Anyone else experiencing a decline in promoted listing impressions this month?

[zerotocool]

Anyone understand why my impressions through the promoted listings action are on the decline? First time posting so any help would be greatly appreciated. Also, although I have been here since 2012 I still feel there is much more learning to undergo! 

[demyan1978]

Yes, I have the same. I also posted theme about it.

[gingergottin]

Yes, this is happening to me!  It's really frustrating.  All my listings hover around the 10% fee mark - depending on what category the item is in (all are at least 2% higher than the trending).  I keep increasing the percentage in an effort to get some sales but still nothing.

When I started using promoted listings I made so many more sales and I used a much lower percentage.  I wonder if this it their way of trying to get a larger chunk of our sales.

[mistwomandancing]

We are always having sellers complaining here of running into poor sales, but it does seem like lately there have been more than usual. 

Usually in September the "summr doldrums" taper off and sales begin to pick up.  Perhaps this year the storm damage in the Texas area, hurricane damage in Florida, and various very damaging wildfires in some western states has put a number of buyers out of commission until they get more important issues addressed in their lives.

Hope sales pick back up for your shortly.  Running up into Holiday Shopping season, should always get us a bit excited.  Hope this year is a good one for us all.

[zerotocool]

Not complaining, just trying to understand the data and metrics really. Really interested in following the traffic and data that I'm seeing with my store and how I can always improve service, conversions, and sales. Also, the hurricane damage in TX and FL is a theory that I have pondered, hopefully, everyone affected by the hurricane can get their lives situated. I am thankful for every sale honestly, so I guess I will be patient and ride out this storm! Another reason I figured impressions were low is due to my listings that contained contact information in regard to the new policy. For example, I used a third party application called "Froo Apps", recommended through eBay. Apparently, the new upgrade does not allow any links in my listings, therefore, I must remove all 284 links from each listing. This was another theory as to why the declining impressions. Thanks for your insight!

[demyan1978]

I cannot and all listings for promoting. I have more then 1000 items. But I can add only 400. A few weeks ago I can add all listings.

[markdown-media]

If you use the bulk setting and upload a csv file, you can have up to 25,000 listings per campaign.

[markdown-media]

Although you're discussing promoted listings, have you made any changes to your listings lately that would possibly lower your ranking in the organic search results?

I have noticed in the past, when I change my listings to Free Shipping, not only do I get a boost in my organing search impressions, but I get a boost also in my promoted listing impressions. (All without a change to my promoted listings pay %) It seems that they use parts of the same ranking criteria in both searches.

Just something I've noticed, may not pertain to you.

Another thought, that possibly if you're in a highly competitive category, it is possible that other sellers have boosted their promoted listings (or new sellers have started using it), which could possibly lower the amount of impressions you could receive.

[hioctane62]

Mine are way down as well. My thought is impressions are so low because there is no traffic on this site anymore. 

[demyan1978]

I think they can fall down. But not in one day from more then 25 000 impression to 6 000 impressions. Also I put different % from 5 to 20 - there is no difference. I have the same impressions - about 6 000 - 7 000 each day.

[castlemagicmemories]

That is quite a drop.  I don't know that promoted listings are that effective, though, one would hope more views would translate into more sales.

[dtexley3]

My graph looks similar.  I started 3 sets of promoted listings 1 for each of 3 categories, each had a signification spike in the first 3 days and then steadily trail off.  As 30 day listings drop off the promotion I would wait until my normal relist day (monday or tuesday) relist the items and add them back to the promotion.  Each time results in a small one or 2 day spike for that promotion followed by a decline.

One interesting note, I was selling a few items in one category per week (quite steady) prior to putting a promoted listings on that category.  Sales stopped.  I sold one the day after the promoted listing started and haven't sold a single one in the 5 weeks since.  Not one..... hmmmmmmm.

[zerotocool]

I believe that somehow eBay has decided to target the promoting listings specifically to those who are more likely to click on your add rather than focusing on higher impression numbers. If you look at 'clicks' there are more clicks associated with lower impression numbers. For example, on August 28, I had 1305 impressions but 189 clicks. Compare that to September 19 with 356 clicks and 3927 impressions. Therefore, more clicks but fewer impressions represented along all the days with low impression numbers.

Don't the clicks that matter more than impressions? Maybe, eBay has decided to focus more on targeting customers who will most likely click the links which most likely lead to conversions rather than focus on impressions?

Any thoughts on this theory would be greatly appreciated! 

The graph shows higher clicks in comparison to fewer impressions on the first graph I posted.