Promoted views on items between certain times

[selsa84]

Trying make sense of what has been happening. Had around 700 items list last month with about 400 being promoted. Like clockwork I would only get promoted views between 12am and 9 am and then again from 4 to 8pm. Thought it might be the pls so I ended and restarted it last week and same 12am to 9am and 4 to 8pm views. I ended all listings and started getting them back on. 

Started another campaign and it is still doing the same thing. Pls views only come between certain times as before. I know that views aren't realtime but organic gets views all day but not pls. Anybody seen this before?

[gurlcat]

I don't understand, how/where can you see exactly what kinds of views you're getting on an hourly basis?   If you're talking about the Traffic page I can't picture how you're doing the counting, but anyway those numbers get completely "reconciled" up to 72 hours later anyway.  

[selsa84]

On the mobile app I look under views on traffic page. 

[hartungcards]

Total views shown may vary slightly from other references due to latency delays.  And an annual increase in system activity experienced during this period.

[gurlcat]

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@selsa84 wrote:

On the mobile app I look under views on traffic page. 

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But how do you derive the hour-by-hour data?  Do you just write down what the view counts are every hour and note that there is growth only in certain hours?  

[selsa84]

I'll screenshot it throughout the day.

[redlinear]

Everybody can promote. 
BUT, not everybody can be "promoted" at the same time. 

[gurlcat]

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but any data you're seeing on the Traffic page in "real time" is literally fake news.  I don't know how they program it but if you look at whatever screenshot you took at (say) just before midnight this past Tuesday (or any date before that), and go look at it now ... you will see different numbers now.  

Actually this phenomenon you've observed may be an interesting insight on how they fake the numbers, like maybe they're literally scheduled to post in certain time windows. 
What do you think, @valueaddedresource  ?  

[selsa84]

when eBay did an update about not counting bot views years ago I had something similar happen. Before the update I ALWAYS woke up to 10 to 15 send offers to buyers and at least 2 overbite sales. The day after the update I woke up to 2 or 3 send offers and no sales overnight and the sales I got were always in certain windows throughout the day. I am obviously in one of eBay beta test groups. Every day for the last 2 weeks something has changed on both mobile and desktop eBay app. 

[gurlcat]

Ah, you're talking about those fake view counts for individual listings that used to show on our (Hub) Listings page.  I remember that, and when they quit doing it.  

This Traffic graph thing is a whole other animal, but I get why you're feeling gaslit.  I would too.  

Honestly, it's possible that all of us get our Traffic page fake views posted in certain time windows and you're just the first person to strategically quantify it.  

[12345jamesstamps]

I actually get buyers who make purchases at a specific time frame...which is a puzzle to me.

I shipped 10 International and 8 domestic shipments today.

Imagine all these buyers from different countries as well as different parts of the USA are making purchases in a certain timeframe...like in a 4  hour span or less.

I mean, there are different time zones around the world.

The sales all come in at the same time...so strange.

And now I get more International buyers...I used to get maybe one a week...but not 20+ in a week.

[valueaddedresource]

@gurlcat I've never seen anyone do that kind of hourly analysis, so I can't really say whether @selsa84 's results can be replicated...but would definitely be interested to see the results if others tried the same thing as well.

[gurlcat]

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@valueaddedresource wrote:

@gurlcat I've never seen anyone do that kind of hourly analysis, so I can't really say whether @selsa84 's results can be replicated...but would definitely be interested to see the results if others tried the same thing as well.

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Ha, NOT IT!!  A few months ago I would have jumped on it, but at this point I'm still feeling pretty 'data'd-out' from that whole store reboot and watching the auto-feedback results.  What I'd REALLY love to see is some good ole fashioned .... sales.  😔

[estate_echoes]

@gurlcat  @selsa84  with promoted listings, fixed rate, we are basically allotted a fixed amount of impressions perhaps per day? so at 3% fixed rate we get one amount where at 6% we would get a higher amount. 

So promoted listings can't really run a full 24hours to meet the predetermined amount. So as selsa hypothesizes... it is running in time periods to fullfill the determined amount.

And as you noticed gurlcat, the numbers bounce all over the place... (impressions?/views?)... maybe rectifying attributions?

[gurlcat]

The way it works isn't about time duration, more like lottery chances.  Note that when you view a listing, down the screen is all those panels of promoted listing thumbnails, and if you refresh the screen, those thumbnails change.  Whether your listing shows up in one of the available slots is a random chance every time, but algorithmically weighted according to your ad rate.  Setting it higher is like purchasing more lottery tickets for the fish bowl, and the hand reaches in every time a buyer looks at a similar item, 24/7 for as long as you have your item promoted.