eBay

my-cottage-books-and-antiques · ‎07-18-2023

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 · ‎07-18-2023

Just want to add: If in fact ebay is showing true organic listings in these modules, it begs the question: why am I using Promoted Listings if my listing might show up in one of these modules without it? What are the eligibility requirements to show up in "organic" modules?

valueaddedresource · ‎07-19-2023

@my-cottage-books-and-antiques

This morning in both FireFox and Chrome I am seeing the two ad modules above the description (Similar Sponsored Items and Sponsored Items Customers Also Bought right now).

I am also still seeing other items shown below the description - 25 of them all under the heading "You May Also LIke" with no indication they are sponsored/PL....so I have to assume those are organic.

Like you, when I click through to "see more" on the ad modules, it goes to a separate page where it shows Similar Sponsored Items and then below that a grouping of 25 Similar Items (again, presumably organic).

The interesting thing is in my testing at least some of the same listings are being shown on that page in both places.

Here's one that is in the first row of Similar Sponsored Items

And without reloading or doing anything to change the view, when I scroll down the same listing is also in the first row of Similar Items as organic.

Definitely interesting that they appear to be testing more organic placement...will also be interesting to see if sellers report any changes in their traffic and advertising reports that might confirm if organic impressions increase/PL impressions decrease.

mcdougle4248 · ‎07-19-2023

@my-cottage-books-and-antiques

@valueaddedresource

The view item page that I am seeing this morning looks just like @valueaddedresource screenshots.

mcdougle4248 · ‎07-19-2023

ETA I just used the incognito mode and I now see the page as @my-cottage-books-and-antiques describes including no additional listings shown at the bottom of the page below the feedback.

valueaddedresource · ‎07-19-2023

@mcdougle4248 wrote:
ETA I just used the incognito mode and I now see the page as @my-cottage-books-and-antiques describes including no additional listings shown at the bottom of the page below the feedback.

@mcdougle4248 interesting.

Not incognito, I'm still seeing the 25 organic below the description and feedback.

Incognito, like you @my-cottage-books-and-antiques , I'm not seeing anything below feedback now but...the page was trying to load for several seconds longer than usual before finally loading completely and not showing anything below feedback.

That makes me wonder if not showing any other items in area is intended as part of a test or if it's a display/loading error where if it times out, it just doesn't show anything there.

dhbookds · ‎07-19-2023

Off the topic.......but I don't remember (always a caveat) seeing feedback % before on the "lines" (modules).....and I note they are not shown (mostly), if feedback % is less than 100%...

mcdougle4248 · ‎07-19-2023

@valueaddedresource

Curious about the view item page, using incognito and looking at one of my listings. I have not seen this before (which does not mean it has not been there before). Below the feedback module is a row showing my promotional free shipping offer (nothing more). I LIKE this a lot! My guess is they are testing again.

my-cottage-books-and-antiques · ‎07-19-2023

@mcdougle4248 The absence of sponsored listings is unusual, but the presence of the promotional manager module (in this case,the free shipping offer) in that spot isn't new. If I run a Markdown Manager Sale it will be there (although it will only appear if the listing itself is in the sale....if I didn't include it in the sale, the module doesn't appear (as I recall).

mcdougle4248 · ‎07-19-2023

@my-cottage-books-and-antiques

Thank you...good to know!

my-cottage-books-and-antiques · ‎07-19-2023

@valueaddedresource

Two points:

I wonder....since some of these seem to be organic displayed as organic....you mentioned the other day (if I recall correctly) a browser with a filter that allowed you to filter out sponsored listings ... could you try filtering these out, to see if the filter treats the "organic" as ads or not? (assuming that's what the filter is filtering for)

I am thinking...maybe they are doing this in part because people are figuring out how to filter out sponsored listings but since these are not sponsored, they wouldn't be filtered out?

Also: As I mentioned above, assuming some of these listings are being shown as organic, a question I have is: are they showing as "true organic" (not in a promoted listing campaign) or as "halo organic" (in a promoted listing campaign, but being shown as organic)

Remember, if they are "true organic" (not in a PL campaign) they cannot be charged a halo PLS fee. However, if they are "halo organic" (shown as organic, but part of an active PLS campaign), they can be charged a halo PLS fee if the 30 day requirements are met.

I'm guessing at least some of these are halo organic. That is, the ads team is still selecting them from the PLS pool, but is choosing to display them as organic, which reduces, but does not eliminate, the chance that they will be charged a PLS fee if they sell.

Your thoughts?

valueaddedresource · ‎07-19-2023

@my-cottage-books-and-antiques yes, that test where I was able to remove all other items shown on the page was using the Brave browser with script blocking turned on.

Interestingly, in the Brave browser right now without script blocking, eBay is still showing mostly PL ads in all those other item slots like we've seen before - so whatever they are testing here with the apparent organic ones we are seeing in other browsers, Brave is not included in that test for me at this time.

But, Brave does have the one row of "People who viewed this also viewed" which like you said, we've established previously is most likely organic so...to get to what you are getting at, yes that row also disappears if I enable the script blocking.

Like I pointed out in that other thread though, scripts are used for a lot of different functionality on the page and enabling script blocking kills them all - the add to cart or buy buttons don't work for example if you have that setting on.

So while it does make the other items on the page "disappear", I'm not sure how relevant it really is to the whole discussion on ads - it basically just confirms that the modules on the page that show other items are running scripts, just like many other elements on the page....and pretty much every element on any web page you visit.

I don't think most users are going to that extreme and if they did, they wouldn't be able to use anything on the page to check out - importantly in my testing in Brave and other browsers, just ad blockers alone don't usually filter out all or even most of the PL on the view item page, so again I'm not sure how much that may be a concern to eBay at this point.

But to your point about true organic or "halo" - I think that is the real question here and the main reason why I said it will be interesting to see if sellers also report any differences in impressions, clicks, and sales for organic vs PL (and within PL - direct or halo) while this test is going on.

my-cottage-books-and-antiques · ‎07-19-2023

Good point about the script blocker...you are right, that wouldn't really be relevant.

But yes, are we seeing true organic, halo organic, or a mix? That's the question.

elizabeth@ebay adsteam@ebay

Could you ask the Ads Team about this? As you can see in valueaddedresource's post above, the one with the screen shots, some modules are labelled , for example, "Similar Items" (as opposed to "Similar Sponsored Items"...this suggests these items are NOT being displayed as sponsored (promoted) items.

1. Can the AdsTeam confirm that?

2. And if that is true, are the items in this module "true organic" items (they are NOT currently in a PLS campaign) or are they "halo organic" items (they ARE in a PLS campaign, but are being displayed as non-sponsored)

Or is it a mix?

Thanks for any info you can provide.

my-cottage-books-and-antiques · ‎07-20-2023

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?