Promoted listings with spend >$X but zero conversions, wasted ad fees, recoverable next sweep.
At a glance
Count of Promoted Listings with material ad spend over the 30-day window but zero attributed conversions. The “wasted ad fees” card, every row here is money paid to eBay for clicks or impressions that didn’t convert into a sale, recoverable on the next campaign sweep by either delisting, repricing, or fixing the listing copy.
| What it counts | COUNT(promoted_listings WHERE spend > $X AND attributed_conversions = 0) over the rolling 30D window. The $X floor is configurable per workspace (default 25 for Advanced campaigns) to filter out trivially-small spend. |
| Listing-format scope | Promoted Listings is fixed-price-only on eBay. Auctions are not eligible to be promoted, so this card excludes auction-format inventory by definition. |
| GMV / fees framing | Spend is the ad-fee paid to eBay (the “ad rate” applied to the order total when a buyer converts via promoted placement). Zero-conv listings have spend without offsetting GMV, pure cost, no revenue. |
| Promoted Listings Standard vs Advanced | The card aggregates both. Standard: cost-per-sale model (only charged if buyer clicks promoted placement and buys within 30 days). Advanced: cost-per-click model (charged per click regardless of conversion). Zero-conv on Standard means clicks attributed to no conversion (rare); zero-conv on Advanced means clicks but no conversion (common, often the more actionable list). |
| Multi-site aggregation | Each connected marketplaceId runs its own Promoted Listings campaigns; the card aggregates counts across sites with per-site filtering on expansion. |
| Currency | Spend is in each campaign’s native currency (USD, GBP, EUR, AUD). The card sums values without FX, multi-site spend totals are arithmetic and not FX-converted. |
| Best-Offer-resolved orders | If a buyer clicks a promoted listing then makes a Best Offer that’s accepted, the order counts as a conversion at the negotiated total. The card tracks attribution faithfully. |
| Refunds | A refunded conversion stays as a conversion in this card (no zero-out). The promoted ad fee is non-refundable even when the order is refunded; this is a particular cost gotcha for sellers with high refund rates. |
| Cancellations | Seller-cancelled orders post-conversion don’t reverse the attribution. The ad fee was charged and stays charged. |
| Time window | 30D (rolling). The window matches eBay’s standard campaign-reporting cadence. |
| Alert trigger | >0 (any zero-conv promoted listing with material spend). Driven by sentiment_key: zero_conversion_spend. |
| Roles | owner, marketing |
Calculation
Calculated automatically from your eBay data. See the At a glance summary above for what the metric tracks and the worked example below for a typical reading.Worked example
A UK home-and-garden seller running ebay.co.uk + ebay.com with a mixed Promoted Listings Standard + Advanced campaign book. Period: 02 Apr 26 to 01 May 26 (30D).| Campaign | Format | Spend (30D) | Impressions | Clicks | Conversions | ACOS | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UK-Standard-AllListings | Standard | £142 | 480k | 2,800 | 38 | 6.2% | Profitable |
| UK-Adv-Garden-Tools | Advanced | £88 | 22k | 410 | 6 | 18.4% | Marginal |
| UK-Adv-Outdoor-Furniture | Advanced | £64 | 8.2k | 128 | 0 | n/a | Zero-conv |
| UK-Adv-Plant-Pots-Premium | Advanced | £41 | 5.1k | 89 | 0 | n/a | Zero-conv |
| US-Adv-Garden-Tools | Advanced | $76 | 18k | 302 | 4 | 24.1% | Marginal |
| US-Adv-BBQ-Accessories | Advanced | $52 | 6.8k | 96 | 0 | n/a | Zero-conv |
| Zero-conv contribution | £105 + $52 | 0 conversions | 3 listings flagged |
- Three listings burned £105 + $52 with no return. That’s ~£146 of pure ad spend lost in 30 days. The UK Outdoor-Furniture and Plant-Pots-Premium campaigns had impressions but no buyer pulled the trigger; either the price is wrong, the photos are wrong, or the listing copy is mismatched to buyer search intent. Investigate the listings, don’t just delist them.
- Promoted Standard zero-conv is rare and serious. Standard campaigns are cost-per-sale; you only pay if a buyer clicks AND buys within 30 days. Zero-conv with material spend on a Standard campaign means the seller is paying for post-click attribution on listings that converted via promoted view but the buyer returned/refunded outside the attribution window, or there’s a tracking quirk. Investigate carefully; sometimes Standard zero-conv is a data artifact.
- Promoted Advanced zero-conv is common and actionable. Advanced is cost-per-click. Listings that get clicks but no conversions are the typical zero-conv pattern; the fix is usually price (often 10 to 15% above competitive market) or photo quality. Pause the listing, fix it, relaunch.
- The 12.9% FVF is on top of the ad spend. Even when promoted listings DO convert, the seller pays both the FVF (12.9% blended) AND the promoted ad rate (2 to 12% on Standard, per-click on Advanced). A 6.2% ACOS on Standard plus 12.9% FVF leaves 80.9% of GMV before COGS, sustainable for typical 35 to 40% gross-margin sellers but tight for low-margin commodities.
- Ad fees are non-refundable. If a converted promoted order gets refunded, the seller eats the FVF (refunded by eBay) but NOT the ad fee. High-refund-rate sellers should prefer Standard (cost-per-sale) over Advanced (cost-per-click) and watch the Promoted ACOS card alongside Refund Rate.
Sibling cards merchants should reference together
| Card | Why pair it with Zero-Conversion Promoted Listings |
|---|---|
| Promoted Spend | The aggregate spend figure. Zero-conv is the wasted slice. |
| Promoted ACOS | Ad-spend-as-percent-of-attributed-GMV. Listings with material spend but ACOS above gross margin are worse than zero-conv (you’d lose money even on conversions). |
| Promoted Waste Alert | The real-time alert version of this card; fires when zero-conv spend crosses workspace threshold. |
| Top Listings | The complement: listings driving most revenue. Compare to identify whether zero-conv listings are genuinely poor performers or just under-promoted. |
| Total Revenue | Economic context: zero-conv £146 on £100k of monthly GMV is 0.15%, irritating but not material; on £5k of GMV it’s 3%, a meaningful drag. |
| Marketplace Fees | The fee total includes promoted ad spend; reducing zero-conv directly improves the fee % of revenue. |
| Google Ads Spend | Cross-channel ad-spend context for sellers running both eBay Promoted and Google Ads. |
| Amazon Sponsored Products | Marketplace peer; Amazon’s PPC equivalent has similar zero-conv patterns and tools. |
Reconciling against the vendor’s own dashboard
Where to look in eBay Seller Hub:Seller Hub → Marketing → Promoted Listings → Campaigns Filter columns by Conversions = 0 and Spend > $X to recreate this card. Available for both Standard and Advanced campaign types.The campaign-level “Performance” tab also exposes per-listing zero-conv data; click into a campaign to see which listings within it failed to convert. Timing, settlement, and reporting-lag table:
| Topic | Detail |
|---|---|
| Timezone | Promoted Listings reporting uses Pacific Time for US accounts (account timezone for non-US). Vortex IQ normalises to UTC. Boundary effects average out over 30D. |
| Settlement / payout impact | Ad fees are deducted at order settlement, not at click time. So a click today on a Standard campaign that converts on day 28 is billed at settlement on or near day 28. Advanced campaigns bill per-click within 24 to 48 hours of the click. |
| Promoted Listings cost reporting lag | Spend can lag conversions by 24 to 72 hours in the API. Zero-conv counts may briefly include listings that just-converted within the lag window; the card auto-corrects within 72 hours. |
| API throttling | The Sell Marketing API has a 5,000 calls/day baseline. The card refreshes every 4 hours. |
| Attribution window | Standard: 30-day click-attributed conversion window. Advanced: per-click immediate attribution. The 30D card window deliberately matches the Standard attribution window. |
| Reason | Direction | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Spend floor | Theirs may include all listings | Vortex IQ filters by spend > $X (default 25 Advanced) to surface meaningful waste. Seller Hub shows every listing including trivially-small spend; manually filter to match. |
| Attribution window | Either | Standard’s 30-day click-attribution can include conversions outside the displayed reporting window. Toggle Seller Hub’s attribution settings to match for parity. |
| Refund accounting | Same on both | Refunded conversions stay as conversions (don’t zero-out). Both views agree. |
| Multi-site display | Ours blended | Seller Hub shows per-marketplace; Vortex IQ aggregates by default with per-site filter on expansion. |
| Card | Expected relationship | What causes legitimate divergence |
|---|---|---|
amazon.sponsored_products | Marketplace peer. Amazon’s PPC equivalent (Sponsored Products) has identical zero-conv patterns. Cross-channel comparison is useful for spend-allocation decisions. | Independent populations, used for peer-benchmarking. |
google_ads.google_ads_spend | Cross-channel ad spend context. A seller running both eBay Promoted and Google Ads can compare zero-conv waste rates to allocate budget toward the more efficient channel. | Different audience, different intent signals; treat as separate optimisation surfaces. |
Known limitations / merchant FAQs
What’s the difference between Standard and Advanced Promoted Listings? Standard = cost-per-sale (CPS). You’re charged an “ad rate” (typically 2 to 12% of order total) only when a buyer clicks the promoted placement and converts within 30 days. Lower risk, higher floor on ROI. Advanced = cost-per-click (CPC). You’re charged per click regardless of conversion. Higher control over placement, higher zero-conv risk. Most sellers run a Standard-base + Advanced-targeted-keywords mix. My Standard campaign has zero-conv listings, isn’t that impossible? Almost, but not quite. Standard only charges on conversion, so most listings show either positive conversions or zero spend. Zero-conv with material spend on Standard usually indicates: (1) a buyer who clicked promoted, converted, then refunded outside the 30-day window, or (2) a tracking attribution lag. Investigate carefully; data artifacts are common here. My Advanced campaign has lots of zero-conv listings, what should I do? Three quick filters: (1) Price competitiveness: are zero-conv listings priced 10%+ above market? Reprice or pause. (2) Photo quality: are zero-conv listings using stock photos vs lifestyle shots? Refresh photos. (3) Listing copy match: do the keywords driving clicks match the actual listing? Refine. Are ad fees refundable if the order is refunded? No. Promoted ad fees (both Standard and Advanced) are non-refundable. If a converted promoted order is refunded, the FVF is refunded by eBay, but the ad fee stays charged. High-refund-rate sellers should avoid heavy Promoted spend on refund-prone categories (apparel, footwear) or prefer Standard over Advanced. My multi-site campaigns: should I aggregate the zero-conv counts? Yes for spend totals (cumulative waste); no for action prioritisation (each site’s listings are independent). Drill into the per-marketplaceId view when triaging.
Does Best Offer affect promoted listings?
Yes positively, slightly. A buyer who clicks a promoted listing and submits a Best Offer counts as a converted click if the offer is accepted within the attribution window. So promoted listings with Best Offer enabled tend to have slightly lower zero-conv rates than BIN-only promoted listings.
Why doesn’t my eBay Promoted spend reconcile with my Google Ads spend?
Different ad systems. eBay Promoted Listings shows ads inside eBay search results / category pages to eBay buyers. Google Ads shows ads in Google search results / display network to web users. Independent populations, independent budgets. A seller running both should compare waste rates (zero-conv as % of spend) to allocate budget, not absolute numbers.
Is there a “today” volatility?
Yes for Advanced (CPC bills per-click within 24 to 48 hours). Today’s zero-conv count for Advanced campaigns can swing as new clicks land and conversions catch up. Use the rolling 7-day or 30-day view for stable reads, that’s why the alert window is 30D not 1D.
The card flagged 3 listings but I think the data is wrong, what now?
Wait 72 hours and recheck. The 24 to 72 hour spend-reporting lag means a listing that just converted may briefly appear as zero-conv. If the listing remains zero-conv after 72 hours with material spend, the data is solid; investigate the listing.
Action playbook when this card alerts:
- Sort flagged listings by spend descending. The biggest-waste rows are the highest-priority fixes.
- For each: check price competitiveness vs the eBay search results for the same query. If overpriced, reprice 5 to 10% lower or pause.
- Audit photo quality. If using stock photos, swap in lifestyle / scale-context photos.
- Audit listing title vs the keywords driving the spend (visible in Advanced campaign keyword reports). Mismatch = refine title.
- If still no improvement after 14 days, delist from the promoted campaign. The listing can stay live as organic; just remove the ad spend.