Might get me in the doghouse but I'd like to know

[b86fiero]

While searching eBay for gemstone chip beads I discovered something I found interesting and curious.

These are item numbers of some of the listings I considered purchasing from:

255877394233

125462854262

255385645807

200288177593

385293511287

234799709821

Of these six listing five have the usual sponsored ads appearing.  One does not.  After looking at that particular sellers store listings I am curious as to why the special treatment of no sponsored ads like the rest of us ? 

(I also found a small volume seller of beads with no sponsored ads).

I don't want to create a ruckus but I'd really like to know how the rest of us sellers can enjoy ad free listings too?  

[valueaddedresource]

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@stainlessenginecovers wrote:

Those that 'sponsor' don't get 'similar sponsored items' (which is OTHER sellers items) across their listings BEFORE the written description; when they DO get them, it's below the written description and are items by the same seller, and states 'other sponsored items from this seller'. 

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@stainlessenginecovers sadly even that isn't true any more, or at least doesn't appear to be on any listings I've looked at in months.

That was one reason some sellers begrudgingly participated in PL - doing so would at least allow you to claw back some of cluttered ad real estate for your own listings.

But back in September, @nuclearomen had noted that no longer appeared to be the case. "Other sponsored items from this seller" was replaced with "related sponsored items" that are mostly competitors.

And that still holds true for every listing I've looked at since then at least. One or two of the seller's other promoted listings may be sprinkled in amongst all the others on the page but there's no longer a dedicated row of ads for that and it is by no means guaranteed.

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Finally-have-Sales-but-had-to-take-PLs-Promoted-Std-to-10-12-f...

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Promoted-Listings-No-Longer-Shows-quot-Sponsored-Items-From-Th...

[nuclearomen]

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@valueaddedresource wrote:

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@stainlessenginecovers wrote:

Those that 'sponsor' don't get 'similar sponsored items' (which is OTHER sellers items) across their listings BEFORE the written description; when they DO get them, it's below the written description and are items by the same seller, and states 'other sponsored items from this seller'. 

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@stainlessenginecovers sadly even that isn't true any more, or at least doesn't appear to be on any listings I've looked at in months.

That was one reason some sellers begrudgingly participated in PL - doing so would at least allow you to claw back some of cluttered ad real estate for your own listings.

But back in September, @nuclearomen had noted that no longer appeared to be the case. "Other sponsored items from this seller" was replaced with "related sponsored items" that are mostly competitors.

And that still holds true for every listing I've looked at since then at least. One or two of the seller's other promoted listings may be sprinkled in amongst all the others on the page but there's no longer a dedicated row of ads for that and it is by no means guaranteed.

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Finally-have-Sales-but-had-to-take-PLs-Promoted-Std-to-10-12-f...

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Promoted-Listings-No-Longer-Shows-quot-Sponsored-Items-From-Th...

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@valueaddedresource 

CORRECT! 
For 2-3+ years the ONLY reason most used PLS was because it allowed you to focus that first row on sponsored ads on your listing real estate back to YOUR listings - but ebay finally caught on to sellers using it as a means to self promote and they decided to screw that up like any other "edge" one may have had in their bags of tricks. It does in sense "level" the playing field - but the point was ebay should be promoting the seller of the listing more so then competitors. So OK, ebay finally got that message and changed that first row of sponsored listings yet again...now they do not specifically feature directly competitors listings either, but many times those sponsors are for items completely unrelated to your listing. 

They still do feature your listings sponsored towards the bottom of the listing page, but it's more random then was before...one listing could be all your sponsored stuff and another listing for same category type of item may show only 1 or a few, and others may show none at all of yours... no one can figure it out, it's a mystery. Believe ebay purposely did it this way to take any possible edge you could have. 

[stainlessenginecovers]

@valueaddedresource @valueaddedresource 

I guess that depends on what you sell and what category you are in. All the 'other sponsored items', although not stating 'from this seller'- all the items shown are mine. 

[nuclearomen]

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@stainlessenginecovers wrote:

@valueaddedresource @valueaddedresource 

I guess that depends on what you sell and what category you are in. All the 'other sponsored items', although not stating 'from this seller'- all the items shown are mine. 

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@stainlessenginecovers nope they're not, maybe when YOU view it they are, but not for me, I just checked 5x of your listings. Your first listing did have mostly yours on the first bar but as I checked some others it wasn't, one listing didn't even have any of your listings sponsored at top. 

[valueaddedresource]

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@nuclearomen wrote:

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@stainlessenginecovers wrote:

@valueaddedresource @valueaddedresource 

I guess that depends on what you sell and what category you are in. All the 'other sponsored items', although not stating 'from this seller'- all the items shown are mine. 

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@stainlessenginecovers nope they're not, maybe when YOU view it they are, but not for me, I just checked 5x of your listings. Your first listing did have mostly yours on the first bar but as I checked some others it wasn't, one listing didn't even have any of your listings sponsored at top. 

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@stainlessenginecovers  @nuclearomen that's been what I've observed in the last few months as well. Sometimes you will see preferential display of some of that seller's other PL in the first ad section, sometimes not, but it is random and not guaranteed (or I should say not really random - most likely based on PL ad rates and other algorithmic factors.)

Absolutely agree it was an intentional change by eBay  to give them more flexibility to show whatever ads they want in that valuable higher visibility spot- that's why they changed the name of that section so there is no longer an explicit expectation/obligation for them to show *only* that seller's other PL ads there.

[valueaddedresource]

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@b86fiero wrote:

Thanks for your reply. You are correct. I do recall the hoopla created when eBay ended the "cross promotion opt out" option. Much seller angst ensued and the selling board lit up with complaints.

So now I'm back to still curious and still wondering why some "from all appearances regular sellers" don't have sponsored ads on their listings.  Neither of the two I noted are national chains or high volume sellers.

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@b86fiero I was chatting with a friend who was following this closely back when they ended cross promotion opt out and he said he's seen a few of these "no PL accounts" over the years since and always suspected that (some?) accounts that had "opted out" prior to when the change was made were simply grandfathered in so they don't have any ads displayed on their listing pages.

Now whether that's true, and if so, whether it was intentional on eBay's part or possibly just a "technical issue" where some old coding or something stuck and they couldn't figure out how to opt those sellers in is anyone's guess.

But I do think something along those lines is at least plausible and it might make sense out of why some of the accounts you've seen are just regular/smaller sellers.

[stainlessenginecovers]

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@valueaddedresource wrote:

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@nuclearomen wrote:

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@stainlessenginecovers wrote:

@valueaddedresource @valueaddedresource 

I guess that depends on what you sell and what category you are in. All the 'other sponsored items', although not stating 'from this seller'- all the items shown are mine. 

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@stainlessenginecovers nope they're not, maybe when YOU view it they are, but not for me, I just checked 5x of your listings. Your first listing did have mostly yours on the first bar but as I checked some others it wasn't, one listing didn't even have any of your listings sponsored at top. 

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@stainlessenginecovers  @nuclearomen that's been what I've observed in the last few months as well. Sometimes you will see preferential display of some of that seller's other PL in the first ad section, sometimes not, but it is random and not guaranteed (or I should say not really random - most likely based on PL ad rates and other algorithmic factors.)

Absolutely agree it was an intentional change by eBay  to give them more flexibility to show whatever ads they want in that valuable higher visibility spot- that's why they changed the name of that section so there is no longer an explicit expectation/obligation for them to show *only* that seller's other PL ads there.

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You may be correct; on the computer; but when using my phone which I have NEVER signed onto, all my listings show my listings on that first row (10 of 10 I checked). Since over 50% of purchases are now on the phone and probably another 25% are 'researched' on the phone but then finalized on a computer- it still a win to use PL. At least for now. 

[nuclearomen]

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@stainlessenginecovers wrote:

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@valueaddedresource wrote:

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@nuclearomen wrote:

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@stainlessenginecovers wrote:

@valueaddedresource @valueaddedresource 

I guess that depends on what you sell and what category you are in. All the 'other sponsored items', although not stating 'from this seller'- all the items shown are mine. 

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@stainlessenginecovers nope they're not, maybe when YOU view it they are, but not for me, I just checked 5x of your listings. Your first listing did have mostly yours on the first bar but as I checked some others it wasn't, one listing didn't even have any of your listings sponsored at top. 

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@stainlessenginecovers  @nuclearomen that's been what I've observed in the last few months as well. Sometimes you will see preferential display of some of that seller's other PL in the first ad section, sometimes not, but it is random and not guaranteed (or I should say not really random - most likely based on PL ad rates and other algorithmic factors.)

Absolutely agree it was an intentional change by eBay  to give them more flexibility to show whatever ads they want in that valuable higher visibility spot- that's why they changed the name of that section so there is no longer an explicit expectation/obligation for them to show *only* that seller's other PL ads there.

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You may be correct; on the computer; but when using my phone which I have NEVER signed onto, all my listings show my listings on that first row (10 of 10 I checked). Since over 50% of purchases are now on the phone and probably another 25% are 'researched' on the phone but then finalized on a computer- it still a win to use PL. At least for now. 

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this is one thing that causes confusion, the difference between viewing on PC/Laptop vs viewing on mobile app - it never equates the same results - for whatever reason, ebay have horrible web designers and app makers btw, likely has something to do with that. 

[valueaddedresource]

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@stainlessenginecovers wrote:

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@valueaddedresource wrote:

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@nuclearomen wrote:

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@stainlessenginecovers wrote:

@valueaddedresource @valueaddedresource 

I guess that depends on what you sell and what category you are in. All the 'other sponsored items', although not stating 'from this seller'- all the items shown are mine. 

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@stainlessenginecovers nope they're not, maybe when YOU view it they are, but not for me, I just checked 5x of your listings. Your first listing did have mostly yours on the first bar but as I checked some others it wasn't, one listing didn't even have any of your listings sponsored at top. 

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@stainlessenginecovers  @nuclearomen that's been what I've observed in the last few months as well. Sometimes you will see preferential display of some of that seller's other PL in the first ad section, sometimes not, but it is random and not guaranteed (or I should say not really random - most likely based on PL ad rates and other algorithmic factors.)

Absolutely agree it was an intentional change by eBay  to give them more flexibility to show whatever ads they want in that valuable higher visibility spot- that's why they changed the name of that section so there is no longer an explicit expectation/obligation for them to show *only* that seller's other PL ads there.

---

You may be correct; on the computer; but when using my phone which I have NEVER signed onto, all my listings show my listings on that first row (10 of 10 I checked). Since over 50% of purchases are now on the phone and probably another 25% are 'researched' on the phone but then finalized on a computer- it still a win to use PL. At least for now. 

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@stainlessenginecovers on computer or mobile, either way I believe what you are seeing with your PL ads in your own listings is far more about the algorithm than anything else. I've tested in both for a variety of sellers and can say that even on mobile, it is absolutely not the norm for those top ad slots to all be the seller's own listings.

You're not getting those ad spots because you're the seller of the listing they are displayed on, you're getting them because whatever ranking criteria eBay is now using for "related sponsored items" is working for you in most cases.

Your listing titles and store name are highly relevant to that specific niche/keywords, you have good SEO and are clearly getting some algorithm love for it, which is awesome and kudos to you!

But that isn't going to be the case for everyone, especially in more generic/saturated categories, and doesn't change the fact that eBay made a fairly big unannounced change by getting rid of the explicit "other items from this seller" ad spot.

[nuclearomen]

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@valueaddedresource wrote:

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@stainlessenginecovers on computer or mobile, either way I believe what you are seeing with your PL ads in your own listings is far more about the algorithm than anything else. I've tested in both for a variety of sellers and can say that even on mobile, it is absolutely not the norm for those top ad slots to all be the seller's own listings.

You're not getting those ad spots because you're the seller of the listing they are displayed on, you're getting them because whatever ranking criteria eBay is now using for "related sponsored items" is working for you in most cases.

Your listing titles and store name are highly relevant to that specific niche/keywords, you have good SEO and are clearly getting some algorithm love for it, which is awesome and kudos to you!

But that isn't going to be the case for everyone, especially in more generic/saturated categories, and doesn't change the fact that eBay made a fairly big unannounced change by getting rid of the explicit "other items from this seller" ad spot.

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there's nothing wrong with algorithm current running favoring something on your listings, or category, or item, or account... that results to more sales. The issue is no one knows what's favoring and that is why sales are down for most sellers, then sudden rise in sales will happen when the algorithm changes - to very high spike in sales, and then week, two weeks... whatever ride is for then sudden death - because it changed again to focus on something else. 

Had this discussion through this morn on another thread and in PM - the only factor in sales on marketplace such as here is the algorithm being run at any given moment. It has to change regularly as well. There is no tech current for algorithm even with AI built into it to focus on the massive 19 million reg sellers on here, serving hundreds of categories and thousands of sub categories - with billions of buyers and views and traffic - it just cannot decide and make choice for all the possibilities that may exist - it has to change and focus on a percentage and someone has to be directing those changes which run on set of principles and built in programming along with AI that it learns and continues to develop. While PLs are another component introduced to the algorithm there are still things that will take focus away for your listings just in the sense of the platform now using multiple different forms or "tiers" of PLs - PLS will not operate the same as PLA. 

[b86fiero]

Great discussion everyone!

When I saw the first no ads listing and checked out that sellers store looking for what I hoped to purchase I wondered if the seller was an eBay employee with a side gig. But then immediately thought "no" because that type of employee perk would be easily found, publicized and create seller anger with the accompanying fall out. I forget the name of Griff's store so I couldn't check his listings for ads.

What I forgot that I already knew:  When you create a listing it looks clean and uncluttered with sponsored ads. If you do a Search for your listing and click on it from search, it shows no sponsored ads. eBay does not show sponsored ads on your own listings to you.  To see them you have to come in on a different browser not already attached to you or use someone else's phone or computer. From my observations the number of sponsored ads appearing per listing has definitely increased in the past two years, which makes listings with one or two sentences as the description pretty much disappear into the clutter.  And with eBay now limiting the font size for new listings they are harder to read.

As an aside: One of the gemstone chips listings I looked at had the "Powered By Selling Manager Pro" icon at the bottom. That listing program was retired, what, ten years ago? I don't recall if it was one of the item numbers listed above in my original post or not as I looked at twenty or thirty search results plus accompanying store listings.  I used Selling Manager Pro for years and when eBay removed the program those icons disappeared automatically.  Glitch? Seemed odd to see that icon since BIN listings automatically renew every 30 days until ended.

Anyway, thanks everyone for sharing your knowledge and observations.

I am still curious about those no ads listings.  

[wastingtime101]

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@stainlessenginecovers wrote:

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but when using my phone which I have NEVER signed onto, all my listings show my listings on that first row (10 of 10 I checked).

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It could be based on your browsing history using the phone. If you're mostly searching for and viewing your own listings, then it makes sense eBay would believe you're interested in that seller (you) and show you more of their (your) listings in the PL slots.

[valueaddedresource]

@b86fiero just FYI - I have it from fairly high up the food chain at eBay that this was a "bug" that has since been fixed.

No explanation for what caused the bug but I'm still thinking it may have been possible lingering code or somehow related to the old option to opt out of cross promotion (total guess on my part, no info provided by eBay to confirm or deny it).

I've checked the examples I had and they all appear to be showing PL ads now.

[nuclearomen]

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@valueaddedresource wrote:

@b86fiero just FYI - I have it from fairly high up the food chain at eBay that this was a "bug" that has since been fixed.

No explanation for what caused the bug but I'm still thinking it may have been possible lingering code or somehow related to the old option to opt out of cross promotion (total guess on my part, no info provided by eBay to confirm or deny it).

I've checked the examples I had and they all appear to be showing PL ads now.

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what exactly was the "bug" your mentioning? @valueaddedresource - since all of ebay is a "bug" they never fixed lol

[nuclearomen]

@valueaddedresource also - though, unrelated to specific issues here, found a new one this morn while going into Bulk Editor... apparently ALL of my Custom Bundle listings failed to update for reason "too many characters in Bundle Description" field of Item Specifics. OK...so ebay changed this (likely this new update) and as usual didn't mention a thing about it... well I had to go into every single one of those listings and edit the Bundle Descriptions to say "vinyl + flag" or similar to that. Since did that 4x of those have gotten views and watchers in past 2 hrs...so basically ebay was hiding ALL of those listings prior and didn't mention a thing about the bundle descriptions new change of character limit (still not sure what that limit is). Just figured I'd mention this.