Promoted Listings < recommended %

[leverage5inc]

Any info regarding using a % Below Recommended percentage.

Is the item in Limbo, Promoted, under-promoted, equal to Not promoting?

If I insert 4% on an item recommended at 13.5% (Yes), what is officially supposed to occur? I haven't seen anything addressing this.

@

[the-hook-and-the-loop]

eBay doesn't disclose this. It's a secret. They also don't disclose how your item was SOLD VIA PROMOTED LISTINGS. Once you start using it, all of a sudden, every sale you have is SOLD VIA PROMOTED LISTINGS. It's a secret. When you look at your billing information, all of the promoted fees are a secret.

[the-hook-and-the-loop]

Did I mention IT'S A SECRET!!!

[heckofagame]

What officially will occur is that you will save money if you sell it at the 4% promotion rather than the 13.5% promotion. 

[heckofagame]

Pretty sure there it's not a secret:

Promoted Listings Standard | eBay

[martin2001]

All my listings use a 4% promotion rate vs 10-11% recommended. About 80 percent are sold as promoted (per ebay). Unless it is a fraud, then it seems, yes, even with a substantially lower rate items get their 5 minutes of fame.

[leverage5inc]

I can't locate information regarding this.

Can you? 

[leverage5inc]

If they do disclose it they bury it deep. 

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

Have you tried the Forecasting tool? 

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

Before you even give this any thought, you need to determine two things:

1. How much can you reasonably afford to spend on ads? What are your margins? Keep in mind, the PLS fee is treated like the FVF fee: it applies to the TOTAL price, not just the item price. So, 10% on a ten dollar item won't be a dollar PLS fee. If the item price is ten dollars but the shipping and tax add another ten dollars to the total price, for a total of $20, you'll be paying a PLS fee of $2.00 on a ten dollar item.

So, you really need to understand your margins before you even think about ebay's suggested fee rates. 

2. What is your goal, your strategy? If you really, really want to unload some older stock quickly, it might make sense to accept considerably less profit in exchange for a higher PLS rate, which will probably increase impressions (but might or might not increase sales velocity)  If you are a long tail, slow dime sort of seller, you might want to keep the rate low or not use it at all....

[slippinjimmy]

I only promote on one of my selling id's (the one with junk), I used 1% when it was available and now use 2%. My organic impressions remain steady but my promoted impressions are triple the amount.

It doesn't help sales much if at all but as I said I'm only using it on my junk listings. Since eBay only promises increased impressions (not sales) I think I'm getting exactly what they promise.

I have never tried a higher rate so I don't know if that would bring even more promoted impressions or not, I presume it would but it all depends on the items and how many other sellers are promoting the same/similar items.

I have no real idea how eBay comes up with their recommended rates, I expect they operate just like many sellers, they price at the highest possible rate they think sellers will go for just as I price my items at the highest amount I think buyers will be willing to pay.

[12345jamesstamps]

I decided to promote all my high end items...last Monday(Sept 18th)...I have just under 300 promoted. I promoted them at what eBay said. I prefer not to promote cheap items of course. I sold 2(two) so far and the promoted rate suggested by eBay was rather high.

So here's my problem...for 3 days I sold only to International Buyers...period...excluding repeat buyers of course. eBay does get more commission on International sales of course since I offer free domestic shipping and charge for International shipping.

Did I upset the algorithms? Guess I will find out. But I am seeing a thread where 3 days of a week only International Buyers and then 4 days of a week of only domestic buyers...and I kept track for 4 weeks now of this. 

[dbfolks166mt]

     About the best advice was from my-cottage-books-and-antiques about the only thing I would add is if you are considering raising your prices to protect your margin make sure it does not price you out of the marketplace. You have nothing listed on this account so I am assuming it is your posting account but it makes it hard to provide much advice with limited data or at least the ability to access it. 

     I have never used PL and never will but a lot of it may depend on what you are selling. The problem is there is no way to prove that the use of PL actually increases sales. Sure you may sell a PL item but who's to say it would not have sold had it just been an organic listing. 

[nilis13]

My promoted listings are down 67% as of today - my sales have plummeted  - traffic is down, views, etc...does not matter the percentage at this point...added new listings, tweaked the older ones, etc.. etc.. I am a long time seller...wish they would turn my store back on - 

[gamersbaystore]

People only bid that high because ebay says they have too in order to compete. Its a total con and ebay knows it. As others have noted and I agree with, there's no transparency regarding what the bids from others actually are, ebay just makes up the estimates as they go along.

ebay often tells me the suggested ad rate is 15%+, when they already take 15% of the sale to begin with. That's 30% of the sale! Just forget it. ebay's incessant greed knows no bounds.

Now if you get too many INR's or people saying your item is not as described, ebay punishes you with more fees, despite the fact sellers have no control over these metrics at all.