eBay

valueaddedresource · ‎09-20-2021

I know the big buzz right now is about Promoted Listings Advanced cost per click ads, but this post, and the answer from the ads teams, made me curious if Promoted Listings Express is live now as well and if so, has anyone here been using it?

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Promotional-fees/m-p/32288155

One interesting thing I noticed was this page says in one spot it's for "consumer to consumer sellers".

https://pages.ebay.com/seller-center/listing-and-marketing/promoted-listings-express.html#m22_tb_a1_...

I asked on that other thread if that means sellers with a personal account only, not a business account. If it does, that would seem very odd to me since I would think there would be plenty of business sellers, who may be interested in being able to promote their auctions, especially in collectibles.

Apparently it's currently only available through the app and it sounds like it's very different from the other types of promoted listings - you aren't shown the option to promote until after you list the item and it is a tiered flat rate fee based on category and length of auction.

How Promoted Listings Express works
When you promote your listings with Promoted Listings Express, you’ll pay a flat fee upfront to place your listing as a sponsored ad on similar listings. When a buyer clicks on the sponsored ad, they’ll be taken to your listing.

Fees for using Promoted Listings Express
Your Express ad fee will depend on the length of your auction-style listing and the category you select when listing your item. When promoting your listing, you will see the fee clearly stated before confirming your purchase, and will be charged immediately.

Express ad fees will be listed on your Transactions page within the Payments section in My eBay.

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/listings/listing-tips/promoted-listings-express?id=5277&st=12&pos=...

Maybe I'm missing something but it would seem to me to be awfully risky to pay an upfront flat fee just for possible impressions (not even clicks, let alone an actual sale) especially when you have no way to know how much the final bid is going to be.

I'm really curious what sellers who use auctions think of how this is set up.

katzrul15 · ‎11-01-2021

@valueaddedresource wrote:
For those who are keeping tabs - tested doing a new listing of the same sneakers, same price, same duration etc. and was still shown the same $2.99.

And just another data point to throw into the mix - a 7 day auction in Motors>Parts & Accessories>Boat Parts>Controls & Steering with a starting price of $30 was showing a whopping $7.99 ad fee.

Yikes on the $7.99.......

....... "The Ranger isn't gonna like it Yogi"......... Boo-Boo knew what he was talking about!

Posting ID Only.......
Yes, I have no Bananas, only Flamethrowers.......

valueaddedresource · ‎11-01-2021

@katzrul15 wrote:
@valueaddedresource wrote:
For those who are keeping tabs - tested doing a new listing of the same sneakers, same price, same duration etc. and was still shown the same $2.99.

And just another data point to throw into the mix - a 7 day auction in Motors>Parts & Accessories>Boat Parts>Controls & Steering with a starting price of $30 was showing a whopping $7.99 ad fee.
Yikes on the $7.99.......

@katzrul15 exactly. If that item were to only get one bid, that would be a 26%+ fee.

For reference, same item on Buy It Now has a suggested rate of 6.5% for PLS right now. And of course you'd only pay that if it actually sold.

$7.99 even if it doesn't sell? Really not sure how eBay could justify that or make me think it would be worth the risk.

my-cottage-books-and-antiques · ‎11-01-2021

@valueaddedresource on the boat item, what sort of price would you be getting for that if it were sold as a Buy It Now? I wonder if ebay's algo is looking at solds for the item in question, and is considering that as a factor? If the part normally sells for $500.00, $7.99 isn't so high IF you get enough bids....But yeah, if the item sells for the opening bid, that's pretty pricey. And, am I right, if it doesn't sell at all, you are still out the $7.99? $7.99 is a hard "no" unless I feel very confident that the item will sell for a good bit more than the opening bid. And if I'm THAT confident, do I really need the extra exposure?

valueaddedresource · ‎11-01-2021

@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:
@valueaddedresource on the boat item, what sort of price would you be getting for that if it were sold as a Buy It Now? I wonder if ebay's algo is looking at solds for the item in question, and is considering that as a factor? If the part normally sells for $500.00, $7.99 isn't so high IF you get enough bids....But yeah, if the item sells for the opening bid, that's pretty pricey. And, am I right, if it doesn't sell at all, you are still out the $7.99? $7.99 is a hard "no" unless I feel very confident that the item will sell for a good bit more than the opening bid. And if I'm THAT confident, do I really need the extra exposure?

@my-cottage-books-and-antiques that item new would normally go for about $100, but in this case it was a returned item that had been opened so the auction listing was done as "used" condition and started at that low price just to try to recoup something.

I don't see any used ones in searching recent sold listings so not sure what comp would be in that condition.

Yes, you are correct that if it doesn't sell you would still be out that $7.99. $7.99 on a $30 sale would sting badly enough, but $7.99 and no sale would be worse.

Definitely agree with you that this is something I likely only would use on something I was confident would sell for a price I'd be comfortable with paying whatever the ad rate is - and like you my first question would be if I'm that confident, do I really need the extra exposure?

I would hope *if* eBay is using average sold price as part of the algo they are also using condition to make sure they are comparing apples to apples. I would also hope if they do use average sold price as part of it they would spell that out explicitly in the FAQ - so far what we've been told is it is based on duration and category but everything else is just a "variety of factors." It would be nice to have a little more detail on the variety.

adsteam@ebay - is either starting price of the auction or average sold price part of the determination for the fee for Promoted Listings Express?

If average sold price is considered, is eBay also considering condition?

Anonymous · ‎11-01-2021

I make my listings on the app, and caught a beta of it a month ago as I was making a listing.

First I ever heard of it, and did not partake. It offered a flat one-time fee of $3.49 to promote my $5.00 toy auction listing.

I posted about the experience here and was told that I was the first member most have heard of who got an opportunity to use it.

I passed.

adsteam@ebay · ‎11-02-2021

@valueaddedresource wrote:

adsteam@ebay - is either starting price of the auction or average sold price part of the determination for the fee for Promoted Listings Express?

If average sold price is considered, is eBay also considering condition?

@valueaddedresource The pricing for Promoted Listings Express is not determined by the starting price of the auction. We take into account a variety of factors including your item’s category and the length of the auction.

valueaddedresource · ‎11-02-2021

adsteam@ebay wrote:
@valueaddedresource wrote:
adsteam@ebay - is either starting price of the auction or average sold price part of the determination for the fee for Promoted Listings Express?

If average sold price is considered, is eBay also considering condition?

@valueaddedresource The pricing for Promoted Listings Express is not determined by the starting price of the auction. We take into account a variety of factors including your item’s category and the length of the auction.

Thanks adsteam@ebay - what about average sold price?