eBay

sin-n-dex · ‎06-12-2019

So I started with the promoted listings on Jun 4. I assigned around 0.5% higher on the really common stuff, and then a basic 2% on anything with bad margins, and 5% on tokens (the rate was 7.8-9.9 but that's too high for what I sell).

I found out from last month's report that I had 200,000 impressions of my listings, and we're 8 days in and I've had over 300,000 impressions. So from my perspective, this method is working because my stuff is being seen instead of buried on page 9. There's a number of clicks, so buyers find the items interesting.

As for sales, there have been 10 as a result of promoted listings, and a few of those buyers bought other things in my store (one buyer bought a British token, and then 8 additional items in the store for a sale of $140). So I'm thinking this works.

As for dollar value, I got double what I usually get over the weekend.

So I think with all this data that the promotions will work for most sellers, provided:

1. Your margins are wide enough to pay an additional percentage of your sale

2. Buyers are interested in your item after looking at your listing (the biggest complain I read here is buyers complain about not being seen. If you aren't seen, you can't sell. The promoted listings gets your items seen).

3. Additional sales will likely happen if you combine shipping, and have items that people will buy in groups (in my store people usually buy a few world coins or a few tokens together in one group).

Interested to hear how the promoted listings did or didn't work for other sellers.

C.

tunicaslot · ‎06-12-2019

@sin-n-dex wrote:
So I started with the promoted listings on Jun 4. I assigned around 0.5% higher on the really common stuff, and then a basic 2% on anything with bad margins, and 5% on tokens (the rate was 7.8-9.9 but that's too high for what I sell).

I found out from last month's report that I had 200,000 impressions of my listings, and we're 8 days in and I've had over 300,000 impressions. So from my perspective, this method is working because my stuff is being seen instead of buried on page 9. There's a number of clicks, so buyers find the items interesting.

As for sales, there have been 10 as a result of promoted listings, and a few of those buyers bought other things in my store (one buyer bought a British token, and then 8 additional items in the store for a sale of $140). So I'm thinking this works.

As for dollar value, I got double what I usually get over the weekend.

So I think with all this data that the promotions will work for most sellers, provided:
1. Your margins are wide enough to pay an additional percentage of your sale
2. Buyers are interested in your item after looking at your listing (the biggest complain I read here is buyers complain about not being seen. If you aren't seen, you can't sell. The promoted listings gets your items seen).
3. Additional sales will likely happen if you combine shipping, and have items that people will buy in groups (in my store people usually buy a few world coins or a few tokens together in one group).

Interested to hear how the promoted listings did or didn't work for other sellers.

C.

I'm glad it working out for you! I use promoted but only at 1% - I don't promote at all on the other site and have sales. I did raise it here to trending but found that there was no difference in the amt of sales and there was not much difference in impressions. With so many categories tho - I'm sure there is better success in some rather than others. Despite promoting all my listings 1% - my sales are split about 50/50 as to which listing the item is bought from.

luckythewinner · ‎06-12-2019

@sin-n-dex wrote:
So I think with all this data that the promotions will work for most sellers, provided:

"All this data" is actually an itsy bitsy teensy weensy miniscule spec of a sample size.

IMHO it is never accurate to examine a single eBay seller's experience and use it to make sweeping generalizations about millions of other sellers.

femmefan1946 · ‎06-12-2019

I've definitely seen more Views on Promoted items, but no more sales than usual of those.

tunicaslot · ‎06-12-2019

Tagging - why is it we are treating long time sellers and posters so badly?? It's her opinion and she said she thinks. What has worked for her unfortunately has not been my experience with promoted listings but if she's figured out a way to use them to benefit her business - than good for her!

this*old*attic · ‎06-12-2019

I don’t think it was intended But to be mean.

OP wasn’t giving anything even remotely scientific in terms of reporting a statistically relevant sampling.

“Hey, I tried this and got good results! I’m pleased!” on the other hand, is totally legitimate.

We learn and support each other sharing and communicating like this.

But words do matter.

sin-n-dex · ‎06-13-2019

@tunicaslot wrote:
I'm glad it working out for you! I use promoted but only at 1% - I don't promote at all on the other site and have sales. I did raise it here to trending but found that there was no difference in the amt of sales and there was not much difference in impressions. With so many categories tho - I'm sure there is better success in some rather than others. Despite promoting all my listings 1% - my sales are split about 50/50 as to which listing the item is bought from.

I'm on another site too (not coins - handbags and jewellery). I didn't do promoted listings there because you pay for clicks, not sales, and paying for a bunch of curious shoppers to take a closer look at what you have is not viable financially (for me anyway).

I could reduce the rates to 1%, but I think if many people are bidding on the promoted listing, the algorithm has to rank somehow, and I figure the more you bid for promoting, the more likely you'll be seen on top. (I did notice yesterday when searching sold items to compare with a box of coin sets I got, that some of these promoted listings were showing up on the top of the search of solds). I also noticed, the promoted listings for these coin sets was considerably more expensive than what the solds showed as real sales.

I don't mark up prices to do promoted listings, but run the math in my head as to whether or not it makes sense to promote that listing and for how much. I never thought paying 10% was ever a good idea, but I did pay 7-8% on certain items that are very popular with good margins.

C.

sin-n-dex · ‎06-13-2019

@luckythewinner wrote:
@sin-n-dex wrote:
So I think with all this data that the promotions will work for most sellers, provided:
"All this data" is actually an itsy bitsy teensy weensy miniscule spec of a sample size.

IMHO it is never accurate to examine a single eBay seller's experience and use it to make sweeping generalizations about millions of other sellers.

I'm not doing surveys for eBay, so I can only speak for myself. Of course it doesn't work for everyone, but what I was trying to say, is if you get seen more, you may sell more, if buyers actually want to buy the item. That was the salient piece of information, the rest was just an account of what I did so I could explain from the beginning.

C.

charity_scents · ‎06-13-2019

Glad you are seeing some positive results.

I was doing promotions on several items. After GTC started, even with promotions my items were placing lower and lower on search results (if you could even get search results to narrow down to something you were trying to retrieve). I tried taking promotions off, then putting them back on. I tried the Mark Down manager. I tried Sales Promotions. With GTC, the items just kept moving further down. I turned all promotions off as a result.

Think I'm going to end my items early, then relist similar to change the listing number and get a fresh start. I may add info in my listings that they will be ended early.