@vintagecraze50 wrote:
LUCKY has the right answer here. Many variables other than what you pay for the promotion. Extremely high rate does not quarentee a sale whatsoever on a consistent basis. Depends on audience online at the time, price too high or just right, yes, supply/demand, BIG ONE. And the luck of the slot machine rotating the listings.
It's more complicated than this as well. And some of us have tested these things extensively over the years.
I can tell you that in our testing, let's say we decide to double rates from 6% to 12% without changing the price? It doesn't do A THING! Logic dictates that based on how they explain these rates to us, it should increase traffic. It doesn't. Based on our testing, there's a "minimum" rate that you must invest (for the moment 4-5%) and as long as you do that, the "traffic switch" is turned on. There's nothing you can do to improve it now.
The testing has also proven that investment DOES affect your ORGANIC traffic! This is literally defying the definition of what an organic impression is. Organic traffic should NEVER be altered by ad investment. But here we are, this is a NORMAL thing on eBay. If your Promoted traffic increases too much your organic traffic will DECREASE. On the other hand, if you invest so little in promotions that the "switch turns off" your organic traffic plummets by 80%+.
Taking this in to consideration, it's more than just the "slot machine" of listings. Because eBay will actually have a ceiling for how much traffic you have a day. Slot machines are random, and without consistency. So how does eBay have consistency for weeks-months at a time? Those of us who are in to online marketing know that real traffic is VERY random. But eBay is anything but random. Impressions may swing by 20-30%, but views will stay the same, sales will stay the same. Organic views may be 2x promoted views, but promoted sales will consistently be 2x organic sales.
Now what about the truth that eBay exposed in how their algorithms work? How during errors where promoted impressions are not being read from their database properly, the views literally REDISTRIBUTED before our eyes? Going from 0 promoted impressions 1000 organic impressions 100 organic views, to 1000 promoted impressions 1000 organic impressions 50 promoted views 50 organic views? This proven that eBay is NOT simply retrieving/displaying traffic numbers, but is instead CALCULATING the views in real time and expecting a discrepancy. They are EXTRAPOLATING their traffic pages.
You guys are too trusting of eBay, and are too quick to dismiss what sellers have experienced on here with "easy explanations" that we have already considered, tested, and tests have proven things aren't so simple. You can have the cheapest price, you can have higher ad investment, and eBay will STILL cut off your sales at the same exact number every day. Once you hit your ceiling of your limits, there's nothing you can do to raise that bar. And before you guys even start the rumor that there are no limits, there are, and eBay has even admit it.
