Promotion ad rate

[fivestarparts1]

Does it matter if I change the ad rate to a minimum and still have an efficient promoted listing?

For an example: Would a promoted listing with a suggested ad rate of 12.3% have more viewings and more visibility than a promoted listing with the minimum 2% ad rate?

[cardxcraft]

In theory, yes, all things being equal, an item with a pl of 12.3% would have more impressions than the same item with a pl of 2%. 

Impressions are only part of the battle: item price, desirability, right buyer, competition, etc., are other factors to consider.  

What I found out early on: if any or all of the above factors are working against you or if you have long tail items, promoting at a relatively high rate only depresses your sales conversion rate.

My opinion is your items are for a unique set of buyers.  I searched a few and in some cases you have the only item showing up in searches.

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

A number of factors go into PLS visibility. However, generally speaking, a higher rate will mean more impressions. That. however, is no guarantee of higher views or higher sales. Test various rates to figure out what works for you. Don't worry much about ebay's "suggested rates"...use a rate that works for you and ensures you are still profitable.

[selsa84 · Accepted solution]

I've run quite a few tests as of lately. Ran a 13% pls (last week) for 3 days and a 6% promotion for the same 3 days of the week(this week)  on the same items and I had more sales and was able to send more offers to buyers with the PLS at %6. When I ran the 13% I got a ton of impressions which lowered my ctr but hardly any sales and very few send offers to buyers.

[the-hook-and-the-loop]

ebay offers you the option to promote at 100% if you like. Try it out, because nothing else is working.

[mam98031]

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@selsa84 wrote:

I've run quite a few tests as of lately. Ran a 13% pls (last week) for 3 days and a 6% promotion for the same 3 days of the week(this week)  on the same items and I had more sales and was able to send more offers to buyers with the PLS at %6. When I ran the 13% I got a ton of impressions which lowered my ctr but hardly any sales and very few send offers to buyers.

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Nice test.  Thank you for sharing.

[blurryrobot]

For you in particular I would say, probably not.  The particular items you sell, when I search, are pretty high up in the results, and the items returned are not just identical commodity items, but vary in condition, aesthetics, and even in application since Ebay's search ropes in related stuff. 

I buy a lot of parts for my own vehicle repairs, and faced with a list like that, I would not just buy the top thing on the list, I would go up and down and compare, find the best overall choice.   Condition, aesthetics, all of that would weigh in. 

My advice to you, since you are selling things where comparative aesthetics are vitally important, is to take really artistic, sharp photos of the particular items you have for sale.  Make them pop. 

A minimal rate will grab you some extra non-search impressions and that will help you, without costing you much.   20% gets you 80%. 

[blurryrobot]

I wish I could give TWO thumbs up to you, for running a test.   I've done the same thing multiple times and your results are quite in line with mine.  Well done!

[electronicifycanada]

No, it doesn't get more views just cause it's a higher number.  Go try PL advanced and throw $5 a day, wait 10 days and double it, then wait another 10 and double it again. You will see your views aren't doubling with the ad spend. You get diminishing returns and it's different for every item.

This is cause there's only so many buyers for every item every day.

[selsa84]

Btw, another thing I noticed was when I had run a 10% pls and then ended it sales went DORMANT and I mean no sales for a view days as well as only 1 or 2 send offers to buyers. With before running the high pls or no pls on same days I had sales and multiple send offers each hour. Conclusion: punished for ending the high ad rate. I've done 50 or more tests this year alone and it's pretty interesting the outcome I get on each. 

[mam98031]

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@electronicifycanada wrote:

No, it doesn't get more views just cause it's a higher number.  Go try PL advanced and throw $5 a day, wait 10 days and double it, then wait another 10 and double it again. You will see your views aren't doubling with the ad spend. You get diminishing returns and it's different for every item.

This is cause there's only so many buyers for every item every day.

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PLA can be very expensive.  Anyone deciding to use it needs to make sure they understand the policy.

[blurryrobot]

I would be very interested in seeing a post summarizing and presenting results from your varioius tests, if you saved any info or wrote it down afterwards. 

[brightlightbookseller]

Quality listings/items get you sales, promotions just get you views.  So you can get plenty of views by promoting higher, but if you work on your listing quality (I haven't looked at yours to know if you need to improve) you'll see a greater increase in sales than you will from promotions, in general.  Granted, if you're in a heavily saturated market and don't have unique items, you'll struggle without promoting at higher rates, but for instance our products, mostly unique items, we just promote at 2% once they've been up a while.  Most of our sales still come from organic views, albeit that "most" is apparently 51.5%, not a huge majority.  That's impressions, actually, not sales, so I don't know how many of those convert to sales, but I assume the conversion rate is similar between promoted and non-promoted listings.

[meme6253]

In Theory That Is How It Should Work, But It Doesn't!, There Are Many Things Here That Work On Theory Only!

[isaiah53-57]

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@fivestarparts1 wrote:

Does it matter if I change the ad rate to a minimum and still have an efficient promoted listing?

For an example: Would a promoted listing with a suggested ad rate of 12.3% have more viewings and more visibility than a promoted listing with the minimum 2% ad rate?

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What does that even matter unless you were actually willing to pay them an ADDITIONAL 12.3% of the ENTIRE TRANSACTION on top of the already  burdensome 13.5% of the entire transaction?! - So you would be willing to give them 26% of the entire transaction in fees, which may well equate to upwards of 35% of the items price?? If so, thank you for helping bring about a slow, painful death to this site...