Simply-the-best-for-you Volunteer Community Mentor
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@monica-sells wrote:for some additional technical mumble-jumble
IF you click on a sponsored link/ad anywhere, a "cookie" (or similar) is placed on your browser that is active for 30 days, so even if the buyer ultimately purchases the item from a 'non-sponsored' link/ad, IF the buyer has clicked on a sponsored ad anytime in the last 30 days for that item, it is considered a PL purchase......there is nothing nefarious about that, in fact, it is pretty standard in the industry across advertising circles......
...now that your brain is fried....welcome to the techie nerd board...LOL
Yup, what @monica-sells said. @stephenmorgan Hope we helped you understand it a little clearer. They don't publish everything about it & some of it is a bit kludge. That's why, as a buyer, don't worry about it. Buyers are never gonna remember or notice if they clicked on a sponsored ad or not (they may not even know it b/c they're not always labeled as such).
As a seller, well it helps you t understand what you'd be paying for, but really the only control you have is whether to use it or not & what percentage to promote at, which supposedly loosely correlates to how much 'extra' exposure that item gets.
I will tell you that my stats (at a glance, not a thorough audit) run about 70% sponsored sales, 30% organic sales & I promote everything.
It is not a transparent program. Never has been & I doubt it will be. I wish it was, as it's frustrating to not know exactly what you're getting for your money. I can tell you that I promote everything, which resulted in me almost tripling my sales & there are a lot (but not most) of sales that do not get the PL fee, so I believe Ebay is keeping track. But yeah, I have to trust that they're doing it correctly.
IDK what you sell, but PL's do best in very competitive categories. If you're not in a competitive category, you may be throwing your money away.
@stephenmorgan wrote:
@monica-sells wrote:I have sold more than a few items that were promoted, but not charged the promoted listing fee which indicates they were found through non PL channels,
What is a non PL channel? So just searching from the search block does not pull up Promoted Listings first? Is there a specific channel that you have to use to see Promoted Listings?
What is a non PL channel? Is there a specific channel or procedure that you have to use to see Promoted Listings?
So just searching from the search block does not pull up the Promoted Listings first?
Just refers to whether the buyer navigated to the listing using the PL channel or a non-PL channel. Sponsored or not-sponsored, being the most obvious version of this.
Theoretically PL should come up first in search, but in a narrow search, say PL comes up first or second & non-PL comes up 8th. Buyer is scrolling through results & clicks on the 8th one & buys it. That is a non-PL purchase.
I just searched one of your items with the search order as Best Match. I do not know if it is promoted or not but it placed number one in the search. It is not the cheapest in the list.
If I switch the search results to Price + Shipping Lowest First then you are moved to position #5
If that one is not Promoted then give a couple of eBay item numbers I will play with the search results to see where you place on a search.
@simply-the-best-for-you wrote:
@stephenmorgan wrote:
@monica-sells wrote:I have sold more than a few items that were promoted, but not charged the promoted listing fee which indicates they were found through non PL channels,
What is a non PL channel? So just searching from the search block does not pull up Promoted Listings first? Is there a specific channel that you have to use to see Promoted Listings?
What is a non PL channel? Is there a specific channel or procedure that you have to use to see Promoted Listings?
So just searching from the search block does not pull up the Promoted Listings first?
Just refers to whether the buyer navigated to the listing using the PL channel or a non-PL channel. Sponsored or not-sponsored, being the most obvious version of this.
Theoretically PL should come up first in search, but in a narrow search, say PL comes up first or second & non-PL comes up 8th. Buyer is scrolling through results & clicks on the 8th one & buys it. That is a non-PL purchase.
Sorry, but I am still lost.
So when I am looking for a printer on the internet there will be advertisements from several companies. Often times there will be advertisements with eBay. If I click on one it will usually take me to an active eBay listing. If the listing is no longer listed then I will get search results for similar items on eBay.
This is what I think of as a Promoted Listing. Do I have it wrong?
Look at this search. eBay is actually the first advertisement.
@stephenmorgan I don't want to copy your entire post. You don't necessarily have it wrong, you just don't have the complete picture. There are many ways that Ebay promotes listings, both on & off Ebay (I'm actually not positive about the off). It is sometimes obvious to the buyer (though they are typically oblivious regardless) that it is Promoted.
Let's just stick to only on Ebay. A simple way they Promote is via a "Sponsored" listing that will have a tag that says "sponsored". Sometimes that listing will ALSO be in a results list in a NON sponsored format. If the user's search terms are narrow enough, they may see both in their search results. If they click on the Sponsored listing, that's a PL. If they click on the NON sponsored listing, then that's just a regular sale.
It's all dependent on how the buyer navigated to the listing & whether it was a sponsored channel or not, to use Monica's terminology, which I don't think is incorrect. That's just one scenario. The most simple one to understand. But there are many ways users can navigate to a listing & whether or not their navigation led them to a PL or not, is the KEY.
ETA: Users absolutely do not typically know if they clicked on a Promoted Listing or not. Sometimes they ought to know b/c it says "Sponsored", but honestly, they have no recollection of that, I've learned.
