eBay's New Ad Program for Sellers

by: Ric

This program should come as no surprise to sellers.

Beyond the test, the program appears to be nothing more than eBay management's latest attempt to squeeze more money out of sellers.

If eBay's search engine was even average, sellers would not need to spend more to gain visibility.

eBay management appears satisfied that their minimally effective search engine is just fine as long as they can entice sellers to spend more to get actual visibility and pay more for the privilege of actually having their items seen.

The question becomes, what stops eBay from downgrading sellers visibility in order to motivate them to dump more money into eBay's coffers?

by: laurengrace

During the test, they lure you in, fix it to actually work so that sellers will pay to get their listing seen.A company that manipulates search the way they do, can not be trusted with any more of your money. When you pay for listings, they dont even come up when you use specific search terms. Ofcourse, they will probably stop hiding your listings during the test, to make you think that their promoted ads will work. Take advantage of the test, by all means..Just dont fall for it and rely on it. Just as soon as you get comfortable, they will pull the rug out from underneath you.

by: pace306

Why have sellers pay only ONCE to have listings shown, when you can lie steal and cheat them into paying TWICE for the same exposure?

Its not easy being sleazy

by: Patricia

I totally agree with Ric.  Its just another way to shake money out of sellers.  They need to get off their lazy arrogant tushes and sink some of their offshore wealth into some honest advertising.  Right now, at least to most of us, their site is near worthless.

by: iheartjacksparrow

eBay has already stated that they can't guarantee that a listing paid for by a seller will ever be seen by anyone. So now they want sellers to pay even more so potential buyers can actually see the items. Provided there isn't a hack, outage, meltdown, or implosion that day.

by: frustrated

I used it before along with the banner ads.

It increased my sales by FAR FAR more than I ever spent!!

FAR MORE.

I suggested to them to bring this back, it worked like CRAZY.

But then, this was before Cassini.

Now when I look at my ended listings, about 3% of them don't even show as "Completed"

Go figure.

BTW you ALL were opted into Global Seller Program, if you care to check your "Third Party Authorizations" (on the 15th, same day as the outage, what a coincidence)

If you revoke it, they opt you back in, so go look the next day also!!

Fair warning!

by: NetWatch

I saw this coming a year ago- and announced it on my two FB former ebay sellers groups as well as on the ebay discussion boards. I predicted that once eBay granted itself permission to hide your listings in the October 26, 2013 user agreement, they would then devise a way to charge small sellers for increased visibility of their items. And here it is, folks, just as predicted.

by: Massachusets Howler

Spend the $$ on Google adwords??- you would be sadly mistaken!

Ebay is PATHETIC- an EMBARASSMENT.
Extract yourself. Escape.
MH

by: RubyJules

Also, with eBay news today "eBay Enterprise & FICO Improve the Purchase Journey" I have a feeling they will be using the FICO scores as another way to rid the site of sellers they feel are a risk to customers because of their scores.Designed and built from the ground up, in strategic partnership with FICO, a predictive analytics and decision management software company, the platform combines the commerce insights, demand generation delivery technologies and intellectual property of EBay Enterprise with FICO’s analytics technologies and products." I can see eBay determining the sellers they feel offer the most value to them in advertising revenue, the ones they determine are a risk to them because of a seller's FICO score, etc. I totally feel they are going too far.....

by: Quality First

Like @frustrated I used the program in the past for special items and consistently made huge returns on the $20 investment.

If it works like before that would be great.  If it's ''improved'', then.......

by: Baby Gurl

@frustrated - I looked at my acct. I see Ebay Inc. authorized on 9/14/14. Does that mean Global Shipping or would it say that specifically?

by: Baby Gurl

Regarding the subject matter: I feel it is unfair to only invite certain members to do this for free during this upcoming 4th quarter when we have all suffered all year long at the hands of ebay's debacles. Even if I am invited to participate, I feel it is unfair to everyone else.

by: imbloated

Yes, unfair to invite only stores or only certain sellers! Of course it is! It is an objective fact. It skews everyone else away from traffic that we paid equally for when we listed items.  

by: Tiffee Jasso

On the 15th of September, Ebay's new policy kicks in for Global shipping. If you read the fine print, a seller now has to pay the buyer for all fees and taxes, etc., or otherwise all money the buyer paid, for any returns or sales that go wrong and that includes any fees the Global center charged. Go figure that one.
As for paying for ads, yes ther are sellers who will try it. Also Ebay needs to make up for the subscription fees that are rapidly disappearing due to poor sales for most sellers.  

by: Xander

Unfair? Yes, of course ebay is unfair but that does not matter. Those who use ebay have agreed to their practices. If you don't like it, tell them by leaving otherwise you agree by staying.

This is the way ebay works these days, fair or not.

by: Philip Cohen

So, if you advertise, will eBay then guarantee that buyers will see your ads?

Unbelievable; desperate; unscrupulous ...

The eBay executive suite—where the incompetent mingle with the disingenuous, the malevolent and the outright criminal, and the just plain stupid ... http://bit.ly/11F2eas

by: Runs.With.Scissors

@frustrated:
  I just checked.  None of our several ebay id's are opted into global selling (at least not yet).
 ''Offer the Global Shipping Program''=NO, and there are no recent (new) ''Third Party Authorizations'' on our accounts.

by: Marie

Just ridiculous!!  First, let us see some value for our current fees.  Most of 2014 has been horrible for sales.  Multiple reasons for that, but the result is the same.  Wouldn't it be refreshing for Ebay just to spend their time and resources in correcting the CURRENT issues before moving on to other things.

by: Paul W

''BTW you ALL were opted into Global Seller Program, if you care to check your ''Third Party Authorizations'' (on the 15th, same day as the outage, what a coincidence)''

This is NOT true.

by: Massachusets Howler

This is not good for unique 1-of-a kind items.
MH