Promoted listings

[patben-63]

Is there really nobody else that can see this for what it really is? Extortion?. If you don't promote your item it is buried. 

[inhawaii]

I don't use promoted listings.

Buyers seem to be finding my items just fine.

[dirk12955]

If you're offering 1 out of 1,000 listings of the exact same thing,   You have to promote to be seen.

If you are offering  something truly hard to find,   Something rather unusual,   or rare

 it seems to me it'd be a waste of money to promote.   

  If I have competition on an item I'll promote a small amount  2.5% or so.     Recently I received

100 of an item.   Didn't really pay anything for them.   It'd be 100 years to sell all of them using regular means.   So instead of 2.5%

I promoted them at 10.1%  and that placed me first in that search.

Instead of 2.5%  at $3.99  listed them at $4.99 and 10.1%      I've sold 39 out of the 

100 in the first 90 days the listing has run.

As always,     Your mileage may vary.    

[slippinjimmy]

I also have never used Promoted Listings on my primary selling account, sales have been very good for the past 6 months. I had a long "dead" period from February to August 2022 but there is no indication it had anything to do with (not) Promoting. The last 6 months have been almost as good as the peak of Covid.

Good items, priced right with little competition means promoting is unnecessary.

[isaiah53-57]

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@slippinjimmy wrote:

I also have never used Promoted Listings on my primary selling account, sales have been very good for the past 6 months. I had a long "dead" period from February to August 2022 but there is no indication it had anything to do with (not) Promoting. The last 6 months have been almost as good as the peak of Covid.

Good items, priced right with little competition means promoting is unnecessary.

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Ummmm... For the time being... Hope it continues for you

[richard1rst]

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@inhawaii wrote:

I don't use promoted listings.

Buyers seem to be finding my items just fine.

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Ditto that.

In fact according to eBay's own metrics fully half of my page views come from Google search, not eBay search. (And, no, I do not pay them a promo fee either).

Secondarily, the OP only has 13 items listed and ALL of them a pre-owned. I would suggest no amount of promo is going to help that.

[coolections]

Rather than complain about getting your items closer to the top on best match, come up with solutions. How can Ebay get your item on top without promotions? Who would be on the bottom? I have learned how to work it without using promotions. An example is I listed 3 items 2 days ago in a saturated market. Today there are currently 1,100 listings. In best match mine show up #3, #8 and $10. How did I do it you ask? SELL-THROUGH. The higher your sell through the higher you move up the food chain and no need for promotions.

[mr_lincoln]

Hi @patben-63 

It is not extortion, it is however manipulation of listings and where they appear based on how saturated the categories are that you list in.  Highly saturated ones means you are competing with many other listings and battling over tenths of a percent for the AD rates ... then of course if some Sellers are using PLA and pre-paying their AD rates PRIOR to sales then Sellers are competing for the top 4 positions in a returned search.

Other than 2022 I have had good success with running 30 day PLS Campaigns, they boost sales, drive traffic and clear out some older items.  I do not use the PLA Campaign because I don't sell commodities which I think the PLA is better suited for.

2022 saw too many eBay changes that negatively affected PLS Campaigns and they under performed on a regular basis all year.  I just had one end last week and it did well AND I am now in the normal Post PLS Suppression phase which historically occurred after a 30 day campaigns prior to 2022 ... sales tank for about a week then pick up again ... at least I hope they do LOL!