eBay is making changes to its advertising program that effectively make more purchases subject to ad fees thanks to the “halo” effect. Currently, sellers pay an ad fee for a “direct” sale, which is when a buyer clicks on a Promoted Standard ad and buys it within 30 days.
Beginning March 30, 2023, sellers will pay an ad fee for a “Halo Item” sale. That’s when a buyer clicks on a Promoted Standard ad and buys a different Promoted Listing Standard item within 30 days.
A reader who alerted us to the change said it seemed newsworthy “in light of the higher profit reporting against lower gmv recently reported.”
There was much confusion on the eBay discussion boards about whether eBay would charge sellers if a buyer clicked on a Promoted Standard ad and bought an item that the seller was not promoting through the Promoted Listing Standard ad program – the answer is no.
Another question – what if the ad rate for the promoted listing the buyer clicked on was different from the ad rate of the item they ended up buying? The ad fee for Halo Item sales will be calculated based on the ad rate in effect for the sold item at the time of the sale, eBay said.
To use some examples eBay provided in its announcement: if Buyer A clicks on a Standard ad featuring a pair of red sneakers and ends up purchasing a pair of promoted blue sneakers instead, eBay will charge the seller – and it will charge them whatever rate was in place for the blue sneakers that sold. As eBay stated, “The ad fee for Halo Item sales will be calculated based on the ad rate in effect for the sold item at the time of the sale.”
Prior to the change taking effect at the end of the month, the sale of the blue sneakers would not have been reported as a Standard sale. So clearly this could result in sellers paying more ad fees to eBay.
What if Buyer A clicked on an promoted listing ad for red sneakers and bought a pair of green sneakers that the seller was not advertising? In that case, eBay would not charge the seller a fee.
One seller said they generate a lot of multi-item sales (buyers use shopping cart and make one payment). “Many of them are currently charged an ad fee for one item but not the rest,” the seller said. “These are items included in an order discount. So for me, I’ll see a big increase in ad fees.”
Another seller said, “Wouldn’t it just be fair to only charge a fee when someone actually clicks on an ad and buys that item?”
“Yay! More expenses to offset the annoying profit,” wrote another seller with sarcasm.
You can find the announcement on the eBayAds.com website. Let us know if you’ll be changing your advertising strategy as a result of the policy change.
Currently all my listings are promoted. I was aware of the halo effect and used it to justify having all my listings promoted. Now I will stop promoting my listings for a short time. I expect that I will soon pick a subset of my listings to promote that can drive traffic to my other listings. My goal will be to hold the line on the amount of fees I pay while maintaining sales. It will be interesting to see the impact is to my sales. I expect I will not see much difference. I do think that negative changes for sellers has to impact ebay in the long term. Here is a message to eBay executives, think about a partnership with sellers who drive traffic and fees to eBay year after year (while servicing customers to high standards). Give us tools to drive new customers to eBay from our brick and mortar stores, from our websites and from our happy customers. Help us drive new business to eBay instead of creating new fees to charge us. Milking sellers for additional fees is a plan for a declining business model.
Well, that cinches it.
They’ve melded in to one with this move.
It’s called a MONOPOLY.
Due to be broken up or entirely replaced.
Or destroy and replace with enough NON corporate entities, we can finally have fun selling again.
HURRY UP !
Its a way for eBay to ape Etsy.
After all, Etsy can run a crooked advertising scheme – so why cant eBay? eBay INVENTED crooked schemes – and with all the numbers down – gotta try to squeeze MORE money out of the poor stupid sellers.
eBays 2023 tag line “At eBay, we charge more for doing less”
What do you expect from one of, if not THE, biggest ripoff on the internet.
pay for these ads, and you have just ventured down the rabbit hole.
is any of this really doing the buyer a favor? when i go shopping, esp on the internet, i want to see what is available, NOT who paid the higher advert fee
For once Ebay isn’t as bad as Etsy who they are copying on this. Etsy participation is MANDATORY for LIFE if your shop has taken more than $10,000 in any one year. You have NO control over which of your items they advertise. They advertise on free sites like google and pinterest. If someone clicks on one of your items on google or pinterest ANY ITEM THEY PURCHASE from your shop for the next 30 days!!! is subject to 12% commission PLUS the regular Etsy fee of 6.5%. Plus your payment processing fee for a total of an outrageous 23% of the total. All I can do is keep my fingers crossed that no one finds my shop through a google ad. There is everything wrong with this picture.
@pace
Etsy is even worse than Ebay in this regard. Participation is mandatory if your shop has taken more than $10,000 in any one year and you are enrolled for LIFE. You have no control over what Etsy advertises on mainly free to advertise sites like google and pinterest. If someone clicks on a google or pinterest ad anything they purchase from your shop for the next 30 days!!! is subject to 12% commission PLUS your regular 6.5% fee PLUS your processing fee for an outrageous 23% commission. All I can do is hope no one clicks on a google ad which is really not how things should be.