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!

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

@valueaddedresource  Exactly. And sellers DESERVE notice. It's a basic sort of thing. But we're seeing too much of this "just slip it in there and hope they don't notice" sort of thing, which demonstrates enormous disrespect for the seller base. These increases? We can do nothing about them. We can complain, but they will be what they are. And we WILL adapt. That's what ebay sellers do. 

My complaint is not so much the increases themselves. (not that I'm happy about them)  It's the NONDISCLOSURE that is THE issue in my mind. And to simply ignore these changes at the Seller Check In, when they had the opportunity to rectify this and announce the changes? Or announce them in the recent October Update?

The lack of announcement is INEXCUSABLE. And I fear this is just the beginning. Once ebay realizes that they can get away with this, that some sellers will even make excuses for this behavior, we'll just see more and more of this, with sellers being completely blindsided by changes designed to increase ebay's revenue at our expense.

I have ALWAYS advised sellers to keep up with Announcements, to attend Check Ins, etc.....to being informed, so that they don't end up coming here and asking : "Since when did ebay start charging a fee on sales tax?"  But that advice is worth much less now, because ebay is PROVING it doesn't matter all that much....because it is impossible to stay informed through those channels about changes that are not announced. 

Changes like this are like landmines for unwary sellers.

[jupiter_collectibles]

This just proves that eBay is in desperation mode. It does nothing to help sellers and buyers. It only benefits eBay's bottom Dollar. It's truly sad and pathetic especially in Q4. Just when you think things couldn't get any worse eBay pulls something like this. The writing is on the wall for this company. It's time to abandon ship. It's truly sad because eBay used to be a viable platform to make money on selling items you no longer needed. People cannot afford to give eBay 40% of their profit while having to source the item and ship it... 

[zamo-zuan]

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@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:

@valueaddedresource  Exactly. And sellers DESERVE notice. It's a basic sort of thing. But we're seeing too much of this "just slip it in there and hope they don't notice" sort of thing, which demonstrates enormous disrespect for the seller base. These increases? We can do nothing about them. We can complain, but they will be what they are. And we WILL adapt. That's what ebay sellers do. 

My complaint is not so much the increases themselves. (not that I'm happy about them)  It's the NONDISCLOSURE that is THE issue in my mind. And to simply ignore these changes at the Seller Check In, when they had the opportunity to rectify this and announce the changes? Or announce them in the recent October Update?

The lack of announcement is INEXCUSABLE. And I fear this is just the beginning. Once ebay realizes that they can get away with this, that some sellers will even make excuses for this behavior, we'll just see more and more of this, with sellers being completely blindsided by changes designed to increase ebay's revenue at our expense.

I have ALWAYS advised sellers to keep up with Announcements, to attend Check Ins, etc.....to being informed, so that they don't end up coming here and asking : "Since when did ebay start charging a fee on sales tax?"  But that advice is worth much less now, because ebay is PROVING it doesn't matter all that much....because it is impossible to stay informed through those channels about changes that are not announced. 

Changes like this are like landmines for unwary sellers.

---

Honestly, eBay has been doing this type of thing for years, what we're seeing now is the results of them already feeling like they could get away with what they want. 

I can think back to I believe it was 2016-2017, when they sent an announcement to all sellers that MPN enforcement was going to become a thing at the end of the year, and they will have a tool in summer to prepare our listings. Then they sent out a 2nd email, "We heard you" - MPN requirement enforcement will be delayed another year. Then in June, we suddenly had THOUSANDS of listings taken down for not having an MPN! We worked with eBay supervisors and confirmed what happened. Then to pour salt on the wound? They sent out an email: "In July we will begin enforcing MPN requirements" - without any tools to assist with moving to the new requirement - and after saying they would NOT begin it for another year - but in reality they started it in JUNE before they even made the announcement that it would indeed be happening SOONER than they ever announced!

A number of staff members we worked with had confirmed with us that the listings being taken down harmed our sales history and had done PERMANENT damage to our traffic/impressions that we had never recovered from. I still have graphs somewhere when they sent as evidence of this.

Then in 2020 I had reported issues with our promotions - https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Potential-problem-with-Promoted-Listings-impressions/td-p/3121... - replied from eBay - https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Potential-problem-with-Promoted-Listings-impressions/m-p/31218...

They were doing an UNANNOUNCED TEST that only affected SOME sellers, and literally crashed our impressions. Which is outrageous, as they were testing on the LIVE site which is not only unfair in terms of competition, but could ruin the livelihoods of businesses.

Turns out this "test" was for increasing the minimum PL investment from 1% to 2% - which went active for everyone 1 year later.

In other words, they have been "unannounced testing" features up to a year in advance and targeting ONLY CERTAIN SELLERS. Imagine all the people out there who didn't figure out what was happening and got stuck with the massive drop in impressions & no reason as to why?

This also explains why the sudden drops only affect some sellers on here, and not everyone. The worst part being that the changes are UNANNOUNCED - if we knew we had to invest more in promotions ahead of time we could have.

Question is, how many times has this happened undiscovered?

And I won't even bother venturing in to the subject of eBay's secret agreements with different sellers, including the when they provided "Fulfilled by eBay" for international sellers, all while advertising "eBay doesn't have warehouses nor sell our own products" when they essentially are with these secret agreements and terms that are unfair for the rest of the sellers competing with those sellers that eBay has invested in. 

So this is nothing new for eBay, the only difference now is it's blatant for everyone to see. But we've had to deal with these eBay "secrets" damaging our business for many years now.

[vintagecraze50]

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@tradewindsfolkart wrote:

And the most disturbing part is, that although I participate in all of the ad campaigns and was running any where from fixed 2% to dynamic with 2  to 4% caps and even dabbled in CPC, with decent exposure, the only items I EVER did or will promote at 5% plus 12.5% final value fees plus store fees, plus all these fees on my very heavy DIM ship items and tax, would be items I want to clear because they might be a poor performer.  And  that is exactly what is now rising to the top of the eBay main page... junk that people are trying to clear out and willing to forfeit approx 20-40% of their margin to get rid of.  This is NOT a good model to attract new buyers to eBay.   If I was a brand new buyer on eBay.. I would click off in one minute after viewing the first garage sale page of many, many junk promoted clearance items placed on top of some relevent good ones. The first page of competitors such as Etsy, Wayfair and Amazon, for now, have far more vibrant and relevant first page results.  And most small sellers NEVER will or can afford to pay a minimum of $5/day to get on Google or other offsite ad spots.  I feel that the LEAST eBay can do is advertise for some small business sellers on Google based solely on our 12.5% final value fees and store fees and our own listing quality, SEO and click through rate.  After all, we spend countless hours on SEO for that purpose and eBay's benefit and we are rewarded as sellers with barely a drop of offsite visibility unless we pay even more for offsite ad campaigns. Maybe a new business model such as this for "small sellers" would attract back all the sellers that have left (and thus new deal seeking buyers as well to increase GMV).  Or how about.. if we are not going to abandon the ad models, if you buy a store subscription, 100% of the subscription fee gets credited to your offsite ad budget, and for every offsite sale you land, 1% of your final value fee gets credited back to your offsite ad buget.  After all, your great SEO brought that buyer to eBay.  That would entice offsite participation.   Amazing how eBay functioned as the leader for 30 years before any ad campaigns at all.  Small sellers under $100k sales ABSOLUTELY DO NOT HAVE AN AD BUDGET that can compete with Temu offsite.  Ebay must understand this as they are driving their sellers right off their platform to try to save their margins on platforms like Shopify, Mercari, and eBay UK now and many more that will pop up that are happy with a business model that collects solely store fees and payment processing fees, or pushes those fees to a buyer consumption model.  But one thing FOR SURE we sellers cannot do is raise prices any higher to cover  all these fees and campaigns.  The buyer is tapped out!  Do we have to wait for a retail apocalyptic crash to prove it?  or wait...that is already happening.

---

YEP I NOTICE THE junk that at times dominates the search because the people selling the junk have HAD THE JUNK for years and not paying the current prices to obtain it. I call it the grandma’s attic folks. Not only do I see the junk items but the sellers with the junk pictures, and only 1 picture and you don’t know what the heck you are buying. ALL because they PROMOTED IT AT 600 PERCENT. you know grandma with her fingers with a 500 dollar ring. Looks REALLY REALLY BAD, lIKE SOMEONE IS GOING TO SPEND THAT MUCH WITH A PRESENTATION LIKE THAT. Lol!

[vintagecraze50]

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@vintagecraze50 wrote:

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@tradewindsfolkart wrote:

And the most disturbing part is, that although I participate in all of the ad campaigns and was running any where from fixed 2% to dynamic with 2  to 4% caps and even dabbled in CPC, with decent exposure, the only items I EVER did or will promote at 5% plus 12.5% final value fees plus store fees, plus all these fees on my very heavy DIM ship items and tax, would be items I want to clear because they might be a poor performer.  And  that is exactly what is now rising to the top of the eBay main page... junk that people are trying to clear out and willing to forfeit approx 20-40% of their margin to get rid of.  This is NOT a good model to attract new buyers to eBay.   If I was a brand new buyer on eBay.. I would click off in one minute after viewing the first garage sale page of many, many junk promoted clearance items placed on top of some relevent good ones. The first page of competitors such as Etsy, Wayfair and Amazon, for now, have far more vibrant and relevant first page results.  And most small sellers NEVER will or can afford to pay a minimum of $5/day to get on Google or other offsite ad spots.  I feel that the LEAST eBay can do is advertise for some small business sellers on Google based solely on our 12.5% final value fees and store fees and our own listing quality, SEO and click through rate.  After all, we spend countless hours on SEO for that purpose and eBay's benefit and we are rewarded as sellers with barely a drop of offsite visibility unless we pay even more for offsite ad campaigns. Maybe a new business model such as this for "small sellers" would attract back all the sellers that have left (and thus new deal seeking buyers as well to increase GMV).  Or how about.. if we are not going to abandon the ad models, if you buy a store subscription, 100% of the subscription fee gets credited to your offsite ad budget, and for every offsite sale you land, 1% of your final value fee gets credited back to your offsite ad buget.  After all, your great SEO brought that buyer to eBay.  That would entice offsite participation.   Amazing how eBay functioned as the leader for 30 years before any ad campaigns at all.  Small sellers under $100k sales ABSOLUTELY DO NOT HAVE AN AD BUDGET that can compete with Temu offsite.  Ebay must understand this as they are driving their sellers right off their platform to try to save their margins on platforms like Shopify, Mercari, and eBay UK now and many more that will pop up that are happy with a business model that collects solely store fees and payment processing fees, or pushes those fees to a buyer consumption model.  But one thing FOR SURE we sellers cannot do is raise prices any higher to cover  all these fees and campaigns.  The buyer is tapped out!  Do we have to wait for a retail apocalyptic crash to prove it?  or wait...that is already happening.

---

YEP I NOTICE THE junk that at times dominates the search because the people selling the junk have HAD THE JUNK for years and not paying the current prices to obtain it. I call it the grandma’s attic folks. Not only do I see the junk items but the sellers with the junk pictures, and only 1 picture and you don’t know what the heck you are buying. ALL because they PROMOTED IT AT 600 PERCENT. you know grandma with her fingers with a 500 dollar ring. Looks REALLY REALLY BAD, lIKE SOMEONE IS GOING TO SPEND THAT MUCH WITH A PRESENTATION LIKE THAT. Lol!

---

I just saw one of these junk picture junk presentation 3 feedback sellers with an item that should be listed at about 200 bucks and they have it for 2 grand. Wowsa they must be promoting at 80 percent. 

[vintagecraze50]

Velocity can be achieved but the pricing has to be competitive with all the rest of these sites. If you cannot accomplish this it is a fail. 

[vintagecraze50]

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@fbusoni wrote:

@valueaddedresource 

Nothing like a little holiday cheer from eBay.

Can you imagine what would happen to eBay's revenue stream if every single seller boycotted the company's "promoted listing" software -- which seems to not produce the desired results most of the time anyway?

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Oh God, I hope not. I got several years I need to stay on here before they go broke. 

[vintagecraze50]

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@jupiter_collectibles wrote:

This just proves that eBay is in desperation mode. It does nothing to help sellers and buyers. It only benefits eBay's bottom Dollar. It's truly sad and pathetic especially in Q4. Just when you think things couldn't get any worse eBay pulls something like this. The writing is on the wall for this company. It's time to abandon ship. It's truly sad because eBay used to be a viable platform to make money on selling items you no longer needed. People cannot afford to give eBay 40% of their profit while having to source the item and ship it... 

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IDK. I STILL DO WELL ON HERE. I just source inventory correctly, get these prices competitive, and I do not have to use huge promotional rates to get this stuff seen and sold. It depends on how highly saturated your category is, and also if you sell unique items that are usually not in high quantities on here. The killer on here is the huge inventory of goods from so many sellers and not enough buyers to buy.

[vintagecraze50]

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@meme6253 wrote:

They need to stop passing their short comings onto sellers, At some point we will not be able to keep passing these increases onto the customer & then what!

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They are trying the pass the cost to the consumer in the UK, AS mercari is doing still. Poshmark, tried it but they saw a lot of sales decreases as customers abandoned their carts when they see the added fees that they have to pay. 

[vintagecraze50]

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@vintagecraze50 wrote:

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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.

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Every seller on here CAN benefit from the ads. It just depends on your cost of goods, how many of your items you want to promote, even ONE ITEM promote at 50 percent might just drive that customer to your other items as well. Ebay is not telling you you have to promote anything, or promote at high high promotes. Use it judiciously to help your business in ANY way you can while this continues to be a way for ebay to stay afloat in this sea of internet marketplaces. I am impressed that they are still here for us, and hope they stay for a long time. 

[jasoheat_0]

at 50% i think the Big A is a better option as they have more services and customers . sale are almost dead here for me , no real growth for this platform in years ( except for fee and more and more ads that they push , , I was never a huge seller but typically about $3000+ a month , the past few months every month is 50% slower than the previous ,  this month so far is $472 ( $258 after selling costs ) , i end more listings on Ebay ( as they sell elsewhere ) then making actual sales here , promoted listings do not seem to work for me( so im cancelling them )  , hopefully things turn around , good luck 

[valueaddedresource]

For those who have been following along, the Marketing Terms update eBay just dropped contains language that gives them a lot more leeway to make changes just like this with no notice to sellers in the future.

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/We-are-being-charged-for-a-what-quot-Halo-Attribution-quot/m-p...

https://pages.ebay.com/sell/pl/termsofservice.html