We are being charged for a what? "Halo Attribution"
So I think I need someone to explain this cause I don't think I'm getting this right, from what I understand if a buyer looks at a promoted item but doesn't buy it but sees something you have they want that was not promoted and buys that then you are charged the promotion fee of the original item they looked at first but didn't buy. I got to have this all wrong.
49 comments
the-hook-and-the-loop
·1 year agoCurios to know how newer sellers and people considering selling are supposed to understand the buffet of advertising gimmicks on eBay, when even the most experienced 20 year+ veterans don't completely get it.
chariot_badges
·1 year agoIt's actually pretty simple:
If you promote any of your listings, and one sells .... you'll pay a promotion fee.
gurlcat
·1 year agoAbsolutely not true. I promote ALL of my listings, I just took a quick scroll down my past 100 sold items, and 57 were sold via promotion. That's at an ad rate of 6.1%. If I raised that I would probably have more sold via promotion (but also more sales per time period), and vice-versa if I lowered it.
iamalwaysright
·1 year agoPAPYRUS! Why am I not surprised it’d be you to do this? I’m onto you @gurlcat
https://youtu.be/jVhlJNJopOQ?si=OHJfIH_DqMvMVYxO
gurlcat
·1 year ago🤣OMG I never saw that, thank you for sharing. I really hooted when he flipped his therapist's coffee table over, lord have mercy!!
But ...... Papyrus just happens to be the closest to my handwriting so I like it. I once tried to use a program thingy where you can create a font from your own handwriting, but it was way too complicated and just made me sleepy.
iamalwaysright
·1 year agoLol. C'mon now... there's now way that's a major coincidence with you and the SNL chats we've had. Ha ha ha.
There's a related sketch btw years later with Gosling and Avatar 2. It isn't as good as the first sketch and dragged on a bit. But it's still worth watching lol.
"PAPYRUUUUUUUUUUS!"
gurlcat
·1 year agoWhat's the difference between life and a SNL skit?
- Life doesn't go on forever.
gurlcat
·1 year agoExcellent, thanks yall!
12345jamesstamps
·1 year agoI read through these posts and for the average person like myself I give up...it sounds like you have to be a rocket scientist to understand this stuff.
Can we believe employees sit around(probably at home doing remote work) to come up with ways to tap into more eBay fees that sellers get charged for...
And yet certain International Buyers still can't add items in a shopping cart and send that to a seller for a combined shipping discount rate. Heck, I only sell stamps...not automobiles.
mantle1951
·1 year agoToo confusing for me. I just know that I get some sales without being charged a promo fee even though I promoted those items. Happy Holidays!
gurlcat
·1 year agoWhen I first heard of the Halo thing, a couple years ago (?), I was furious. But someone here directed me on where to find the report of my Halo-charged fees, and I was pretty surprised to see it was very few items. I wish I could offer that same information for anyone interested to see theirs, but I don't remember the pathway and it has probably changed since then anyway.
sextons-sweet-deals
·1 year agoThere is a similar related post. (Paperclip Nosedive Update)
I never understood the game, but it just seems to say for every click / view, you get charged if your using promotions.
Just keep it simple eBay. Stop the tricks and creative word play.
my-cottage-books-and-antiques
·1 year ago@sextons-sweet-deals
A General Campaign (formerly Promoted Listings Standard) is NOT pay per click. You only pay if your item sells , and the sale is attributed to a sponsored listing. Then you pay a percentage (chosen by you, with a minimum of 2% or 5%, depending on whether you use the fixed rate or dynamic rate). Just like the FVF on a sale, the percentage is charged on the total price (item price, sales tax, shipping). This is the most commonly used campaign.
All the other campaigns are Pay Per Click. The campaign being used in the thread you referenced is the "store campaign", which is Pay Per Click.
gurlcat
·1 year ago@my-cottage-books-and-antiques I feel like it was you who showed me where to find which listings had sold as Halo's, back a couple years ago. Do you know (now) where to find that?
my-cottage-books-and-antiques
·1 year agoI haven't looked lately, I know they changed some things around.
@valueaddedresource any idea?
valueaddedresource
·1 year ago@gurlcat it disappeared for a while when they rolled out the new ad dashboard but they just brought it back last month.
It should be visible in the downloadable Sales report in the Ads dashboard now, instructions for how to find it:
https://www.ebayadvertising.com/en/2024/11/06/seller-announcement-discover-the-full-potential-of-your-ads-with-enhanced-sales-attribution/
mcdougle4248
·1 year ago@gurlcat
Here is the path I use to download the report that shows Direct and Halo attributions:
Seller Hub>Advertising>Dashboard
Then click on Sales report to download the report
sextons-sweet-deals
·1 year agoThank you for the information.
Just too much drama for me. Keep it straight and simple is my motto.
retrogames10000
·1 year agoI am also very confused about the new rule changes for advertisement.
Right now I have a fixed percentage, now it appears we have to pay per click?
tarotfindsandmore
·1 year agoNo, you only have to pay for clicks with off-site, store, and priority promotions. You'll continue to pay the percentage that you've been paying for general promoted listings.
brightlightbookseller
·1 year agoThere's two different types of promoted listings (three if you include Offsite as a separate category). Promoted Listings General Campaigns are what you have now, Priority and Offsite Campaigns use pay per click. You can use either or both as you choose.
my-cottage-books-and-antiques
·1 year agoUser clicks on your promoted listing "a". Within 30 days he clicks on your listing "b", which is shown to him organically (for example, he finds it while browsing within your store, where items are not shown as sponsored), but item "b" is part of an active General Ad Campaign (formerly known as Promoted Listing Standard). If he buys item b, he will be charged the rate you chose for item b in your current campaign (NOT the rate for Item a.
heckofagame
·1 year agoHalo Attribution? Master Chief now works for eBay?
tarotfindsandmore
·1 year agoI think the halo attribution is only for other promoted listings in the general campaigns, but for any item, promoted or not, that is purchased when accessed through clicks in priority, off-site, or store promotions. It sounds bad but it's actually not because with general PLs you only pay for items that are promoted when they sell. The other promotions are all click based so you would be paying for the click either way.
the-hook-and-the-loop
·1 year agoDon't worry. eBay spends all of it's resources, 25 hours a day, refining and manicuring it's multiple advertising programs so that every sale will contribute to their bottom line. If you don't promote, you won't have any sales.
fbusoni
·1 year ago@the-hook-and-the-loop
This is a false statement.
Every sale does contribute to eBay's bottom line.
But one need not pay extra to have one's items given heightened visibility on eBay.
In my personal experience, offering top-tier customer service -- same day / 24 hour shipping and 30 / 60 day paid returns -- gives one a boost that no "promoted listing" can ever hope to match.
Employing such an approach will benefit some categories more than others.
the-hook-and-the-loop
·1 year agoSure, you need not promote, if you are a hobby seller that spends most time on the forum. One or two sales a week.
BUT, if you want 12 to 24 sales a day, and run a successful business, one NEEDS to promote. Gone are the days of a fair algorithm that actually allows a search function to work. The whole system is geared to "pay to play".
brightlightbookseller
·1 year agoAgain, we're a pretty decent sized business with lots of sales per day, and no promotions. You're just flat-out wrong about this, @the-hook-and-the-loop .
the-hook-and-the-loop
·1 year agoI'm pretty sure I know how things were not too long ago, and how they are now. Maybe, you have a good thing going with books, and titles that are in demand, and repeat customers.
dbfolks166mt
·1 year agoSure, you need not promote, if you are a hobby seller that spends most time on the forum. One or two sales a week.
BUT, if you want 12 to 24 sales a day, and run a successful business, one NEEDS to promote. Gone are the days of a fair algorithm that actually allows a search function to work. The whole system is geared to "pay to play".
The purported games eBay plays with promoted listings and the less than optimal search engine are among the reasons I seldom shop on eBay these days. I can almost always find the item cheaper on another site or get it faster, and sometimes cheaper, from a B&M store.
That being said the constantly increasing shipping costs are doing more to impact my sales than me not using promoted listings. The largest portion, by volume, of my sales are from local forums and venues where there are multiple benefits to both the buyer and the seller: low or no fees, no shipping costs, no concern over late or lost packages, examination of the item before taking possession, lower overall price.
redlinear
·1 year agoEXACTLY!
fbusoni
·1 year agoJust noticed this morning that prepaid labels on the other site (which recently entered into an arrangement with eBay) are going away at the end of this month.
 
Not sure what to make of that. Could it be a consequence of the above mentioned alliance?
@valueaddedresource do you have any insights?
Perhaps the objective is to reduce the amount of shipping people on that venue do? It takes effort to set up one's own shipping label... one has to weigh the package, measure its size, etc. As opposed, say, to simply guessing and then selecting a prepaid label.
valueaddedresource
·1 year ago@fbusoni just browsing through some policy pages there, if I had to guess, that other marketplace is finding out it's no fun to have to deal with shipping adjustment charges on pre-paid labels and like the real reason for the layoffs they recently announced...they'd rather plow that money into the AI race.
I do not believe it has anything to do with the supposed eBay partnership that we still haven't seen any actual evidence really exists. 😂
fbusoni
·1 year ago@the-hook-and-the-loop
Another preposterous statement.
Millions of sellers here experience FOMO and have been sucked into the vortex of eBay's slick advertising for PLs.
That's because the game is populated by millions of willing participants. Lemmings come to mind.
If millions of others "pay to play," who -- other than eBay -- is ahead? The sap who spends the most money on advertising and who by definition must increase his listing cost to offset his PL expenses?
The bandwagon effect is real and in full effect right here on eBay.
I'm retired and do eBay for fun. Heaven forbid I should depend on eBay to pay my living expenses.
The idea that I would try to "run a business" in an environment that is controlled by a capricious, invisible organization run virtually by people whose sole allegiance is to their shareholders and whose user agreement is filled to the brim with loopholes sufficiently large through which to drive several 18-wheelers simultaneously is utterly unthinkable. (NOTE: I'm 65 and terribly old-fashioned.)
As for the time I spend on the forums... what can I say, other than I can walk and chew gum at the same time. 😅
I don't "pay to play" and I never will; I have found over many years that top level customer service and selling in desirable categories perused by buyers with education and money is how one does well on eBay.
brightlightbookseller
·1 year agoI have to answer this too. We turned off all our promotions back in October, and our sales rose. Views rose. Only Impressions dropped (as expected), but even then, our organic impressions have risen above where they were when we stopped promotions, though they dropped for a short time.
So your statement is categorically false.
dbfolks166mt
·1 year agoIf you don't promote, you won't have any sales.
That's what eBay likes to have you think. I have never used PL, and never will, and I have no problems making sales. There is in fact no way to definitively prove that the use of PL increases sales.
brightlightbookseller
·1 year agoYou have it mostly right, except I think that they have to also buy a promoted item (they can't look at a promoted item, then buy a non-promoted item and you still be charged). It's for 30 days from the original view of a promoted listing. It does only seem to apply to if they clicked on that first listing via a promoted insert in the search results, rather than if they found it truly organically (when we did promoted listings, we still had listings that had promotions enabled sell organically without us being charged, but it's not exactly a transparent process).
top-down-fever
·1 year agoI am also not real clear on this. All of my listings are promoted. A shopper clicks on my advertised listing "A" and doesn't buy it. While on the listing, he proceeds to "ask the seller" a question to see if it is the correct item for him. I say no and I direct him to the correct listing "B" and he purchases it. The way I read this, I would be charged the promotional fee on listing "B". Is this correct?
On another note, If the same customer who clicked on listing "A" came back to shop within 30 days and purchased a listing "C" just looking in my store (organically), would I be charged the promotional fee for listing "C" when it was not clicked on in a promotional ad?
brightlightbookseller
·1 year agoYes, on either item B or C in your scenario, you would be charged the promotional rate you set on those items if they sell to the customer who clicked on the promoted listing A. You've definitely got it correct, to my knowledge.
my-cottage-books-and-antiques
·1 year ago@brightlightbookseller I agree, that is how it would work.