eBay Promoted Listings Intrude On Buyer Watch Lists
eBay continues to try to monetize every pixel on every page and is now pushing Promoted Listings ads into buyer watch lists.
Just want to give feedback that I really dislike promoted listings popping up in my personal watchlist. They don't belong there - I can't think of another site that inserts advertising directly into a watchlist/wishlist.
On top of that, I use the watchlist a lot, and move things into customized lists. This has become a lot more awkward with an advertisement in the middle of the list. It seems to also cause the checkboxes on the page to sometimes stop working and I have to refresh the page.
Additionally, when I have a bunch of auctions ending soon and I'm using the watchlist, I don't want to have these other items obscuring the view. It's not a huge change, but it's really annoying the heck out of me. Just wanted to cast my vote to revert back to a clean watchlist that does just what it's supposed to do - be my personal watchlist...
...It's also showing up in custom watchlists too. Would have rather seen this time spent on getting custom watchlists added to the app.
WHY has eBay inserted "sponsored items" in the middle of my watchlist? AND, how do I get rid of it? This is REALLYT frustrating!!
Is this a joke? Do eBay think I'm so stupid (my area is ceramics) that I want to see items that are totally dis-similar to my items of interest - including glass where I've never made one purchase in the 22 years I've been on ebay. The fact is that I do not want to see ANY sponsored items in the middle of my watch list. There are enough of them elsewhere.
This is just another move on the down-hill slide that is eBay. Listings in my area are now full of junk - junk which is relisted over and over. As a result, most of the good sellers of better quality items have now gone. If the above intrusions continue, any good buyers left will be joining them.
Here's what Promoted Listings in the watchlist look like - it's a side scrolling ad carousel that's inserted after the first entry in the list, no matter which sort order you select.
I'm personally not a fan of the fact they are displaying the Promoted version of at least one of the items in the watch list in that ad carousel.
If I had added it to my watch list without ever clicking on the promoted version of the listing and then eventually purchased, the seller wouldn't pay an ad fee.
However, by putting it in the ad slots like this, it increases the likelihood the buyer might click on it from there to purchase (instead of the actual entry in the watch list) which would then incur the fee.
eBay is already cramming 100+ ads onto many listing pages.
Liz Morton ~ Founder
And they've recently been testing promoting competitor stores in prominent above the fold placements on listing pages too.
Liz Morton ~ Founder
Pravesh Katyal, Director of Product, Search Ads gave some insight into ways eBay may be looking to expand the number and visibility of Promoted Listings in search results at eBay Open 2022 as well.
Liz Morton ~ Founder
There appears to be no end to eBay's quest for increasing ad revenue in sight and I fully expect we'll continue to see Promoted Listings encroaching further and further into every part of the user experience.
Have you seen eBay Promoted Listings ads appearing in new places or with greater frequency than previously shown? Let us know in the comments below!
