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?

[duncanvr]

I always calculate PL into the cost of sales as the program does work. Numerous times a new buyer finds my items thanks to PL. I have tons of regular buyers but also happy to find new buyers, I consider Pl advertising cost and definitely worth while to cover the cost of it into sales. It also depends what you sell weather there is enough room to charge a few dollars more. My items are one off collectibles where as with common items each seller needs to weigh in if they want PL or not. I heard some doing 30%-50% add rate just to try to get the buy. In reality a higher percent should advert the item to more buyers but I've found trending rate is fine. If you don't use PL at all you would be waiting for someone to click on your item a longer time, again if its a common item. Probably items with PL are placed higher in search results to. But if you have a specific one off item you may not need PL if buyers specifically search for your item. Its also important to win buyers back in your store as repeat buyers will find your listings through a normal store search. And new buyers come from PL.

[cashvaluerecovery2011]

In my opinion promoted listings is nothing more than over paying for less. People avoid those "sponsored" listings like the plague. Users enjoy the filters to find what they want only to see higher priced items taking up space. Its insulting to try to out smart me the buyer into buying a more expensive item after i just filtered to least expensive. 

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

inhawaii: I don't increase my price for PL.  I do choose a PL rate that still provides me with an acceptable profit margin. Sometimes this is the trending rate, usually it is less than the trending rate. Experiment and figure out what works for you. 

duncanvr: eBay recently stated that it has adjusted its PL algo (or AI or whatever) to reduce the chance that someone choosing, say, 50%, would automatically get better placement just because they chose a higher rate than everyone else. So sellers who are using that tactic may find it isn't working as well as it had been. 

[southern*sweet*tea]

I tried PL a while back because of the $30 credit.  Didn't make a bit of difference, so I don't fool with them anymore.

As a buyer, I avoid them like the plague. I want organic search results. I don't want to see the pay to play crowd.

[mcdougle4248]

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@inhawaii wrote:

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?

---

I use promoted listings all the time and find it works very well.  This year my average conversion rate with organic (non promoted) listings is 9.5% and with promoted listings the average conversion rate is 17.67%.  TRS sellers get $30.00 per quarter credit on promoted listings fees and I always make sure I spend the entire $30.00 credit amount, sometimes a little more which is built in to my pricing.

IMHO, the success of promoted listings depends on the saturation levels in the categories you list most in.  At any given time there are between 42,000 - 45,000 items in my little niche (handmade Christmas ornaments) and close to 900,000 items covering the broader categories (Christmas ornaments), so I feel I need to promote to get visibility simply because there are so many items being returned in search.  YMMV

Experiment with a few items and see what your results are.  Remember the $30.00 credit, so you can try it with nothing to lose.

[uniwarehousewares]

i am using promoted listing from couple of years, its helps to sell, once selling history built then you can take off promotions and it will sell good. if there is competition then you have to promote and use generic keywords in your title.

[gwzcomps]

Waste of time with electronics.  Might work better if it triggered off the right keywords.

[bigdeals.etc]

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@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:

duncanvr: eBay recently stated that it has adjusted its PL algo (or AI or whatever) to reduce the chance that someone choosing, say, 50%, would automatically get better placement just because they chose a higher rate than everyone else. So sellers who are using that tactic may find it isn't working as well as it had been. 

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Wait, then what's the point of having 50% if you have the same chance as someone having 10% for that better placement? Doesn't seem to make sense to me.

[bigdeals.etc]

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@cashvaluerecovery2011 wrote:

In my opinion promoted listings is nothing more than over paying for less. People avoid those "sponsored" listings like the plague. Users enjoy the filters to find what they want only to see higher priced items taking up space. Its insulting to try to out smart me the buyer into buying a more expensive item after i just filtered to least expensive. 

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Yes I too as a buyer (even when I google search), always avoid these sponsored links. But that's not to say I follow the masses or not. I think most people who are online newbies will click onto the links.

This PL used to be way more beneficial back when ebay would display the listing twice within the search results... once within the PL placement up high on the results list, and another time within the organic placement of the listing (where your listing will sit when you don't have PL). So that gives the buyer a second chance to click on your listing if they skipped the first one.

I've used PL ever since they started. I have no idea if it's more beneficial for me overall. I'm sure there's listings I have that would actually organically place itself higher than the PL placement it gets... so obviously I'm wasting my money on those. It depends on each listing and I'm not going to monitor my listings that closely all the time (since placement changes all the time).

One method some people said you should at least try is to opt your listing into PL but do the lowest 1%. I'm sure everyone can afford 1% of their gross to make more sales (even if it results in one extra sale). That way you at least have your business card in the bowl. And if @my-cottage-books-and-antiques is correct, that's more the reason to do this.

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

bigdeals

There have always been a number of factors considered by ebay when it comes to PL placement. It has NEVER been a simple 10% will always be better placed than 5%. However, the weight given the various factors seems to have fluctuated over time, and I think eBay was giving preference to really high percentages in many cases. But eBay has said they are changing that up.....Of course, a 50% listing might still be higher than a 10%, but IF the 10% listing has other factors that outweigh the 50% listings, then , yes, the 10% can trump the 50%. Or so they are saying. Remember, ebay ONLY collects the PL fee if the item sells. If a 50% listing is way over-priced, has lousy sales history, poor photos, **bleep** item specifics, etc.....it probably isn't going to sell no matter how well placed. A 10% with great sales history, a price right at the sweet spot, generous return policy etc, has a better chance of selling. So....ebay can collect 50% of nothing, or 10% of something. That's why the 10% can win the better spot. 

[bigdeals.etc]

@my-cottage-books-and-antiques  Makes sense. I wonder how much will they "deviate" from the value of percentage difference. Because if it's drastic, then that kinda leaves PL pointless since all those other factors will benefit organic (non-PL) listings just as much.

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

bigdeals, I sell mostly used stuff, antiques, collectibles that kind of thing. If a buyer is doing a fairly specific search, there's a good chance my item will appear organically on the first or second page. So I don't really use PL to make sure I'm high up on the first page. I use it because there are pages other than the search results page where promoted listings show up, and I suspect most of my PL sales come from those pages. On those pages, I think my PL has a much better chance of showing up than my organic listing. 

[moondogblues]

I started out not even looking at Promoted Listings as the prices were too high, but now some of them are in line or lower than others.

[chapeau-noir]

I've found promoted listings to work well and sell quite a bit that way - I use them generally if I'm selling a common brand in my crowded category, and never go above trending.  In my experience people are just shopping, if they see the item and it's what they want and the price is right, they'll buy it - they just need to see the item. No ideology required.