Promoted listings

[fivestarparts1]

Does anyone know how promoted listings work?

[monica-sells]

There are many aspects/components of PL (Promoted Listings)

Can you be a little more specific?

EDIT: Taking a 'quick' look at your listings, I would not use PL....but, if your pricing is inline, maybe a token 2% might help get a few more eyeballs on your listings

[fivestarparts1]

Yeah, I have a campaign status running on an ad rate of 2%, but I would just wondering a more in-depth look in promoted listings. 

[mtgraves7984]

You could always start with the basics on the Help & Contact pages. >> Promoted Listings overview | eBay

[monica-sells · Accepted solution]

PL is more effective for more 'common' items, not so much for "long tail' specific type items that there are probably only a limited anount of....

I will try this example:

There are 400 listings for an "identical" item. Competition is tight as are margins.....

Seller A found a treasure trove of the item and acquired them cheaper than the other people. They choose to promote their 'common' item that they sourced cheaper and still maintain the required 'profit margin'..

They would 'promote' their listings to get MORE buyers to see their LOWER price....

(this is a basic scenario, not one size fits all!)

In My Opinion, there are not a lot of "speedometers for specific vehicles available on ebay. Your buyers are already using the terms you have in your title/specigics abd descriptions......

"technically" PL would not be of great benefit to you.....

Just my musings and opinion.....not gospel

[joliztoyco]

Sure.
In the same way bidders compete with each other to win an auction, sellers now compete with each other for sales by paying for promoted listings. The more profit you're willing to give up, the better chance you have of beating the competition and making a sale.
It was a brilliant move by eBay to squeeze more profits from a diminishing seller base, and also drive a wedge through the selling community that will never be "healed".
You see it on the boards every day.
And I mean "EVERY DAY"!
By the way....don't worry about your "seller metrics". As long as they aren't bad enough to get you kicked off eBay, you can use Promoted Listings to move to the front of the line. Ahead of sellers that have spent years "proudly" building up their sparkly seller ratings, and unblemished feedback.
Adding a couple of percentage points to your Promoted Listings makes all that work they have accomplished "meaningless". 
If you liked the "cage matches" they used to have on WWE, you'll love Promoted Listings.
Happy Sales!!

[fivestarparts1]

Wow, that was a great example! I will take note of that and use Promoted Listing for more 'common' items now.

The sentence "They would 'promote' their listings to get MORE buyers to see their LOWER price" actually made the PL make sense. Even as a basic example, it's a great learning curve as a new EBAY seller. Thank you!

[clown_car_driver]

Does anyone know how promoted listings work?

No.

[fivestarparts1]

Thanks clown car

[simply-the-best-for-you]

IDK that I would use the phrase "common items".  To me, it's more about competition.  If you sell in a heavily competitive environment, your items don't have to be common to benefit from PL's.   For example, my items aren't common like many commodities, but I sell in arguably the most heavily competitive category on the site (women's clothes), so to rise above the masses, I have to use PL's.   Also, b/c buying in clothing is more of an impulse/emotional purchase vs. buying paperclips or poly mailers, so the additional placement benefits me. 

[mbksys2]

It's outright extortion. If you don't pay 25% overall selling fee (13.5% selling fee PLUS 11.9% promoted listing fee!!), then they bury your items from searches. The new company management is runing this company into the ground. It won't be long before other sites will offer better selling platforms for much better fees!! 

[hartungcards]

It's always fun when an optional business expense is classified as "extortion."

[mbksys2]

optional business expense??.... too funny. let me guess, you believe paying 25% in fees is an optimal business practice eh? I suppose another 'optional business expense' is when someone comes and tells you that they will protect your store for an 'optional added fee'? 

Amazon will ship your item in 2 days if you pay a monthly 'optional fee', if not they will sit on your product for 10 extra days before shipping it. Same practice mentality, pay more 'or else'. 

Yes, extortion veiled as an 'optional business expense'. But you are more than welcome to be suckered if you so choose.

[hartungcards]

Whatever gave you the idea that I think "paying 25% in fees is an optimal business practice?"  Your reading comprehension on this one is about as good as your understanding of the difference between paying for advertising and "extortion."

[lakefor94]

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@fivestarparts1 wrote:

Does anyone know how promoted listings work?

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Nope. I just do the extra 3% for kicks.