Promoted Listings Dynamic Rate Minimum Now 5% - Check Your General Campaigns!

[valueaddedresource]

Apparently eBay has decided to react to investor concerns about weak Q4 revenue guidance by quietly ratcheting up the minimum for Promoted Listings General Dynamic Ads to 5%. 😡

Still shows a minimum of 2% for fixed rate

But the Dynamic ad rate cap is now a minimum of 5%

Not sure how that is impacting existing campaigns with a cap below 5% but my guess is those ads just may not be delivering at this time. I'd suggest checking your campaigns and ad reports if you have it set below 5% to see if/when performance may have been impacted.

I also suspect it's not a coincidence we are seeing more and more reports around here of those suggested rates ramping up, sometimes over 20%.

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/eBay-s-not-shy/m-p/34762314/highlight/true#M2481231

devon@ebay  kyle@ebay elizabeth@ebay  - can you find out more information on this for us please, like when it started and why sellers weren't proactively informed? Or on the extremely off chance it's a glitch and not an intentional change, please report it to the appropriate teams. Thanks!

[mcdougle4248]

@valueaddedresource 

Will do. I am keeping a close eye on the ad rates...like I do not have anything better to do lol

[valueaddedresource]

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@mcdougle4248 wrote:

@valueaddedresource 

Will do. I am keeping a close eye on the ad rates...like I do not have anything better to do lol

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@mcdougle4248 right, it's not like this is your prime selling season or anything huh? lol

It will just never, ever make sense to me how or why eBay thinks it is acceptable to do things like this with no announcement at any of time year, but especially right now.

And while it's obviously an especially terrible thing to do to sellers, if Jamie and CFO Steve Priest don't disclose what % of any (presumed) Q4 ad revenue growth was driven by these shady tactics on the next earnings call...I hope some shareholders might give the SEC an earful about that too.

[valueaddedresource]

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@mcdougle4248 wrote:

@valueaddedresource 

There is something wonky going on with my Dynamic campaign. I first noticed it a few days ago.

I have my Dynamic campaign set with a 12% ad rate cap + a 2% ad rate modifier. The listing I highlighted in the screenshot below has a 3.6% suggested rate for today. So, if the 2% ad rate modifier was applied correctly today's ad rate should be 5.6%, not 12%. I am not sure if this is a display issue as the listings that show up incorrectly are not the same listings every day. 

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devon@ebay  kyle@ebay  elizabeth@ebay  can you get this issue @mcdougle4248 is showing escalated to the appropriate ads and technical teams please?

Apart from the other issues brought up in this thread, this one is clearly not how Promoted Listings General Dynamic ad rates are supposed to work.

[mcdougle4248]

@valueaddedresource  kyle@ebay  elizabeth@ebay 

The previously shared listing has now been corrected/updated on the Advertising dashboard page.  As of this morning, I am not seeing any new discrepancies, but I am closely monitoring my campaign.

[valueaddedresource]

devon@ebay  Seriously, eBay thinks they can just go in, stealth edit that policy page to remove any reference to a "bid range" and it's all cool?

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/ebay-advertising/promoted-listings/priority-campaign-strategy?id=5...

This is absolutely reprehensible behavior as it clearly proves eBay is aware of the issue and chose to simply try to sweep it under the rug without so much as an acknowledgment of the edit on the policy page or the courtesy of an answer to this thread.

Luckily, we have the Internet Archive Wayback Machine.

https://web.archive.org/web/20241115180726/https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/ebay-advertising/promot... 

And so we're perfectly clear - just because it's been edited does not in any way negate the fact this is a predatory hidden junk fee.

eBay should be absolutely ashamed of themselves and never insult sellers' intelligence again by claiming to be their "partner" or that eBay only wins when sellers win.

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

Trust is SO important, yet ebay management has made the decision to drastically reduce what little trust many sellers still have in ebay. If I were a shareholder, I would be deeply concerned, because these continued missteps are not going to end well for ebay.

Someone really needs to tell ebay that its PR person might be able to keep positive stories in the conventional "news" via press releases, etc. But ebay is losing the battle badly on Facebook, on You Tube and IG, on Reddit, etc....those are the places that matter. 

[valueaddedresource]

@my-cottage-books-and-antiques well said! 👏

Can you imagine the headlines that would be running in several major mainstream media outlets right now if it was discovered that Amazon jacked up minimum ad rates 10X with no notice to sellers 2 weeks before Black Friday or right before Prime Day?

But eBay knows they won't get the same scrutiny as Amazon from the media and Lina Khan and others high up at FTC have deep financial and ideological ties to eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, including Omidyar Network literally underwriting the "hipster antitrust movement" that is the basis of the FTC's case against Amazon, so while I still highly encourage sellers to report this predatory price gouging...I'm also not holding my breath. 😞

[valueaddedresource]

I'm just going to leave this here as well:

https://www.ebayinc.com/company/code-of-business-conduct-ethics/#empower-our-community

[vintagecraze50]

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@dolcetreasures wrote:

This website is completely floundering. 

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No, not for them if they continue to scrape more from the promoted listings. It is one of their PRIMARY sources of income.

[vintagecraze50]

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@vintagecraze50 wrote:

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@dolcetreasures wrote:

This website is completely floundering. 

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No, not for them if they continue to scrape more from the promoted listings. It is one of their PRIMARY sources of income.

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It makes up for the LOSS of customers on here overall. The internet is a fiercely competitive playground saturated with all sorts of choices fro buyers. 

[vintagecraze50]

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@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:

@valueaddedresource 

Absolutely disgraceful. This should have been part of the October Seller Update. There is NO excuse for not including this in the Update. Even if this is only a test, it should have been announced.  

Almost 30 years, and this company STILL does not understand the importance of transparency and seller engagement.

As to the change itself, it reeks of desperation. I've said it before, ebay has become an adoholic, and that might keep them stay afloat short term, but it is not a long term solution, and the sooner they realize that, the better.

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Cottage, why would ebay even want to discuss a price increase with us. YOU think that would be met with a sea of hurrahs and back slaps. I think not. Go with the flow until it stops flowing. LOL!

[vintagecraze50]

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@valueaddedresource wrote:

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@dolcetreasures wrote:

This website is completely floundering. 

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@dolcetreasures yep....as @my-cottage-books-and-antiques said, the desperation is on full display. 😞 

Maybe sellers should join together for a 30 day no promoted listings sobriety solidarity challenge to support eBay in getting clean and beating their adoholism problem.

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THAT’S FUNNY. I am a mental health counselor I can help. PromotaPhobia. Newest addition to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of ebay disorders.

[vintagecraze50]

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@vintagecraze50 wrote:

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@vintagecraze50 wrote:

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@dolcetreasures wrote:

This website is completely floundering. 

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No, not for them if they continue to scrape more from the promoted listings. It is one of their PRIMARY sources of income.

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It makes up for the LOSS of customers on here overall. The internet is a fiercely competitive playground saturated with all sorts of choices fro buyers. 

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They need a BRING THE CUSTOMERS BACK PROMOTION.

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

@vintagecraze50 

Why would ebay "discuss" it with us?

ebay has never "discussed" price increases with us LOL I wouldn't expect them to start now.

This is about having the integrity to merely INFORM us of the change in a way that is designed to actually INFORM....not to hide these changes. I'm not one to talk about "class action" suits and so forth, but it is possible ebay might even be in violation of some laws or regulations here. 

I'm frankly a little gobsmacked that you are brushing this off so easily. ebay knows the change will be unpopular, so of course ebay is going to hide it, because they don't want to deal with angry sellers? You really feel that because it is an unpopular decision, ebay is justified in trying to conceal it? 

ebay is a business. They sometimes make unpopular decisions. Standing up and taking the criticism for those decisions is what companies with integrity do. It is the very least we should expect from our "partner" (a word they use when it suits them, a word they avoid when it doesn't)

[valueaddedresource]

@my-cottage-books-and-antiques  there is precedent as well - I'm sure they didn't really want to deal with the backlash when they went from 1% to 2% either but yet they did at least send out an email notice to sellers about it.

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Promoted-Listings-Standard-Ad-Rate-Minimum-Increasing-1-to-2/m...