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... 

[zamo-zuan]

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@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:

@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. 

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100% agree.

Similar had happened in 2018 their first attempts to really push ads in our face. I had shared the same sentiments discussed here the last time eBay reps came to visit us on site in person. To which their response was "It takes a long time to steer the ship" and the next year was going to be another year of ads, lol. 

They ended up backing up from it, but then under new leadership, made the same mistakes and took it even further.

I don't see eBay changing their actions until they crash out. The bubble will eventually burst. Then they will HAVE to focus on sales, rather than revenue, again. 

[fbusoni]

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@zamo-zuan wrote:

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Similar had happened in 2018 their first attempts to really push ads in our face.

I don't see eBay changing their actions until they crash out. The bubble will eventually burst. Then they will HAVE to focus on sales, rather than revenue, again. 

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@zamo-zuan @valueaddedresource 

The bit highlighted in red above led me to open two adjacent browser windows -- one on eBay and one on Amazon -- for the identical item.

It was quite instructive.

eBay's listing page was confusing, amateurish, difficult to navigate.   

I felt like merchandise was not so much being made available / presented to me as it was being shoved down my throat.

eBay's desperation for revenue permeated every inch of the display.   And the images and html which sellers added to their listings lent a puerile quality to the overall presentation. 

Not to put too fine a point on it: the whole page was sort of repellant.

Needless to say, Amazon's was the complete opposite.

No wonder eBay has to continue to increase ad minimums... it's a self-fulfilling prophecy of sorts.

[lb23cavaliersmvp]

Ignoring whether ebay charging extra, via Promoted Listings, is proper when they are already collecting store fees on top of 10-15% final value fees from the "best" sellers, the question is does it result in more sales? If you are selling items that 25 other sellers are offering perhaps being first in line helps. That said all a buyer has to do is click on lowest priced to highest priced to find the best option. For sellers offering more unique items I'd argue it is pointless. I just sold an item that ebay wanted me to list with a "suggested" promoted listing fee of 12%, which was shown 5th in a search w/o promotion because it included the box and on most monitors was visible with the 1st listing. I don't care if ebay tries to generate fees with techniques that benefit ebay primarily; I just wish they would improve their algorithm so that a listing which matched a 3 word search was found reliably.

[valueaddedresource]

@fbusoni one of the interesting things to come from the FTC case against Amazon (and other recent lawsuits brought by some state AGs for various things) is a look into just how much intentionality goes into everything that company does - for better or worse. 😂

From call to action wording and button designs, UI flows for sign up and cancellation of services, to the exact number, placement and display of every single ad and more...every part of what you see and experience on that site is the result of very in depth testing, iteration, and ongoing optimization toward a set of very specific business goals.

That's not to say that's always a positive thing or that Amazon isn't often playing the role of the spider walking the fly right into its web, just that it's a very carefully and intentionally crafted experience and for the most part, it has the effect Amazon wants it to have in terms of influencing both buyer and seller behavior.

eBay on the other hand seems to just throw spaghetti against the wall hoping something will stick and in the process makes a giant ugly mess of things with 300+ ads on every listing page that are guaranteed to cause analysis paralysis in a large percentage of the buyer-base, thus actually being counterproductive as well as aesthetically unpleasant.

But hubris is a hell of a thing and admitting that the short term game they are playing with ratcheting ad rates is an eventual long term loser would be a tough sell to any executive - the emperor is always the last to want to admit that he in fact has no clothes.

Better to just keep playing the game and hope you get to use that golden parachute before the music stops.

[fbusoni]

@valueaddedresource 

Remember Jakob Nielsen's pioneering book "Designing Web Usability"?    

Every time I visit Amazon, I am reminded of that book.   

I bet $50 no one on eBay has even heard of it.

Amazon may be  h e l l  to sell on, but for a buyer, its a paradise.

eBay at times is so utterly inept.... I've wondered at times if it even has its own servers... or if it has to rely on AWS.  😂

If eBay's community reps are reading this... please, pass this on.   You guys need a LOT of help in the design department.

[vintagecraze50]

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@valueaddedresource wrote:

@fbusoni one of the interesting things to come from the FTC case against Amazon (and other recent lawsuits brought by some state AGs for various things) is a look into just how much intentionality goes into everything that company does - for better or worse. 😂

From call to action wording and button designs, UI flows for sign up and cancellation of services, to the exact number, placement and display of every single ad and more...every part of what you see and experience on that site is the result of very in depth testing, iteration, and ongoing optimization toward a set of very specific business goals.

That's not to say that's always a positive thing or that Amazon isn't often playing the role of the spider walking the fly right into its web, just that it's a very carefully and intentionally crafted experience and for the most part, it has the effect Amazon wants it to have in terms of influencing both buyer and seller behavior.

eBay on the other hand seems to just throw spaghetti against the wall hoping something will stick and in the process makes a giant ugly mess of things with 300+ ads on every listing page that are guaranteed to cause analysis paralysis in a large percentage of the buyer-base, thus actually being counterproductive as well as aesthetically unpleasant.

But hubris is a hell of a thing and admitting that the short term game they are playing with ratcheting ad rates is an eventual long term loser would be a tough sell to any executive - the emperor is always the last to want to admit that he in fact has no clothes.

Better to just keep playing the game and hope you get to use that golden parachute before the music stops.

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If this company would DO SOMETHING about attracting buyers based on LOYALTY rather than this messy, unnattractive, COST GUZZLING for sellers game. We all would be better off.

[vintagecraze50]

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@valueaddedresource wrote:

@fbusoni one of the interesting things to come from the FTC case against Amazon (and other recent lawsuits brought by some state AGs for various things) is a look into just how much intentionality goes into everything that company does - for better or worse. 😂

From call to action wording and button designs, UI flows for sign up and cancellation of services, to the exact number, placement and display of every single ad and more...every part of what you see and experience on that site is the result of very in depth testing, iteration, and ongoing optimization toward a set of very specific business goals.

That's not to say that's always a positive thing or that Amazon isn't often playing the role of the spider walking the fly right into its web, just that it's a very carefully and intentionally crafted experience and for the most part, it has the effect Amazon wants it to have in terms of influencing both buyer and seller behavior.

eBay on the other hand seems to just throw spaghetti against the wall hoping something will stick and in the process makes a giant ugly mess of things with 300+ ads on every listing page that are guaranteed to cause analysis paralysis in a large percentage of the buyer-base, thus actually being counterproductive as well as aesthetically unpleasant.

But hubris is a hell of a thing and admitting that the short term game they are playing with ratcheting ad rates is an eventual long term loser would be a tough sell to any executive - the emperor is always the last to want to admit that he in fact has no clothes.

Better to just keep playing the game and hope you get to use that golden parachute before the music stops.

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Analysis paralysis is a great term for this mess. I shop on here as well and it becomes a headache to be honest with you.

[seconhandrosie]

END ALL PROMOTED LISTINGS NOW!

[seconhandrosie]

CORPORATE GREED HAS NO BOUNDS!

[seconhandrosie]

Feebay is dying a slow, painful death.

[seconhandrosie]

The Feebay techies still need to pay for their Spanish villas.

[vintagecraze50]

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@seconhandrosie wrote:

CORPORATE GREED HAS NO BOUNDS!

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It’s not corporate greed by any means whatsoever. The overall sales on the site have decreased for years. Mainly due to more and more and more websites taking eBay’s share away. The active buyer base is less and less every year. IT IS about survival. 

[vintagecraze50]

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@seconhandrosie wrote:

Feebay is dying a slow, painful death.

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IDK about that one. I just sold 10 grand worth of stuff on here this month. It ain’t dying yet. LOL!!!

[vintagecraze50]

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@seconhandrosie wrote:

The Feebay techies still need to pay for their Spanish villas.

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WELL. Getting evicted is no fun. We are all struggling with high rent and high real estate. LOL!

[reallynicestamps]

This part of the program strikes me as sucker-bait.

The original Promoted Listings still has a minimum fee of 2%, but that is only paid if it works.

So eBay has a reason to promote those listings.

EBay has no reason to promote the PL Priority  listings since they already have been paid for.

I found that PL original flavour at 2% increases my Views, but that the sales for Promoted listings are lower than the percentage of my listings that are promoted.

This makes me think that  while PL attracts eyeballs, those eyeballs go on to browse my Stores and buy what they want, not necessarily what PL was advertising.

If you like, it's the supermarket flyer. You go in for the 99c turkey in the flyer, and buy the regular priced potatoes and canned soup as well or even instead.