eBay Provides Item Insights Showing Promoted Listings Ad Usage By Category In Listing Form
eBay has added new insights to the listing form in effort to hook sellers into using Promoted Listings General cost per sale advertising.
Sellers have noticed the new section in the mobile app listing experience, showing the percentage of listings in the category set in their draft are currently using Promoted Listings.
For example, it showed me today that 31% of items in Trading Card Singles are using Promoted Listings General ads, while 39% of items in Collectible Card Game (CCG) Sealed Boxes are promoted.
And the results also reflect common selling experience that clothing and auto parts are highly saturated categories, with Sweaters at 64% and Shocks, Struts & Assemblies at 70%.
It's important to note - those percentages are not the average or suggested ad rates, but rather reflect the amount of listings in those categories that are enrolled in a Promoted Listings General campaign.
eBay also appears to be A/B testing the design and defaults for selecting an ad rate in this new module.
On about half the drafts I tested, it defaults to a single text box, pre-filled with a rate higher than the suggested rate, which is shown below the box, with the option to "select a preset ad rate" by tapping a link.
The other half of drafts I tested defaulted to the preset ad rate display with three options - the suggested ad rate in the middle, with a lower and higher preset rate on either side.
Interestingly, the preset middle option is actually less than the pre-filled rate in the custom view (since in this view the middle is the suggested rate) and the next highest option is higher than the pre-filled rate in the custom view.
Of course, the seller still has the option to use "custom ad rate" to set any rate they want, but they won't be "notified" the minimum is 2% anywhere on this screen unless/until they try to input a rate lower than that - which many less experienced sellers probably won't even think to try.
So no matter which of these designs ends up being displayed, odds are just like at the casino - the house always wins.
Sellers discussed the new item insight module in the eBay community, with some questioning how exactly eBay is measuring to get this data and sharing the results they found in different categories.
my-cottage-books-and-antiques
This caught my eye...first I've seen this...using the phone app and prepping a listing for a puzzle , in the "Promote Your Listing" section, ebay has helpfully added this "item insight": "37% of items in Toys, Games, and Puzzles are promoted right now."
Sure, I realize that is there to encourage me to use a General Campaign ad. And while it is not a majority of items, that's a pretty substantial percentage. (And I would note the word "items" provides some wiggle room: does item mean the same as listing, or does it mean, for example, one multi quantity listing with 20 available items counts as 20 items?)
ETA: Suggested rate for this puzzle: 11.3%....which is in a "suggested" box between 9% and 13.6%...a well known advertising tactic to make the suggested rate look "reasonable"....it's not "low" (like that measly 9%) and its not too high, like that 13.6%....no, it's....just right! LOL
I am working on a listing in the Collectibles>Holiday & Seasonal> Ornaments category. eBay states that 34% of items in this category are promoted right now.
I saw this a few days ago when listing in the women's clothing category, and the number they told me was between 64% and 75% depending on the exact category (dresses, suits, outfits, etc).
Others questioned what might happen if/when Promoted Listings ads reach saturation in a category and whether or not sellers can even trust the data eBay provides.
Seems like the whole ad thing is reaching saturation and will soon accelerate into a bidding war and become untenable. That killed Google ads back in the day. 😆
Yeah, I've been seeing this for a few weeks know.
The irony of course is that eBay can publish any old percentage that it wants, and sellers have not a clue whether the figure in question bears any relation to reality.
I'd reckon that the percentage shown varies by seller -- the number is somehow a function of our own selling trends and is intended to stoke the "fear of missing out" which is at a fever pitch around this time of year, I'd imagine.
I suspect that George Orwell would be mighty impressed by eBay's psychological operations.
The skepticism is understandable, considering recent shady tactics eBay has undertaken with stealth rate hikes on both Promoted Listings Priority Cost Per Click and Promoted General Cost Per Sale ads, as well as a Marketing Terms update that includes changes to Promoted Listings ad attribution in 2025 and more built in wiggle room to raise ad fee rates with no notice to sellers in the future.
Liz Morton
After Wall Street did not react positively to weaker revenue guidance provided in the Q3 earnings report, eBay is pulling out all the stops trying to make sure they can report "better than expected" Q4 results with steep discounts to drive GMV growth and Simple Delivery Managed Shipping ramp up in the UK in addition to the ad rate shenanigans to try to boost revenue.
Will showing Promoted Listings insights in the listing form prey on FOMO and convince sellers to opt in or will it have the opposite effect, dissuading sellers from using ads in heavily saturated categories where they will have to pay significantly higher rates to gain visibility over the competition?
Let us know what you think in the comments below!
