eBay Further Erodes Ad Fee Transparency, Removes "Sold Via Promoted Listings" From Order Overview Page
UPDATE 7-28-25
It appears eBay has listened to seller feedback and has returned the "sold via promoted listings" note to the Orders overview in Seller Hub.
Sellers are up in arms about eBay's latest move to erode ad fee transparency as "sold via promoted listings" note is removed from Orders overview page in Seller Hub.
Previously, the Orders page in Seller Hub showed a note in the overview indicating if an order was sold via a Promoted Listing ad (thus subject to additional ad fees) so that sellers could see this critical information at a glance when scrolling through their order history.
But now, eBay has removed the note from the overview page for orders which had previously shown it - forcing sellers to click into each individual order, download reports, or look at Payment records in order to see if the sale was attributed to Promoted Listings ads.
Sellers noticed the change yesterday, taking to the eBay community forum to air their frustration with the increasing lack of transparency around Promoted Listings ad fees.
Bet you thought all your sales were organic ones
Nope, eBay just isn't displaying "SOLD VIA PROMOTED LISTINGS" next to your sales. But if you check your fees, I'm sure you'll find an ad fee. Guess they're trying to save on text.
I just noticed it this morning that the green-lettered 'Sold via promotion' wasn't on any of my Orders on that page. So they're hiding it now! Or making it harder to see how many 'were' versus 'weren't.
Others also expressed frustration with the fact that they often do not see whether or not Offers will incur ad fees before accepting them, which makes it difficult to negotiate a fair price while ensuring acceptable profit margin will remain after accounting for all fees.
I'm so annoyed! I just accepted an offer that didn't mention "came from promoted listings" - a phrase I'm used to seeing. Turns out, it had promoted fees attached. I've probably accepted a few more like this without realizing it. Sneaky move, if you ask me!
That's a problem eBay had promised to fix back in 2022 - but unfortunately, they have not lived up to that promise.
Liz Morton
While eBay did launch ads visibility for Offers, it doesn't always work due to "technical limitations" which can sometimes delay ad attribution and reconciliation.
Previously, Promoted Listings ad reports carried a caveat that data was reported in "near real-time" but sellers would need to allow approximately 72 hours to reconcile - and when they introduced the new Ads Dashboard in 2024, eBay gave themselves even more wiggle room by saying some ad types might require even more time.
"Metrics are reported in near real-time. Allow at least 72 hours to reconcile, although some ad types might require more time."
Since the introduction of the new Ads dashboard, which was less intuitive and provided less transparency then previous reporting capability, sellers have increasingly noticed that both offers and completed sales which initially come in as organic with no ad fee applied are switched Promoted Listings attribution and charged the ad fee hours or even days later.
Of course the most egregious example of this "delayed attribution" so far was last month's sudden back charging for ad fees as far back as ~6 months when eBay supposedly discovered a technical issue which had "missed" ad attribution.
Liz Morton
And it appears the removal of the "sold via Promoted Listings" note may be a global change, as sellers in the UK have noticed it as well.
Seller distrust of eBay's motives in removing the "sold via Promoted Listings" note from the Orders page is well founded, especially considering other recent shady practices the company has pursued in their never-ending quest to increase ad revenue at all costs.
For example, in early November 2024 eBay raise the Promoted Listings Dynamic ad rate minimum from 2% to 5% with no notice to sellers.
Then, even more alarmingly, eBay also instituted a massive 10X minimum bid increase on Promoted Listings Priority cost per click ads, going from $0.02 to $0.20 per click - again with no notice to sellers.
When eBay was publicly called out for these tactics, they tried to cover their tracks by issuing a Marketing Terms Update which allows them much more wiggle room to make future ad rate and attribution changes at any time with no notice to sellers required.
Liz Morton
It also appears eBay may be using link shortening and URL redirects to increase ad revenue from social sharing tools at sellers' expense.
Liz Morton
eBay has also recently moved to monthly budget pacing for Priority cost per click ads, providing even more opportunities for run away ad budget growth.
Liz Morton
For many years, common wisdom amongst eBay sellers regarding possible buyer fraud or item loss/damage has been "don't list anything you can't afford to lose" - and it seems that increasingly sellers should also be warned "don't list anything you can't afford to pay ad fees on" as the company continues to find new and creative ways to extract more cash from sellers.
For example, eBay changed attribution rules for Promoted Listings General cost per sales in Germany in February, then expanded those new rules to UK, Australia, France, Italy and Spain in June, now stating that 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.
Liz Morton
And sellers are preparing for the likely inevitable expansion of this same attribution model to the US as well, with stealth changes to policy pages signaling it's likely only a question of "when" not "if" eBay will make it global.
Liz Morton
eBay's Q1 2025 earnings call showed that the company's insatiable appetite for ever increasing ad revenue is not going away any time soon, but it also showed that sellers' willingness to participate may be hitting a wall, with some categories already at 70%+ saturation according to eBay's own ad insight tools.
Liz Morton
First party ads (all of the various seller paid Promoted Listing ad products including cost per sale, cost per click, store display ads, and offsite ads) contributed $418M in revenue in Q1.
That represents 14% year over year growth but notably is down from $434M in Q4, which could indicate that those changes eBay made to ratchet up minimum rates have slowed adoption rates and caused sellers to pull back on advertising as it continues to eat further into their profit margins.
Interestingly, eBay made a change to the Ad Revenue chart in their earnings presentation, adding a new metric for "Off-Platform Ads" to track ad revenue from subsidiaries like TCGPlayer and Qoo10 in Japan, which likely means those sites are soon to see an influx of ads as well.
Liz Morton
Meanwhile, eBay continues blasting sellers with limited time fee discounts and credits in a desperate attempt to get them hooked with a "the first taste is free" (or 50-75% off) offer to entice them into giving Promoted Listings ads a try.
It will be interesting to see what those numbers look like when eBay reports Q2 2025 earnings on July 30th.
eBay has not responded to request for comment to confirm if the removal of the "sold via Promoted Listings" note on the Orders page is a temporary technical issue or intentional change as of time of publishing.
Stay tuned for updates!
