eBay

jnsvintageradioandtubes · ‎10-15-2023

Now with this new feature of "Store Traffic" a question arises.

1. In the past 31 days there has been no visits from promoted ads, why would a seller be charged promoted ad fees?

2. A buyer would need to visit the promoted ad listing first, before making a purchase right? Then the seller would be charged the promoted ad fee, if the buyer purchases the item.

Am I missing something here? The new "store traffic report" shows no visits from promoted ads, yet there have been 30 promoted ad fees charged.

Seems something is amiss.

electronicifycanada · ‎10-15-2023

Yes, the part your missing is promoted listings is for listings and not your store. You can't pay to promote your store on eBay.

jnsvintageradioandtubes · ‎10-15-2023

OK, I wasn't referring to promoting the store. Promoted listings and promoted ads are one in the same. My query is about promoted ads fees and promoted ad traffic.

my-cottage-books-and-antiques · ‎10-15-2023

@electronicifycanada is wrong, at least in part.

If you have been selected for the beta test of Promoted Listings Display, you CAN promote your store pages (at least, a store category page). And THAT is the promoted traffic they are talking about in the graph. If you are NOT using Promoted Listings Display is the actual name, I think, there will be no promoted traffic shown in the graph, since the graph ONLY considers Promoted Listings Display traffic, not other types of Promoted Listings.

PLS is still in beta, and I don't know how many sellers have it as yet.

ebooksdiva · ‎10-15-2023

This is my understanding of how promoted listings and store traffic works….

If the buyer found your promoted item while looking at similar items and clicked it and purchased you pay the promoted fee.
You don’t see it in your store traffic report because the sale didn’t originate in your store but in another sellers listing. If the buyer was browsing in your store and purchased a promoted listing then it will show in your store traffic report.
If I have this wrong someone will chime in to correct me.

valueaddedresource · ‎10-15-2023

@jnsvintageradioandtubes wrote:
OK, I wasn't referring to promoting the store. Promoted listings and promoted ads are one in the same. My query is about promoted ads fees and promoted ad traffic.

@jnsvintageradioandtubes - @electronicifycanada is partially correct and partially not.

The stores traffic report (found here https://www.ebay.com/sh/str/edit/stats) only reports traffic to your Store, not to individual listing pages.

Promoted Listings Standard (cost per sale), Promoted Listings Advanced (cost per click) or Promoted Listings Express (for auctions) are all ad types that drive traffic to specific individual item pages, not the store page.

If you use any of these ad types, those visits will *not* be in the Store Traffic report, you would need to look at the advertising dashboard (https://www.ebay.com/sh/mktg/pl) and/or the Performance Traffic report (https://www.ebay.com/sh/performance/traffic) to see promoted vs organic traffic for those ads.

However, eBay has a different ad type that *does* drive traffic to your Store - it's called Promoted Display ads and it's been in beta testing for about a year with more sellers being "invited" to test it out recently.

If you use Promoted Display ads to drive traffic to your Store, those visits are what will show in this Store Traffic Report.

More info about Promoted Display and the Store Traffic report:

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Ebay-WHAT-Are-You-Thinking/m-p/33374738#M2118334

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Promoted-Listings-not-Going-Away-In-fact/m-p/33817556

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Promoted-Listings-Advanced-amp-Promoted-Display-Placements/m-p...

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Seller-Tools/eBay-Store-Traffic-Reports-Now-Available-In-Seller-Hub/m-...

my-cottage-books-and-antiques · ‎10-15-2023

@jnsvintageradioandtubes Click the little "i" behind : "Visits from promoted Ads" and it will tell you: "The number of visits to your Store from Promoted Display ads campaigns."

Now, in Seller Hub>Store>in the left column titled "Promote Stores" and under that if you see "Set Up Store Ads" you are in the Promoted Display Beta test and can pay a Pay Per Click (similar to Promoted Listings Advanced) to advertise your ebay store on other sellers' listing pages (and maybe elsewhere, I'm not sure)

So, nothing is amiss. You are seeing no Promoted Display ad traffic on the graph because you are not currently using Promoted Display ads.

valueaddedresource · ‎10-15-2023

@ebooksdiva wrote:
This is my understanding of how promoted listings and store traffic works….
If the buyer found your promoted item while looking at similar items and clicked it and purchased you pay the promoted fee.
You don’t see it in your store traffic report because the sale didn’t originate in your store but in another sellers listing. If the buyer was browsing in your store and purchased a promoted listing then it will show in your store traffic report.
If I have this wrong someone will chime in to correct me.

@ebooksdiva as far as I know, it should not be possible to click on a promoted listing while browsing a store because eBay does not show the "sponsored" or promoted version of the listing within the store view.

I recall back in 2021 that was happening for a short time. Many sellers suspected it was possibly a test and were rightfully very unhappy about it.

eBay eventually came back and said it was a "bug" that was "fixed" - whether that was true or it really was a test that they labeled a bug and rolled back after the backlash is still up for debate....but I have not seen or heard of promoted ads in Store view since.

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Sponsored-Items-WITHIN-my-eBay-store/m-p/31861137/highlight/tr...

In the Store traffic report, the reference to "visits from promoted ads" specifically only refers to traffic being driven to your store from using Promoted Display ads - at least at this time.

ebooksdiva · ‎10-15-2023

Thank you for the clarification.

jnsvintageradioandtubes · ‎10-15-2023

Thanks to everyone who chimed in with an answer or opinion.

Personally, I think eBay screwed the pooch trying to make more revenue from sellers. I've been on eBay for 10 years and the past 2 years I've seen a decline in sales as eBay tries to improve and be better at what it does. More services=more revenue for eBay. Sometimes, I think if the system isn't broken, don't try to fix it.

I'm not the only one who has seen traffic and sales drop off. I think eBay is attempting to push sellers into PL to increase eBay revenue and if a seller doesn't join in, they're left behind. All my listings are currently at 3%PL and sales have continued to drop month after month since July. I'm not convinced PL is working or worth it. So, the store traffic report is useless to me.

I used to receive multiple offers, have international sales, have multiple page views and averaged 15-20 sales per week. July down 75%, August down 50%, September down 50%, and October is looking to have the same results.

When I started on eBay Obama was in office and sales were OK for just starting out and developing the store. Then Trump came in and sales really started picking up month after month. Each month the store hit a new milestone. Then Biden came in and took over. The first year was good with all that Covid money handed out, but I have to say, the last two years 22 and 23 of Bidenomics has destroyed the economy and my store sales.

Just my opinion. Thanks everyone.

Thanks again, another frustrated seller.