Do Promoted Listings Actually Help Make Sales?

[mpssupershop]

I've tried using promoted listings a lot in the past to try and help speed up the process of selling my items, and have found that most of the time, it barely seems to actually help your items even get any extra views, let alone sold, and that whatever assistance it does provide in selling your items faster is usually not worth the extra money it takes from your profits. What's your experience with promoted listings?

[siamjane8]

Same here. We have tried several promoted listing campaigns over the years and it's just frustrating. A few more sales but at the cost of profit. PL just move more money out of sellers pockets and into eBay.  If I am going to give more money to eBay I need a WOW factor. And it's not there... Still end up selling the same amount in a months time so not worth it. 

[safan80]

In short NO.

The only thing the buyer cares about is the item they are searching for and the PRICE of said item.

I used a promoted list once back in the DAY when I first wanted to sell something. It did not help. If I want something gone it has to be priced to sell and market conditions tell you want the price IS.

[slippinjimmy]

My experience is that if buyers don't want what you are selling Promoting won't do much for you.

[chapeau-noir]

Promotions, IMHO, are better used in super-saturated categories with super-saturated brands. I don't see the point otherwise.

There is a lot of stuff on here that I'm not sure would ever sell no matter what. I try really hard not to source things like that, but I've had duds, too.

[lakefor94]

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@chapeau-noir wrote:

Promotions, IMHO, are better used in super-saturated categories with super-saturated brands. I don't see the point otherwise.

There is a lot of stuff on here that I'm not sure would ever sell no matter what. I try really hard not to source things like that, but I've had duds, too.

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True. If you don't have a ton of competition, it won't do much for you. It is for the sellers in highly competitive markets. 

I am doing 2% now. Just another experiment. It is not doing anything much for sales. 1 out of every 10 sales comes from a so-called promotion. 

I guess I like throwing a little money around.....

Off topic: I can say for sure that sales have picked up for me quite nicely over the last month. Kind of surprised. 

A nice mix of newly listed item sales and quite a lot of the older listings.  Hard to figure out why the older stuff all the sudden picked up so much. 

[ajs_coins_and_alchemy]

BIG FAT YES!!!!!!! ... sorry this is a long post but I feel extremely strongly about this

Now this is somewhat empirical and somewhat anectdotal as I can not draw a line for cause-effect.

Did I not list much during the time in question and thus no new listings meant the algorithms frowned upon me? Did some other factor play in? I've been using promoted listings consistently for over a year. I promote across the board at 3%, no more no less. Maybe a handful of items are not promoted or promoted at 5%. But thats a drop in the bucket, everything is 3%.

In May my sales were down to begin with (~$6k for the month). I decided my sales were already down and I wasn't on a hot streak so it was the perfect time to experiment, so I turned off Promoted Listings and un-promoted EVERYTHING... HAH! My sales found a nearby cliff and jumped off it head first. I think my sales went down to 1/4 of what they were. They were already slow and I literally dropped 75%. That was rough.

I went back to doing promotions after 2-3 wks, and my sales jumped back up at least 5x. Now I'm doing even more than that but I have more new listings and other factors.

Moral of the story here, for me, in the coin market... I already have a significant discount on EBay FVF because I pay for a store subscription (13.25% gets cut down to 9% for Coins and 7.35% for Bullion), I have plenty of room for 3% and honestly 3% promotion is fully baked into my cost of doing business. I don't "lose" because promotions, I just make more money if my item sells w/o buyer clicking an ad.

My Listing Impressions from Promotions are like ridiculously high, I have no clue maybe 10-20x impressions? It's almost all non-search impressions so it's showing up on buyers home pages and on other people's listings. More than half of my page views come from promoted ad clicks.

Again, I have no clue if anything else was at play, so I may not be able to attribute 100% of the change to promotions, but a 75% drop and a 5x spike, thats a LOT so a significant amount is attributed to promotions. If a 3% ad fee which I already have baked into my cost of doing business allows me to maintain a significant increase in sales, that allows me to turn over inventory faster and make more money faster. It may "lower my margin" nominally, but I make up for that EXPONENTIALLY, a million times over, in the volume it allows me to do and can make me a lot more money long term. (3% ad fee is a truly insignificant portion of my margin anyways to begin with, I don't believe I would notice the difference anyway).

[ajs_coins_and_alchemy]

P.S. I'm using PL Standard not PL Advanced

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

@ajs_coins_and_alchemy " It may "lower my margin" nominally, but I make up for that EXPONENTIALLY, a million times over, in the volume it allows me to do and can make me a lot more money long term. (3% ad fee is a truly insignificant portion of my margin anyways to begin with, I don't believe I would notice the difference anyway)."

I've been making this point over and over again....PLS has value IF it increases your sales velocity by an amount that more than makes up for the extra you pay for PLS sales. That, after all, is the whole point of advertising anywhere----you want to increase your sales velocity AND your ultimate profit. 

None of this means PLS works well for everyone. So much depends on what you sell, what your normal margins are, etc. Which is why sellers who are interested in it should test it for themselves (starting with low rates, not ebay's suggested rates)

[atlasesattic]

I do 10 to 12 % promoted since its summer and sales are slow...since going from 2 % to 10% my sales have gotten better...got to do what you got to do....making something is better nothing, I recently also changed over to free shipping as well so that could be part of it too...my advertising dashboard shows green arrows pointing up, so that's a good thing.

[kensgiftshop]

I haven't tried them recently, but did years ago, and I don't think it made any difference.

I think the only thing that's going to help is for Ebay to get the search engine fixed so people can find what they are looking for.

You can promote all you want, but if it isn't what the buyers looking for, it won't make any difference.

[ajs_coins_and_alchemy]

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@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:

@ajs_coins_and_alchemy " It may "lower my margin" nominally, but I make up for that EXPONENTIALLY, a million times over, in the volume it allows me to do and can make me a lot more money long term. (3% ad fee is a truly insignificant portion of my margin anyways to begin with, I don't believe I would notice the difference anyway)."

I've been making this point over and over again....PLS has value IF it increases your sales velocity by an amount that more than makes up for the extra you pay for PLS sales. That, after all, is the whole point of advertising anywhere----you want to increase your sales velocity AND your ultimate profit. 

None of this means PLS works well for everyone. So much depends on what you sell, what your normal margins are, etc. Which is why sellers who are interested in it should test it for themselves (starting with low rates, not ebay's suggested rates)

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Agreed, but OP simply asked for others experiences. I never suggested it works for everyone, I simply shared my experience as requested.

[ebeths_eclectic_collectibles]

It is going to depend a lot on what you are selling. Are there dozens or hundreds of sellers selling the exact same product? In that case you really need to stand out. Of course having a competitive price and free or reasonable shipping is also going to help get you noticed. Good photos can’t hurt either.

On the other hand are you selling items with few other sellers. Items that are going to get searched by very specific key words. If you are the only one selling a specific collectible or there are few others for sale, for example, you should theoretically pop up high on a search with the right key words

[simply-the-best-for-you]

Around 80% of my sales are PL's & have been for quite awhile, so absolutely.  But it depends on what you sell.  I'm in a super-saturated category. 

ETA: I did a lot of experimenting at first & found that PL's ONLY work for me when I promote almost everything.  If I cherry-picked, there was virtually no result. 

[inhawaii]

Promoted listings MAY increase sales, but it certainly wont hurt sales.