ALL SPONSORED LISTINGS BLOCKED by ad blockers

[kollection]

Hi all sellers

I am attaching evidence that ebay sponsored listings are definitely blocked by most ad blockers out there, even when ebay "claimed" sponsored listings will not be affected. Please see attached pictures below. Top is with ad blocker activated. Bottom is without. I am searching the exact same sponsored item number. It yields two different results.

Any solution from ebay!??! are they going to work on it? It's completely screwing up seller's performance.

This is with ad blocker,

Below is without ad blocker,

[katzrul15]

Groovy.

Most of our listings have PL standard.  If what you state is true, no wonder our sales went off a cliff.  Others have stated the same thing about ad blockers.  Just a mess.

[kollection]

Exactly. We noticed our sale went off the cliff couple days ago and then we tried to search for our listings using incognito browser. With ad block I can't search a single PL from my store. When I paused my ad block, all came back out. And noticed ebay will say there is search results but none of them are showing, that's because ad block does consider PL as ad!!

Feel free to try your own PL using item number, like the picture I attached.

Why didn't any seller push ebay to do something?? That's a huge deal!

Can somebody from jen@ebay explan this?

[skeletonstore]

That's interesting.  I have conducted some pretty extreme promotions to see if promoted listings even attract flies when my sales are dead. I've run promos at 99% commission and didn't see an explosion in impressions/clicks.  I've also heard and feared that running promos and changing the rate could lock you into whatever rate ebay likes when a sale happens.  Lot of buyers complain when they're looking for things the sponsored listings get in their way.  I mean what exactly is going on here?   Is this like youtube monetizing your videos and them offering viewers a pay service to not see ads?   Ummm....Surely ebay can tell when a visitor is blocking ads,  no?   How about the sellers who pay for cost per click ads?   Are their ads being blocked too?  

[siamjane8]

honestly guys I'm kind of glad. I hate promoted listings as a buyer and a seller.  it clutters up the search and ruins any relevancy of the search results.  aren't we all disgusted with the first page results being all promoted window tinting and pin stripe kits from china when we search for a used vintage car part?   as  far as promoted as a seller- why on earth is it ok to reward  ebay with extra money for less service. its a money making scam- they have no reason to improve the platform when they can just make more on promotions.   im sure promoting does work in over saturated categories but the bleed through effect has been a decreased user experience and lined the pockets of ebay-

[valueaddedresource]

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@kollection wrote:

Hi all sellers

I am attaching evidence that ebay sponsored listings are definitely blocked by most ad blockers out there, even when ebay "claimed" sponsored listings will not be affected. Please see attached pictures below. Top is with ad blocker activated. Bottom is without. I am searching the exact same sponsored item number. It yields two different results.

Any solution from ebay!??! are they going to work on it? It's completely screwing up seller's performance.

This is with ad blocker,

Below is without ad blocker,

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@kollection  there's another thread with a lot of great information and discussion on this topic here:

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Share-eBay-Technical-Issues/There-is-something-massively-wrong-with-se... 

[aeparts1]

When buying, I go out of my way to avoid buying anything that is promoted.

I use Ad Blocker Plus, so I guess that is helping me achieve my goal.

[1tuna]

you have to take anything ebay says with a grain of salt

maybe you are using an ad blocker that ebay does not consider worthy

just because its happening to you is not proof that plenty of buyers are affected

if you bring it up on weds you can be told that all of the appropriate teams are aware of it

just because ebay is aware of something does not mean they give a flying fig about it

[natoman777]

The add blocker I use does NOT block promoted listings.  I too often ignore promoted listings when purchasing.  As a seller I have never used them and my sales are very good.  I figure eBay is getting enough of my money already, why pay them more??

[dhbookds]

What's disturbing to me is that the generic ad is not shown in search with the ad blocker on:

Glossy black Dual Motor Badge Rear Trunk Tailgate Emblem

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2047675.m570.l1313&_nkw=Glossy+black+Dual+Motor+B...

(note this is the one from led-light-car-88............since there are several listed with same picture, but not his).....

There is discussion about this on Tech board

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Share-eBay-Technical-Issues/There-is-something-massively-wrong-with-se...

[varebelrose]

From a buyer perspective, yay! That means the adblocker is doing exactly what I want it to do... block unwanted promoted stuff from blocking true search results.

[dhbookds]

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@varebelrose wrote:

From a buyer perspective, yay! That means the adblocker is doing exactly what I want it to do... block unwanted promoted stuff from blocking true search results.

But it's also blocking the generic listing also.........so the buyer is NOT seeing all possible choices.....

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[eburtonlab]

But it's also blocking the generic listing also.........so the buyer is NOT seeing all possible choices.....

Technically, the ad blocker is only blocking the sponsored version of the listing at the moment, I believe. eBay is suppressing the organic (non-sponsored) version of the listing.

Normally both versions appear in a search, so suppressing one or the other is not a problem. It only becomes a problem when all the following conditions are met:

1) The user is using Best Match to search (eBay default, but user selectable)

2) The user is using an ad blocker

3) The ad blocker is set to use anti-circumvention filters (a default in Ad Block Plus, not sure about others; possibly for Ad Block, but not apparently in uBlock Origin, AdGuard or others)

4) The current anti-circumvention rules are actually blocking sponsored listings (not always the case, as eBay changes the way those listings appear from time to time, and the filters need to be updated to catch up)

5) The sponsored listing appears higher in the search sort than the organic listing (most likely a bit more than half the time, but not all the time)

6) eBay actually suppresses the organic listing due to the higher placement of the sponsored listing in Best Match (apparently it does not always happen consistently -- eBay only says it "may" happen)

If all those are true, the listing will not appear in that search. If any one of those conditions fail, the listing should appear in the search.

If each of those conditions is met half the time (a very rough estimate), a given sponsored listing has about a 1% chance of not appearing in a search due to those factors.

[dhbookds]

Better Half reminded me that showing the generic listing when PL was shown was discontinued........can anyone remember the date they announced that?

velvet@ebay 

[aeparts1]

If I'm reading this right, & am understanding it correctly, if you want buyers to find your items DO NOT use promoted listings. Especially since so many folks are using various ad blockers to get rid of all the annoying outside ads eBay has.

I have never used promoted listings, so I could be wrong about that.