@aqeeqsouq wrote:
@meme6253 wrote:That's How It Is Suppose To Be, But I Don't Know For Sure If That Is How It's Handled??
I think you're right.
Last year (exactly on May 2021), I noticed that some of my listings labeled as "Sponsored" at my store which not supposed to be (watch the photos down below), the "Sponsored" listings should not appearing at store.
I talked with ebay and asked them why some of my listings labeled as "Sponsored" at my store, i even attached my email message with screenshot photos as proof, next day they replied "I reviewed your eBay store for the promoted listing visible in the screen shot that you shared and i did not find options to promote ."
So after i checked ebay's message, The "Sponsored" labels disappeared from my listings at my store.
@aqeeqsouq I know a few other people experienced that exact same thing back in that timeframe too.
eBay staff eventually said it was an "intermittent glitch" and supposedly credited the ad fees but I think more than a few people wondered if it had perhaps been a test that turned into a "glitch" after seller pushback.
https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Sponsored-Listings-within-Stores/m-p/31817548
@nuclearomen wrote:
@zamo-zuan wrote:I would disagree that it's "fair because eBay search is being used to find the item", because if you're searching by eBay ID, the promotion features are NOT showing in the search. It's not comparing any listings promoted vs non-promoted, and there's only a SINGLE impression. How could the promotion systems even be active if there's no comparison of organic vs promoted?
not sure i get you here, already know that searching with item # DOES return results with the Sponsored listings as well as the normal, organic listing... sometimes both, sometimes just normal, sometimes just promoted... that's all up to ebay what they show and at what times, for what member. Impression...what would it matter? An impression isn't a click, and the system counts impressions as click away.
This has not been the behavior for us for a long time, as I've reported in the past, ever since they updated traffic earlier this year it's 100% of the time Sponsored for us:
In regards to whether the Promotion is doing it's job, I still stand by what I had mentioned in my thread. If it is not giving this listing in the screenshot above superior placement against any other listing, and it's not measuring any of the advertisement rankings (or even measuring the organic ranking since it is a direct eBay Item ID search) it's not granting us any of the benefits of a Promoted Listing. They're simply getting a fee for an Item ID lookup.
"...just as we have said, and @valueaddedresource even shown a screen of it on the first page of this thread... search can show both, or one or the other, that's entirely up to ebay and that is what the search is suppose to do. Though I understand what your saying, that the result is more then likely to show the "sponsored" listing above the normal because ebay makes more... but then that argument will then become, if one doesn't like it why did they enter into PLs? "
You can see in that screenshot that it's as I had said, 100% of the time Promoted. It's not a "sometimes" thing, and that's the poiny.
If we don't like it, why enter PL? Because as I've shown, > 80% of our traffic is reliant on it, and as I've posted on here in the past, even our ORGANIC traffic drops if we don't invest. We're strong-armed in to investment if we don't even get organic traffic without it.
But this stresses the exact issue: By definition Organic traffic shouldn't be altered by Promoted investment. EBay is going against the definition of Organic. And for them to claim an item is being "Promoted" when it's literally the only search result in a direct search is also against the definition of Promoted.
I mean, look up the definition of the word Promoted, it doesn't fit when it's an Item ID lookup.
Regarding the end, I'm not sure that I was understood correctly. I know the Item ID is the same whether PL or Organic. But by eBay's own definition, they say you'll only get charged for a PL if you were shown a PL and then Clicked it - meaning you clicked on the actual Promoted listing. But how about testing if this is truly the case? As it seems as if it's being based upon if you were SHOWN a PL and then purchased - and NOT related to if that PL was actually clicked.
And the Purchase History comment is because it's been reported that customers would purchase an item organically. Then they go through their purchase history to purchase the item again - it's now being sold as Promoted purchase. Meaning it's giving the same behavior in a buyers Purchase History as a direct ItemID lookup (which in our case, is 100% of the time Promoted).
@zamo-zuan wrote:
@nuclearomen wrote:
@zamo-zuan wrote:I would disagree that it's "fair because eBay search is being used to find the item", because if you're searching by eBay ID, the promotion features are NOT showing in the search. It's not comparing any listings promoted vs non-promoted, and there's only a SINGLE impression. How could the promotion systems even be active if there's no comparison of organic vs promoted?
not sure i get you here, already know that searching with item # DOES return results with the Sponsored listings as well as the normal, organic listing... sometimes both, sometimes just normal, sometimes just promoted... that's all up to ebay what they show and at what times, for what member. Impression...what would it matter? An impression isn't a click, and the system counts impressions as click away.
This has not been the behavior for us for a long time, as I've reported in the past, ever since they updated traffic earlier this year it's 100% of the time Sponsored for us:
In regards to whether the Promotion is doing it's job, I still stand by what I had mentioned in my thread. If it is not giving this listing in the screenshot above superior placement against any other listing, and it's not measuring any of the advertisement rankings (or even measuring the organic ranking since it is a direct eBay Item ID search) it's not granting us any of the benefits of a Promoted Listing. They're simply getting a fee for an Item ID lookup.
"...just as we have said, and @valueaddedresource even shown a screen of it on the first page of this thread... search can show both, or one or the other, that's entirely up to ebay and that is what the search is suppose to do. Though I understand what your saying, that the result is more then likely to show the "sponsored" listing above the normal because ebay makes more... but then that argument will then become, if one doesn't like it why did they enter into PLs? "
You can see in that screenshot that it's as I had said, 100% of the time Promoted. It's not a "sometimes" thing, and that's the poiny.
@zamo-zuan @nuclearomen - just to add to this for clarity - when I said eBay can show either the promoted or organic for any search, that was just a general comment on what eBay may do per the terms of PL and how it's implemented.
That being said, every time in the last few months that I have tested doing a direct item number search for something I know is in a PL campaign, it has always come up as the Promoted version both for Zamo-zuan's products and other sellers I've checked on.
Hardly a scientific test, I know, and obviously my results may not be the same as what everyone else is seeing. Maybe I'm just getting the luck of the draw and hitting Promoted every time but either way, I can confirm at least in my experience it is a significant issue for Best Match...and many buyers wouldn't bother to sort by any other option when they are looking for a specific listing # and are shown that listing in the default Best Match sort.
@zamo-zuan wrote:
@nuclearomen wrote:
@zamo-zuan wrote:I would disagree that it's "fair because eBay search is being used to find the item", because if you're searching by eBay ID, the promotion features are NOT showing in the search. It's not comparing any listings promoted vs non-promoted, and there's only a SINGLE impression. How could the promotion systems even be active if there's no comparison of organic vs promoted?
not sure i get you here, already know that searching with item # DOES return results with the Sponsored listings as well as the normal, organic listing... sometimes both, sometimes just normal, sometimes just promoted... that's all up to ebay what they show and at what times, for what member. Impression...what would it matter? An impression isn't a click, and the system counts impressions as click away.
This has not been the behavior for us for a long time, as I've reported in the past, ever since they updated traffic earlier this year it's 100% of the time Sponsored for us:
In regards to whether the Promotion is doing it's job, I still stand by what I had mentioned in my thread. If it is not giving this listing in the screenshot above superior placement against any other listing, and it's not measuring any of the advertisement rankings (or even measuring the organic ranking since it is a direct eBay Item ID search) it's not granting us any of the benefits of a Promoted Listing. They're simply getting a fee for an Item ID lookup.
"...just as we have said, and @valueaddedresource even shown a screen of it on the first page of this thread... search can show both, or one or the other, that's entirely up to ebay and that is what the search is suppose to do. Though I understand what your saying, that the result is more then likely to show the "sponsored" listing above the normal because ebay makes more... but then that argument will then become, if one doesn't like it why did they enter into PLs? "
You can see in that screenshot that it's as I had said, 100% of the time Promoted. It's not a "sometimes" thing, and that's the poiny.
If we don't like it, why enter PL? Because as I've shown, > 80% of our traffic is reliant on it, and as I've posted on here in the past, even our ORGANIC traffic drops if we don't invest. We're strong-armed in to investment if we don't even get organic traffic without it.
But this stresses the exact issue: By definition Organic traffic shouldn't be altered by Promoted investment. EBay is going against the definition of Organic. And for them to claim an item is being "Promoted" when it's literally the only search result in a direct search is also against the definition of Promoted.
I mean, look up the definition of the word Promoted, it doesn't fit when it's an Item ID lookup.
Regarding the end, I'm not sure that I was understood correctly. I know the Item ID is the same whether PL or Organic. But by eBay's own definition, they say you'll only get charged for a PL if you were shown a PL and then Clicked it - meaning you clicked on the actual Promoted listing. But how about testing if this is truly the case? As it seems as if it's being based upon if you were SHOWN a PL and then purchased - and NOT related to if that PL was actually clicked.
And the Purchase History comment is because it's been reported that customers would purchase an item organically. Then they go through their purchase history to purchase the item again - it's now being sold as Promoted purchase. Meaning it's giving the same behavior in a buyers Purchase History as a direct ItemID lookup (which in our case, is 100% of the time Promoted).
@zamo-zuan OK, i see what you meant now, I misunderstood some of what said before.
I have seen both with item ID, sponsored and normal, but perhaps this is happening on items not entered into a PL when you only get shown the normal? It's harder to test it on your own items as ebay told me even logged out and in incognito window they still register your ISP and you will always see your listings.
That's what i meant, is if they are changing for PL being shown when type in item ID and not clicked, or if was clicked? What I meant was because the normal and the PL have the same item# how do we know, this is something ebay should change because their trust factor here is pretty low with most sellers... and would mean they owe a TON back to sellers if those Sponsored listings were never clicked just shown in results.
Yep, it's been this way since July. As long as the item is in a promo, 100% of the time it shows only the promo ad when searched by eBay ID. Alongside the issues people were having with Purchase History views counting as promoted.
Also, I've heard some people have reported items being marked as promo which were not promoted, although full disclosure, I hadn't seen that myself.
But yeah, eBay has made it hard to prove with the lack of transparency (especially since they take action against people who coordinate purchases) but you can tell something is up if you research the numbers yourself:
The alleged conversion rates for Promotions are astronomical for eBay, especially in our category. We've been 2.5%-3.5% depending on season for years. The promoted numbers simply don't add up unless there's something else going on. And they suddenly shot up this year around the same time of year (July) to where approximately 2/3 purchases are Promo when it had been 50/50 or 40 promo/60 organic prior for over a year.
