eBay Not Showing Promoted Listings Ads In Time, Price, Or Distance Sorted Searches

[valueaddedresource]

eBay has historically shown Promoted Listings ads in search regardless of which sort option you choose, though there might be a difference in the number of ads/placements depending on which sort option is selected - but today that no longer appears to be the case.

I tested across about a dozen searches in a variety of categories and for all them I am seeing the usual average of 10-14 Promoted Listings Sponsored ads out of 60 on page 1 when sorted by default Best Match.

However, when using any of the other sort options, there may be a Promoted Stores banner ad at the top and/or a horizontal scrolling sponsored ad carousel in the middle or at the bottom, but none of the regular results are tagged as Sponsored.

It's hard to post an example here because the community doesn't do well with large pictures, but it should be easy to test and replicate.

The vast majority of ad impressions come from the hundreds of ads on every listing page, not search, so it's hard to say how much this might be impacting ad impressions, click through rates or sales, but it still might be important for sellers to know something may have changed with how ads are shown in some searches.

devon@ebay  elizabeth@ebay  kyle@ebay can you please check with the ads team and see if this is a test, intentional permanent change, or just one more glitch to add to the list for today?

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

@valueaddedresource Remember when Google told ebay: "We want white backgrounds?" And ebay then told us: "we want white backgrounds"

If this is an actual intended change, I wonder if it is the result of someone like ChatGPT saying: "People ask us for the nearest widget or lowest priced widget, and we can't find them on ebay because your filtered search results are clogged up with items that don't fit the filters. Get that stuff out of there."

Of course, that assumes these sites have access to ebay....I haven't really tried testing any of that....

[bgt_masters_of_tiki_d]

That actually happened to me just last night when I was researching for pricing some of my items. For example I did a search lowest plus shipping and it came up with the top three hits that were $200+ when the lowest (and most of the items) were $60-$90 range. 

[valueaddedresource]

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@bgt_masters_of_tiki_d wrote:

That actually happened to me just last night when I was researching for pricing some of my items. For example I did a search lowest plus shipping and it came up with the top three hits that were $200+ when the lowest (and most of the items) were $60-$90 range. 

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@bgt_masters_of_tiki_d  if you don't mind sharing what was your exact search term when you saw this last night?

I searched a whole bunch of different things throughout the day yesterday and today on different browsers both logged in and incognito/not logged in and am consistently seeing no ads in sorted results - but if it's not consistent across all searches and/or for all users, that would be useful to know. 🙂

[valueaddedresource]

@my-cottage-books-and-antiques yeah it definitely could be a change in response to some requirement or request from a third party like OpenAI (or just an attempt on eBay's part to try to optimize for the changing search and discovery landscape with AI in mind).

I was also thinking it could be about compliance, either pre-emptively (reading the room after Amazon's "dark pattern" Prime settlement) or possibly in response to some regulatory body - like Lucky said, there's a good argument to be made that inserting ads that ignore the user's sort preference is at least consumer un-friendly if not misleading and/or possibly dark pattern design.

Coincidentally, Amazon's $2.5 Billion settlement with the FTC was about a month ago, and it appears that this change for eBay ads took place sometime in the last month - whether those two things are related of course is anyone's guess.

[denisevanpattendolls]

What I am seeing is that the promoted listings go to the top of the search, although they are not listed as promoted.

SO if I search for “highest price” for a doll that has 10 results, 4 of them promoted, the first 4 listings will be the promoted ones (highest price first), then all 10 listings will be below those, including a repeat of the 4 promoted listing, in price order.

[valueaddedresource]

@denisevanpattendolls if they are not listed as promoted, how do you know they are promoted?

To be clear here, for any listing enrolled in a Promoted Listings campaign, eBay may show either the Promoted version (legally required to be tagged as Sponsored) or the Organic version in any given search result.

It's the exact same listing, with the exact same item number, the only difference is that if it is being shown as an ad which could have the seller incur an ad fee, it legally has to be tagged as such and if it is not tagged as such it is (or at least should be) an organic result.

So just because you may see the same item number shown as a Sponsored PL ad in Best Match, then see that same item number shown when you use one of the other sort options, that does not necessarily mean it is Promoted in that other sort option view. In theory, assuming eBay is doing things correctly and legally, if it is shown without a Sponsored tag, it is organic.

And that's what this whole thread is about - eBay is no longer showing any results tagged as Sponsored in the other sort options, aside from the possible exception of a Promoted Stores banner ad at the top of the page before the search results and/or a horizontal scrolling ad carousel in the middle or at the bottom.

[denisevanpattendolls]

Because my doll is promoted in the above example I have given, and that is how it shows up. I've tried this with other searches where I have a promoted item, and same results.

And I agree, if an item is promoted, it should say as such.

[valueaddedresource]

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@denisevanpattendolls wrote:

Because my doll is promoted in the above example I have given, and that is how it shows up. I've tried this with other searches where I have a promoted item, and same results.

And I agree, if an item is promoted, it should say as such.

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@denisevanpattendolls ok but when you say "because my doll is promoted" do you just mean that listing is enrolled in a Promoted Listings campaign?

If so, that does not mean it is always shown to buyers as a Sponsored/Promoted ad - it can also still be shown as an Organic result.

[denisevanpattendolls]

@valueaddedresource  Ok, but why would my listing, and only some of the other listings, be shown twice in the results? If it’s not due to being promoted, then why?  

Also, I only noticed this happening this week; this was not how the results came up before. 

[valueaddedresource]

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@denisevanpattendolls wrote:

@valueaddedresource  Ok, but why would my listing, and only some of the other listings, be shown twice in the results? If it’s not due to being promoted, then why?  

Also, I only noticed this happening this week; this was not how the results came up before. 

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@denisevanpattendolls would you be able to post a screenshot of what you are seeing? Or at least the exact search keywords and settings you are using?

Do you see anything when you scroll down the page that says something like "Results matching fewer words" or "we've streamlined your search results to show you the best listings. see more results"?

[selsa84]

I've been seeing double also. Neither are shown as sponsored. 

[valueaddedresource]

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@selsa84 wrote:

I've been seeing double also. Neither are shown as sponsored. 

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@selsa84  can you post a screenshot or provide the exact keywords and search settings you are using?

[selsa84]

Here ya go

 

[stainlessenginecovers]

Seems like this is obvious and how it always should've been. 

The entire concept is for listings to show after a shopper inputs keywords, or clicks a category, which is defaulted to 'Best Match'

Once sorted, price lowest for example, it should then be by the lowest price and NOT push a 'sponsored' item to the top, which it used to do.

So I would see a $20 and a $40 item, then a .60c item. Was wrong.

Now it seems to be fixed. 

[devon@ebay · Accepted solution]

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@valueaddedresource wrote:

Here's the answer I got from Ask eBay on X:

But I know for a fact that at least as recently as 3-4 weeks ago that was not true and it was still showing Promoted Listings ads in the other "deterministic" sort orders.

devon@ebay  elizabeth@ebay  kyle@ebay  is what Ask eBay said true and if so, when did it change?

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Hey @valueaddedresource! We reached out to the Product team and they wanted to share the following:

"We made an update to search in early October to keep results as relevant as possible for how people choose to browse. You’ll no longer see ads in certain sort types (like “nearest first”), but Promoted Listings will still show in Best Match and Top Picks to help connect buyers with items they’re most likely to love."