Promoted Listings - How are you using them?

[worldapexsales]

Hoping I can get a lot of honest, detailed responses about what is working well for you. Do you use standard or advanced? Do you have specific rates for different categories and what are they? I currently have mine automated at the daily suggested rate + 0.2%, up to a max of 8%.  I like that it's automatic but am considering turning this off since there is the occasional rare/high demand item that I do not want to promote because I know it'll sell quickly. I cannot find a way to pull one listing out of the automated promotion. Thanks! 

[lloydsteventaylor]

hi thanks for starting this topic. i use pl std. i have a std campaign running. automated all inventory automate suggested ad rates no cap. let it rip.

i am happy with my sales. when i do my profit estimate i have been using 22% for ebay fees. which is 12 + 10.

with the new ebay fee rate i will have to adust this up.

for most sales 22% has covered ebay fees but recently i sold a postcard and my fees were 12 + 16 or 28%.

16% pl fees is the highest i have seen.  

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

I sell mostly used and vintage, primarily long tail stuff. I don't use PLA because in my view it is really better for sellers of new, multi-quantity stuff. In the past, I've usually put all my listings on PLS and experimented with different rates. At present, I put PLS on only about a tenth of my listings at a rate considerably less than the average recommended rate, and I've been seeing pretty good (for me) sales this past week....don't know if the PLS deserves any credit, or if its just coincidence. Certainly doesn't seem to be hurting me though. 

I've been listing at least one new item every day (and plan on ramping that up to 2, and then 3, etc...) I've also been sending offers most days. 

It's always interesting to hear what others are doing, but of course, in the end, we're all different so I just try to find what works for me. 

[postcardcountry]

I do the standard at 2%.

Sales are about 50% promoted.

In a few cases of multiple purchases, one will be a promoted item and the rest not. 

[siamjane8]

Unfortunately promoted listings are a mixed bag.  They raise the cost of the product for buyers and lower the profit for sellers and its a win win for ebay. make no mistake it is not a good product for anyone but ebay.  As a buyer- nobody wants the wrong search results shoved down their throats or wants to buy from a substandard seller( im not saying that is you), just because they are willing to pay ebay to show their listings.

    Promoted Listings send the wrong message- pay to play.    

That being said, if you sell consumables or in a flooded category it might be the only way to get out ahead of you competition and bee seen.......  Ebay algorithms no longer take into consideration whether or not a seller is high quality or ships fast or has great customer service......it is based on who is willing to pay the most in PL.   

     I have found that a sale or markdown is every bit as effective and is a benefit to the buyers- they get the discount instead of having to pay an inflated price to cover PL fees, and that creates a buyer seller bond of  trust that may make them a repeat buyer in the future.       As a seller i do not feel ripped off by paying final value fees AND PL fees on top, and I feel good that i was able to help a buyer to get a good deal. 

     And buyer is less likely to feel regret as they find the product cheaper after the sale and want to return it.    Think about it... either a 10% price reduction over your base price OR a 10% price increase added on to cover PL fees....... which would you rather buy?   

[m60driver]

I only use PL for items with lots of competition, what I consider to be buying mistakes as Ebay search in the field using my phone often does not approximate the far more comprehensive search results using my desktop.  And I manually enter a number, usually about 3% and ignore Ebay's suggested rate which may or may not be correlated to sales as it just as well may be correlated to Ebay's profits.  I may raise the PL rate if the item has not sold and I just want to get my costs back.

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

@siamjane8   Just want to note here, I don't raise my prices to run a PLS (I also don't raise them to send offers or run a sale.) As I said above, we are all different....I sell mostly used / vintage single quantity items, and I make my money when I buy....my items generally have sufficient margin so that I can accommodate offers, PLS, sales etc. 

Of course, I'm sure there are sellers who DO increase their prices to cover this stuff. But I suspect there are also many sellers like me, who do not.

[siamjane8]

 "I may raise the PL rate if the item has not sold and I just want to get my costs back."

(please note- this is not a critique on the seller above. They have really cool and unique items!)

     I have seen this thought is shared by many sellers- using PL basically to break even and get their costs back on products....so you can see the damage that PL has done to the platform.    If people lose money or just break even - its not really sustainable.   If the search would just show the best and most relevant results instead of who is willing to pay the most to lose money- then sellers would have a fair chance to sell at a profit and continue to list here.

[billythekid16]

From my experience after using promoted listings for two months:

Four of the last seven items I sold on eBay were with the help of PL.  The first one (lot of nine AAA magazines) sold just after three days, which surprised me.  I mostly use the suggested rate, some I go as high as 15%.

Like @siamjane8 had said, PL is a mixed bag.  It may  or may not help you.  The only thing I did notice is that my listings - the ones I have set with PL - have more promoted views than organic ones, but no one actually buying.

[toomuchstuffagain35]

At one point I had an offer for a credit amount for using PLS for a time.

I figured it wasn't going to cost me anything to try it so I put all my items on that ID on PLS at %ages above the recommended levels. The results were dismal to say the least. I didn't even come close to using up the credit.

Never bothered using it since.

[siamjane8]

I have seen the same situation as @billythekid16 .  you will get more views but not really any more sales.  This is in part because the value of promoted listings is not very good at all- it is not targeted advertising.... meaning ebay just throws PL up on every page with little regard to what was searched for  to satisfy the need to "promote".   So if you are promoting an original 1969 mustang steering wheel.... ebay will show that to buyers who search for leather steering wheel covers, wheels for a bicycle, vintage 1969 mustang cowboy boots, etc.   The intent of searching for a new generic leather steering wheel cover is obvious to all of us but for some reason ebay search and PL placement has no idea.    Its clear to all of us that if someone was searching for cowboy boots or a new rim for their bicycle, they will not buy your original steering wheel just because it was promoted and put in front of them.

    The single biggest issue that ebay has is the search relevancy. People do not buy the wrong item just because ebay shows it to them as a promoted listing. It only frustrates buyers.

   Of course if you are selling a non descript generic piece of glassware as art or decoration- the promoted listing getting your item in front of more eyes just may help because the buyer may be doing a wider search to look for something not specific.

   The other issue with promoting is that you will find that most items you sell will be from promoting and your organic sales will suffer greatly. Ebay will only show one or the other and you can guess which one their algorithm will choose 95% of the time.   

[toomuchstuffagain35]

Apart from the relevancy issue, I think ebay really shot itself in the foot when it merged so many categories and deleted so many sub categories, not realizing how many sales were made because buyers like to "browse". I think we lost a whole lot of "impulse" sales.

Shoving PL at them every time they click does nothing to help.

[iart]

Over a year ago we found an ebay page that listed the averages of PL percentage in each category. It has since been taken down. They might have blundered putting it up.

Some of the rates were incredibly high - over 10%. Too high for us to match.

But we did raise our rates more than we had them. And we did that in about 20 different categories that we typically sell in.  About half we kept the rate at 2% and the rest were individually decided higher than that (I don't like to admit this but on one category we actually went to 8%).

Since then we have brought our rates down as, we hope, our competitors have.

[iart]

I just looked up when we found this. It was in September of 2022 that my daughter-in-law sent me an email with the link. So, not over a year ago as I wrote before. Sorry.

[isaiah53-57]

Dont use them at all and never will - I cannot for the life of me understand how someone can use the promoted listing program knowing they are literally giving up 25% to 30% of the items price in fees if they use the "recommended rate"(and what is the dubious method even being used here to come up with the recommendation?) - when you consider all your hard work, your time, the myriad of additional associated costs in selling, and the ever growing risks of selling here, how is it that anyone can find this acceptable?