Just A Reminder: New General Ad Attribution Rule Jan 13th
Next Tuesday, the new General Ad Attribution rule goes live. I know some here don't use ads so this doesn't matter for them. But for those who have been using General ad campaigns (formerly Promoted Listings Standard), it could certainly impact your bottom line.
BTW, the Ads team had indicated they might be making some changes to the planned reporting of ad sales, however, so far there have been no announcements about any changes. I personally do not anticipate any change to the rule itself, and I doubt they'll actually change how they report the sales, but I suppose it is possible.
my-cottage-books-and-antiques
Posted 9 months ago · Edited 9 months ago·Last reply 8 months ago
27 comments
lakefor94
·9 months ago@my-cottage-books-and-antiques
I have been running without my usual 2% PL campaign on all listings since later in December.
I have a LOT of multi-quantity listings. About half of 1500.
Was thinking of just promoting the single quantity listings to avoid the continual PL fee everytime someone buys from a multi-quantity that was already hit with a PL fee. (That is IF I am understanding how it works.....)
Addendum-- should have added if someone just clicked on the PL?
I "guess" I may have been experiencing this in the past with the halo fees, is that correct?
I am obviously not completely clear on everything from last year and certainly not clear on what is the best strategy from January 13th moving forward with PL's......
12345jamesstamps
·9 months ago'That is IF I am understanding how it works...' So glad it's not just me.
My problem is I didn't know what was promoted or not of 4500+ plus at different promoted rates...or rather not the time to go through every item I have listed.
'best strategy'...turn off promoting completely at a period of time when you don't need income coming in...and see what happens in 30-60 days of the 'guinea pigs'.
my-cottage-books-and-antiques
OP9 months ago@lakefor94
Here's ebay's own explanation:
"Currently, for items listed on ebay.com, ebay.ca, and cafr.ebay.ca:
The ad fee is charged when a buyer purchases the item from a general ad that they clicked on in the most recent 30 days, even if the item is no longer participating in general ads at the time of the sale. The ad fee is based on the ad rate in effect at the time of the click.
The ad fee is charged when a buyer purchases an item promoted with a general strategy other than the general ad item they clicked on in the most recent 30 days, as long as the sold item is in an active general campaign of the same seller at the time of sale. The ad fee is based on the ad rate for the item sold at the time of sale.
Starting January 13, 2026, for items listed on ebay.com, ebay.ca, and cafr.ebay.ca (and currently for items listed on ebay.co.uk, ebay.de, ebay.com.au, ebay.fr, ebay.it, and ebay.es): eBay will report an Attributed sale from a general campaign when a buyer purchases the same item that was featured in the ad that was clicked on by any buyer in the most recent 30 days.
The ad fee is charged when a buyer purchases the promoted item from a general ad that any buyer clicked on in the most recent 30 days. The item must be promoted at the time of click and the time of sale. The ad fee is based on the ad rate in effect at the time of the sale."
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Here's my explanation:
So, as of today, DIRECT ATTRIBUTION requires the first click and the ultimate buyer be the SAME PERSON, and it must be the SAME ITEM. It does NOT have to be in an Ad Campaign at the time of actual purchase, but must be purchased within 30 days of that first click.
As of today, HALO ATTRIBUTION requires the first click and the ultimate buyer be the SAME PERSON, but it does NOT need to be the same item, as long as it is offered by the SAME SELLER , is purchased within 30 days, and IS in an active ad campaign.
So, as of today, because the same person is involved in both the initial click and the ultimate purchase, that obviously limits the fee impact on multiple quantity listings.
Now, as of the 13th, with the NEW attribution rule, (which I think of as the "NO CONNECTION WHATEVER TO THE ULTIMATE SALE" attribution rule), there is NO requirement that the ultimate buyer and the person who made the first click be the SAME PERSON. The item MUST be IN an active ad campaign (but does NOT need to he shown as "Sponsored" to the ultimate buyers, and the purchase must be within 30 days of the click.
So, yes, this could have an ENORMOUS impact on sellers offering multi- quantity listings, because the first click person and the buyer do NOT need to be the same person.
(Some have argued that one of the reasons for this change is to push multi-quantity sellers into using Priority (Pay Per Click) ads rather than General Ads, because under the new rule, General Ads will become so much more expensive.)
lakefor94
·9 months ago@my-cottage-books-and-antiques thanks for taking the time to explain further.
I did not mind throwing 2% back at ebay on what amounted to 50% of my sales when I thought they may have deserved it in most cases.
I do think eBay is getting a bit carried away starting on the 13th. I see myself sitting on the bench with @12345jamesstamps eating a hotdog while this new ebay money grab gets underway.
25thstreetpeddler
·8 months agoWow, this really puts small sellers of second-hand goods at a huge disadvantage. For most of my items, if not all, running a PPC ad just doesn’t make sense. So, forget that.
When it comes to promoted listings, eBay should stop claiming this counts as proper attribution because their way of charging a pay-per-order fee based on any buyer within their internal network—rather than the actual person who clicked on the sponsored listing or ad—misses the whole point of attribution. What’s the point?
This new scheme completely undermines the value of the sponsored listing since we can’t accurately track who actually bought the item through the ad, which goes against what attribution is meant to do. No advertiser in the real world would sign up for something like this. Essentially, unless you items are super unique, in many cases this just amounts to a fee hike if you want your merch to be seen at all.
my-cottage-books-and-antiques
OP8 months ago@25thstreetpeddler Yep, you've pretty much summed it up.
gilbha_98
·8 months agoBest news,good news.
kibble-net
·9 months agoA possible "solution" to those who are upset about this change (which is basically everyone):
List your items WITHOUT promotion for 30-60 days. If they don't sell after that time frame, manually add them to a promoted campaign. This way you can give them a chance to sell without paying an extra fee.
Personally I'm not bothering with this - I'm just going to leave everything at 2% for now to save time - but this might be a worthwhile endeavor for anyone who wants to get the most out of each ad dollar spent.
12345jamesstamps
·9 months agoI am doing this...to see what happens in 30 days.
Doing a partial promoting of my items as an example...wouldn't work for me.
In my category I have too many 'window shoppers' where these potential buyers could clink on so many items and not buy any thing or just one stamp...
I thought about 2% promoted...but I have too many International credit card buyers now which is already an increase of the eBay fee as oppose to domestic.
meme6253
·9 months agoI would think we all want the most out of our ad dollars spent!, But I am doing the same just leaving it the same for now.
reallynicestamps
·9 months agoI closed all of my Promoted Listings (about 1/3 of my listings and all at 2%) in November when this was announced.
I like the PL program seeing it as cheap advertising, no sale no fee, but never found I sold near the percentage of PL listings as of unpromoted ones.
My Views of everything did go up as did sales.
Waiting to see how effective and/or expensive the new program is.
12345jamesstamps
·9 months agoTurning off items promoted I seem to be doing more International than domestic.
And gosh...keep adding new items every few days has no effect...new items like a few hundred every week.
The International fee credit card used is what puts a hit on me plus the International shipping rate.
Why my buyers are suddenly like 50% UK and Canada buyers is crazy.
I kinda look at some other sellers on their daily sold items to get an idea of it's just a bad day for everyone including me or something else.
I kinda think stamp sellers are really promoting at extremely high rates...which is OK if you have like 50,000 items posted.
I kinda hope this new attribution makes changes from these big sellers and those who promote very high...hopefully to make it better for us.
12345jamesstamps
·9 months agoI turned off anything promoted on Dec. 22 and of course I got a promoted hit on Jan 3 of an item promoted at 15%.
My question is of this past promoted rule...where my promoted listings are still promoted for 30 days even if I turned off anything promoted?
So, will this still be the rule or is it somewhere in the wording I can't clearly understand?
I turned off everything promoted to not be a scapegoat and see what becomes after Jan 13.
I may go back to promoting but that wording of 'attribution' is confusing to me still.
gurlcat
·9 months agoYour Jan.3 attribution (even though the listing was no longer promoted) -that was because of the "halo effect."
Halo attributions are ENDING when the new attribution format begins. And it's kind of the opposite of Halo. In theory you could get a sale that benefited from being promoted (getting lots of views, watchers, etc.) but you had turned the promotion off right before someone bought it, and you won't be charged, because attributions will occur only with listings that are CURRENTLY promoted.
If that sounds great, the problem is, if the item sells while it's still promoted, it will count as attributed to promotion (and get charged) even if the person who buys didn't see the listing via promotion .... just because someone else did (even one person).
gurlcat
·9 months ago@12345jamesstamps Also, don't feel bad about being confused because you're far from alone. Just wait and see how many outraged posts start pouring into these forums over the next few months, from sellers who didn't know this was coming (at all), and each one of them will have to have it explained to them, but it won't make sense to many .... because frankly the new model DOESN'T MAKE SENSE even if you know how it works.
12345jamesstamps
·9 months agoIf I understand it correctly...it would maybe OK to promote 'all' listings at the same rate.
I think of this as just an eBay fee increase of each item sold then.
I was promoting items...not all...at different rates...so this is why I turned off promoting.
To have something at 2% vs. maybe 15% of maybe half of my listings would maybe be a nightmare since items have different listed prices...cheaper items promoted less than expensive items.
meme6253
·9 months agoI'm confused by it all, I promote at 2-3% never more, & only because I am in a saturated market, I don't know how this new model is going to effect me, & I will probably be one of those coming here & complaining, Just a heads up!
my-cottage-books-and-antiques
OP9 months ago@meme6253 If , for example, you are promoting all your items at 2%, and 50% of your sales are being attributed to Ads, and therefore you are paying ad fees on 50% of your sales, what you can expect (if you continue to do the same thing) is: a higher---perhaps much higher percentage--- of your sales will be attributed to ads going forward.
meme6253
·9 months agoI Appreciate the Bad news!, That is what I was sort of thinking but it's good to have it clarified.
my-cottage-books-and-antiques
OP9 months ago@meme6253 Well, to add to the bad news, I forgot to mention...many sellers in the countries where this has already launched have reported that they see an increase in the number of sale attributed to ads, but not an increase in their total sales.
So, if you average, say, 100 sales a month, and currently 50 of those are subject to an ad fee, once this starts up, you might be looking at the same average number of sales---100---but more of them will be charged an ad fee.
So, in other words, these sellers have been saying that this change benefits ebay (more ad revenue for ebay), but sellers do not see a benefit, such as increased sales velocity.
meme6253
·9 months agoThat's typical with all of these ad rates, promo fees, we pay more but do not benefit more!
meme6253
·9 months agoThis will only lead to sellers increasing their prices, Ebay likes us to lower are prices & send offers, But this will make that even more difficult to do.
my-cottage-books-and-antiques
OP9 months ago@12345jamesstamps
Sounds like you got hit with what is called a "direct attribution", which has been around since PLs started. Mr A clicks your sponsored listing but doesn't buy it. 5 days later, you end the ad campaign. Later, Mr A buys your item after the campaign has ended, but within 30 days of his first click. You will be charged the fee in effect at the time of the first click. The "Direct" rule will be going away as of Jan 13th.
homerunrally002
·9 months agoI’m looking everywhere for this new change but can’t find it, I run promoted priority listings and ads for my store, will I be affected?
krazzykats
·9 months agoHow eBay Advertising attribution works on eBay.com
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my-cottage-books-and-antiques
OP9 months ago@homerunrally002 If you are not using general Ad Campaigns, this rule change will not impact you. It sounds like you are only using Priority Ads (pay per click) and Store Ad Campaigns (also, pay per click). At the same time as this change was announced, one change impacting Priority ads was also announced:
The top slot on the Search results page will always be filled by a Priority Ad listing (unless none are available).
Link: https://community.ebay.com/t5/Announcements/Seller-Announcement-Updates-to-eBay-s-Promoted-Listings-are/ba-p/35311118
homerunrally002
·9 months agoAwesome thanks!