Has anyone experimented with Promoted Listings?

[inhawaii]

Has anyone tried to list something with promoted listings and just raise the price of the item by the amount of the promoted listing fee?

$100 item listed without promoted listing.

vs

$105 item listed with promoted listing ($5 charge).

Which listing would sell more?

[moondogblues]

Hi Chapeau!  Waving from the cold and windy OR coast...

[onlinecentral]

In 2017 I made 36% after all expenses, but before taxes.
In 2018 I made 43% after all expenses, but before taxes.
If I would promote at 50%, then I would operate somewhere between -7 and -14 percent.
If I would promote at 20%, then I would operate somewhere between 16 and 23 percent.
If I would promote some lesser %, then I would operate somewhere.
The point is, all are too large of a pay cut.

So I considered raising the price to cover the PL fee.
If I promote at 20%, I need to raise my price by 28% to maintain the same income.
Then sales would plummet, causing too large of a pay cut.

I am good at math, mechanically inclined, etc. and can normally figure things out.
Promoted Listings has me bewildered.
Can someone:
Draw a bell shaped curve or parabola?
Share the mathematical equation they use to determine the optimum percentage to promote?
Give me a link to a page with a Promoted Listings Mathematical Calculator?

[207surfdude]

I promote my entire store at 1% and I have a 30-40% increase in sales which is the same that you would see for sellers who pay for a higher rate. If you are selling quality items that people actually want then there is no difference in paying 1% or 20%, that's just more money out of your pocket. 

[eunster1313]

[Anonymous]

I use promoted listings, but the credits I get generally cover the fees. I think I've only gone over my allotted credits by about $15-20 in the lifetime of the program.

I generate a lot more sales from running promotions (markdowns, order discounts, shipping discounts, etc) than I do from promoted listings. Promoted listings do offer a small sales boost though, so I still use them.

You have a lot of products that should perform well with Buy 1/Get 1 promotions, especially your food and candy items.

I avoid clicking on a promoted listing if I see the same listing in organic search results - figure I'll save the seller some fees. But otherwise, I have zero problems clicking on a promoted listing if I'm interested in the product. Some categories are pretty saturated so organic search results might not pull up the promoted listing on the first couple of pages.

The answer to the question about whether charging $100 or $105 will affect sales depends largely on what your competitors of the same product are charging - both  on eBay and off.

[duncanvr]

If a buyer is searching in the collectible category I sell in but not looking in my store. Then PL shows them my listing and suddenly it sells to that buyer. They may not have found my listing otherwise in an organic search to many results. They were not looking for it but my listings attract a certain type of collector so PL works for me at trending. Its different for me all my items are one off. If your selling common goods I could see many buyers ignoring sponsored ads. But for me trending rate gets new buyers to my store week in week out. So I continue to use it. 

[24ra_20]

Actually...

I go for DOUBLE the average % it tells you...

Then I DOUBLE the raise of the price of the item.

For example:

$100 item price, 4% average promotion....

I promote my item to 8% and make the price $116

All my items are that way now.

No exceptions.

More money for me, more money for ebay, everyone's happy pappy.

Until everyone else starts doing it, then we're all right back to square one...

Also I wonder how Cassini is going to handle results if we ALL have promoted listings.

Let the race to the bottom begin.

[mr_lincoln]

@inhawaii   I make Promoted Listing Campaigns very simple.  When I am ready to move items along or try and stimulate sales I put every single GTC listing on a 30 day Campaign for a fixed % of promotion ... usually between 5% and 10% and let 'em rip.  I do this no more than once a quarter taking advantage of the (per quarter) $ 30 PL credit eBay offers.   So in round numbers if I use the 5% that means the first $ 600 in sales will not cost me anything once the $ 30 credit is applied. 

[duncanvr]

Canadian buyer was not even in my shop just now and he just bought 3 of my items at $65 all sold via promoted listing which means he found my items looking at other seller listings. I'll take the sales one I would not likely have gotten without the help of PL. All 3 at trending rates. Again I sell vintage paper items letters, postcards etc so PL is an advantage as this area is flooded with listings by hundreds of sellers. Although each item is unique PL does advert your items in more than just search results, also on other seller listings I believe. I'm not sure with mobile phone searching does PL flash the listing straight onto buyers phone?

[go-bad-chicken]

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@duncanvr wrote:

Canadian buyer was not even in my shop just now and he just bought 3 of my items at $65 all sold via promoted listing which means he found my items looking at other seller listings. I'll take the sales one I would not likely have gotten without the help of PL. All 3 at trending rates. Again I sell vintage paper items letters, postcards etc so PL is an advantage as this area is flooded with listings by hundreds of sellers. Although each item is unique PL does advert your items in more than just search results, also on other seller listings I believe. I'm not sure with mobile phone searching does PL flash the listing straight onto buyers phone?

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More than likely the answer is no. The buyer probably did not make their purchases via another seller's listings but rather purchased those 3 items via your own Sponsored Listings placed within each of your actual listings from the Sponsored Listings carousel that eBay placed on your own listings.

This is a screenshot of the Sponsored Listings FROM ONE OF YOUR ACTUAL LISTINGS.

The buyer made a Sponsored Listings purchase from your own listing.

This is one of your listings looking at them from a buyers perspective. Those Sponsored listings are your own.

 

In other words one of your own listings just advertised your own Sponsored Listings Ads.

This is one of the many points that I take issue with regarding eBay's Sponsored Listing's program. When it was initially introduced, I thought that I would be paying to advertise on other seller's listings.

NEVER IN A MILLION YEARS DID I EVER THINK THAT I WOULD BE PAYING TO ADVERTISE WITHIN MY OWN LISTINGS. AND THAT IS CONTENT THAT I CREATED.

WHERE DOES EBAY DESERVE TO COLLECT A COMMISSION FROM CONTENT THAT SELLERS CREATE?

[reallynicestamps]

I've been using PL since last November.

The COVID surge in sales from March to July (apparently now over) messed up any statistics, so this is anecdote not data.

• Five per cent is four per cent too high.
• EBay's "trending" rate is their fantasy.
• PL leads to more Views
• PL does not lead to more sales of PL listings, but does lead to more sales of other items.
• If it doesn't sell, I pay nothing. My kind of promotion-- free.

I have more than 20 years of statistics but I won't really be able to make useful comparisons until November 2020 through March 2021, when I can compare with the 2018 through 2019 numbers with the 2019 though 2021 numbers.

[reallynicestamps]

As a Global TRS, I don't get any $30 bonus for PL. If a PL item sells, I pay for it from my profit. But as I say, what seems to happen is that the PL brings the boys to the yard, but they buy something else , not the PL milkshake.

[sookie*stackhouse]

I can teach you but I have to charge.  lol

[chapeau-noir]

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@moondogblues wrote:

Hi Chapeau!  Waving from the cold and windy OR coast...

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It was 56 as a high yesterday here and rainy - I was fine with that.  The DH complained the entire day about it - taking breaks from work to look out the window, look at the thermometer on the back deck, look out the window again, muttering about the bad weather, walking down the hall from his office to my study to announce the bad weather.  As far as I was concerned, it was perfect trail running weather and off I went.  Then a cup of hot tea and prop up my feet with my Kindle.

[simply-the-best-for-you]

Too many variables to answer OP's question directly, all I can say is that for me, PL's have been a HUGE game changer.  Well over doubling my sales & close to tripling them.  I sell in a crowded category though with lots of competition.   

At first I wasn't really hot on them, for many of the reasons discussed here, Ebay left everything so nebulous & didn't (& still doesn't ) really define what you're paying for or give any real guidance as to what you get for the different rates.   I played around with it some & had no success. 

Then I experimented with the free $30 credit that store owners get & I started doing better.  The real game changer for me came when I put it on ALL or almost all of my listings.  Suddenly, my sales increased dramatically.   I've done so well with them, that I'm on target again for double to triple the sales compared to when I didn't have PL's.  Even in this weird year.   In fact, right now is a historically slow time for my category & around 90-95% of my sales right now are PL sales.   I raise some prices to account for it & others not, it just depends. 

For me, they've been a game changer!