Anyone else seeing these changes to Promoted Listings on View Item Page?

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

I know ebay has been testing various changes to the View Item (listing) page, maybe along with the Ads Team.

I also know that the Ads Team acknowledge a while ago that one of their "modules" (something like "People who views this item also viewed these items") was showing ORGANIC listings, not sponsored listings. I believe they also said that different listings show different modules at different times.

I'm seeing two things tonight that are interesting. For me, both in Chrome and Edge, I'm seeing only one, sometimes two , modules on listings---both between the above- the- fold section and the description box, with nothing below the end of the listing. I'm guessing this is a test. (Of course, it could be a glitch of some sort, as well).

Looking at the two modules, the module titles are "Similar sponsored listings" and "Related Sponsored Listings". Now, here's the thing. Each has a "See all>" option, and if I click on that, a new page opens.

That page shows 25 listings under "Similar Sponsored Items", followed by 25 listings under "Similar Items"....as far as I can figure, the 25 items under Similar Items are NOT sponsored items.

I don't know whether the items in the second group are true organic listings, or listings in a Promoted Listing campaign being shown as organic. Or a mix of both. 

But if ebay is starting to mix in organic with promoted on some of these non-search results pages, it's a pretty big shift for the Ads team. 

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

Well, it's not a browser thing, because I've been seeing this reduced presence in Chrome and Edge.

elizabeth@ebay devon@ebay adsteam@ebay Can we get answers to the questions I posed above?

[valueaddedresource]

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@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:

I am still seeing only the two modules (rows) between the above- the- fold section and the description.....are other people seeing this as well, or are most people still seeing tons of listings on the view item page?

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@my-cottage-books-and-antiques right now it varies for me.

Chrome logged in: 2 rows of PL above description with "see more" that goes to full page of other items, 25 other items below description/feedback labeled as "You May Also Like" (presumably organic, but may also be "halo")

Chrome Incognito: 2 rows of PL above description with "see more" that goes to full page of other items, no other items below description/feedback module.

Firefox logged in:  2 rows of PL above description with "see more" that goes to full page of other items, no other items below description/feedback module.

Firefox incognito: 2 rows of PL above description with "see more" that goes to full page of other items, typical previous "tons" of multiple PL rows and other items shown below description/feedback module.

Brave with no ad blocking or script blocking - 2 rows of PL above description with "see more" that goes to full page of other items, typical previous "tons" of multiple PL rows and other items shown below description/feedback module.

As previously noted, in the instances that showed the usual "tons" of other items, it wasn't immediate - initially there weren't any, the page took a second to load and then they were displayed.

The instances which did not have other items under the description/feedback seemed to be trying to load for slightly longer than the ones where they were shown, which makes me wonder if one possibility might be that something in the script/coding for those other item spots is just timing out and failing to load rather than this being an intentional test of not showing anything at all in that area.

Here's where my thoughts on it are - I think it's entirely possible eBay may be testing exactly how many other items to display and/or whether there are any differences between displaying them as PL or as "organic" which may or may not also be "halo".

I have a tougher time believing they would be testing showing no other items at all below the description/feedback module for all of the ad rev importance reasons we've discussed before. 😂

So I'm personally leaning toward no other items below description being a technical issue (possibly caused by the other testing?) and the differences in the mix of PL vs organic being an intentional test....but that's just my gut feeling on it.

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

@valueaddedresource  Thanks for the info and insights. Hopefully, we will not need to keep guessing, and ebay will be along soon to answer our questions.

While I don't like the break between above the fold and description, and while they have previously said they were going to stop breaking that up, so far, they don't seem to be working on a solution to that.

I think they might have discovered that the crowded view item page was increasing impressions but not doing much for views or sales. I think the "see more" page idea provides a cleaner page (when it opens) AND it requires the buyer to take the initiative (by clicking on "see more"), which is a stronger signal that the buyer has not committed to the item on the view item page, and actually WANTS to browse---which should increase the value to ebay of the opened "see item" page.

The idea behind PLS when it started was  not solely PLS revenue, it was sales velocity. If ebay is still committed to using PLS to actually increase sales velocity, they might finally have realized that impressions don't mean anything if they are being "seen" by buyers with zero interest, so they might be trying to ensure that buyers have at least some interest in continuing to browse...this might reduce impressions, but might also improve conversions.

If they want to reduce some of the seller pushback about the crowded View Item Page, and if they want to reduce the modules to 2 on the page, they might want to consider a first module showing "similar items from this seller" organically, with a "see more" that would open with two tiers, one with organic similar items from the seller, and one below it of similar promoted listings from other sellers. The second module could be "related sponsored items" and the "see more" could be as now, with top tier sponsored , below that organic.

Some sellers will never be happy about any other sellers listings on the view item page, but we know they aren't going away----I think ensuring that some of the listings are the seller's own items would reduce some of the seller angst. Especially if they reduce the overall presence on the page as well.

[valueaddedresource]

@my-cottage-books-and-antiques after further thought, the extra delay I've noticed when there are no ads could also be explained a different way - if eBay is in fact doing a test, they may have injected additional coding to basically tell the page *not* to load the ad modules in situations where whatever parameters are met...and that extra coding could absolutely cause the tiny bit of extra delay I was noticing.

Interestingly, multiple sellers in the eBayUK boards are reporting major drops in Promoted impressions just in the last few days, which may coincide with whatever we are seeing here, whether it's a test or tech issue.

This thread had started with a previous issue with reporting, so most of the posts aren't relevant here but check out starting here and going forward - several screenshots of charts showing PL drops starting on/around July 18.

https://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/Business-Seller-Board/Impressions-broken-again/m-p/7450135#M297101

The UK staff have said that they've escalated these most recent reports to the tech team and have been told there is no tech issue - of course we all know that could just flat out be wrong based on previous experience 😂 but it's also possible that if this is an intentional test those results would be "working as expected" and not considered a tech issue.

devon@ebay  adsteam@ebay  just bringing this to your attention as one more reason I really hope you are able and willing to provide some answers here.

I understand that eBay doesn't typically disclose details of tests due to not wanting to affect the results, but if this is a test and if it really is having these drastic impacts on what sellers are seeing in reports...disclosure would certainly go a long way toward calming seller concerns and making life easier for your UK counterparts as well as eBay's global support channels. 

[valueaddedresource]

Also for anyone who is wondering what we are talking about, I'll try to post a few screenshots though the community doesn't typically do well with bigger images.

Here's what it looks like for me when there are no other items shown below the feedback module:

And here's an example of when it shows me just what appear to be organic items below the feedback module:

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

@valueaddedresource  We have some posters here talking about large drops in impressions...I mentioned this as a possible cause on one of the threads, but I don't think there was any response. IF this is actually a pretty widespread test---or a phased rollout---I do think it could account for a pretty big drop in impressions. If it is just a small test, then probably not. It would be nice to get a response from ebay on this, even if it is only to say "we will not disclose that"....

[valueaddedresource]

@my-cottage-books-and-antiques just as a point of interest, I did some testing with random listings on eBayUK and came up with the same results I had posted above as far as which browsers/logged in etc saw which results...so at the very least I would say it's likely that whatever the parameters are (if it's a test), they are being applied globally.

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

elizabeth@ebay  Can we please get a response from the Ads Team on this?

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

 Please, Ads Team, Please!

[simply-the-best-for-you]

I checked 3 or 4 items, all on my default (chrome) browser.  I don't seem to be seeing what you guys are seeing.  I see 2 rows of Sponsored items before the IS's.  

1 titled Similar Sponsored Items

2 titled Related Sponsored Items

Then, after the Feedback portion, I count 10 rows of items, mostly sponsored.  I can detail if you want.  

I believe this is no change for me, but honestly, I tend to scroll thru all that without ever really paying attn. 

The only one I saw that was different was when I checked one of my one via searching for it in a search that only brought back 18 results.  Mine is the 3rd (it IS a PL) & when I click into it, I see only 1 line above the fold (Related Sponsored) & only 7 lines at the bottom. 

FWIW, I am experiencing 3 days now of 1/2 the PL Impressions I had prior.  But my sales have stayed pretty normal. 

[nilis13]

My impressions and views are down dramatically - along with my sales...

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

@simply-the-best-for-you I think the drop in impressions is most likely a reporting glitch. This test would only impact impressions dramatically if it is a widespread test, and we've had so few people respond on this post, there's no way of even guessing whether it is or not. 

If it is widespread, I wouldn't be too surprised to hear that impressions are down, but views/sales are not necessarily down along with them.  With so many slots for PLS nowadays, it stands to reason that impressions are up, but that doesn't guarantee any sort of increase in views or sales.....I think a lot of them are what I think of as "junk impressions"

[nilis13]

My impressions and page views are the lowest I have ever seen them...worse and worse each day..sales are down too..I promote, add new listings daily and absolutely nothing helps.

[valueaddedresource]

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@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:

@simply-the-best-for-you I think the drop in impressions is most likely a reporting glitch. This test would only impact impressions dramatically if it is a widespread test, and we've had so few people respond on this post, there's no way of even guessing whether it is or not. 

If it is widespread, I wouldn't be too surprised to hear that impressions are down, but views/sales are not necessarily down along with them.  With so many slots for PLS nowadays, it stands to reason that impressions are up, but that doesn't guarantee any sort of increase in views or sales.....I think a lot of them are what I think of as "junk impressions"

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@my-cottage-books-and-antiques  "we've had so few people respond on this post, there's no way of even guessing whether it is or not" - it's kind of a catch 22 isn't it?

It could be a widespread test in certain browser scenarios but maybe most people aren't even noticing, so they would have no reason to respond here unless someone brings it to their attention.

eBay registers impressions as soon as the page loads, but that doesn't mean the user ever actually scrolls far enough down to really see the ads. In  theory, that may be exactly what they are testing here and ironically the lack of people reporting it may actually prove the point that those are mostly "junk impressions" as you said.

[blacktopautoparts]

James from My Boring Reseller Life is reporting on the issue. He is good to follow as he finds these issues just like many of us do on here and talks about them everyday.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2KnyOMnxxc