Promoted Listings
I have used promoted listings since it started...not much, not the recommended percentage, just 2-3%.
Now I see eBay is changing the rules and payment and cost of promoted listings. What I read about the new rules, I don't like. It seems we as sellers, will be paying more for the "privilege" of promoting our listings. So, I've stopped promoting listings as of a couple weeks ago. I've left my old listings the same.
Has anyone stopped using promoted listings? Am I reading the new rules wrong? Please help.
TIA
22 comments
kibble-net
·8 months agoI've passed the cost along to the buyer. I'd rather have the buyer pay an extra 50 cents of "handling fee" instead of losing the sale completely. I don't like raising prices, but that's on ebay.
christworks
·8 months agoPrior to the change, I promoted everything at a low rate for almost two years. I ended all promotions the day before the change took effect.
I have implemented a two-fold strategy.
First, I am not promoting anything that is newly listed. There is really no need to do this. Before, it was simply a time saver to promote everything since I was doing it at a very low percent. Now that eBay's approach is different, the money I could be charged otherwise outweighs the time savings.
The first thing is that I am using a program to automatically promote items after 30-days. This gives items a month to sale without any promotions. I reset (end/sell similar) all of my listings on January 12th, so it will be a couple more weeks before this kicks in.
In the meantime, I have run two weekends of promotions, starting on Friday and ending on Monday. I have been more aggressive with my ad rate, though not "out of this world" - still using a single number. I've been pleased with this so far. My plan is to continue with testing this strategy for another two weekends. After that, the 30-day delay auto promote strategy will kick in and I'll run that about 4 weeks.
As I have thought about things lately, I'd rather pay an ad rate than run a sale or even send out offers. I can run a 5% ad rate and claim $5 out of every $100 of sales on my taxes. If I offer that same 5% or 10% to a buyer, I can't claim that discount. So one of my goals, at least for Q1 this year, is to run less sales and be more strategic when sending out offers. I tend to price above the market, because I do run sales. However, I have been impressed at the number of people who are buying things at full price. Those are the buyers I want. ðŸ˜
mr.emk
·8 months agoI have never used promoted listings and plan to remain that way. The time it takes to shoot and upload photographs, along with the time to fill out a description of an item, etc., and then to pay a fee if someone looks at the listing, rubs me the wrong way. Sellers make a percentage of the total sale. eBay gets its percent. Not going to pay for views.
frugalmarketplace
·8 months ago@mr.emk Your listings are lovely
gurlcat
·8 months agoRight now about half my listings are still promoted and half not, becuase honestly I don't know what to do. I usually find decision-making very easy once I have the facts, but the insidious nature of this new model is crippling my normal resolute nature.
Thing is, even if someone figures out exactly how much (or no) promotion they need, or when to turn it on or turn it off .... that wisdom is not going to apply to the next seller. No matter how much we might want to help one another, this isn't something like photo tips or pricing strategies, things that work for all sellers, this is much more category-dependent and even item-dependent.
In that sense we're all alone, and maybe this is melodramatic but I think eBay probably likes that. Aloneness causes despair, despair causes rash behavior, behavior like whatever it might take to get out of a sales slump, including promoting even if you feel it's bullsh.
frugalmarketplace
·8 months ago@gurlcat
Very well said. Thank you. â¤ï¸
simply-the-best-for-you
·8 months agoI haven't stopped yet, but am considering it.
frugalmarketplace
·8 months ago@simply-the-best-for-you
I just un-promoted…now..no one is buying..just looking.
simply-the-best-for-you
·8 months ago@frugalmarketplace Well, I'm still promoting & no one is buying. I've been getting 1-2 sales a WEEK for weeks now! I promote at a high rate too, none of this 2% **bleep**. Also @hartungcards is absolutely correct as to why it was done. Heard it directly from a high level eBay employee at an in person meeting.
frugalmarketplace
·8 months ago@simply-the-best-for-you Yup..no one is buying. usually a weekend is good, this was dismal.
simply-the-best-for-you
·8 months agoI'm glad yours are usually good, my weekends have been terrible since football season started. I usually do really well on Thursdays for some reason. But not lately.
my-cottage-books-and-antiques
·8 months ago@simply-the-best-for-you I'm a little confused. What exactly did the ebay employee/exec tell you? Are you saying he actually said they made the ad attribution change because otherwise they would have to increase the FVFs? Or are you saying he said something else?
simply-the-best-for-you
·8 months ago@my-cottage-books-and-antiques Sorry for the delay, yes, said they would have had to raise FVF's. Didn't tell me specifically, it was a group of people. Several years ago obviously.
my-cottage-books-and-antiques
·8 months ago@simply-the-best-for-you Thanks. Oh, OK. So this wasn't about the most recent change to the attribution rule, it was just ads more generally. And yes, I have always assumed that ebay saw ads as a way to reduce the need for increased FVFs.
Of course, at some point, if it becomes clear that even ads aren't adding enough revenue , we can expect FVF increases, without any reduction in the continued push for ads.
stainlessenginecovers
·8 months agoI've always just figured the 2% (the Minimum, which I use) will be added to all sales since out of the 18000 items sold since 2016 (when promotions started) 17,800 of those items were charged.
No way to prove if buyer 'clicked' on a sponsored ad or not.
Best to just figure the 2% min (or whatever you are using) on ALL items sold and if some are not charged, it's 'bonus' money.
12345jamesstamps
·8 months agoI stopped in December promoting and then re-listed 30 items a week ago.
I see no change after promoting 30 items at 20%...yes...at 20 % and they are only items at 10 bucks each with free world-wide shipping.
Thankfully I have repeat buyers....so I still have business.
caldreamer
·8 months agoI have stopped promoting my items because of the new rules. I don't like the idea that EBAY will charge "promotion fee" (if anyone in the world clicked on your item).
Used to be you only paid "promote fee" if your customer clicked on item before purchase.
frugalmarketplace
·8 months ago@caldreamer Sellers need to unite.If everyone stopped promoting the problem would to solved. IMHO
luckythewinner
·8 months agoSome of us have never promoted a listing.
hartungcards
·8 months ago"If everyone stopped promoting the problem would to solved."
Yeah. If everyone stopped promoting, everyone's FVFs would go up. Problem solved?
frugalmarketplace
·8 months ago@hartungcards
Prove it .. That would be better
simply-the-best-for-you
·8 months agoI heard it direct from an eBay employee at a local public meeting. I'm not going to name them, but it was stated in no uncertain terms & there's absolutely 0 doubt about why they did this. It also wasn't some low level CSR or something, this was live & in person.