topic Impressions keep dropping in Selling

Impressions keep dropping

brickworksmarket — Sat, 06 Apr 2024 00:38:02 GMT

My impressions continue to drop for the previous month . So one day it may show 5000 for a particular date then a few days later 4000 for the same date. Not effecting page views and would be curious if anyone has the same thing happening.

Re: Impressions keep dropping

davewil1964 — Sat, 06 Apr 2024 06:42:27 GMT

No idea. Do you know what an impression is? It is the number of times a listing of yours appeared in a search list.

It has nothing to do with anything relevant to selling items.

I have no idea how many impressions I have, nor do I care. Ditto 'Listing page views' or 'click-through rate'. My concern is with sales.

Re: Impressions keep dropping

brickworksmarket — Sat, 06 Apr 2024 09:03:52 GMT

I would disagree as there is no use having your listings appear on page 2 if buyers are not willing to look that far down the list. My impressions are the same each month as well as page views just strange they dropped after showing a higher amount previously.

Not sure why it would change after being reported a certain number but that is not the strange part. I don't use promoted so my sales are the same each month unless I increase listings. But the last month sales are up and not by a little and with impressions dropping would have expected sales to follow. Paying promoted gets you more impressions so would expect more sales so a drop would be less sales.

Here is a what sales have increased yet my inventory is slightly down as I have not listed as much as usual. Not a bad problem to have but I'm not set up at the moment for that volume.

Re: Impressions keep dropping

davewil1964 — Sat, 06 Apr 2024 10:30:00 GMT

By your own evidence impressions have no correlation with sales.

What is your issue?

My impressions are currently 80,094. Up 5%. What does that mean? Nothing

Re: Impressions keep dropping

davewil1964 — Sat, 06 Apr 2024 10:34:01 GMT

I would disagree as there is no use having your listings appear on page 2 if buyers are not willing to look that far down the list.

By what criteria?

'Best match', 'price + postage', 'ending soonest'.

You cannot control how buyers search.

As you have stated, your sales are up.

Re: Impressions keep dropping

brickworksmarket — Sat, 06 Apr 2024 21:39:46 GMT

The issue is the historical data changed. Originally my impressions had not dropped but then around a few weeks ago they started to. As each day went by they dropped further which is strange when it is in the past. So did ebay over state my impressions and then corrected them which is unlikely as each days impressions is correct for my long term average.

My impressions are usually 100 000 per month, went to 140 000 per month then dropped back to 90 000 as the historical data changed. So just a glitch I don't know and as page views are the same . The good part is sales are up and checking today shows up 85% without paying for promoted or increasing items available or selling anything different. As most items selling have been listed for over a year.

I have a featured store as the fee savings make it worth while so when you increase sales by 85% for the past 31 days that is a huge increase. Not to mention the only extra work at the moment is packing parcels which may not be to bad if I was not in the middle of moving to a new location.

This graph may show better as you can see when they dropped and how the last 2 days are normal but after a week they start to drop and page views remain normal. I was curious to see if anyone else had experienced the same.

Re: Impressions keep dropping

brickworksmarket — Sun, 07 Apr 2024 02:01:26 GMT

Likely not many are having an issue with their impression reporting graph. Here is a screen shot showing how the impressions from 3 days ago have dropped since the one I took this morning showing a higher number than now.

Re: Impressions keep dropping

brickworksmarket — Sun, 07 Apr 2024 02:04:18 GMT

You don't need to control how buyers search you just need adjust your listings to suit what search method buyers are using the most to get the most sales.

Re: Impressions keep dropping

sugar249 — Sun, 07 Apr 2024 03:17:19 GMT

@brickworksmarket wrote:
You don't need to control how buyers search you just need adjust your listings to suit what search method buyers are using the most to get the most sales.

Interesting comment, if you cant control how a buyer searches, how do you know how to adjust the search to the method they use. I'm confused.

Re: Impressions keep dropping

brickworksmarket — Sun, 07 Apr 2024 08:20:21 GMT

Ebay does tell you if you know where to look. Increasing sales by 85% without resorting to promoted listings or sales does make a huge difference if you can figure it out for yourself.

Re: Impressions keep dropping

domino-710 — Sun, 07 Apr 2024 08:27:02 GMT

OK - got me - where do you look. ??

Re: Impressions keep dropping

chameleon54 — Sun, 07 Apr 2024 21:42:20 GMT

While I dont follow impressions, I do regularly see anomalies in monthly / annual sales figures etc. when looking at them from different locations within the site. Clearly there are glitches embedded in the system with some parts of ebays computer programs not interfacing with others. One example is that sales figures in downloaded monthly reports do not always align with the sales figures shown in the date range search tied to the selling graph.

I have also found ebay sales to be highly erratic at the moment. Not much for a week or two and then suddenly more sales than you can physically pack. The algorithms seem to be highly attuned to account activity at the moment, responding strongly to regularly listing new items. ( more so than at some other times ). Lack of new listings for a short period seems to see sales fall in a very deep hole, very quickly.

I,m trying to regulate listing just enough new items to keep sales moving, without getting totally smashed. Its a bit of a balancing act at the moment.

Re: Impressions keep dropping

p9games — Mon, 15 Apr 2024 13:41:59 GMT

I've seen the "you get more sales if you list more items" comment on this board lots of times before but I don't buy the fact that listing items leads to some divine blessing bestowed upon you by the Ebay algorithm gods. Instead it's just a function of how the platform works. Ebay has millions of users looking for a variety of things. Have more things, more variations, colours, sizes whatever you'll get more sales.

Late last year the API I used to connect my system to Ebay was having technical issues. Those issues prevented me from listing new items for months. Thankfully I was able to replenish listings that ran out of stock but I could not add anything new. My sales took a small hit (few % perhaps) but certainly nothing to suggest that I had incurred the wrath of Ebay's algorithm gods.

Listing new items does lead to more sales, but in my view that is because your larger catalogue of items has a greater chance of attracting the notice of one of the platform's millions of users and NOT because you pleased Ebay's algorithm gods.

Focus on running a good business. Instead of trying to second guess how the algorithm works.

Re: Impressions keep dropping

chameleon54 — Wed, 17 Apr 2024 22:27:19 GMT

" I've seen the "you get more sales if you list more items" comment on this board lots of times before but I don't buy the fact that listing items leads to some divine blessing bestowed upon you by the Ebay algorithm gods. "

Rather than ebay not using algorithms to sort searches, decide who see's what and encourage sales to particular sellers, there may be another answer that you might consider.

You sell a lot of very cheap ( under $3.00 ) items. There will always be lots of buyers who will happily spend a few bucks for a cheap shopping thrill, but a lot less who will spend $200 buying a book.

As most of the items you sell are very cheap, you will get lots of sales and so will be meeting one of the most important criteria for the algorithms to work in your favour. The more items you sell, the higher your visibility and so the more you sell. Unwittingly you are meeting the criteria for high visibility and so you dont understand how others with different business models could have a different experience to you.

Whether selling lots of $2.98 items is a great way to run a successful business may be another question. It takes the same effort to list, answer questions, pick, pack and post a $30 item as a $3.00 item, but the profit on the $30 can easily be $25 instead of a dollar or two achieved on a $3.00 item.

When this effort is converted to dollars per hour it can make the difference between earning $45 - $60 per hour, profit for time spent on ebay ( a reasonable salary ) and a few dollars per hour ( a fun hobby, but in no way a successful business )

" Listing new items does lead to more sales, but in my view that is because your larger catalogue of items has a greater chance of attracting the notice of one of the platform's millions of users and NOT because you pleased Ebay's algorithm gods. "

I regularly run around 2000 listings over three stores. Listing 20 or 30 new items will have virtually zero effect on my " larger catalogue " Also my items are often very specialised. Rather than having " millions of users " looking for my items, there may only be a handful of buyers worldwide who want what I,m selling but they are willing to pay huge money because they cant get it anywhere else.

Your post highlights the mistake many ebayers make in assuming what happens in your ebay " business " is identical for all other sellers. With ebay sellers need to try different things, listen to different opinions and work out what works best for their individual circumstances.