Promoted Listings Advanced

[katzrul15]

Have read thru this a couple of times.  

Will this mean that PLs as we know them now will essentially be worthless/not effective?

A little concerning as we use PLs quite a bit currently.  Not certain our budget can work for the PL Advanced or that I have a "daily" budget for PL Advanced?

Thoughts?  

How Promoted Listings AdvancedBETA works

Promoted Listings AdvancedBETA is based on a cost-per-click model. You start by deciding how much each keyword and click is worth to you. Next, you bid to target placements at the top of eBay search results. Top placements show your listings to buyers right when they’re looking for your items across all experiences on eBay, including desktop, mobile, and the eBay app.

With this new type of campaign, you’ll be able to:

• Bid for the top slot in search using keyword and budget controls, and pay per click.
• Select the keywords that matter to you.
• Set a daily budget for additional control.

To set up your first campaign, go to the Seller Hub Marketing tab. You can create a new campaign within the Advertising dashboard by following these simple steps:

1. Name your campaign.
2. Choose dates and a daily budget.
3. Name your Ad Group.
4. Add your listings and keywords to the Ad Group.
5. Select a maximum cost-per-click for the keywords, displayed as “CPC bids” in the tool.

Review your campaign after you complete these steps.

Top tips

• Use features like suggested keywords and bids to help you set up effective campaigns.
• Include high-quality listings in your campaign with complete and accurate item specifics and great photos for the best chance of gaining high visibility. In addition to your bid, factors including keyword relevancy, listing quality, competition, and daily budget determine whether your ad will appear in the number one position.
• Use the daily budget feature to manage your ad spend.

You can also use both Promoted Listings Standard and Advanced together to help achieve maximum visibility for your ad placements across the eBay network, and utilize both budget approaches for your ad spend.

Coming later this month—Promoted Listings AdvancedBETA

Starting at the end of this month, Promoted Listings AdvancedBETA will be available to all eligible Promoted Listings sellers. If you’re eligible, you’ll be able to opt in to Promoted Listings AdvancedBETA to start bidding for the highly coveted top spot in the search results, as soon as it’s accessible.

All existing Promoted Listings campaigns will automatically be renamed Promoted Listings Standard campaigns, without you having to do anything. The only changes will be to the name and attribution logic.

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

mr_lincoln,

PL Standard is , as we all know, really very simple. PL Advanced is not. That fact alone will (hopefully) keep some sellers away from it, because there are ebay sellers who would almost certainly do themselves more harm than good with something like this.  That said, there are also ebay sellers, especially multi channel sellers, who already use PPC campaigns elsewhere and understand how to use them successfully. And there are others who could benefit from this if they spend a little time to understand the details and develop a coherent strategy. 

I doubt we will hear much from them on this Board, because most of the people posting here tend to be smaller sellers, selling one offs and usually lower dollar items, and this sort of thing wouldn't be a good fit for them. (I include myself within that group).

As I've said before in this thread,  I think those who figure out how to use it to their advantage will benefit from this, but most of us will face little impact, negative or positive. It's another tool in the Seller Tool box, and some will be very glad to have it, but, after a while,most of us will probably forget its there LOL

[ittybitnot]

Categories that are "hot" will cost more for the clicks, then ones no one is looking at. More advertisers in that particular category? Cost per click goes up.

There are people who advertise with Google that are paying more than 20 dollars a click. 

@farmalljr 

Thank you for all your information on how a PPC program works.  Who or what determines how much the click will cost?  It is a transparent process?  or does one simply find out when their item is clicked and they get a charge?   

[nuclearomen]

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@ittybitnot wrote:

Categories that are "hot" will cost more for the clicks, then ones no one is looking at. More advertisers in that particular category? Cost per click goes up.

There are people who advertise with Google that are paying more than 20 dollars a click. 

@farmalljr 

Thank you for all your information on how a PPC program works.  Who or what determines how much the click will cost?  It is a transparent process?  or does one simply find out when their item is clicked and they get a charge?   

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cost is determined by seller and how much they budget for PLA listing. 

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

Promoted Listings Advanced BETA uses a cost-per-click model, a standard model used by other marketplaces, ecommerce platforms and digital publishers. In this model, sellers will pay a small fee each time an eBay shopper clicks on a promoted listing. 

With our sellers’ feedback in mind, we’ve also added more access around keyword control and budget planning for Promoted Listings Advanced BETA. Here’s how this new campaign works.

Keyword Control
Sellers can use our suggested keywords (search terms that we have determined to be relevant and likely to perform on eBay) or select their own. This keyword control gives sellers the ability to target their listings, reaching shoppers while they are actively searching for products the seller has listed (or ones just like them). 

Using an auction format, sellers will determine how much each click is worth to them. From there, they can bid on a keyword to “win” the auction, which is run every time a user does a search. 

Budget Planning
Promoted Listings Advanced BETA has a daily budget feature with which the seller controls how much they want to spend on a campaign per day. This level of control helps sellers manage their advertising investment and overall margins. Once a campaign hits its daily budget, charges are paused until the next day when the budget resets.

[farmalljr]

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@nuclearomen wrote:

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@ittybitnot wrote:

Categories that are "hot" will cost more for the clicks, then ones no one is looking at. More advertisers in that particular category? Cost per click goes up.

There are people who advertise with Google that are paying more than 20 dollars a click. 

@farmalljr 

Thank you for all your information on how a PPC program works.  Who or what determines how much the click will cost?  It is a transparent process?  or does one simply find out when their item is clicked and they get a charge?   

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cost is determined by seller and how much they budget for PLA listing. 

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While they may tell you that, and that is what you might want to believe, this is a bidding war for keywords. If you bid 10 cents and a competitor bids 15 cents a keyword, WHO do you think is getting shown? It isn't the 10 cent guy......  At least not until 15 cent guy's budget is exhausted. And that's not to say 10 cent guy isn't going to be paying for "clicks" they aren't getting anyway. Remember, the PPC model relies on the person offering the advertising, to be honest. Because there is nothing really stopping the ad agency (eBay) from charging both previously mentioned competitors. You may see a "report" that says you got X clicks, but there is nothing stopping them from "fudging" numbers. Items get clicks/views every day anyway. No way for sellers here to honestly know how many views, how many clicks, and what the source of the clicks are from. We rely on "reports" from eBay. 

I've already shared on the boards, more than once, I tracked clicks/views for a period of time. Those numbers on a particular day CHANGE, if you watch them closely. eBay can call it a "correction" or whatever they want. If the system were tracking things accurately and HONESTLY, they would never need "correcting". 

@ittybitnot 

While sellers may be setting their own price by "bidding", preference will be given to those who bid HIGHEST.  Remember, this is just starting (beta). All PPC in other established places pretty much name their price. So while eBay not not say a click costs X, if you want clicks, you will need to be top bidder.  Other PPC places have a "suggested" budget/per click price. I'm sure PLA's will too. 

[ittybitnot]

cost is determined by seller and how much they budget for PLA listing. 

@nuclearomen 

Thank you.  I can see that I am still entirely too dense for this discussion.  Going to study up on the net  more and continue to observe.  I am sure there are some 'pay per click for dummies' informational articles out there somewhere...... 

[Anonymous]

Ebay is  copying a google adsense type of system.   This type of system only benefits the company and not the advertiser, as you are paying for CLICK, not sale.   That is most important, because if you read the community forums, you'll come to realize ebay is the Global leader in marketplace fraud, so you know what you can do to your competitors now?   Keep clicking their promoted listing.  Since they are paying by the click and not by the sale, it's easy to get them charged for fake clicks.    Even if people aren't committing click fraud against you (which is very easy to do, especially with proxies/vpns), you're still paying for people to view your listing and not for sales.

This is a way for the scum that run ebay to charge you more money to sell less while investing none of that money in support or anti fraud measures.     They know that most sellers aren't versed in how to optimize an adsense type advertising campaign so Ebay is going to rake in the cash on people struggling to get sales.   This is because buyers are leaving Ebay's fraud ridden marketplace, they underearned in q2, and lost 2% of their buyers. 

It may be time to leave this sinking ship, and just for fun, fire a few torpedoes at it while you're at a safe distance.   There is no website in human history that has treated sellers worse than Ebay. 

[div_style]

For those of us who are selling low-priced collectible items I doubt that PLA will have any impact at all.  I'll continue PLS at very low percentages.  A lot of my items are sold by PLS and I doubt that will change.  I mean, who would risk money on PLA to try to sell a $10 or less item?

[katzrul15]

It is concerning as @farmalljr shared previously that a Seller will need a true level of transparency for this to to be viable to Sellers overall.

I use PLs now and have no idea if it sold, if it was because it was purchased due to the e-Bay PL promotion or if it was picked up by Google or by some other search, etc.  The last 2 months, it states all of my sales were PLs, but I do not have 100% of my listings in a PL campaign and honestly, it is hard to keep track which ones you do, etc.  As a Seller, I take e-bay's word for it.

If we were do the PPC (pay per click) with PLA, it would be concerning if the clicks could be eaten up by your competition/heavily reduced, etc.  Is there a way to tell "unique" clicks?  I am guessing not.  

Concern is still that this "beta" phase will create issues for the PL users that are relegated to the "standard" version, if for no other reason, the inability to create a listing algorithm tied to our own sales that make sense for the PPC version/and or budget.  I would really need to spend time better understanding my traffic, average clicks per product item by category to secure a sale.  I know Velvet indicated there will be reports/data available - but is that as we are using it or to help us determine how best to utilize it and if it is viable for us as a tool for selling?

A lot to consider, for sure.

[farmalljr]

It's not just eBay sellers who don't understand PPC, even large companies that advertise on Google don't. Many don't know how to use negative keywords. I can't tell you how many times I type a company name in Google search bar and the FIRST link is a paid click link. When you are advertising on Google, you NEVER want to NOT put your company name on the negative keywords list.  People are lazy and click the first link relevant to their search. Takes a real bird brain to not realize lots of people search that way for a website, and if you don't add your company name to the Neg list, you are paying for clicks you would get organically. 

Loads of mistakes are going to be made with PLA's here, by sellers who decide to waste money doing PPC advertising. There already exist key things to do, to maximize sales here. PPC will benefit no one but eBay. On one hand, it's kinda funny. Because there will be sellers that run themselves out of business blowing advertising dollars wastefully. On the other, not funny, because this just further shows what a money grab this is and how eBay will do anything in their power to take seller's profits, at any cost. That anyone here is even considering it that isn't doing 500k+ in sales, just shows the adage about a fool and their money. 

Pretty sure most people here can't tell you the difference between branding and marketing. I've seen plenty of small businesses go under trying to "brand" rather than market. 

I digress... There is this much about it. I'm sure lots of people will blow money doing this PPC, and then they will come to the boards screaming how they got screwed. 

[katzrul15]

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@div_style wrote:

For those of us who are selling low-priced collectible items I doubt that PLA will have any impact at all.  I'll continue PLS at very low percentages.  A lot of my items are sold by PLS and I doubt that will change.  I mean, who would risk money on PLA to try to sell a $10 or less item?

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Except I do not sell $10 items.  And in certain target categories, for us, if used properly, could work really well.

[katzrul15]

@farmalljr 

@nuclearomen 

Have really appreciated your posts and insights, especially on the current PL landscape, etc.

I need to take a look at my current PL campaigns and devote additional time to determining if those need to be tweaked, changed, deleted, discarded, etc.   When my PL campaign flat-lines, my sales do also.  It is interesting to hear other Sellers say they "never" use PLs, never will, etc and do just fine.  My ad fees from PLs is not cheap each month and I do budget for it, but I would sure like for that to be less $$ spent or eliminated all together.  It can be salty on top of the FVFs, Store fee, etc.  thanks, again! 

[anytime-buys-official]

Selling on eBay can be a challenging task. In order to sell significantly well you need to strike a chord with the buyers and reflect that your product’s quality is good.

Key ingredients for eBay store optimization:

Proper product title, subtitle and product description
Alluring product images
Suitable product categorization
Mobile optimization
Reviews

If you are a seller on eBay and want to stay ahead of your competitors, keep in mind that creating visibility is not the only thing you should aim for.

Good luck with your eBay optimization!

[nuclearomen]

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@katzrul15 wrote:

@farmalljr 

@nuclearomen 

Have really appreciated your posts and insights, especially on the current PL landscape, etc.

I need to take a look at my current PL campaigns and devote additional time to determining if those need to be tweaked, changed, deleted, discarded, etc.   When my PL campaign flat-lines, my sales do also.  It is interesting to hear other Sellers say they "never" use PLs, never will, etc and do just fine.  My ad fees from PLs is not cheap each month and I do budget for it, but I would sure like for that to be less $$ spent or eliminated all together.  It can be salty on top of the FVFs, Store fee, etc.  thanks, again! 

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PLS is pretty baseline, but isn't worth investing high percentage rates. The items won't sell better. What ebay has done with PLS and performance of a campaign impressions is gone back to the old method of general ebay selling that the more items you add (as in on daily bases) the better your impressions will be...the days you don't add items you will see slight drop of impressions... go several days that drop will be quite noticeable.  Go a week and it's time to end campaign and start a new once your adding items again... been through this over and over since previous seller update when made changes to PLS. I also don't promote my popular items... a lot of people think you should where reality is you don't, the listing sold count is what is doing the selling for you and auto ranks you higher on search anyways. 1-2% election rate is something most people can afford to give in their profit margin and give items a bit of a boost...the key is low election rate and the benefit is not search spot, it's filling one row of promoted listings on your own listings with your own stuff instead everything being others sellers stuff...provided those items are in the same category...selling a lot in the same category and promoting them PLS helps fill those slots. 

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

 "And in certain target categories, for us, if used properly, could work really well."

And I think that sums it up pretty well. This isn't a tool for everyone, it isn't a tool for every category and price point, but for certain sellers with certain merchandise, it could , as you say, "work really well." And, as nuclearomen noted early in this thread, they key to success will be learning how best to use it and developing a strategy. Yes, it is more complicated than PLS , but once you get past the initial learning curve, I suspect it won't seem all that complicated...and if the ROI is good, it will be worth it.

If you do decide to try it, I'm sure we'd all like to hear the results....