eBay

12345jamesstamps · ‎01-21-2026

I only promoted like 30+ items...all at 20%.

Wanted to see if any new 'improved' changes are really new or 'fair'.

I wonder how high a seller promotes to get to be at the top of a search item.

So, even though I clicked on lowest price of similar items...my item at 20% is too low to reach the top tier.

Thought it was interesting....

12345jamesstamps · ‎01-21-2026

Thanks for the reply.

OK...I feel better in the search results you gave me. Thanks.

I am trying to tap more into the International base than domestic base.

Which is why I was using unused instead of MNH since those who might need to translate words can do so.

Some buyers buy a certain topic and are not real stamp experts.

And my point of trying to figure out the promoting of some items for a short period of time is to grab that first time buyer and make that buyer a 'repeat buyer'.

I would say about 25-50+% of my buyers are repeat buyers.

The MNH concept is interesting...but I try to identify any flaws in the stamps in the description and I got to tell you buyers in stamps are so picky so it's like I am afraid to use MNH when there might be a flaw on one stamp in a set.

Anyway, thanks for your reply.

my-cottage-books-and-antiques · ‎01-21-2026

@12345jamesstamps To actually address your title question:

FIrst, decide whether promoting is a good idea for your business at all.

If you decide that it is:

IGNORE ebay's recommended rates. An ads team member recently admitted in a YouTube interview that ebay's suggestions are really aimed at casual sellers just trying to clean stuff out of a closet, in other words, non-business sellers who generally aren't really thinking about margins or net profit. So even ebay admits they aren't really a useful tool for business sellers.

Look at your margins and choose a rate that works with your margins. Start low (2% is as low as you can go) and go up gradually only if you feel you need to increase. BUT---Be aware that , with the new rule in effect, ebay will be telling you a LOT of your promoted listings sold ....but all this means is : a lot of your promoted listings were charged an ad fee, even if the ads had nothing to do with the sale.

So it can be very misleading: you might think the ads are working great, when they are really doing nothing much at all for your sales (except lowering your net when the ad fee is charged). Under the new rule, there will really be no reliable way to know whether the ads benefitted you or not.

So, know your margins, and know your need for sales velocity. We all like fast sales velocity, but for many sellers of long tail items, you can do OK just by making sure you keep listing (and perhaps revising and relisting).

For me, I stopped using Ads on Jan 12th. I might or might not resume. If I do, the rate will be 2-3%, with maybe a rare exception at a higher rate. And it will be only selected items, not all my listings. But that's just me. We all have different needs and business models.

I SUSPECT 20% is way more than you need, but I don't sell stamps and I'm not in your shoes. Only you can decide what to do.

tarotfindsandmore · ‎01-21-2026

@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:

I SUSPECT 20% is way more than you need, but I don't sell stamps and I'm not in your shoes. Only you can decide what to do.

Agreed. You are basically kissing 33-34% (FV 13-14% + 20% promotion fees) of your gross goodbye before you ever see a penny of it. I might be off here a bit as I can't recall whether it's 20% of what's left after the FVF or 20% of the gross, but, whatever the case, that is A LOT of money to throw away.

pls-consignments · ‎01-21-2026

One thing is for certain... no matter how much you increase your add rates, there is NO guarenteed ROI. But, there IS a guarantee that eBay will take more of your money. If thats the math you're using to run your eBay store, then you might as well go to Vegas!

my-cottage-books-and-antiques · ‎01-21-2026

@pls-consignments It was made clear to the Ads team that their ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) figure in ad reports will now be totally useless and, worse, actually misleading, as it will not be reporting the actual return on ad spend (that is, X amount of ad spend produced Y amount of sales, it will only tell us that X amount of ad spend might or might not have had something to do with producing the sales. But many sellers will not understand that, and will assume ROAS is a valid indication of the success of their ad campaign.

Personally, I sell mostly long tail one offs, most of which are likely to show on the first page of a narrow enough search without paying for ad placement. The advantage of a General Ad Campaign is that when my ads show up on other pages (such as listing pages), I can capture the person who might not be searching specifically for what I'm selling, but will make an impulse buy when he sees it and likes it. That is the ONLY reason I would consider going back to using ads, but I'm going to see how I do without ads for a while before I consider resuming their use.

sreu3058 · ‎01-21-2026

Not to throw another wrench in it, but, my logic is with the ‘new rules’:

If I only promote ‘some’ of my listings, and a buyer comes to your ‘store’ after being lured by your fabulous placed promoted listing but sees all your other non promoted listings and buys one,

you will still get charged the promoted fee on those non promoted listings, right?

I dunno. I get bored with my sluggish sales here, and decided to promote at a lower than suggested % ALL my listings for the next month or so. We’ll see what happens.

onefootflipper · ‎01-21-2026

@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:
@12345jamesstamps You will NEVER get the top slot with 20%, 40% or 80%. Doesn't matter what rate you choose.

Per the change made on Jan 13th, the top slot is reserved EXCLUSIVELY for sellers using PRIORITY ad campaigns. You are using a GENERAL Ad campaign, and so you simply are NOT eligible for the top slot.

Almost no sellers of normal items use pay per click ad campaigns. That is the domain of multi-quantity sellers of brand new items.

my-cottage-books-and-antiques · ‎01-21-2026

@sreu3058

"If I only promote ‘some’ of my listings, and a buyer comes to your ‘store’ after being lured by your fabulous placed promoted listing but sees all your other non promoted listings and buys one,

you will still get charged the promoted fee on those non promoted listings, right?"

No.

12345jamesstamps · ‎01-21-2026

I turned off all promoted in December...a bit earlier before you.

I only promoted now about 30 or so at 20%(I can afford it.) as it is an experiment.

I may turn those off also or make other changes.

I think the best method is to have a base of 5000+ listed...and when one reaches 10,000 I think one doesn't need to have anything promoted in my category.

The trick is getting repeat buyers in my category since I sell mainly the same items...stamps.

I asked a lot of questions and bugged you a bit(since you understand this more than me) to understand the new promotion and I guess the priority campaign ads.

And attracting the big spenders who become repeat buyers is what I am looking for.

@pls-consignments: I guess you got me....I am from Vegas and have thrown a lot of money away living there and moved away but still go there to thrown money away...😆

onefootflipper · ‎01-21-2026

I think both you and your competitor have the problem that you are trying to sell a Stamp set that only sells 4 times every 3 years for an all time record price. That set normally sells for $15. The last 3 sales of it were under $17, there is only one comp higher and it is pretty old.

In the end most sales problems always come back to price and demand.

sreu3058 · ‎01-21-2026

If I only promote ‘some’ of my listings, and a buyer comes to your ‘store’ after being lured by your fabulous placed promoted listing but sees all your other non promoted listings and buys one,

you will still get charged the promoted fee on those non promoted listings, right?"

((No))

Really? I thought this true, and I forget the word that was used… but, I thought the main change to promoted listings starting Jan. 13th was:

If a promoted listing lured a buyer in, and then they click and buy a non promoted listing, you are charged the promoted listing fee.

sreu3058 · ‎01-21-2026

“HALO” like the Beyoncé song, but not as pretty.

Okay, I see. So even though you quit/ end promotions, there is a 30 day ripple effect on that promoted listing.

Alright, so if my non promoted items get bought, no charge, as long as it was not promoted in the last 30 days.

Thank you.

my-cottage-books-and-antiques · ‎01-21-2026

@sreu3058

Part of the problem is, ebay---deliberately in my opinion---makes things confusing because they use the word "organic" to mean two different things, and they also use the word "promoted" that way. So---I know this is a little complicated---but here's my terminology:

Listings NOT in an ad campaign:

Organic listings: listings that are NOT currently in an ad campaign.

The two types of listings in a General Promoted Listing Ad Campaign.

Whenever you put a listing into an ad campaign, ebay can CHOOSE to show that listing as one or the other of these:

Sponsored Listings: Listings that are in a General Promoted Listing Ad Campaign and are shown to the buyer as "sponsored" to clearly identify them as ads.

Non-Sponsored Listings: Listings that are in a General Promoted Listing Ad Campaign but are NOT shown to the buyers as "sponsored". These are identical to Organic Listings from the buyer's view. ebay refers to these as organic listings, creating endless confusion, which is why I prefer to distinguish them from true organic listings by calling them "non-sponsored listings"

So, under the new rule , it is obvious that if a buyer clicks on a SPONSORED listing and buys it, the seller will pay an ad fee.

But also under the new rule, if ANYONE clicks on the SPONSORED listing and does NOT buy it, that click covers ANY purchase of that listing made by ANYONE within the next 30 days, even if the ultimate buyer purchases it from a NON-SPONSORED listing.

Remember that, to the buyer, a true organic listing looks exactly like a non-sponsored listing. The difference is, purchasing the TRUE organic listing results in NO ad fee for the seller, but purchasing the non-sponsored listing can (and probably will) result in an ad fee.

So, ebay has made it very easy to collect a fee from listings that LOOK like true organic listings, but are , in fact, non-sponsored listings.

A fee will ONLY attach if the item is a sponsored promoted listing (shown as such, with the word "sponsored") OR if it is a non-sponsored promoted listing (Looks just like a true organic listing). The item must be in an ad campaign at the time of actual purchase.

sin-n-dex · ‎01-21-2026

@funfactorychannel wrote:
Looks like the person above you have better keywords.. You have Unused, Scott, not even sure if free international shipping is needed the listing.

I see the title as advertising when people are scrolling through all the listings. I put stuff in my title to advertise so someone can see what I have to say without reading the listing. I'm afraid my listings will be bypassed being in Canada, so I have "no tariff" or "tariff incl" in many titles so buyers can see that right off the bat before reading my TOS where I explain why there is no tariff.

C.