Promoting...How high Should One Promote?

[12345jamesstamps]

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....

[fern*wood]

Repeat buyers are great, but I still want to make a profit.  If  I had to lose money just to “sell rather than sit on them”,  I would not bother selling.

[mozartbach1971]

Does anyone know how these new promotion rules will affect people who promote auctions? Will there be any changes?

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

@mozartbach1971 

Are you promoting using a General Ad Campaign?

I'm guessing you run your auctions for 7 or 10 days, AND you run the ad for the entire duration. If so, the probability will be that almost any sale you make will be charged the ad fee. 

However, I think if you end the ad before the auction ends, so that it is no longer in the ad campaign at the time of the sale, you should not be charged any ad fee, because the item must be in an ad campaign when the actual purchase is made.

[mozartbach1971]

When I click promote it only gives me one option, it gives a percentage of what I will pay after the auction.

[christworks]

20% ad rate????? 😯

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

That is a General Ad Campaign. If anyone clicks your listing...whether they bid or not...anyone else who eventually buys your listing within 30 days of that click while it is still in an ad campaign, will trigger the fee. BUT the item must still be in an ad campaign at the time of the purchase.

So, as I understand it, let's say you are running a 7 day auction. Someone clicks on your sponsored listing the first day you put it up. You then get a bunch of bids over the next six days, but then you end the ad campaign. It sells on the 7th day. You should not have to pay an ad fee, because it actually sold when it was no longer in an ad campaign.

That is my understanding anyway.

I don't run auctions too often, but I might test this over the next few days--if the storm doesn't prevent me....

[mozartbach1971]

As far as I know Ebay just takes whatever percent of the fee is at whatever the final bid price is. Is this not correct? Like if I promote at eight percent, Ebay will take eight percent of the final price including taxes, shipping, etc.

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

@mozartbach1971 correct. That hasn't changed . But you can remove the listing from the ad campaign before it ends, or set the duration of the ad campaign for, say 6 days and run a 7 day auction, so that it is no longer in the campaign when the bidding ends. 

[mozartbach1971]

Are you saying I can remove the campaign a day before it ends and not pay the fee? And Ebay will allow this?

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

I have not tried this. However, that is the way I would read the new rule, and I am not aware of any exceptions that eBay has stated. So yes you could do that. Or you could set the ad campaign to run for a shorter time than the auction, that way, you would not even have to end the campaign, it would end on its own before the auction ends. But as I say, I have not actually tried this because I don't usually run a lot of auctions. But you could certainly try it if you want to. Or you could wait for me to try it and let you know what I find out but that might be a week or two from now. 

[mozartbach1971]

It doesn't sound right, so you're saying you can run the campaign and get all the advertisement for the auction and then end it the day before the auction ends and not have to pay anything?  

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

"An attributed sale will be when any buyer purchases the promoted item within 30 days of any click on the ad, regardless of whether the buyer themselves clicked on the ad. The item must be promoted at the time of click and the time of sale. The seller will be charged the ad rate at the time of sale."

How would you interpret that? Those are eBay's words from their announcement. 

I will say it again : I have not tested this. I'm only telling you how I would interpret what eBay has said. If you can see a different interpretation, that's fine. As for me, I am going to give this a test run at some point soon. If I'm wrong, I will find out soon enough.

[mozartbach1971]

I'm not sure if what you posted applies to auction listings.

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

Ok. Forget I said anything. I'll test this when I get time.

[12345jamesstamps]

I do make a profit.

It's been profitable and very educational as well since stamps have that history of countries about them.

The selling is not a big job since I don't have packages to pack and carry...just envelopes.

And I don't need to be do tracking on everything.

Although I did sell some high end items lately and had been using tracking.

Scary when something sells for more than $150.+ and wonder if anything will go wrong down the road...LOL

It's a part-time thing and actually like a day when I have no sales(which is rare).

How much is a profit(net)?...I would say anything over $1000.00 where I don't have to work so hard for it.

A lot of sellers work hard to make a $1000.+

I just have to mail tiny pieces of paper for a profit.