promotion

[vmliferesources]

Is it worth it to pay for a promotion for books on eBay? Seems to me that if you are on eBay to find a book you will search by title. If you pay for a promotion does your listing go to the front of the line? How does this work?

Thanks!

[eleanor*rigby]

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@vmliferesources wrote:

Is it worth it to pay for a promotion for books on eBay? Seems to me that if you are on eBay to find a book you will search by title. If you pay for a promotion does your listing go to the front of the line? How does this work?

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I search for used books on eBay quite often, and I agree that I search by title most often--very occasionally by author. I filter by location (U.S. only) and condition (New, Like New and Very Good). I also use an ad blocker that blocks all promoted listings.

Just providing that info to help you make your decision . . .

[flyingmvp]

It depends how common your book is, if it is one of a kind it will be found. 

If it is popular among sellers, Ebay would like you to pay more to promote your listings on top of the fees you are already paying so it will be appear in the search results.

Good Luck.

[katzrul15]

@vmliferesources 

We use it to promote book "lots" and it works really well.  The lots are unique to us and it picks them up in author searches, title searches.  

Good luck - you can promote as little as 1% if eligible to use PLs and you only pay the fee if the item sells.  Might be good to try it out for a spin on a few items and see how it works for your inventory and items for sale.  

Promoted Listings Standard (ebay.com)

[reallynicestamps]

More generally, I find that when I add PL (at one percent) to my listings, it doesn't seem to sell that title any better, but it does increase Views of that title and -- oddly-- sales of other books?
Anecdote is not data, and my observation period was interrupted by the 2020 pandemic surge in sales across the board in every category.

But with PL my Views went from under 20 per item, to a few hundred. With or without sales.

Even now, more that a year after the "surge" , I am seeing better sales overall than I was getting before I opted to use it.

The Classic version only charged us our chosen fee when a PL item sold.

The new version seems to be charging us monthly for more viewability. I'm way too cheap for that, especially as books can take a long time to move. I recently sold one that had been on eBay since 2010.

[toysaver]

I think the whole promotion bit is just a way for eBay to suck more money out of us.  One way to increase book sales is to add the ISBN to the title.  

[eleanor*rigby]

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@toysaver wrote:

I think the whole promotion bit is just a way for eBay to suck more money out of us. 

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eBay has reported a lot of revenue from promoted listings on their recent 10Q filings, so one could look at promoted listings as keeping FVFs down for all sellers, whether they use promoted listings or not. I mean, if one chose to look at it with a glass-half-full perspective . . . 😉

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@toysaver wrote:

One way to increase book sales is to add the ISBN to the title.  

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As a buyer, I rarely have the ISBN at hand while searching for a particular book. I'd have to look it up on Amazon or Barnes & Noble or wherever, and then go back and search for it on eBay. I'm sure it would be helpful if the title search failed to produce results, but would there be other ways it would increase book sales--other than appearing in search results if I actually search for it by the ISBN?

[katzrul15]

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@toysaver wrote:

I think the whole promotion bit is just a way for eBay to suck more money out of us.  One way to increase book sales is to add the ISBN to the title.  

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The real estate in the title is too valuable to use for the ISBN I would think - but we do include them in the item specifics and also the description on the book lots.  Many searching check the box "Include Description"  (I do) to drill down to search especially if not much comes up with just a few keywords.

[reallynicestamps]

I agree with @eleanor*rigby  . With the exception of the very odd collector who wants ALLL the editions, or one very special edition to replace something, I doubt buyers ever look at the ISBN.

However, it does some good in Google Searches, I guess.

And the ISBN also auto-fills many Item Specifics.

On the third hand, the ISBN on the book often will not "take" if the book was printed in the 1970s, when they were being intoduced, or if the ISBN is non-US.