eBay recently changed how it attributes sales from its Promoted Listings Standard advertising platform. As well as attributing direct sales to its promoted listings, the online marketplace now also includes “halo” sales in the mix.
This update has confused some sellers who are struggling to separate their direct sales from their halo sales. To help them out, we’ve written the following simple guide explaining the difference between a direct sale and a halo sale.
What is eBay Promoted Listings Standard (PLS)?
eBay Promoted Listings Standard is a feature on eBay that allows sellers to increase the visibility of their listings by promoting them in search results and on other parts of the eBay platform. With Promoted Listings Standard, sellers can choose to pay an additional fee to have their items shown more prominently in search results, giving them a better chance of attracting potential buyers.
Promoted Listings Standard operates on a cost-per-sale (CPS) model, which means that sellers only pay the additional fee if a buyer clicks on the promoted listing and makes a purchase within 30 days. The fee is a percentage of the item’s final sale price, and the percentage rate varies depending on the item’s category.
What is a Direct Sale?
A direct sale is the sale of a specific product that occurs after a click on a promoted listing actively promoting that product. eBay attributes a direct sale to a promoted listing campaign when the buyer purchases the promoted item within 30 days of the initial click. Prior to the introduction of halo sales, eBay only attributed direct sales to a seller’s promoted listing activities.
What is a Halo Sale?
A halo sale occurs after a buyer clicks one of your promoted item listings and then buys an alternative promoted product within the next 30 days. Essentially, eBay is attributing that sale to that initial search and click. The marketplace assumes that the initial click helped build brand awareness and trust, facilitating the halo sale. eBay calculates the ad fee for any halo sales based on the ad rate for the sold item at the time of purchase.
How Can eBay Sellers Monitor Direct and Halo Sales?
Sellers can view their direct and halo sales on this new reporting dashboard, where eBay has added a simple column highlighting how each sale is attributed. For UK sellers the link is here.
Will Halo Sales Generate More Sales or Just Add to Costs?
It’s too early to answer this question, and we encourage sellers to carefully monitor their promoted listings to see how halo sales impact their performance.
We would remind all sellers that promoting your listings is generally a good idea; there is little point in spending money on PLS to promote any unoptimised listings.
Learn More
To learn more about how Frooition can help you optimise your eBay listings to maximise the potential from Promoted Listings, check out our free eBay Listing Optimisation tool, or schedule a call with one of our eBay design and optimisation experts.
