Promoted Listings - Corrupt - Sellers Misled

[classicsiderailhinges]

I recently selected a few of my listings for standard promotion - extra fee on sales in return for moving listings up in search results. I'm more than disappointed.

Prior to promoting the items I searched Ebay using two seperate terms to see where one of my items appeared in the search results. One search term produced a result of 47th, and the other 37th in the list of results. I did the same searches following promoting the items and got the same results. H'mm.

Contacted Ebay and had an online chat with an agent to advise my dissatisfaction. During the chat my listings mysteriously moved to the top of the search results. H'mm?

Searches the next morning saw the listing still well up in the search results (5th & 7th), but to check the consistency of these results I logged out of my account and in to another account that I have access to and conducted the same two searches. Imagine my surprise when my listing appeared 46th and 43rd in the results!

Contacted Ebay and arranged a call back from an agent. The agent was unable to explain the discrepancy in the results to me, he even did a search using his own account and got the same 46th and 43rd result. The agent attempted to give me the usual algorithm clap trap as an explaination, but I wasn't having that. I'm awaiting a call back regarding the matter.

So, what's going on here? Is Ebay deliberately misleading sellers? It would seem so. I know that Ebay is a poor reflection of its former self these days, but to have their systems set up to deliberately mislead sellers is nothing but dishonest and corrupt behaviour. When even their agents don't find their actions transparent what hope does the average seller have?

The promoted listings option would appear to be nothing more than a cynical move by Ebay to ratchet up their income from sales while providing nothing to sellers in return.

[pidgeun1]

eBay has changed the way it attributes sales to promotions. It now attributes sales of all Promoted Listings to Promotions and charges Ad fees. Even if your item was purchased by a repeat buyer organically, you will still be charged Ad fees since someone clicked a different promoted listing. eBay Ads attributions has shot up from 60% to 99% without any value add to the buyer or seller. You will see more sales via promotions now. This is not because promotions are working. This is because eBay doesn't allow organic sale of a promoted item and still attributes them to promotions. Basically, you are paying more fees to eBay for the same amount of sales. Sellers in UK, Germany have switched off promotions altogether and raising their voices against eBay. Be careful of Promotions!

[gutterpunkz05]

I don,t think it says promoting a listing will move you up the search list, but rather will increase visibility via ad  placements.

As you only pay the ad fee once an item sells via promotion, it is not in ebays interest not to provide what they offer, which may include off site promotions, google ads, etc, as well as extra onsite visibility.  If you think getting closer to the top of the search tree is all that matters, then you will need to get to top seller rating and offer  above recommended promotion %.

[classicsiderailhinges]

I've just had the 7th call back from Ebay on this issue. They still aren't able to explain why the difference in search results, when using the same search terms, from one account to another. Specifically they're unable to explain why my listings are high in the results when I use my seller account to search, and low when any other user account searches.

This isn't the first time Ebay have done the wrong thing by me (knowingly giving buyers false information was the last one), but I'm thinking it will be the last. They're still assuring me that they are searching for an answer that will satisfy both me and them.

I now truly believe that this has been set up in their search algorithms to deliberately deceive sellers.

[padi*0409]

I'm not sure about this, but I imagine that "promoted listings" will only come up when "best match" is used in searching items.

The vast majority of my searches are "newly listed", "ending soonest" or searching by price.

I don't believe any of those would show a seller's "promoted listings", so I agree with those responders here that say it's largely a waste of time and money for sellers.  

[gutterpunkz05]

I am not interested  in where a promoted item appears in search results, more interested in whether it appears in (similar promoted items) on competitors listings, and of course this will depend on how much extra visibility I get, relevant to the sale % I am prepared to offer.

[classicsiderailhinges]

Well, Ebay's interest in trying to explain why the different placement of my item in search results petered out fairly quickly. Now I'm getting a message across the face of my listing when I search, see the attached image.

This listing appeared at number 50 in the search results today. My current ad rate is 3% (that's equivalent to approx. a 25% increase in the fee paid to Ebay on a sale) and their suggest ad rate is 9% (approximately a 75% increase in income for them).

3 out of the 4 first responses in the list don't even meet the criteria of the search, and don't have the search words in their title.

From the responses here it would seem that most of the responders to this thread aren't too concerned about Ebay potentially taking extra fees for nothing, because that is surely what they are doing. The 'pay us more and we'll move you up the list' message is nothing short of extortion.

[*casey*]

As a general comment, IMO only sellers who are competing with Chinese sellers will understand your problems.

And as 'top rated seller' has been  mentioned twice, let's not forget that many shonky

Chinese sellers with appalling feedback are still labelled as 

Top Rated seller:

One of eBay's most reputable sellers.

Consistently delivers outstanding customer service.

[gutterpunkz05]

If as you believe ebay does nothing to promote your listing, then your item will not sell via a promotion and you will not have to pay anything for add fee.

Gee I thought I was a cheapskate when it came to setting promotion percentages.

Figure out how to set your promotions at no profit loss.

[gutterpunkz05]

Hi casey,   FB does not affect seller ratings.

[chameleon54]

"Searches the next morning saw the listing still well up in the search results (5th & 7th), but to check the consistency of these results I logged out of my account and in to another account that I have access to and conducted the same two searches. Imagine my surprise when my listing appeared 46th and 43rd in the results!"

Our ebay searches are clearly curated in the same way as our news feed on social media etc.

Nothing new or different about this, just the way multi national, internet companies work. If you hold extreme left type political opinions, it is likely your news feed will receive a lot more pro Palastinian / anti Semite biased news than a hard right Trump supporter might receive. This is the echo chamber effect that amplifies peoples own views and means they may not even see an alternate view in their news feed, let alone one that might challenge their established opinions. 

In the same way, previous search history is used by ebay to promote certain products as adverts on our individual pages. This is clearly done on an IP address basis and may well link in with mobile phone " spying " technology. I have received adverts for obscure items such as pet grooming products after discussing these items in the lounge room, but without any searches on the computer.

Like all technology, Promoted listings is much more complex than simple ranking in searches.