Who's Using Promoted Listings? How's It Going?

[betsybabe]

I never used this promotional technique but it was suggested to me by a eBay representative recently.  My sales are lagging and I was trying to figure out how to get more views.  It used to be that being a Top Rated Seller put your merchandise in a better position in the stack, but now the sellers who potentially pay more for the service get the better internet coverage.  So, I thought I would give it a try for a number of items that had

hits and watchers.  My clicks are up 33% and more, but not a single sale from it after 2 weeks. 

The other thing I thought about is this coupon business.  EBay expects us to spread coupons around and use our own money doing it.  Do you remember when eBay used to give buyers 1 to 5% of their purchases back quarterly as an incentive for buying?  Now they want us to give coupons  and give the money back up front.  They sure are calculating little critters.  Do these things work?  I'd really like to know. 

[betsybabe]

Hi dbfolks,

Thank you for your reply.  This was a very sensible reply.  I was selling before without the help of PLs.  EBay is ingenious in finding new ways to get more money from us. You are absolutely correct.  People are telling me that my line of merchandise is dying out.  Buyers were climbing over each other to get at my things up until about 2 weeks ago when everything just seemed to grind to a halt.  There is something wrong when 2 years of growing sales just tanks.  I don't know if PLs will help, but I have to use what I can to survive whatever it is that is affecting the market. 

Have a good evening.

B

[femmefan1946]

I like the standard Promoted Listings.

I do a few of each day's listings with ONE PER CENT  as the fee.

I don't pay the fee unless it sells.

That appeals to my cheapskate heart.

One thing I do find is that the PL items may or may not sell, but they certainly increase Views and that may be leading to more sales -- of other stuff.

From my B&M retail days, price reductions don't lead to more sales, only to reduced profits. 

It's the rare customer who will buy only because the price is reduced. Mostly she was already in the market for the Thing and the price reduction was one part of her decision.

We used price reductions (which is what coupons are after all) to move deadstock.  The remainder of time-sensitive stock or stuff that had been in inventory too long. Turning that stuff into cash and using the cash to buy more saleable stuff.

[femmefan1946]

@meme6253 

Free Shipping isn't Free.

It just means you have moved your shipping cost into your asking price.

Which is cheaper - a $10 item with $5 shipping? A $5 item with $10 shipping? A $15 item with Free Shipping?

It's an advertising ploy, and most buyers love it emotionally, even though they understand that someone is paying for shipping, and it is never the seller.

[betsybabe]

Hi Thrill,

I appreciate your insights.  Discounts is how I have done business.  But I don't shout it from the rooftops.

There are sill some impulse buyers for my type of goods I catch from time to time.  I am reading through all of these suggestions and compiling the information.  Your  comments are chock full of advice.  I asked for it and I am getting information.  I don't know the cause of my business practically shutting off after 2 solid years of growth.  It may be something PLs can't do a thing about.  Some people have suggested that the goods I sell are a dying line but I beg to differ.  The number of advanced collectors has exploded.  I need to find out what tipped the scales.  I am glad to meet you and wish you well.

B

[femmefan1946]

Given your high value items, and what is still a niche market (I agree as a sometime stamp dealer that those outside the market have a hard time seeing the health of a speciality)  how do you use Best Offer?

You can set parameters that will automatically and politely reject offers that are too low to be worth considering.

Perhaps you could add Best Offer to items that have been in stock for "too long" whether that is three months or three years.

And you can send a specific Best Offer /discount of your own to all those anonymous Watchers-- again perhaps on the listings that are getting a bit stale.

[powers1127a0x8]

I use PL quite a bit. The sales depend on category and listing frequency as well. My conversion rate hovers around 1-1.7% which if you have 100 listings its one a day. PL for me works great its automatic when i list.

[onlinecentral]

Message 1: but not a single sale from it after 2 weeks
Message 23: Up until 2 weeks ago they were buying
Message 31: up until about 2 weeks ago when everything just seemed to grind to a halt.

I'll start a list of what has changed in the past 2 weeks. Everyone can add on.
The price of gasoline is at or near a high point for this century.
Uncertainty about a war in Europe affecting stock markets.
Planting seeds and tending to seedlings indoors to be planted outdoors later.
Spring cleaning.
March Madness basketball concluded on April 4th.

The Gold Standard of research is the Double Blind Study. You give half of the test subjects the medicine and the other half get the placebo. Afterwards, you compare the two groups.

People spend billions on herbal supplements with no evidence they work. They take them based on hearsay advice or superstition.

There have been numerous discussions about Promoted Listings. The effectiveness is subjective.

[femmefan1946]

On the other hand, US employment is up to pre-pandemic levels and the economy is adding 550,000 jobs a month this year.

https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm

But I agree about the effectiveness of PL. For me I did not see any rise in the sales of PL items, although I did see a big rise in Views and a noticeable rise in overall sales.
Anecdote is not data.

[simply-the-best-for-you]

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@rugerskick wrote:

It might work for some.  Some top sellers I listen to who are in competitive, saturated categories pretty much state its mandatory for them to get the topmost exposure.  Given what they say and do, it could be more effective for them, selling what they sell.  The one I am specifically thinking of sells womens clothes.

Ebay puts a realistic assessment of it by saying it may improve your sales somewhere between 3 and 7 percent.  At least thats the range I see when they suggest using promoted listings.  So an extra sale every 33 sales, up to an extra sale every 14 or so sales.

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Yup, womens clothing seller here.  Approx 70% of my sales are PL's & it increased my sales by double, at least.  So I guess I'm running ahead of their projections.  

[simply-the-best-for-you]

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@betsybabe wrote:

Hi this "old'attic,

Guess I'm old and I sell old stuff.  I've been reading through all of these messages for insights.  I appreciate yours.  What do you mean by "pattern names in IS"?  I don't understand. 

B

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They mean, isn't the pattern name in Item Specifics?   Implying you don't need it in the title.  I think it's fine in the title too (you should have it in both places), as there are different ways ppl shop. 

[meme6253]

How can it not be the seller paying for shipping?

[laststopgeneralstore]

In my opinion I think part of it has to do with the market you are selling in. You are selling high ticket china. I'm assuming that's a pretty niche market & not a lot of people may want to spend 100's of dollars on something they don't necessarily need. What are you comparing your views/sales to? last month? last year? last week? I just upped my promoted listings from 10% to 20% & in turn my sales have shot up 40% & holding steady. My organic sales to promoted sales vary day to day but at the end of the month it's typically 60/40 organic/promoted. I'm making more money and have more sales than I've every had. I also run sales, use coupons & have a combined shipping discount. People get to caught up in using promoted listings because they don't want to "give" eBay more money. Have you ever heard of someone making less money while getting more sales? I haven't. Yea I'm paying more in promoted listing fee's but I'm making way more money. Works the same way with giant companies like coca-cola, they spend billions on advertising but in turn they make way more money. I'm also in a very saturated market so that's why I use promoted listings. You may not even have to use promoted listings because of the market you're in. As far as coupons go, they do work despite what everyone else says. In my experience if you are going to use a coupon, make sure it's at least 20% otherwise most buyers won't even bother and yea maybe you don't get that many sales from it but lets say you get 20 more sales than the prior from the coupon, those could have been sales that would've never gotton. Last month I had just under $2k in sales via my 22% off coupon. That's not counting the 30% off coupon that I send out to buyer groups either. Use all of the tools that eBay has for you. Don't get hung up on "giving" more money to eBay. Assuming you have good margins, put promoted listings on, run a 20-30% off coupon, do a markdown sale for 20% have a combined shipping discount etc... At the end of the day it's all about averages. some days I may only have a 25-30% profit but at the end of every month it averages out to 40-45%. The more items you sell, the more money you will make. Again, I sell clothing which is completely different from what you are selling so not all of this may apply to you but at least give it a shot. Check out my store just see what promotions I have running and you can get an idea. I would also work on your titles a little bit & try refraining from using special characters like commas or the "&" symbol. That can screw up search sometimes. Do more research on keywords for the items you sell and make sure to use those keywords in your title. Research what the first few words should be in the title. Word placement is key and will help with search. At the end of the day with everything going on in the world & prices for everything skyrocketing, it will have an effect especially if you are selling stuff that isn't a "need". Keep your head up and consistently list every day. Don't let the talk of "slow sales" "eBay is dieing" get into your head, far to many people eat that crap up and just stop trying instead of utilizing all of the tools that eBay has for us and making them work. Cheers.

[simply-the-best-for-you]

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@meme6253 wrote:

How can it not be the seller paying for shipping?

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The seller BUYS the shipping.  The buyer PAYS for the shipping.  If your buyer is not paying for the shipping, you're doing it wrong 😀

[femmefan1946]

@meme6253 

The buyer gives you money.

You use the money to pay the shipper.

The money comes from the buyer's payment, not from your pocket.

You would not be buying shipping if the buyer had not paid you.

The purchase price includes the cost of shipping.

[theteamsetguy]

I just had another 2 returns and my impressions are up. In my opinion listing new items has the most effect on visibility. Especially if you have a lot of followers. How do you get more followers?  Provide good service and list new items often. Buyers don’t want to follow sellers that keep on resisting the same OLD stuff over and over.

Also, the more followers you have the more repeat buyers you get. A significant of my business comes from repeat customers including ones from outside of the country.