Can someone explain performance to me?

[ksedar]

I am sure this was answered somewhere else over and over again but I can't find the information I need.  If my impressions are down 9% but click through rate is up .1%, and listing page views are up over 22% and my listings quality report states there are no opportunities for improvement, what does this data mean collectively?  I realize this data is in comparison to the previous month as well but I am trying to piece it together.  Does this mean what ebay does show of mine in a search result is getting looked at but that less of my listings are showing up in a search?  What is the big picture with this data result?  Thanks in advance.  Also what happened to "our take" blurb that used to show up?

[richard1rst]

Personally I have always considered some of these statistics to be thoroughly useless.

First of all, please understand that this is just one person’s opinion. No doubt there are others with different opinions.

Impressions: (Useless) If I search for “pink and purple widgets” eBay will show all those. But if the list is short they may also throw in “pink widgets” and “purple widget” to make the list longer. If your listing even remotely connects to the search term eBay shows it and it counts as an “impressions” whether or not anyone even sees it let alone considers it worth looking at.

Click through rate: (Useless) The number of times someone saw your listing and clicked on your listing to directly look at your listing. On its face that would seem to be important. BUT they are using the previous (irrelevant and inflated) impressions count as the base to calculate the rate. So the rate will always be significantly understated.

Listing page views. (somewhat useful) The number of times someone actually visited a specific page of yours and apparently only if directly accessed from the search page. All of my listings have a hot link to my store from which the shopper can see other of my pages of similar items. If someone clicks on one those I am not sure that is counted in this number.

Sales conversion rate: (somewhat useful) The number of sales divided by the number of page views. Again possibly not counting the number of clicks directly from my store.

Just an opinion.

[mam98031]

@richard1rst 

Excellent post.  I could not have said it better.  My opinion is very similar to yours as well.

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

@richard1rst  "Listing page views. (somewhat useful) The number of times someone actually visited a specific page of yours and apparently only if directly accessed from the search page. All of my listings have a hot link to my store from which the shopper can see other of my pages of similar items. If someone clicks on one those I am not sure that is counted in this number."

Listing page views include views from whatever source: search results page, your store page, another listing page, Google.....So, yes, a view from your store's hot link counts as a view.

Impressions are the same, except it doesn't include any external impressions, only impressions on ebay.

[ksedar]

All very good informative answers.  So if you impressions are low but clicks and sales are consistent then you must be getting sales from outside sources such as social media or google and not organically.  I didn't realize that impressions were only organic but yes of course they would be.  So the question next is: if ebay finds that "your listings are performing well, no opportunities for improvement" then how do you improve your standing in their organic search?  If it means PPC then I guess this is as good as it will get because I'm not doing that.