Promoted Offsite Results for an experienced seller of 20 years
Thought I would give my thoughts on the Promoted Offsite program. I was told by a ebay rep this would help my sales. I was sold on the idea that it would greatly increase sales and the costs would outweigh the expenses. I was hopeful but after 2 weeks I immediately chose to opt out. I have been a seller for 20 years. Over 50,000 items sold mostly high end sunglasses and name brand clothing. This was the result. My promoted offsite sales in these 2 weeks was $893.23 my fees for that was $166.99. My listings already have a small percentage of the "promoted listing" add to them as well so it isn't hard to do the math on this. The additional fees comes to 18.6% on top of my 12.7% fees + 2% promoted listing fees so that comes to 33.3% seller fees on my sales for the Promoted Offsite program. I don't know about they rest of you but even if I have 100% markup (I buy an item for $75 and sell it for $150 with free shipping I make virtually nothing when my fees are 33.3%. Ebay takes $49.95, shipping is about $7 on average so just my ebay costs end up being $57, that leaves me with $18. I don't know about other sellers but it is very rare that I can make a 100% markup on my items, most are 60-80% markup so I sold these $893.23 worth of my merchandise without making a dime in profit. 7-8 years ago ebay hiked up our fees and reduced the Top Rated Seller discount with the promise they were going to use the funds for promoting ebay items offsite like through google. Now we do not get that benefit unless you are willing to sell your merchandise for no profit. You are free to decide that for yourselves if it is worth it. If you can live with the higher 30%+ in fees then maybe it will work for your business but it did not work for me. Hopefully ebay will realize when they promote items from poor performing sellers that give buyers a bad experience, those buyers won't come back to ebay for their next purchase.
12345jamesstamps
·1 year agoI am turning into a different direction.
Instead of me giving eBay higher fees for items that are promoted sold I have decided to give buyers items for sale real cheap looking for 'repeat buyers'.
eBay can't give me 'repeat buyers'...only I can.
My business plan is 'repeat buyers' and not just making a sale.
25% of my sales are usually repeat buyers...and 'honest buyers' if you know what I mean.
I have and still am promoting items where my 'same' items are cheaper than other sellers yet usually don't get sold.
Two factors come into play...free shipping and no tracking which lowers the cost of an eBay total fee.
So those algorithms do hit on those two factors. on my items for sale.
chapeau-noir
·1 year agoI've used various off-site promos on and off for some years, experimenting around. I've never found them to be worth the cost.
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gloryglorygifts
·1 year agoThanks for sharing your experience with us.
Personally, I wouldn't use offsite marketing for my ebay store. It's just fees on top of fees, on top of fees. I only use Google and social media account ads for my website. It is WAY more economical to do that.
redlinear
·1 year agoSo far, my deal with promotions (normal, offsite, pay per click). has been nothing but more work.
I sell more quantity, but the $$ is offset by the added fees. Thus, nothing but more work.
animal-house-8
·1 year agoI have tried the offsite promotions twice, I guess I didn't learn from the first time but it was not money well spend.
tobaccocardyahoo
·1 year agoThere are many skeptics about the value of internet advertising. It is not a surprise to see you become one as a result of your test.
A significant portion of my sales are tied to days when my listings get a higher number of external views than days with lower sales. That does not make me think that advertising on search engines will get me higher views or sales. But I sell products which are uncommon, scarce or rare, their search placement is high already.
simply-the-best-for-you
·1 year agoThank you for your very thorough post. You got more sales than I expected from it. I am curious about this, so I appreciate you taking the time to put it all out there for us!
stainlessenginecovers
·1 year agoThe 'advertising' expense has to
1.) make sense
2.) be temporary
I know a Corvette website that was paying $100,000 a month in advertising with Google (where not only is it being shown in the #1 position on their Search Engine, but also on the sides, top, bottom of every website you go to, on your phone, instagram etc etc.
They 'paid' their way to shut down a 25 year business (that was obviously profitable for the previous owners) in less than 2 years.
They were seen, but it never covered the profits.
That is poor decision making.
Therefore, someone needs to put a certain amount that they determine, aside for advertising for no more, yet no less, than 1 quarter (3 months); then access the obvious.
Anytime over that could cost you and any amount of time under that is not a true test.
Was it profitable over and above what I made the previous 3 months when I didn't advertise?
Home Depot, Lowes, Redbull- for example- pulled out of Nascar after being there for 20 years, because someone figured out the EXTRA profit made by being seen was NOT being covered by the cost.
apparelpal
OP1 year agoI got 45000 impressions making me less than $900, thats a pretty good sample size after 2 weeks. Every category of sales is different. There isn't much of a process or having much to think through to buy a pair of $100 sunglasses vs probably having to see 100 adds on a corvette before someone considers buying. It probably takes most buyers 3-4 months of thinking about it before they buy one so having a 4 month campagn makes more sense for larger items. Most people buy sunglasses on a whim. They loose a pair or are going on vacation and hop on ebay and buy one that day. Seeing these results after 2 weeks for me to know for certain this doesn't work for my category of items unless you think that 4x the impressions would translate to 16X sales which is what I would need to make it worth while. I would love to hear another experienced sellers data selling items similar to mine before I give it a second thought. Non sellers that give me their 2 cents about what they learned in their college marketing class is typically irrelevant to all the ins and outs of ebays additional advertising structure. Spending more in advertising doesn't always pay off and advertising for a longer time doesn't always make a difference.
stainlessenginecovers
·1 year agoA 'Corvette' site; meaning the 50,000 parts that fit a Corvette times 80 years of models for a grand total of 4,000,000+ items- so your analogy makes no sense.
Again- the amount of time you did it means nothing and is not NEARLY a large enough amount of time to figure anything.
naturalhealthstore
·1 year agoI had a similar experience and decided to opt out after a little over a week because it was too costly and wasn't worth it for me.
slippinjimmy
·1 year ago2 weeks of testing is nowhere near enough time especially for offsite promotions.
apparelpal
OP1 year agoReally? why is that? you are implying that something would change and I would get more sales with less exposure making my fees less and my sales more. In my opinion having over 45,000 impressions costing me $167 in those 2 weeks translating to $893 in sales is a pretty good sample size. What makes you think another 2 or 4 weeks would be different? even if it was twice as good and I made $1800 in 2 weeks and $167 in fees that is 23% in ebay fees per item sold, that does not work for name brand merchandise, ebay makes more per item than I do. Now if it was $4000 in additional sales in 2 weeks costing me $167 that might be justifiable for more sellers in my category but that would mean over 4x better results than the sample in the 2 week trial I gave it. Do you think I could expect a 4x improvement in an additional 2 weeks or even 2 months, if so why do you suppose that and what is your evidence? The problem is ebay is relying on sellers not checking their math and hoping they can get away with enough sellers assuming they are getting a good deal.
movieman630
·1 year agoIt's the PPC model. Pay per click is just not profitable. It's basically the retail version of the "House always wins."