Promoting is the new extra tax we all need to pay to play?
Summary: immadman321 inquired about strategies for using promoted listings on eBay, especially considering their diverse inventory and the challenge of maintaining profits. Several participants shared their experiences and strategies. stainlessenginecovers suggested promotions are key for visibility when items are highly competitive. christworks explained their tiered strategy based on item age, which helped optimize promotional spending. Others like annadryl found promoting at a minimal rate beneficial for increasing views. Conversely, squinkercat59 and others expressed skepticism about the value of promotions, opting instead for adjusting prices or running sales. Overall, the discussion highlighted varied approaches based on inventory type and competition.
I’m curious how other resellers approach promoted listings on eBay.
My goal is to sell most items within 30 to 60 days. I carry a very wide variety of inventory, so I do not have one specific target audience or product category that consistently brings buyers back to my store. or get repeat sellers because i also don't usually carry many multiples.
When I do not promote my listings, views and sales seem to slow down significantly. When I use promoted listings, I usually get better traffic and more sales, but the additional fees can eat into the profit, especially on lower-margin items.
Has anyone successfully reduced or completely stopped using promoted listings while still maintaining steady sales? Do you promote everything, only slow-moving items, or adjust the promotion rate based on competition and profit margin?
I would appreciate hearing what strategies have actually worked for other resellers with diverse inventory.
luckythewinner
·1 month ago · EditedIMHO you only need to "pay to play" when your items do not stand on their own merits.
electrola_man
·1 month agoI'm not sure promoting makes a difference. I can list an item one week and get no views. I can relist it the next week and get lots of views and maybe even a sale. I've never been able to make sense of the difference. If I end up with what appears to be a dead listing that seemingly gets no views, I'll end it, then relist or "sell similar" and change a word or two, and sometimes then it gets lots of attention.
soh.maryl
·1 month agoThe cost of promoting is not a tax, and shouldn't be described as one. You make a choice to promote your item. Taxes are mandatory and charged by governmental entities. See the difference?
kalyoth
·1 month agoI do not promote at all. No one should. ebay should work to make sellers happy not poorer. It's voluntary not obligated.
annadryl
·1 month agoI promote at the minimum 2% which is easy enough to work into my prices. It does get me a lot more views and sales.
byrd69er
·1 month agoI promote nothing. If I feel sales are slow, which the are, I'll just drop my price after a while. I may even raise it. I'm in no hurry.
purchase1212
·1 month agoI have never used promoted listings.
I run sales and also have best offers on all my items.
I reduce some prices at the end of the month when my sale ends.
I'd read (here, a few years ago) from sellers (who did some experimenting) that you got the best results promoting all your items and when you stopped promoting, sales died for a while.
inhawaii
·1 month agoI don't use promoted listings at all.
If someone wants what I'm selling, they'll find it and they'll buy it.
squinkercat59
·1 month agoI don't use promoted listings at all. It may be useful in over-saturated categories, but I try to stay away from that type of merchandise.
christworks
·1 month ago · Edited@immadman321 You are kind of a mixed bag seller like myself.
You do not have to promote to do well at selling items. You simply have to sell things that people want and are in active demand.
Prior to eBay's switch to halo promotions earlier this year, I promoted everything at a very low flat rate. Not every item I listed needed to be promoted, but because a part of my selling strategy is to list quickly, rather than to take the time to see if an item needs to be promoted, it was easier to promote it at the time of listing at the low flat rate. At the time, roughly 40% of my sales came from promotions.
When eBay changed how they attributed a promoted sale, I had to change up my approach to prevent my number of promoted sales jumping to 80%. I spent several months doing A/B testing to find out what worked for me and the inventory I sell.
Rather than have a single campaign that I dump every item into, I now have 4 campaigns. Each is set to a slightly different percentage based on how long an item has been listed. I now no longer promote any items at the time of listing. Only when an item has been listed for 90 days is it promoted. Other than a 5% offer, I also do not discount those items. This allows a period of time for items to sell at my asking price so I can maximize my profit.
After 90-days, the item is promoted at a very low rate. At 180-days it is promated at a rate that is 1% higher. I also re-evaluate the price if it is an item that I think should have sold by that point. At 270-days it is promoted another 1% higher. I do not go any higher than that. Instead I focus more on running sales for those items.
This new approach to promotions has ensured I’m not handing eBay money unnecessarily while preserving my preference for prioritizing listing speed. As an example, 21% of my sales this month have come from promoted listings. I've spent about $22 this month in ad fees, comparied to $35 in ad fees for July 1-18, 2025. eBay really did me a favor by going to halo promotions. Thank you, eBay!
tobaccocardyahoo
·1 month ago · EditedPromoting benefits you when your products have too many competitors for your listings to reach the eyes of the buyers.
If buyers are not looking for your products with a specific search which places your listings within the first few pages of search results, no one will see the impressions.
Promotion is one of the few pays you can get any eyes on many products which are common and readily available, and it costs money
I have one listing out of over 5k listings promoted and it gets few views. The others would have similar results. But many of my listings appear on the first page of a likely search, and some are even in the top 20 results.
bashort
·1 month agoI refuse to parctipate
stainlessenginecovers
·1 month ago@bashort 'refusing' and 'not needing' are 2 different worlds. For what you sell, you do NOT need 'promotions'. Not enough people selling to try to 'get to the top'. Would be a waste of money.
bashort
·1 month agotrue, I see you have the no need to promote thing going also, I like what you do
stainlessenginecovers
·1 month ago · EditedDo you understand what 'promotions' are for?
You have items that, when keywords are used to search (how a buyer would search) have less than 100 shown- promotions are NOT the smartest bet with those items.
The purpose is to get your item on the 1st page, near the top if possible.
2nd- you have to be the lowest price as when someone gets to your item, there are 4 others shown right below your picture.
Busybox, for 1, has some for under $40 while you are $60. Will lose almost everytime.