Does Stealth Change To eBay Promoted Listings General Ads Foreshadow Attribution Updates For US?

As eBay sellers in the UK, Australia, France, Italy and Spain brace for the impact of Promoted Listings ad attribution updates coming later this month, does subtle change to campaign setup page foreshadow US update coming soon?

A Value Added Resource reader, Patricia, noticed that when creating a Promoted Listings General cost per sale ad campaign, the page now mentions that the ad fee will be charged when the promoted item sells within 30 days of a click on your ad.

Understandably, that raised the question of whether that means "any" click - which would be in line with the new attribution model rolled out in February in Germany, and soon to expand to UK, Australia, France, Italy, and Spain

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Value Added ResourceLiz Morton

That new attribution model completely decouples the click on the ad from the eventual sale - if an ad for an item has been clicked on by any buyer in the last 30 days, the seller will be charged the ad fee when that item sells, even if it ends up being purchased by a completely different buyer who never clicked on the ad.

eBay has been tight-lipped about any plans to expand this same model to the US market, but given eBay's insatiable appetite for increasing ad revenue and desperation following recent quarterly results, it will not be at all surprising to see this attribution money grab come to the US as well.

Here's what the Promoted Listings General campaign setup page says as of today, June 11, 2025:

"The ad rate is the percentage of an item’s total sale amount (including item price, shipping, taxes, and any other applicable fees) that is charged when the promoted item sells within 30 days of a click on your ad."

And here's what that same section of that same page said in November 2024 when eBay made a stealth policy update increasing the minimum dynamic rate with no notice to sellers:

"An ad rate is the percentage of your item's total sale amount that is charged when a buyer clicks your general ad and purchases any of your promoted listings within 30 days."

At face value, the difference between those statements definitely sounds like the current version is referring to the new attribution model where any click counts (even if it's not from the eventual buyer) vs the old version which very clearly still referred to the previous Direct and Halo attribution model.

So far nothing has been updated on the Marketing Program Terms page or this help page describing how attribution works for Promoted Listings and eBay has not put out any public announcements about changes for the US - so it's possible they may have simply updated the language on the campaign creation page early in preparation for an announcement coming soon.

But Another Value Added Resource reader, Taylor Gipple, discovered that eBay has also changed the wording on this page in Seller Center to say you'll pay ad fees when "your item sells after a click on your ad" vs "when your item sells through a click on your ad.":

Promoted Listings | Seller Center

Boost your eBay sales with Promoted Listings. Choose between a general or priority strategy depending on what works for you and your growing business.

Seller Center

It appears the update happened between Feb 21 - March 4, which would be in line with when the new attribution model rolled out in Germany, but this is on the main US . com site - bolstering the idea that it will expand to the US soon.

And this help page also seems to have similar changes made around the same time:

Some sellers are understandably wondering if last week's ad fee back charging snafu wasn't possibly created by eBay deciding to flip the switch on bringing the new model to the US already with no advance notice.

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Updates eBay made back in December do give the company much more wiggle room to make future changes with less transparency and notice to sellers, so it's not clear just how much notice, if any, they may give before any potential expansion of the new model to the US.

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eBay has not responded to request for comment as of time of publishing, but keep an eye on your Promoted Listings campaigns and stay tuned for updates!