Promoted Listing Test Results ----Tiny Test of Dynamic Rate

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

I'm not making any big claims for this. I ran a tiny test simply because I was curious. A longer test, a test with more listings or different listings, etc, could well have a very different result. But, for what it's worth:

I chose four items, more or less at random. All long tail, single quantity items, none with watchers , and frankly, none with a high expectation of selling at the current price, regardless of PLS. They are long tail, not "hot" items.

OK, so I chose 4 items. I ran the PLS campaign from July 5th to today. So far today , I received no views and no sales. Impressions increased as each day passed.

However, the point of the test was to see what happened to the rates. I used the dynamic rate tool. I set the cap at 20%. I did not use the plus/minus tool.

On the day I listed, the recommended rates were : 1 at 7%, 1 at 10% and 2 at 11%. 

Remember, my cap was 20%.

What happened to the rates?

NOTHING.

They did not go down, they did not go up. If even the highest rate had sold, it would have sold at 11%, not 20%. 

Now, I'm not saying this "proves" much of anything. I might try running a longer test, with more items. I have seen rates go down and up in the past, so I know that happens.

The one thing I can say is: In this test, ebay did not push the rates up to the level of the cap. 

I will make this point again:

IF you are not going to use PLS, then don't. I'm not trying to persuade anyone to use it or not.

IF you are going to use it, and IF you are going to use it at something other than 2 or 3%, definitely consider using Dynamic instead of Fixed Rate.

Consider this case: If I had foolishly chosen 20% fixed rate---and we know some sellers do this sort of thing---then any sale I got would have been charged 20% PLS----because that's what I chose.

But with the Dynamic Rate, in this case, even though my cap was 20%, I would have ended up paying 7%, 10% or 11%.

Aside from the convenience of setting the dynamic rate, this is a real advantage over fixed rate.

At a low rate, like 2 or 3%, it doesn't make much difference. But IF you are opting for a higher rate, I do recommend dynamic over flat....and of course, use the cap.

[mynewfindstore]

That is exactly what I do....have a cap!  I find it crazy that their suggested cap rate is 25%!  lol

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

Yeah, I don't take that 25% very seriously LOL. 

Yeah, using Dynamic Rate without a cap is pure foolishness. Hard to imagine anyone claiming to be in business doing something like that, but I've seen people doing it, so I guess there will always be some who just don't take the time to understand what they are doing.

To me, while  the cap is optional, I think of it as a necessity. 

But again, besides convenience, I would stress that the reason to use Dynamic instead of Fixed Rate is because it can end up saving you money, compared to Fixed Rate.

[cardxcraft]

You should have some controls that are unbound by any pl cap..  This way you can say whether or not the pl tends to float around 80% of your maximum cap....or, it would allow you to state that control items with no pl cap, also performed similar under testing procedure.

Anyways, thanks for posting.

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

@cardxcraft  Thanks for the suggestion. I chose 20% as the cap because I figured it was high enough that ebay would have financial incentive to increase the rates towards 20%, if not all the way up to 20%. I also chose a cap because without it, I put myself at risk of an even higher rate, and saw no need to do that. I don't really want to pay ebay a 20% PL, and I sure don't want to pay more than that, but I did take a slight risk even with the cap.

Again, I think different items, different duration, etc would probably yield somewhat different results...this was just one little test. 

[martin2001]

I appreciate your test and taking the time to post the results. The only problem with the conclusions, i.e. you seem to be happy that ebay did not drive up the rates to 20%, is that nothing has sold.

Although it is interesting to see the dynamic rates "in action", the only test that would have some meaning would be to see at what rates your items would sell. I think the reason the rates did not go up further is, that ebay (of course ebay's "AI") came to the conclusion that there is a very little chance that your item would sell at even 20%.

I sell unique items. All my items are promoted. My fixed rate is always well below the recommended rate. I used to use 1% but this has been outlawed, I now use 3% or 4%. (the recommended rate is usually 7-10%). I would say that 90% items were sold via promotion.

[mcdougle4248]

I am doing a bit of testing myself, although my testing is different from yours, I hope you do not mind my sharing the results (so far) here in your thread.

I promote all of my listings.  I usually have between 240-250 listings at all times.  My listings are all in the same eBay category.  My listings are all similar-type items.  The suggested rate has been between 8.6-11.4 during the test period.

Referencing ended campaigns:

As you can see in my screenshot below, I am seeing better results using Fixed than when using Dynamic.

Note:  Where you see 10% Max in the screenshot, 10% was the Cap amount for the Dynamic strategy.

Referencing the active campaign:

I am currently testing another strategy with fixed rates, starting low at 6% and gradually increasing to the current rate you see now, which is 9%.  It is too early in the test to show results, however, 9 days into the test the results are poor for sales. 

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

@martin2001 Thanks for your comments. I was testing ONLY to see what changes came to the rates. The cap was high enough that, if ebay WANTED to increase the rates, ebay could have. Plenty of room to do so.

Now, this is one small test, and I hesitate to read too much into this, but this suggests to me that ebay is not, as some have suggested, arbitrarily increasing the rates just because they can.

I have some other tests in mind, and will post the results when they have concluded.

If you are selling unique items, PLS might not increase your sales velocity by that much, and if it does increase your sales velocity, it can probably do so at a relatively low rate. I believe ebay's Griff has repeatedly recommended that sellers test there way into PLS, and try to figure out what the lowest rates are that still drive sales at a rate that allows for profitability.

My guess is, for more common items, 2 or 3% might not move the needle very much. I've said many, many times that the PLS rate is only one of MANY factors, and the assumption many sellers make: I must go higher and higher, is just plain wrong. IF a seller can do well at a fixed 3%, then use it. As I said above, my recommendation for Dynamic Rate is IF you have REASON to be above the 2 or 3% range. 

As I say, I have some more tests in mind. We'll see....

[ten_o_nine]

It seems "sales" were lost in the test.😁

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

@mcdougle4248  Thanks for sharing! Interesting results. The Dynamic Rate, as I said, might save you money, but that has limited value if the flat rate drives appreciably more sales, as your test suggests. Looks like I might be running a few more tests LOL

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

@ten_o_nine I wasn't looking for sales. At (potentially) a 20% PLS I was kind of hoping I wouldn't get any sales. I wasn't testing whether PLS would get me sales. I was testing how ebay handled the rates.

[mcdougle4248]

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@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:

@mcdougle4248  Thanks for sharing! Interesting results. The Dynamic Rate, as I said, might save you money, but that has limited value if the flat rate drives appreciably more sales, as your test suggests. Looks like I might be running a few more tests LOL

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Yes, I think testing is required to find the strategy that will work best for each seller.  The next test I plan will use the Dynamic strategy without a cap.  I feel brave Lol 

ETA:  My items are all low-cost, so the risk is minimal.

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

@mcdougle4248  Yes, if I were setting up a regular dynamic campaign, I'd use a cap. But my little test suggests (but doesn't prove, of course) that , while a cap can reduce risk, going capless doesn't mean you are likely to suddenly find yourself selling at 50% or higher rates....

The cap reduces the risk, but the risk of most items leaping from, say, a 7% recommended rate to 90% if capless is pretty small to begin with.

Looking forward to seeing your results.

[the-hook-and-the-loop]

I have had 20-40 sales everyday for 4 years. I ran a test and used Promoted Listings Standard as I always have on all listings and even increased rates to what eBay suggests, in some cases 18.9%. Then since sales sucked, I created a Promoted Listings Advanced campaign along with a Promoted Display campaign and also threw in an Offsite Ads campaign. I'm saw my worst days ever with below 10 sales. Some are repeat customers. I have also sent out ridiculous coupons to followers and buyers that have made purchases recently. I have concluded that I will be ending all of eBay's games. I don't want to play with all of their new toys(tools). I will rely on my products and service and reach out for customers directly.

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

@the-hook-and-the-loop  Good for you! You tested and, in your case, found these tools didn't work for your business. You sell in a narrow niche, you have (as I understand it) a strong repeat customer base...sounds like you can just keep on doing what you've been doing, and if that continues to work, great!