Ebay's new Offsite Ads Program- Will it kill sales?

[siamjane8]

     I just saw some information saying that this new offsite ads program ( that ebay is offering us $100 to try) is in beta testing now and sometime in 2024 should go full scale.  The intent is for ebay to no longer pay google for any ad space so our listings will only show up on google if WE pay ebay the offsite ads premiums.( so if our listing is a perfect match, it wont show unless we pay ebay more...)

    The problem is that with ebay's search engine being so overmanipulated with promoted listings and irrelevant results- most people use google to find ebay listings!

    Are they setting up a situation that will kill sales for anyone who does not pay to pay further?!

If this is the case- what value does ebay offer at all?- if we need to pay google for placement and ads- why not just get our own websites and pay google?

    My first thought is that this would only affect the "shopping" tab on google and that the general search because if google cant "look" for matching listings in its own search- what good is google then?

   Either way- ebay is providing less and less and costing more..... Isnt that what ebay is supposed to do for our FVF?- advertise and bring buyers to the platform. 

[unequivocalfruition]

That's what I do too. Plus - where are the endless results, shouldn't there be pages and pages based on how much stuff eBay should have? It's like they limit the results - not fun when you want a look at every possible item for the perfect one you can't explain like-  silver bangle bracelet - I doubt the search could know what I'm thinking of especially when a result I'm looking for is never there. People love to browse for the perfect anything, let us browse!

[inhawaii]

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@luckythewinner wrote:

The problem is that ... most people use google to find ebay listings!

Do you have  source for that statistic?

I have never used Google to find eBay listings.

I always go directly to eBay.

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You're weird.

I bet you use Amazon to search for Amazon items.    😉

[siamjane8]

@inhawaii @luckythewinner 

    If you have not had to use google to find ebay items yet, then you are either not looking for unique items or are satisfied with not being shown all your options.  Either way there is nothing wrong with that if it works for you.  For those of us looking for harder to find items ( not consumables or phones cases etc.), we struggle with ebay's search algorithms.   We are constantly shown unrelated items that are promoted instead of the actual thing we searched for. Ex. Last night i was searching for a 1976 jeep cj5 4.2 intake manifold.  THE VERY FIRST LISTING THAT CAME UP WAS AN OIL PUMP PICKUP TUBE that was a promoted listing.   To be fair- i was searching for that oil pickup tube last week so i imagine ebay engineers had cookies on my computer and thought that i still wanted to see that listing(instead of what my search query actually was??)  I had already bought the tube from another website because it was too frustrating to sort through all the irrelevant items ebay was showing me....and the costs are generally higher to purchase on ebay now because of the extra fees imposed on sellers. its just simple math- remove the 14% fees on item / tax/ shipping and additional PL fees,the items are sold 14%-25% cheaper on mfr own websites....

      In any event-i knew that the intake manifold i needed was not reproduced and the only place to find it would be on ebay.  My intent was to search and purchase on ebay.   It took over an hour of searching different keywords, order of words, deleting and adding of words to find the actual listing i purchased....... but in the end i only found that active ebay listing through google images!!!!!!!! The listing i purchased was NEVER shown to me while searching on ebay.  Realistically- there were probably only 30-40 listings of that particular used car part listed on ebay........but i was never shown them all so i could make an educated purchase.    

     Ebay still got the sale because it was the only place in the world that had a used original intake manifold for a 48 year old jeep.   I needed it so i put up with the ridiculous search to find it.....but most people will not waste an hour trying to find something like that.

[findbeautyinside]

Waiting to see is putting people out of business.  Used to cost me on average about 25 % of my selling price (already had to be priced at a loss or close to even get a buyer!) but now average Cost of sale is just under or sometimes more than 50 % due to the promoted sales “option” that is the only way to even get the item seen by a potential buyer.  I’ve tried to find my items on a friends phone and if not promoted they don’t show up at all in an eBay search.  So much for my eBay business supplementing my social security!  That coupled with this terrible economy is a no win proposition . Going to give my eBay business one last shot this year then I’m done.   

[findbeautyinside]

reply to my own post to correct the auto correct which said 5 % when it should have said 50%!!!!!!

[sellthecow]

I tried it for about 3 weeks and it just seemed to me a money suck...another money suck. If I sold higher end products it might be useful. 

[hell_of_a_party]

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How ELSE would anyone get on top when there are 35000 other listings of the 'same thing'?? 

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Offer better, more relevant listings with better quality data... like searches used to do when they provided the consumer quality, relevant results instead of spamming us with irrelevant or crap product listings because the sellers are paying more to the platform instead of doing the extra work to offer a better experience for the customer... I guess we all should have seen it coming though. 

[kh-shakhib]

Hi everyone,

Due to the age of this thread, it has been closed to further replies. Please feel free to start a new thread if you wish to continue to discuss this topic.

Thank you for understanding.