Ebay is implementing a new ad policy effective January 13th, 2026 on promoted listings:
Any buyer clicking your ad triggers a fee on the same item’s sale for 30 days, even if a different buyer purchases it organically, effectively turning it into a broader platform fee for many sellers, impacting margins and ROI calculations. This changes the “pay-per-performance” model to a “pay-for-participation” model, potentially increasing costs significantly, especially for multi-quantity listings where one click can charge fees on many sales, prompting sellers to re-evaluate ad rates and strategies.
There was plenty of warning about the change, and the “halo effect” is more restricted than that description. Many sellers stopped promoting before the end of 2025 because they did not want the extra fees.
The “halo effect” was tested on some of the European sites earlier and it had little effect on whether sellers would promote.
When I list an item, I am told before the listing is completed what percentage of the items in the category are being promoted. In some of the categories I list in, the majority of the listings are listed by fool. The items in that category which will sell will get great organic search ranks because they will be among a very few items which match the search.
If an Ebay seller is selling an item which is likely to be available in multiples and is available on Amazon, it is unlikely to sell in similar volume on Ebay, Ebay always includes in its earning results the deterioration of sales of items which are avaiable on Amazon, Walmart and Target.
With Ebay recommending promotion at rates of 14% or higher, it is hard to determine what is worth promoting, if anything.
Maybe that is why Temu is the place to buy cheap Chinese crud.
Today Amazon Haul sent me a link to cheap Chinese crud under $1.00/