tab. While the data indicates that my impressions more than doubled, my views barely increased, my sales plummeted(including ZERO promoted sales), and I picked up a significantly less amount of watchers than I typically do in the same time period.

What I can deduce from this, is the site is broken. I don't sell junk. I sell, mostly, sought after necessities. In this economic time, as it has been shown in history, consumers seek out cost-saving opportunities for said necessities when the cost of living increases or the ability to meet the monetary needs of the cost of living decreases. eBay, in the categories of necessities, SHOULD be thriving. There SHOULD be an uptick. Parents still need to clothe and feed their children. People still need to dress appropriately for the jobs they have that barely pay their bills. 

eBay has created a situation where it has become difficult, if not impossible, for the buyer to find the item they're seeking, difficult for the seller to connect with the appropriate buyer, and is, instead, relying on extorting sellers for meaningless traffic that exacerbates the problems on this site. 

I'm happy to pay fees to conduct business on this platform. I'm happy to look past eBay charging fees on shipping & TAX collected. I'm happy to pay the store subscription costs.  I'm happy to work with eBay to help improve the platform. I'm happy to cater to my customers, because, they're OUR customers. I'm happy to take lower offers for those in a bad financial situation. I'm happy to go far above and beyond to provide positive experiences for buyers, to my own financial detriment. I'm happy to provide free returns for customers who are less than satisfied and eat the costs. I'm happy to take more photos than necessary, and painstakingly detail anything that could be perceived as an imperfection. I'm happy to forget about the fact that I can't find a customer service rep that can provide customer service, or can even express themselves clearly, or has basic knowledge of the platform.

I can go on, and on, and on about all of the problems. We didn't even dive into policy issues that are exploited, daily, and the lack of recourse that we have.

eBay has become a real 'you know what' show. It's unhealthy for the buyers and the sellers. This effort to strongarm the difference between what eBay was and what it is, out of the sellers, only serves to further accelerate the decline of the site. 

I don't want to cross list and build on another platform. Though very easy to do with today's tools, I have been an ambassador for the platform for so long, participating in every way that I could to help improve the site - sending in videos when asked to, participating in eBay Council, etc. However, at this point, it has become apparent it was all for not. This new system is literally destroying the platform as without the sellers and the buyers, eBay is just a bunch of (broken) code. The sellers are eBay's customers and the buyers are OUR customers. Without the sellers, you have no buyers. Without the buyers, eBay has assets to liquidate to pay off its debt. 

vvvIMPRESSIONSvvv

[bryo_3145]

My Spectrum Internet, Cable bill just went up again. I wonder if that has anything to do with it. 

[ladyindecadence]

I agree they have switched Variables somewhere. I have used promoted listings almost from the beginning. And their graph has always showed more promoted impressions then organic impressions promoted and sales seemed to actually increase over time. However starting on April 28th things reversed and organic impressions increased over promoted impressions and sales have steadily declined since this change.  I even tried increasing the promotion rate and that does nothing but lower you sales conversion rate which I believe is hurting search rank even more. I've decided to run a test with no promotions to see if things improve. If not perhaps I will take a vacation.

[siamjane8]

@gurlcat 

   It is not a hunch it is absolutely true. I run hundreds of searches a day on eBay white researching items I have to sell. 90% if the time I get no results or very limited results on eBay. Then I cut and paste my search into Google and walah! More active ebay listings that what did not show me onsite..... It's a complete joke to send customers off to google to find what is for sale on ebay. 

   When talking to a merchant support agent last week on the topic,. She said they have been hearing about it for two years and finally upper management is trying to figure out why the search is not working on eBay! She was fully aware of the Google find more listings situation and actually said she searches that way too!  The Cheerleaders will come out and blather on about how we don't know how to search but it's basically an obvious fact that the search here is so lacking. 

I'll admit I don't know the solution.... Other than to just show people what they search for instead of all the AI and promoted listings. It's gotten worse over the years and those are the two biggest influencers. I'm sure it's more complicated than I understand for sure......... But Google shows me what I search for...... Why can't ebay even show us what is on eBay?

[gurlcat]

---

@siamjane8 wrote:

@gurlcat 

   It's a complete joke to send customers off to google to find what is for sale on ebay. 

---

I would say a joke at best, because the average buyer looking for something on Ebay probably has no idea that the search engine is toast, probably just assumes there simply are few or no sellers offering the thing they want ON Ebay.  So rather than be sent off to google, they'd be sent off to a whole other platform, or to find their shoes and get in their cars, if it's something they can buy locally.  

I do wonder if it depends a lot on item category though.  In fact the only reason the idea surprised me a bit (I swear this thread was the first time I've heard of it, and 3 people within it mentioned it), was because of this: I sell mainly vintage collectibles, especially jewelry.  When I'm doing research, where I search depends on what I want to know.  So if it's a question of comps, I come straight to Ebay 'Sold' listings, since Ebay is where I'm going to sell whatever piece I have (no point checking Etsy for example, where it probably sold for more but also took eons longer to sell).  But if I'm trying to verify something about the identity of a piece, I start on google.  And what always surprises me is how FEW Ebay listings I see (live and sold), compared to Etsy, 1st Dibs, Live Auctioneers, Posh, Merc, (whoa, I just realized something -I can't remember the last time I saw a Ruby Lane item on google, and it used to have TONS of them, wonder if they went defunct or something). 

Matter of fact, there are often a good number of FAKE "websites" offering specific vintage pieces for insanely low prices, and after much playing around with them, found that at least some of them are photos and descriptions of LIVE listings on real platforms.  I shared this with @valueaddedresource  some months ago.  Still not sure how the scam works, but it's obviously a scam.  Anyway, those (collectively) further crowd-out ebay results on google, at least for vintage jewelry.   

What really ticks me off is, only a couple of times have I EVER seen my own listings, and they were already-long-ago sold ones.  The 'black' ("external site views") section of the bars in 'Views' is always extremely tiny for me.  Like yesterday there were only 7 out of 186.  And I don't even know how those 7 occurred, since like I said I can't seem to find my items on google. 

This thread is also the first time I've heard of the trick of adding 'ebay' after a search term on google, to only show (or at least favor??) ebay results. I'll be playing around with that for sure.  But again, if I've never heard of it, how many BUYERS know of it????   Very few, I would assume.  So again I doubt our lousy search engine is actually "sending" nearly as many buyers to google as it is sending them to other platforms' own search engines.  

This
sure
does
SUCK.  

[valueaddedresource]

@gurlcat out of curiosity are you looking specifically at Google shopping ads when you say you don't see many for eBay or just Google search results in general?

Also just a tip for anyone who is wanting search for eBay listings specifically in a Google search, you can use a site limiter to return only results from eBay.com.

In the search box for Google type: "site:ebay.com" (without the quotes) and then continue typing whatever your keywords are and it will return only results from eBay.

For example:

site:ebay.com green stone fashion brooch

[gurlcat]

---

@valueaddedresource wrote:

@gurlcat out of curiosity are you looking specifically at Google shopping ads when you say you don't see many for eBay or just Google search results in general?

---

I'm looking mainly at google images, but those are mainly shopping ads.  In fact it's frustrating when I just want to learn about the history of a designer and most (if not all) results for that name are sales listings, even in the regular (text) page on google.  

[siamjane8]

@gurlcat - Clarification- I did not mean the ebay search "actually" sends people to google- I just meant that like you said- the average buyer is shown irrelevant results and promoted listings that have nothing to do with their search so they assume that it is not on ebay and then they leave ebay and go to google, or etsy or any other site to find it.  The search here, not showing all the accurate and relevant results, drives people away even though the items are available here...... it should  be criminal-its the exact opposite of what sellers are paying for to sell here.

       I have noticed like you however that google search results have gotten worse/more skewed to shopping instead of information. Although google actually said that in their last update - they were changing the algorithms to be geared more towards shopping.  That was disappointing.

      I think the problem with ebay is that they have piled on algorithm change after change and demand so much of the search with promoted listings standard, promoted listings advanced, who knows what beta, item location, shipping speed, seller ratings, hurricane in florida, international items, price, free shipping, returns, picture count, item specifics, how fast you respond to messages,  and probably 150 other attributes, that unfortunately the item title gets so far down on the list that the relevant items are not shown.   Then take into account that it does not recognize common similar terms such as and/&,  1967/'67/67, etc.   

     We actually got a $200 signed vinyl record the other day for $25 because the seller used the ebay catalog description and item specifics! even though all the information was in the item specifics- the search would not bring up the listing in the common search because they did not have the record label listed in the title! it was plastered all over the item specifics!  My wife just randomly stumbled on it....it should have come up with the other 15 or so listed on ebay but it was effectively hidden because of ebay search. sellers loss

    Sellers have been spamming the Item specifics since ebay weighted the search so heavily towards them.... now it looks like they have dialed the relevance of item specifics to the search back.... its like they are just throwing things at the wall and hoping something sticks........ instead of just showing people what they search for.  

      All we can do is observe and try and figure out what this weeks algorithms are looking for lol.

[gurlcat]

Agree 100, I'm just a bit confused about the record.  So your wife did a search where she included the record label in her search keywords, 15 results came up, but not the one she ended up buying .... so how DID she find it?  Like using what search words?  Or did she find it via Google?  Also how was it "seller's loss"?  -You mean it was an auction with a $25 starting bid?  If so, I would say the search issue is only part of the problem; they shouldn't have started so low.  

[siamjane8]

@gurlcat it was Bin price. Not sure why the seller was so off on their price. Possible because as they searched for comps, they could not find any in the search? They might not have even realized that theirs was signed- they made no note of it although it was obvious on the cover. Since we search all day we have picked up on some of the problems and issues. The seller had not put the record label in the title but it was in 4 places in the item specifics in the eBay catalog. (Caution-never use the upc and trust ebay catalog... It's easier but often wrong).

    The search would NOT pull up the listing because the record label is synonymous with the records they specialize in producing and people always use the "brand" in the search to find this specific record. My wife actually kept searching by adding and deleting words. It took 6 different searches to find it- far more than the average buyer will do. 

    The point is- all the listings contained the same info and were the same product but that listing was effectively hidden from view because the search ignored it because of one ommited word in the title...... Even though it was in the item specifics. Just one example of thousands of instances that you will see as you search more. 

[siamjane8]

@gurlcat you may notice also that you must run multiple searches and change the order of the words that you use... You will get drastically suffering results. eBay search is so finicky.... But sometimes you can even copy the listing g title from a different tab and search the full title and it won't find the listing.

    Again... Many problems with the search engine.

    I have always maintained that it is the obligation of eBay to design a search engine that works the way the USERS search. Not expect the users to learn how to use the search engine!  We should not need a degree in Computer science to find and buy a part for our car or a vintage gift or a new dress for a party.

    The whole point of a search engine is to connect potential buyers with the listings that are relivant to their searches. 

     Problem is eBay made it so that is NOT the purpose of their search engine..... It's purpose now is to force promotef listings in front of people- not to show what you search for but to show which listings pay eBay more in fees when they sell...... Hence a good portion if the issues we see today. 

[wheredidiputthatremote]

I don't believe in scr. Good till sold till I die.

[luckysmitherini2012]

I was having record high sales. Then I decided to promote a bunch of good listings that were already selling along with a few others. I figured that my sales will get even higher with promoting. WRONG! My sales completely fell off after promoting,,, didn't just drop,,, the sales disappeared. Then I noticed that my items that were promoted were being dropped even lower in search that not promoting. One sought after item I promoted(lowest price in search), after a week has 2 watchers,, Another (newer) seller lists the same item without promoting has 6 watchers in 1 day with an 80% feedback score. My listings were at the bottom of the page and ebay was showing every item that I didn't even search for before mine. The items shown had nothing to do with my search. When my items were not promoted,, they showed up on the first 1-3 lines and was selling. Then, I take off promoting,,, BooM! My items are at the top of the search... How does that happen? I have so much more data to type down but I already wasted too much time. It seems to me that promoting is a joke.

[ckimodog]

@luckysmitherini2012 

This is an old thread from August of 2023 and the OP selected the best answer, so they probably won't be replying.

Should you have any concerns or questions it's always a good idea to open your own thread to get the help & advice you need for your specific issues.

Happy Selling & Have a great day

[kh-laura]

Hi everyone,

Due to the age of this thread, it has been closed to further replies. Please feel free to start a new thread if you wish to continue to discuss this topic.

Thank you for understanding.