Promoted Listing Impressions 45-50% Drop

[blacktopautoparts]

As of March 3rd we have noticed that our promoted listing impressions have dropped more than half. It has been a gradual decline over the course of March. We use the promoted listings automated. Nothing has really changed on our account. We list everyday, also update old listings, have promotions on, promoted listings are above the trending ad rate, run the store newsletter, top rated seller with no defects and we also offer good old free shipping. Just wondering if anyone else is experiencing the same issue. We sell a variety of used auto parts with roughly 14000+ items in our store. I think that something has also changed with the promoted listings and fear that the off site ads may have taken prominence at this point. As much as I have spoken with managers at eBay CS, they keep telling me that is not the case, but it is hard to believe some when you always get the wrong information from rep to rep.

I know that the economy is not helping matters and taxes are due in a few weeks for those that owe, but even in years past it has not been this bad. Our accountant also did mention that people are not getting as much back since they received that money in their paychecks and those that are getting refunds, those refunds were coming back a little later than the usual. There is a whole host of things going on for sure that add to this.

I was comparing YOY for March 2023 vs. March 2024 numbers and we are down a good 30% down from last year at this time. I understand that 2024 is different than we were at with 2023 from an economical standpoint. I don't even count the covid years numbers at all, because those were an anomaly or blip on the radar with some over inflated numbers due to people having all this extra spending money. I look at my 2019 numbers as a reference point and even partial point of 2020 before the madness started.

I have been told by eBay management that eBay Motors is down quite a bit from last year. They are not sure as to why it is so down.

@zamo-zuan are you guys experiencing the same issue? I know we have spoken about these kind of issues in the past.

Another thing that I have noticed, and nobody over at eBay will admit if our account is in some kind of beta, but my iPhone app has changed UI now about 3 times in the last few weeks, while my wifes and daughters, since they have their own accounts are still the much older version.

Not sure what is going on here, but usually March-May and August is when sales are really good for auto parts and they are in the dumpster.

[blacktopautoparts]

Many think that eBay is easy to learn and just throw up your items and they will sell. But it takes way more than that, and this is where many tend to fail in the end. It is good you are taking the time to learn all of the ins and outs so that way you can succeed. Even Amazon is tough and has gotten much tougher of late with some of the changes they have made.

Like you, we have tested everything and anything under the sun with eBay. I am not sure at this point what makes the platform tick from account to account.

Our problem is that we offer free shipping since eBay made it almost a "standard" for the special "benefits" they give you as a TR+ seller (yet those benefits seem to dwindle overtime) and we have been due to many of our competitors doing the same thing,

[blacktopautoparts]

I agree with you that it is very alarming with the drop in Motors when compared to how much advertising is being done with this category. There are TV and radio ads galore. I think the growth in this category reached its peak in 2022. Ever since then, it has been spinning its wheels (no pun intended).

They even bought out MyFitment, and then did such a bad job implementing that with the fitment guaranteed that this now almost feels like an afterthought. People do not even use the fitment chart and there are so many backyard mechanics running rampant. Instead of doing something cool with MyFitment incorporation, they spun it in a way that it would benefit us sellers with free return labels if the customer filled out their compatibility chart. Yet this was never the case since people do not fill these out before their purchase and even when they do, people still buy the wrong items and their charts are not 100% accurate.

I do see what you are referring to with the drop shippers. I see it quite a bit with our items and I have even seen other sellers use our data and information to sell our items if it were their own. I end up just getting them reported, because we are not going to go through all of the hard work for people to do this funny stuff. Again, a lot of this behavior is fostered on the platform so it is why people can just get away with abusing returns and even the feedback system because they have made it so easy to do so.

This is what they have done for years, it is the one size fits all model for everything that gets incorporated on site, no matter if you sell clothes or if you sell auto parts. I think the other problem that I have noticed is that they have also started completely removing people's selling limits so you can list as much as you want without hitting a wall, like ours has, and that has caused some issues. While this is a great thing to have, I feel it hurts us in the end with the algorithm. Do you guys still have selling limits or have they been removed?

[redlinear]

You are simply not being seen, when you should be being seen.
Your items are not being shown in the results "order" when they should be (based on your reputation).
   This is obvious when you compare your listings to Sold listings of the same item.

We don't need a biased fair chance. We don't even need a fair chance.
We just need the search results to show the words that were searched.
And the sort and filters to arrange those results as they claim.

[zamo-zuan]

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@blacktopautoparts wrote:

I agree with you that it is very alarming with the drop in Motors when compared to how much advertising is being done with this category. There are TV and radio ads galore. I think the growth in this category reached its peak in 2022. Ever since then, it has been spinning its wheels (no pun intended).

They even bought out MyFitment, and then did such a bad job implementing that with the fitment guaranteed that this now almost feels like an afterthought. People do not even use the fitment chart and there are so many backyard mechanics running rampant. Instead of doing something cool with MyFitment incorporation, they spun it in a way that it would benefit us sellers with free return labels if the customer filled out their compatibility chart. Yet this was never the case since people do not fill these out before their purchase and even when they do, people still buy the wrong items and their charts are not 100% accurate.

I do see what you are referring to with the drop shippers. I see it quite a bit with our items and I have even seen other sellers use our data and information to sell our items if it were their own. I end up just getting them reported, because we are not going to go through all of the hard work for people to do this funny stuff. Again, a lot of this behavior is fostered on the platform so it is why people can just get away with abusing returns and even the feedback system because they have made it so easy to do so.

This is what they have done for years, it is the one size fits all model for everything that gets incorporated on site, no matter if you sell clothes or if you sell auto parts. I think the other problem that I have noticed is that they have also started completely removing people's selling limits so you can list as much as you want without hitting a wall, like ours has, and that has caused some issues. While this is a great thing to have, I feel it hurts us in the end with the algorithm. Do you guys still have selling limits or have they been removed?

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Don't even get me started on the MyFitment thing, lol. I mean, eBay already owns NexPart. They already had all their fitness needs covered in that company. MyFitment was more of a "for show" thing.

Then the fact that their promoting the fitment tools for Guaranteed Fitment was all smoke and mirrors. They were pretending it was some new tool, when it was literally just the same fitment chart they had for YEARS and all they did was simply rename the vehicle search to "Garage"...

And worst of all, the fact that the fitment tool is (and has been) BROKEN and was broken for over 5 years now. I've even reported this directly to the VP of Motors in a zoom meeting, as well as every person on leadership I could find. So they have been investing money in to advertising a broken tool... lol.

We're nowhere near our selling limit, at least the ones they have in writing. But they make it impossible to beat our average sales(31 days). No matter if we cross that line at 9AM, or 9PM, suddenly traffic stalls. And the days at the end of your chart make it easy to predict what is coming next.

See how much of a slowdown occurs just to keep us from moving up? You can see 3 days from now, and 5 days from now, a "big day" will be falling off our chart. Guaranteed those two days will suddenly be "big sales days" that leave us at the same 31 day average at the end of the day.

[chariot_badges]

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@zamo-zuan wrote:

This has sadly been the reality for us for years.

Because it's driving sellers from eBay to elsewhere, when the prices on eBay are skyrocketing. 

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That is on my 'to-do' list.

I've already begun looking at other platforms.

Many do not allow used items, many are not well known for auto parts.  There aren't many who would allow my inventory on their platform.

It complicates things further when:

- we can't talk about competition to eBay here,

- other auto parts store owners don't want to tell their competition where the grass is greener.

Both of those items above are logical.

I've been looking at Mercari and may do a test with the Key Fob section of my inventory there.

[blacktopautoparts]

It is a shame, they do not want to listen to any of us. I've also been on zoom calls with managers over at eBay Motors and it seems like you just get a pat on the head, that is all.

I feel like you, that we reach our sale limits for the day at a certain hour of the day and then sales just go dead. One day last week, sales abruptly stopped at 6:30 PM and then didn't resume again till 9:00 AM the next morning. Something is totally off for sure here that goes beyond our economy and people not having money.

Be lucky that your chart has some ebs and flows, like a rollercoaster ride, mine doesn't even do that much anymore. I will send you my chart so you can get an idea of what ours looks like.

[stainlessenginecovers]

All it takes is some 'other' seller from 'another' country (or not) to UP their 'Promotion Percentage' to something ridiculous- 10,20,50% and your items will be down down down the list in an instant. 

[redlinear]

@zamo-zuan 
@blacktopautoparts 
  My Fitment, Guaranteed Fit, My Garage, Compatibilities.   
All of this works together for a Salvage Company with 4 million listings...and....related other salvage yards with millions more listings. 
You probably know more about how this works than I do.   I just assume you inventory a vehicle, take a few pics of the whole car, enter that info into your Yard Management System.   And going from there-to-eBay is pretty much automatic and almost instant.  (thanks to cooperation between organizations (eBay and Salvage Industry as a group).
 All of this was designed to make 20 millions listings as happy as possible (even if most of those listings never sell).  
   

[redlinear]

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@stainlessenginecovers wrote:

All it takes is some 'other' seller from 'another' country (or not) to UP their 'Promotion Percentage' to something ridiculous- 10,20,50% and your items will be down down down the list in an instant. 

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I don't "fully" agree with that.
I've tried ridiculous promotion %, across the board, an assortment of all items, without raising prices.
I've seen an instant, but minor uptick in sales.  But only for about a week.  Then back to what I consider normal.
At the end of 90 days, my daily average remains about the same as it was the previous 90.
And all throughout, I'll search for items I know I have, and have trouble finding them.

However,  I have found that promoting a single expensive item, while raising it's price to such an extent that shoppers have to click on it (just to see why it's SO expensive).  Does increase the speed of sales on other related items.
Basically, I'm using one item, and a high promotion %, as bait. 

[orientalstyle_au]

Exactly the same thing is happening with my promoted listings impressions. Over 20k impressions in late January, and now less than 5000 a day.

[dbfolks166mt]

     I have NEVER worried about impressions, views or watchers. The only thing that really matters is sales. There is NO way to prove that promoted listings does anything to improve/increase sales. It may jack up your impressions or views but it means nothing if the items do not sell. 

[dbfolks166mt]

All it takes is some 'other' seller from 'another' country (or not) to UP their 'Promotion Percentage' to something ridiculous- 10,20,50% and your items will be down down down the list in an instant. 

     That all depends on how an individual is executing the search. 

[dbfolks166mt]

@blacktopautoparts 
  I don't know when we got rid of hollander, been a while. (Wyse 50 terminals on dial-up is what we had)..LOL
During any poor economy, our sales always increased. eBay or no eBay.
Your listings look good.  Unlike most "big" salvage yards.  Which, explains your sales that I can see.
Most "quick list" salvage yards have thousands more listings, and they only sell one or two things a day.
Your sold listings % compared to the amount of listing you have running is really good.  That means you're doing your listings right.
We've noticed some really strange trends when it comes to sales and search.
My locations are dated.  If I list 30 items today, and put them all in one location?  At some point around 90ish days?  I'll get to work one morning and be pulling several un-related parts out of that one location to ship.   
It's not a coincidence either.   Every day most of my trips to pull parts for shipment, is going to one location.
I miss the old days. LOL 

     A lot of posters claim there are "strange" things with search or search is not working correctly but never provide any examples. The results you get back from a search are entirely dependent on the parameters that are used to execute it. 

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

@blacktopautoparts  I don't sell auto parts, so won't get into the sales issue itself. Just wanted to comment on this:

"It is a shame, they do not want to listen to any of us. I've also been on zoom calls with managers over at eBay Motors and it seems like you just get a pat on the head, that is all."

I agree 100%. ebay has a tremendous untapped resource: it's seller base. There are experienced , business savvy sellers here, and I have seen good advice given to ebay by many of them. And you are absolutely right: ebay ignores most of it, convinced that management always knows best.

Don't get me wrong. I've seen a lot of BAD advice given to ebay, too. So, yes, it would take some effort to sort the good from the bad. I've known people with small manufacturing businesses who have prospered by listening to the people who work on the factory floor, the people who actually DO the work. ebay would be so much better off if they would learn how to REALLY listen to their sellers.

[blacktopautoparts]

@dbfolks166mt we got rid of Hollander about 2-3 years ago if I can recall. We are just using their service for Powerlink.

I know, during a bad economy most of our categories are supposed to be flourishing, but some are not like we used to. Don't get me wrong, we are still getting sales as you can see, but they are not at the levels they used to be. We try really hard to picture and list our items to meet what eBay is looking for in a seller.

As many have mentioned, the search is weird and semi-broken on here. There are times I will place the same exact keywords on an item I am looking for here on eBay, we will get 2-3 different sets of results with each search. It is the oddest thing. I get to a point where its like, what in the world is going on here with this search.

Our sales trends have been odd of late. Two weeks ago, we had a week where one day was down in sales then the next was up, and the pattern just repeated itself for the whole week. Then last week our sales starting slowly climbing each day like a roller going up the tracks, then come Thursday we took a $1000 decline in sales from the day before. Then Friday/Saturday went back up, but nowhere near the numbers we should be at. As you can guys can see my numbers to a degree, they are out there, so nothing for me to hide.

@my-cottage-books-and-antiques 

I understand where you are coming from with them having sellers that know what they are talking about and ones that do not. That is where the whole vetting process comes in to make sure that the sellers are good and the information they are providing is not bad information. We have seen quite a bit of that around here.

I think one of the most intelligent sellers that I have had the pleasure speaking with is @zamo-zuan. He is so analytical and the way he breaks the information down is unmatched. Here is a good example, he has even spoken with eBay managers about the numbers and data, yet they end up ghosting him in the end.

Just like how they added all of these useless item specifics a few years ago to all of our categories. All this has done is muddy up the search. Customers are not looking for certain item specific data that they make it mandatory to fill out. They said they reached out to experts for this data. Here is an example, who in their right mind looks for measurements for an ECU/ECM (Electronic Control Module) which is the brain of the car. The most important information is getting the part numbers off of these, not the measurements of the ECU itself.