My payouts are a small percentage of what they were
Now that eBay is considering every sale a PROMOTED SALE, my payouts are ridiculous. Even though the redefining and restructuring and implementation of HALO sales hasn't even officially begun yet. For years, my sales were 60%-70% organic and now they are 80%-90% from promoted sales, without me changing how I run my campaigns. So I will do $500 in sales one day and the payout is like $150. Now that folks, is how you redefine the value of 13%.
12 comments
1tuna
·3 years agoI think there are two maybe three type of PL`s
I dont know much about them
I guess I consider my self a little bit sophisticated but I have a hard time with technology, smart phone usage and so forth.
I am an avid newspaper reader and always like advice columns
one of my favorites was a piece of advice I read
if you dont understand something thats a good reason not to buy it or pay for it
I certainly dont feel like figuring out if PL is good for me or even working to bring me more money
if you are not sure about PL then just say no to it, its not a mystery
to me its like writing listings powered with file exchange..I have no clue what thats about
PL`s can get into your head to the point that you think you cant do with out them, but you can!
dont fall for the hype
@the-hook-and-the-loop
m60driver
·3 years agoA few weeks ago I started using PL more aggressively. It has not led to any increase in sales although it has, perhaps, led to an increase in watchers. Regardless, most of my sales are not connected to a PL listing.
mr_lincoln
·3 years ago@m60driver Good observation ... I think Sellers have to experiment with different approaches when using PLS ... I think categories can influence how effective they are. In the early days of Promoted Listings eBay offered $ 30 AD Credit per quarter to help the launch of the new program. That's when I started to dabble with them AND only did one PLS Campaign per quarter using "House money".
My approach was simple, I put ALL my Fixed Priced Buy it now item on a 30 day PLS Campaign with ONE fixed AD rate ... meaning I was willing to sell ALL those items for the AD rate %. Over time here is what I figured out about PLS Campaigns:
-They helped to drive traffic (which is what you are seeing with increased Watchers)
-Increased sales during the Campaign
-Long tail items sold more during the Campaign then during non-Promoted times
The $ 30 AD fee credit was great since I picked a fixed AD rate for all items between 5% - 10%. So if I picked 6% on a given Campaign it meant the $ 30 AD fee credit equated to $ 500 in sales with NO AD Fees. If memory serves, when it first got started they may have only been charging the AD rate on the item price not shipping too ... at any rate it was worth testing and worked out.
my-cottage-books-and-antiques
·3 years ago@mr_lincoln You are correct, it was only within the last year or so that ebay changed the calculation of the PLS fee from item price to total price....which can lead to a significant increase in the PLS fee and, of course, decrease in the seller's net. Not too long after that change, ebay also increased the minimum from 1% to 2%. And of course, we now have the change scheduled for March 30th, which, in my opinion, has no benefit for sellers, but is designed to increase ebay's take by collecting PLS fees for items that the buyer never even saw as a Promoted Listing.
I've been using PLS since it began, and sadly I feel the value proposition has decreased. However, for me, it still has value, but this latest change in particular means I will be doing more testing to see if I can increase my sales velocity while maintaining decent margins. I will definitely be watching the ratio of Direct sales to Halo sales.
fern*wood
·3 years agoHalo sales sounds so angelic.
willingdealer_make-me-an-offer
·3 years agoSeeing your items, it makes sense for you not to promote. In categories where the items are less unique, like tech and clothing, You are basically forced by the algorithm to promote listings.
fern*wood
·3 years agoFair warning, I am not sophisticated enough to know whether promoted listings actually help sellers or not, but when I shop I do tend to avoid them if I can. I never understand if ebay always show listings twice with or without the promotion, but many times I see the sponsored ones at the very bottom of my search and I sort of feel sorry for them.
dbfolks166mt
·3 years agoFrom the beginning PL was nothing more than a way for eBay to increase their revenue/profit. There is NO way to tell for sure if an item did in fact sell because of the use of PL. It could just has easily sold as an organic listing.
Simple solution. Quit using PL.
mr_lincoln
·3 years ago@the-hook-and-the-loop
When I run a PLS Campaign I only do it about once a quarter for about 30 days. When the Campaign ends there are some items with the 30 attribute that will have the AD rate applied when they sell ... but the rest of time in between Campaigns there are no PL fees.
I don't use the "Continuous" setting on the PLS Campaign, which it sounds like you do.
willingdealer_make-me-an-offer
·3 years agointeresting, can you explain your approach further? I think we need to encourage sellers to step away from the comfort of promoted listings, as the more its used, the higher the suggested ad rate goes up.
luckythewinner
·3 years agoNow that eBay is considering every sale a PROMOTED SALE, my payouts are ridiculous.
For years, my sales were 60%-70% organic and now they are 80%-90% from promoted sales
So in other words, eBay is not considering every sale to be promoted.
For the record, eBay has never considered a single one of my sales to be promoted.
inhawaii
·3 years agoParticipating in promoted listings = more fees = less profit = less payout.
"Now that eBay is considering every sale a PROMOTED SALE"
None of my sales are promoted sales.