Promoted Listings Priority Cost Per Click Minimum 10X Increase

[valueaddedresource]

Apparently not only is eBay jacking up the minimum rates for Promoted Listings General campaigns using the Dynamic strategy, they've also increased the minimum per click bid amounts from $0.02 to $0.10 - $0.20 depending on how you have the campaign set up.

When it was pointed out to eBay that their policy page still said $0.02, they just did a stealth edit a few days later while not acknowledging the issue or that it was a change.

Just wanted to make this a separate topic in case anyone missed it in the other discussion:

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Promoted-Listings-Dynamic-Rate-Minimum-Now-5-Check-Your-Genera... 

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

Disgraceful conduct by ebay. No announcement, no acknowledgment, just slip it in there and hope sellers won't notice. Is that really how this company wants to treat its sellers? And is ebay that desperate for revenue? (I won't say sales, because this isn't about generating more sales, it's about more revenue for ebay).

[vintagecraze50]

Pay me more pay me more. On and on and on.

[vintagecraze50]

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@vintagecraze50 wrote:

Pay me more pay me more. On and on and on.

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Pay us less pay us less or raise the prices so it wont sell.

[vintagecraze50]

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@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:

Disgraceful conduct by ebay. No announcement, no acknowledgment, just slip it in there and hope sellers won't notice. Is that really how this company wants to treat its sellers? And is ebay that desperate for revenue? (I won't say sales, because this isn't about generating more sales, it's about more revenue for ebay).

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It Could generate a lot of sales if you can keep the prices competitive but that is  dang hard.

[chevymontecarlo88]

Reminds me of Google Adwords (which i think has changed) that I used for a video production/media company years ago. We were paying $1k in clicks/placement per month and more at times. 

Sometimes you have to pay to play.

It may make more sense on certain rare, expensive items but for generic run of the mill items, i think it is a waste of your money. YMMV

[aqeeqsouq]

All sellers should join together for several days without promotional listings, this will get ebay's attention.

[kensgiftshop]

As long as they have sellers willing to give them more money, they are going to keep taking more, until sellers say enough is enough and stop giving it to them.

[goddess_venus_boutique]

Thank you for sharing this information. I have been wondering what's going on with their promoted listings scam. I am so TIRED of the greed disease that has hit corporations.  It's just so weird and incomprehensible, not to mention it's self-annihilation for them in the final analysis. But then, maybe that's the agenda. Corporations and banks fail, and the government bails them out. I have come to realize that selling online is now a totally PAY-TO-PLAY game and I have been wondering HOW MUCH DOES ONE HAVE TO PAY?  I do know, after speaking to a representative that they justify charging sellers fees on sales taxes they collect for state governments. There is literally no end to the greed unless we just don't participate at all anymore with buying or selling. I am truly frustrated. My sales did fine for years and years, but now they are a trickle here and there because my listings get hidden in the swamp and I have no clue how to change that based on a convoluted and ever-changing promoted listings program. 

[valueaddedresource]

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@goddess_venus_boutique wrote:

Thank you for sharing this information. I have been wondering what's going on with their promoted listings scam. I am so TIRED of the greed disease that has hit corporations.  It's just so weird and incomprehensible, not to mention it's self-annihilation for them in the final analysis. But then, maybe that's the agenda. Corporations and banks fail, and the government bails them out. I have come to realize that selling online is now a totally PAY-TO-PLAY game and I have been wondering HOW MUCH DOES ONE HAVE TO PAY?  I do know, after speaking to a representative that they justify charging sellers fees on sales taxes they collect for state governments. There is literally no end to the greed unless we just don't participate at all anymore with buying or selling. I am truly frustrated. My sales did fine for years and years, but now they are a trickle here and there because my listings get hidden in the swamp and I have no clue how to change that based on a convoluted and ever-changing promoted listings program. 

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You're welcome @goddess_venus_boutique ! Definitely understand the frustration.

[ant_man1997]

Exactly!  Just noticed my CC being charged for this hidden promoted listings PRIORITY FEE.

[zamo-zuan]

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@vintagecraze50 wrote:

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@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:

Disgraceful conduct by ebay. No announcement, no acknowledgment, just slip it in there and hope sellers won't notice. Is that really how this company wants to treat its sellers? And is ebay that desperate for revenue? (I won't say sales, because this isn't about generating more sales, it's about more revenue for ebay).

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It Could generate a lot of sales if you can keep the prices competitive but that is  dang hard.

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That has always been my concerns with eBay's ad strategies. The more they focus on ads, the less competitive eBay gets compared to other marketes. Sadly, this concern has become more and more of a reality as times goes on, and you can feel it. 

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

@zamo-zuan  I agree....many ebay sellers feel compelled to increase their prices to cover the ad cost, and that makes them less competitive vis a vis other sites.

But just as insidious, in my view, is this: Ad revenue has become so important to ebay that I believe decisions are being made based on how ad revenue would be impacted. There are a lot of things ebay could so which might very well actually grow sales over time. The problem is, there's now a tension between changes which could increase sales but might reduce ad revenue (if sellers are getting better organic sales, they will be less likely to pay for ads), and changes which might do little to stimulate real sales growth, but which could increase ad revenue. An example is the Halo Rule, which does NOTHING to grow sales, but DOES grow ad revenue. 

I really don't have much hope that we'll see a lot of changes to stimulate real growth (aside from the Focus Category efforts) until ebay believes it has exhausted the potential to keep increasing ad revenue.

So, my expectation: Ads on our store pages in 2025. 

[robbie31415]

Ads arent going anywhere. People can whine about it all day but that's not changing.

All the big marketplaces have investment in ads.

Maybe not Mercari but they just got rid of a large portion of their us employees so I suspect they aren't doing so well.

The only issue here is raising the minimum during holiday time, and doing it stealthily.

[valueaddedresource]

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@ant_man1997 wrote:

Exactly!  Just noticed my CC being charged for this hidden promoted listings PRIORITY FEE.

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@ant_man1997  The FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection has recently begun enforcing rules about hidden junk fees, in addition to other bad business practices. 

If you believe that is relevant to your situation, these links might be helpful for you:

https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2024/11/ftc-sends-more-17-million-consumers-harm...

https://reportfraud.ftc.gov/

https://www.consumerfinance.gov/complaint/