Users of eBay Promoted Listings have been told today that of an update to general strategy campaigns on ebay.co.uk, ebay.fr, ebay.it, ebay.es and ebay.com.au. Starting from the 24th of June, eBay Promoted Listings attribution will be when any buyer purchases the promoted item within 30 days of any click on the ad, regardless of whether the buyer themselves clicked on the ad.
What this means is that when:
- Shopper #1 sees your promoted listing in search and clicks on it to view your item but doesn’t make a purchase
- Then Shopper #2 sees your organic listing or browses to it by any other method and then makes a purchase, because Shopper #1 had previously clicked your promoted listing you’ll be charged the promoted listing fee.
- The item must be promoted at the time of click and the time of sale. The seller will be charged the ad rate at the time of sale.
eBay Promoted Listings attribution
Currently in the UK, attribution from a general campaign strategy can either be Direct or Halo attribution
- Direct attribution: eBay will report a Direct sale from a general campaign when a buyer purchases the same item that was featured in the ad they originally clicked on in the most recent 30 days.The ad fee is charged when a buyer purchases the item from a general ad that they clicked on in the most recent 30 days, even if the item is no longer participating in general ads at the time of the sale. The ad fee is based on the ad rate in effect at the time of the click.
- Halo attribution: eBay will report a Halo sale from a general campaign when an item promoted with a general strategy, different from the item originally featured in the general ad the buyer clicked on, is purchased within 30 days of the original click.The ad fee is charged when a buyer purchases an item promoted with a general strategy other than the general ad item they clicked on in the most recent 30 days, as long as the sold item is in an active general campaign of the same seller at the time of sale. The ad fee is based on the ad rate for the item sold at the time of sale.
- From the 24th of June: Starting from the 24th of June 2025, for items listed on ebay.co.uk (and ebay.com.au, ebay.fr, ebay.it, ebay.es), eBay will report an attributed sale from a general campaign when a buyer purchases the same item that was featured in the ad that was clicked on by any buyer in the most recent 30 days.
Full details on eBay’s Advertising Attribution page.
3 Responses
If you don’t use promoted listings on Ebay then you don’t sell.
Now each sale will almost certainly be subject to promoted listing charge, ebay are now so much more expensive than Amazon and less effective.
Ebay continuing to take a short term view with sellers and killing the goose that laid the golden egg
I never use promoted listings on my private account, but still manage to sell.
On the business account however, PL is in use at the minimum level. Typically about 40-50% of sales show as sold via Promoted Listings. That will obviously go up significantly when this comes in and I’ll have to consider small prices rises to compensate for that.
I can’t see how ebay justify it, unless as a result of buyer 1 clicking on the promoted listing, the organic version is boosted in search results, which leads to increased odds of buyer 2 seeing it and buying it outside of the promoted listing. If that is what happens, then ebay should say explain it. Otherwise, it just looks greedy and desperate.
Greedy Greedy Greed from the book of how to make more money from less sales !