eBay

rograc-37 · ‎06-12-2019

Since I am rather irritated at the hand grab in my pocket regarding this new "feature", I decided to see if it would make any difference what % I used.

I picked an item with a lot of watchers and a fairly high price point. I upped the percentage point to the suggested trending point, 7.9% and left it for a week.

2 more watchers but nothing else. I was getting at least 2 watchers each week prior to this test anyway. I lowered the point back down to 1% (I'd have put .0000009% if I could have). Three days later it sold.

Can someone tell me the point of promoted listings? I feel it's nothing more than a placebo for those who use it.

lasantino · ‎06-12-2019

can someone confirm or refute... I believe when I was initially reading about ebay's promoted listings..

@zamo-zuan

if your item sells within a certain amount of time , even when you lowered the percentage or took it off promoted listings all together.. ebay still takes their cut if the buyer had ever viewed your item when it was on promoted listings..

it's a very sneaky, but i'm pretty sure that's how most adwords work in seo.. it's not just if a buyer clicks on sellers link a certain day and buys,, it's if the buyer had ever clicked on the ad,, and then buys within the next 14 to 30 days.. the seller is charged the promotion rate..

If I am wrong, please correct me,,

flo_mingo · ‎06-12-2019

@sweetpieces4you wrote:
😂😂😂 Not Much Mathematical Figures Can Be Taken Out of Your ( 1 ) Item Experiment 😂😂 Come Back One Year 🙉🙉 With at Least 10,000 Items and Maybe We Can Take a Little Something From Your Experimental Analysis of Promoted Listing Suggested Trending Points by Upping and Then Lowering Percentage Points !!!

So you don't value empirical studies. I think we can all see through the smoke and mirrors of promoted listings.

turquoisetulips · ‎06-12-2019

can't say it did tho so now I do what I'm comfortable doing! tunicalot

Yeah me too .I'm getting very comfortable not selling anything . I've lost that dreaded feeling that I used to get before I'd check to see if anything sold yet . Now all the nothingness just rolls off like water on a duck . Yawn . 🙂 Tulips

turquoisetulips · ‎06-12-2019

@dasarock wrote:
@baantiques wrote:
@rograc-37 wrote:
Since I am rather irritated at the hand grab in my pocket regarding this new "feature", I decided to see if it would make any difference what % I used.

I picked an item with a lot of watchers and a fairly high price point. I upped the percentage point to the suggested trending point, 7.9% and left it for a week.

2 more watchers but nothing else. I was getting at least 2 watchers each week prior to this test anyway. I lowered the point back down to 1% (I'd have put .0000009% if I could have). Three days later it sold.

Can someone tell me the point of promoted listings? I feel it's nothing more than a placebo for those who use it.
The purpose is to increase earnings for Ebay. It's NOT to increase your earnings - the purpose WRT sellers is to increase the amount we pay every month. Apparently, getting more traffic to our listings via advertising or other promotions is not working well enough to increase Ebay's earnings.

promoting at a higher percentage only makes ebay $$ if and when an item sells though. the promoted listings show ocassonally (sp?) in listings, below shopping cart and other places. i don't know if this is based on random occurances of all promoted listings or exactly how it works. but promoted listings was initiated and designed to line ebay's coffers. but, if the items sell quicker for a bit less profit ... only you can decide if it is worth the extra cost/loss of profit.

Speaking of which . I just went through every single one of my 124 listings and manually removed the '' global shipping helper '''' ,, '' International shipping'' and the advertising in the UK . The reason I had them on in the first place was because of some bad info I had received . E bay was indeed charging me 50 cents for each of those things whether the item sold or not . It had pushed my seller fees up another 12O dollars . I will not make that mistake again .. However it seems strange e bay would even charge for those things since they DO make an extra profit every time an item sells . Tulips

gamersbaystore · ‎06-12-2019

More than a quarter of my total sales this year originated from promoted listings, so they do work, but people don't understand how to use them is the problem. Its a feature that should be used to promote worthwhile items that are popular and likely to sell. Just listing random stuff with promoted listing doesn't change consumers buying habits.

I use promotions for certain games, the better ones that are most likely to sell well. The feature works as intended.

Likewise, setting your promoted listings with the trending rates is obviously not a bright idea. If you want traffic from your promotions, you really should bid above the trending rate so you'll get more impressions, clicks, and a higher potential for sale.

On the other hand, promoted listings are also having negative consequences for sellers, due to the fact it creates a price war between sellers, forcing them to drop their prices, or lose the sale entirely.Its the whole reason blu-rays are now pennies on the dollar. So this aspect of it is not good.

zamo-zuan · ‎06-13-2019

@lasantino wrote:
can someone confirm or refute... I believe when I was initially reading about ebay's promoted listings..
@zamo-zuan
if your item sells within a certain amount of time , even when you lowered the percentage or took it off promoted listings all together.. ebay still takes their cut if the buyer had ever viewed your item when it was on promoted listings..

it's a very sneaky, but i'm pretty sure that's how most adwords work in seo.. it's not just if a buyer clicks on sellers link a certain day and buys,, it's if the buyer had ever clicked on the ad,, and then buys within the next 14 to 30 days.. the seller is charged the promotion rate..

If I am wrong, please correct me,,

This is something I've wanted to test but never actually did, so I can't confirm. But our sponsored pay rate has seemed abnormally high. I've even wondered if we're getting charged for sponsorships regardless of which link they actually click. They claim it's only if they click the sponsored link THEN buy... but as I mentioned, it seems abnormally high. Definitely does not look like a 50/50 chance of hitting the sponsored link or regular link.

Regarding adwords, that is basically how it works on Google, although it's a bit more configurable/transparent.

zamo-zuan · ‎06-13-2019

@gamersbaystore wrote:
More than a quarter of my total sales this year originated from promoted listings, so they do work, but people don't understand how to use them is the problem. Its a feature that should be used to promote worthwhile items that are popular and likely to sell. Just listing random stuff with promoted listing doesn't change consumers buying habits.

I use promotions for certain games, the better ones that are most likely to sell well. The feature works as intended.

Likewise, setting your promoted listings with the trending rates is obviously not a bright idea. If you want traffic from your promotions, you really should bid above the trending rate so you'll get more impressions, clicks, and a higher potential for sale.

On the other hand, promoted listings are also having negative consequences for sellers, due to the fact it creates a price war between sellers, forcing them to drop their prices, or lose the sale entirely.Its the whole reason blu-rays are now pennies on the dollar. So this aspect of it is not good.

Exactly. The focus on promotions and sponsorships has done a huge amuont of damage on eBay. Precisely because these features only increase eBay's margin, reduce sellers visibility without using them, and offer absolutely nothing to the customers. It actually hurts customers as it jacks up the prices to higher levels than other markets.

It's the primary reason eBay is no longer the cheapest marketplace. Even their "trending" page of their best deals, if you highlight them > r click > search Google, you can find the same or cheaper elsewhere.

It's sad. EBay gave away the #1 reason to shop here in order to pad their own pockets.

But considering eBay is a marketplace, marketplace health should be the #1 priority. It's no coincidence that their sales/GMV are dropping.

rograc-37 · ‎06-13-2019

@zamo-zuan wrote:
@gamersbaystore wrote:
More than a quarter of my total sales this year originated from promoted listings, so they do work, but people don't understand how to use them is the problem. Its a feature that should be used to promote worthwhile items that are popular and likely to sell. Just listing random stuff with promoted listing doesn't change consumers buying habits.

I use promotions for certain games, the better ones that are most likely to sell well. The feature works as intended.

Likewise, setting your promoted listings with the trending rates is obviously not a bright idea. If you want traffic from your promotions, you really should bid above the trending rate so you'll get more impressions, clicks, and a higher potential for sale.

On the other hand, promoted listings are also having negative consequences for sellers, due to the fact it creates a price war between sellers, forcing them to drop their prices, or lose the sale entirely.Its the whole reason blu-rays are now pennies on the dollar. So this aspect of it is not good.

Exactly. The focus on promotions and sponsorships has done a huge amuont of damage on eBay. Precisely because these features only increase eBay's margin, reduce sellers visibility without using them, and offer absolutely nothing to the customers. It actually hurts customers as it jacks up the prices to higher levels than other markets.

It's the primary reason eBay is no longer the cheapest marketplace. Even their "trending" page of their best deals, if you highlight them > r click > search Google, you can find the same or cheaper elsewhere.

It's sad. EBay gave away the #1 reason to shop here in order to pad their own pockets.

But considering eBay is a marketplace, marketplace health should be the #1 priority. It's no coincidence that their sales/GMV are dropping.

Well something is certainly going on with their stocks. Over $39 today. I'm guessing there's going to be stock bonuses issued on the 15th with a dump turnaround. Then watch the dive back down.

poppyswag · ‎06-13-2019

General reply -

Not sure about the promoted listing being shown elsewhere part, but when looking on ebay they annoy me. We can tell there are 2 of the exact same ads, one that says sponsored on the bottom...

It does not make me buy that item one bit more.

nc-daydreamer · ‎06-13-2019

@slippinjimmy wrote:
@toyshnip wrote:

Some of the products sold are things that there are only a handful of sellers that have these items in stock. So if there are only 8 results, do I really need to hold 2/8 to get a sale? I am not sure.

I'm not sure either but consider that the Promoted Listing may be shown in places other than in regular Search results (sidebar, email marketing, on other sellers listing page) so it might still be useful.

Some buyers (speaking for myself really) having seen a Promoted listing of possible interest will try to find the non-sponsored version so that if I buy the seller doesn't have to bay any extra fee.

Similar to Google where the paid for listing appears at the top of search and the non-sponsored link is just down the page. Or banner ads where the name of the website is easy to determine, I'll see the ad but instead of clicking I'll just go directly to the site.

On the other hand, sometimes I get a small bit of enjoyment knowing that because I clicked a sponsored link the merchant will be paying extra.

I think eBay is doing itself along with sellers and buyers a BIG dis-service by advertising that a listing is SPONSORED in the first place. For just that reason. This should be private info between eBay and the seller and the buyer should not have to be aware that the seller is so desperate to sell it. It is deterring sales.

I am a founding member of the eBay Community Expert Group: a USA volunteer mentor with over a decade of experience. I am not an eBay employee.

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