Have promoted listings become a waste of time and money ??

[british-ceramics-and-paintings]

In the early stages I think promoted listings were generally a success for sellers however as more and more sellers started using them they seem to have become a little pointless and very expensive.

Many of the items I sell are one off items however buyers generally find them in a general search, i.e. oil paintings or paintings which can return thousands and thousands of items. Despite selling one off items Ebay often suggests promoted ad rates of 11% !!

10.9% plus VAT plus 11% plus VAT comes to not far off 30%. 

Promoted listings do give you an uplift in impressions however I often believe they are pointless impressions where potential buyers don't even see your items unless they really look for them, i.e. low down on the page of another listing.

Promoted listings clearly helped a couple of years ago however like many things on Ebay they have become saturated.

Are they now worthwhile ?

All opinions welcome as I may well be wrong.

[jow1995]

yes i have found this to be true, promoted listing sales were costing £85 per month, decided to remove most and have found promoted makes little difference, certianly not worth the costs

regards

jow

[simplyessential_uk]

I have done a little trial and error and if i switch them offmy sales disappear, but im not in a competative sector so used to just set them at 1% (now 2%) minimum, regardless of whats suggested. I did watch some YT vids of trials and listings running at suggested and minimum and the results werent what you would expect, sales didnt improve as thought, whatever ebays algorithms are looking for it isnt an obvious increase in visibility just because you pay more. You could just reduce your items by the amount it costs to promote and that pushes you up the rankings so i select 2%, reduce prices to get traction the increase the price back as sales pick up. 

[hill-walker]

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@british-ceramics-and-paintings wrote:

In the early stages I think promoted listings were generally a success.

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I think you're probably correct.

Now, with maybe 100s of sellers all promoting the same items, only a chosen handful can actually gain the "front page" exposure they are seeking. Everyone else just gets relegated back to normal. eBay's coffers continue to swell though.

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@british-ceramics-and-paintings wrote:

Many of the items I sell are one off items however buyers generally find them in a general search, i.e. oil paintings or paintings which can return thousands and thousands of items.

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I recently had an unusual, antique item to dispose of  (a corkscrew), and was offered a 99p promotion, which I accepted. Now, I obviously can't say what the result of NOT having that promotion would have been, but I can say, that in comparison to my more "normal" sales experiences, views, watchers, and bids were considerably higher than I'd have expected.

[elitegiftsltd]

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@british-ceramics-and-paintings wrote:

In the early stages I think promoted listings were generally a success for sellers however as more and more sellers started using them they seem to have become a little pointless and very expensive.

Many of the items I sell are one off items however buyers generally find them in a general search, i.e. oil paintings or paintings which can return thousands and thousands of items. Despite selling one off items Ebay often suggests promoted ad rates of 11% !!

10.9% plus VAT plus 11% plus VAT comes to not far off 30%. 

Promoted listings do give you an uplift in impressions however I often believe they are pointless impressions where potential buyers don't even see your items unless they really look for them, i.e. low down on the page of another listing.

Promoted listings clearly helped a couple of years ago however like many things on Ebay they have become saturated.

Are they now worthwhile ?

All opinions welcome as I may well be wrong.

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You know ebay suggested spend is just that, suggested? Set it lower, perhaps 2% perhaps a little higher. Play around with it.

Or don't use it - people can market products themselves easily enough.

[british-ceramics-and-paintings]

I have been playing around with it for 2 - 3 years. I am now moving towards not using it.

[elitegiftsltd]

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@hill-walker wrote:

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@british-ceramics-and-paintings wrote:

In the early stages I think promoted listings were generally a success.

---

I think you're probably correct.

Now, with maybe 100s of sellers all promoting the same items, only a chosen handful can actually gain the "front page" exposure they are seeking. Everyone else just gets relegated back to normal. eBay's coffers continue to swell though.

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@british-ceramics-and-paintings wrote:

Many of the items I sell are one off items however buyers generally find them in a general search, i.e. oil paintings or paintings which can return thousands and thousands of items.

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I recently had an unusual, antique item to dispose of  (a corkscrew), and was offered a 99p promotion, which I accepted. Now, I obviously can't say what the result of NOT having that promotion would have been, but I can say, that in comparison to my more "normal" sales experiences, views, watchers, and bids were considerably higher than I'd have expected.

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Ebay's coffers only swell when you get a sale as a result or within 30 days.

Presumably those paying higher percentage are more likely to get front page. Can set amount at a point below or above suggested figure and can set a cap on percentage.

[elitegiftsltd]

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@british-ceramics-and-paintings wrote:

I have been playing around with it for 2 - 3 years. I am now moving towards not using it.

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Fair enough.

No marketing method suits everyone and some likely don't benefit from marketing at all. 

[reparq]

Its a tool,  what might work for selling a pack of 6 bic pens might not work for that £500 lalique bowl.

[sheba-knows-best]

It works.

I want to stay below 80k for VAT reasons. When I go above, I remove PL. Sales drop. When I am below I reapply and sales pick up. 

IMHO it isn't just about getting onto page one - it is about being those handy little adverts at the bottom of a listing. "Looking at this? Why not try this?" An example:  Say I had a fashion 'riding jacket'. The popular ones are Joules. Mine is better. Great styling and 100% wool but it's an unknown brand (or old lady brand if you are inthe know). No one will search my brand (apart from a handful of old ladys maybe, if they can remember the name... I am taking the mick, no offence meant). But if my photo clicks up next to the worn out Joules one... bingo.

[british-ceramics-and-paintings]

Do you promote every item or just a selection of items ?

Thank you.

[jolly-chef]

Last month with promoted listings on eBay's total percentage of our gross take was 25%. 

So the customer is now paying 25% of the price of their goods to eBay.

We put up prices to compensate for this, but I don't think it's sustainable for eBay to continue this as the fees on Amazon are between 8% and 15% making or prices on Amazon lower than eBay chance our Amazon sales are booming on comparison to eBay.

[british-ceramics-and-paintings]

Yes this is something Ebay struggles to understand.

Higher fees and costs = businesses asking higher prices = less sales.

Ebay makes it's money when people sell items, not by having shed loads of expensive inventory listed on the site.

If I were Ebay I would contemplate reintroducing listing fees for some / all sellers. At the moment there is no risk when listing items, the problem is that results in a stale website where many things aren't selling. The website is now saturated and it is meaning some good items cannot be found. There is too much low quality inventory.

Another option is separating business sellers away from private sellers. I don't think the current set up works when private sellers are being given final value fee discounts literally every other week, it is killing the wesbite and Ebay make very litttle money out of it. Again they seem to be slow on the uptake here.

[elitegiftsltd]

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@jolly-chef wrote:

Last month with promoted listings on eBay's total percentage of our gross take was 25%. 

So the customer is now paying 25% of the price of their goods to eBay.

We put up prices to compensate for this, but I don't think it's sustainable for eBay to continue this as the fees on Amazon are between 8% and 15% making or prices on Amazon lower than eBay chance our Amazon sales are booming on comparison to eBay.

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Eh?

You set the promotion that high? Hopefully you had extra sales by quite a bit.

Ebay have been running promoted listings for several years.  May want to play around with the percentage you want to pay, 25% is considerable. Minimum is 2%. 

[knit-in-styles]

I agree, if too many sellers are using it, how can it possibly work for who gets to the top of the search list.

I have had items promoted on my business and private account and ended listings after 30 days with zero views. So promoted has done absolutely nothing, not even gained one viewer. I actually searched some of my items with words from the listing title and my promoted items were not even returned in the search results.

[elitegiftsltd]

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@knit-in-styles wrote:

I agree, if too many sellers are using it, how can it possibly work for who gets to the top of the search list.

I have had items promoted on my business and private account and ended listings after 30 days with zero views. So promoted has done absolutely nothing, not even gained one viewer. I actually searched some of my items with words from the listing title and my promoted items were not even returned in the search results.

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If going to search for your listings do so with a different browser that isn't logged in as you.

Daresay with a couple of dozen sellers of that type of item you won't see all of them on page 1 all the time.

However a couple of hours on page one per day can add up. 

Doesn't suit everyone. Can always do own marketing, just usually takes more time and effort. 

[watchfan700uk]

the fees on Amazon are between 8% and 15% making or prices on Amazon lower than eBay chance our Amazon sales are booming on comparison to eBay.

yes and if there was no amazon - fees would be much higher than they are

you will end up on substistence profits

there is a maximum fee level which ebay sellers can take - ebay are testing that all the time

I do it too with my prices - push it up - push it a bit higher and higher until the fish wont bite

[sheba-knows-best]

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@british-ceramics-and-paintings wrote:

Do you promote every item or just a selection of items ?

Thank you.

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I promote (at quite a low level) all but the most sought after brands. So if I had a Joules riding jacket, I won't promote. A buyer will find it soon enough.  And I only need one buyer. But a penny lane maxi leather (brand unknown) may need a bit of help. Although penny lane and maxi are common keywords they probably aren't known by enough buyers. Its this kind of thing you have to get a feel for. For me, there's another factor, I have storage issues as my items are large-ish. If I don't sell within 3 months my items will never get quite the lift on the search engine they got when they are brand new (although 'sell similar' helps) so although the right buyer will find 'penny lane maxi' eventually, its better for me to lose a few quid and get it out from under my feet in the first 3 months. I hope this helps.

[sheba-knows-best]

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@knit-in-styles wrote:

I agree, if too many sellers are using it, how can it possibly work for who gets to the top of the search list.

I have had items promoted on my business and private account and ended listings after 30 days with zero views. So promoted has done absolutely nothing, not even gained one viewer. I actually searched some of my items with words from the listing title and my promoted items were not even returned in the search results.

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Go on then. It's Christmas. I'll bite. Name one item that isn't showing up in the search results. If I can't find it, you'll be the first seller (domestic UK) to have an unfindable item in 14 years on ebay.

[knit-in-styles]

Thanks, I don't have that much promoted just now and the ones I couldn't find before were on my private account not my business account.

A quick example is 10 white shank buttons. I have these promoted. I put 10 white shank buttons in the search and the first page of 60 items they were not there. They appeared at the bottom of page 2 so basically appearing about 125th in the list.