topic Re: Promoted listings in Seller Central

Promoted listings

mrdean43 — Mon, 19 Jan 2026 19:56:08 GMT

With ebay trying to encourage you to go down its extortionate promoted listings campaign on everything you list and if failing to do so I believe the coverage your items get is now pretty low plus you are battling against sheer volume of listings as an example listed some items which started at 8 o'clock in the evening on buy it now and early the next morning just thought I would have a look at where they sat in the relevant categories and as expected without signing up to the promoted offer I had to scroll over multiple pages to even find them which as a new listing is obviously not ideal and would suggest buyers don't bother to look that deep into it thus rendering your items viewless in some cases and often if ever only found by chance and why are these promotions graded from 5% to nearly 15% either its promoted or it's not surely ebay should be a fairly level playing field for all sellers but it appears only if you are prepared to pay for it.

Re: Promoted listings

eastern_standard_time — Mon, 19 Jan 2026 23:22:40 GMT

It's just another way for eBay to gouge money from its users. When I was listing a few CDs recently, it put up a message saying "40% of the items in this category are promoted"... so even if I pay to promote mine, it's up against nearly half the other CDs for sale, which doesn't seem like an 'advantage' worth paying for! I just list the stuff and wait for it to sell, eventually the decent stuff does and what's left goes to the hospice shop.

Obviously if you're a 'business' seller I realise the situation might be a bit more stressful...

Re: Promoted listings

department28 — Tue, 20 Jan 2026 13:22:44 GMT

...'surely ebay should be a fairly level playing field for all sellers but it appears only if you are prepared to pay for it.'

Yes. It was much better when it was a level playing field, before they introduced promoted listings. All newly listed items had their little bit of time at the top of the page - and if you searched for an item, you could see at a glance what was truly newly listed, rather than having to get past all the promoted stuff.

It would have been brilliant if absolutely everyone had steadfastly refused to promote... but human nature being what it is, it only takes a few who are prepared to pay for an advantage... and play right into eBay's hands...🤑🤑🤑

Re: Promoted listings

theelench — Wed, 21 Jan 2026 08:25:20 GMT

As you've already noticed it's just another way of getting money out of sellers, I'd say don't bother sponsoring at all, especially as you're selling one-of collectable items.

One suggestion that will get you better visibility. Have a look at your Ad. titles, compare them to others on P.1 of the results. It's a good idea to have what you are selling in the first 4 words, (they are matched by the search first) rather than subjective terms like "Unusual", "Early, or "Large".

Another that some sellers say helps them that possibly only works in crowded categories. Instead of giving money to ebay to promote, give it to your buyers direct by reducing your prices, if you are happy to get less for your items.

Good luck.

Re: Promoted listings

suelel1968 — Wed, 21 Jan 2026 09:35:46 GMT

@mrdean43 hi, I had some free promotion listings last year and although the items got good views they did not sell.

EBay will not ever be a level playing field, not so much because of promotions, but because some sellers work alot harder than others to learn what works best.

There is lots of good advice to get listings a higher ranking. @theelench has given you a very good starting point about titles.

I just looked at your Chinese Pith Paintings. You could split them up either individually or birds separately from figures.

Keep relisting via "sell similar" any items with no views. Sometimes it seems that items are invisible then you sell similar and suddenly get a number of views. This will help to keep you on the first pages.

Don't do all listings or resisting on one day. EBay likes engagement with the platform. Little and often.

Condition and price is everything, if you get views and don't sell check out sold listings and be realistic about price.

Good luck