Priority Advertising Strategy promoting listings. I'm bleeding money and profit

[bgoodstradingscot]

I have most items on a dynamic rate promotion but put a load of stock on priority with campaign budget £3, the lowest rate. It is bleeding money daily. I notice there are much more views but not particularly driving sales. I have sent a few offers. However offers I've sent are to buyers with no feedback. Am I paying for bot's? Shouldnt everyone have an equal fairness when they post their items for sale or is this additional help for unsavvy sellers where advertising isnt their forte. Really dont know what to make of this. Whats your thoughts. Is it worth it? 

[pegr-834437]

Fully agree, I'd love to see what people sell who can make the priority campaign profitable. Lots of accounts received the £300 'free' credits recently so you'd have thought if it was indeed a great success the board would be flooded with good news stories about the great improvement. 

£500 in sales for £200 in priority fee's is one that I have seen, if you then add in eBay fee's, purchase price, storage, they'd be better off throwing the £200 on the euro millions.

[style_wise]

Only you can decide if Promotions are worth it for you. A few other Sellers have similar things to day about Priority Promotions.

As for General Promotions, eBay UK changed them earlier this year, making it impossible to track whether they are worth it or not. Hopefully this trial will fail, and they will revert to the original method (still available on eBay US).

[jonatjonatjonat]

It depends what you class as profitable I suppose.

What is a good ROAS will very much vary depending on your business model and your category.

Company I work for, this month the priority ads are running at a ROAS of 6.43 which is reasonable. BUT we don't do dynamic, we would start with automatic keywords but very quickly shift to manual once we realise which keywords work. Often, this is where Priority falls down, people leave on poorly performing keywords. It requires daily checking.

I do find Priority Listings much harder to manage than General Promotions - but ebay are very much an outlier with General Promotions. I can't think of any other major marketplace who offer Pay Per Order Advertising. PPC ads aren't however inherently bad. They just need work. They won't be right for everyone.

The OPs issue might be what they are selling (though I don't know what they are advertising). Why would someone buy new makeup when the cost is inflated by BPF and Simple Delivery as a Private Seller?

[cobwebcottage]

There are many other ways you can increase your sales without using promotions.

From your own admission in your bio ( and the title of the post, you are business seller who wishes to make a profit.

'I have great quality stock, I look for quality labels to give you the best deal I can do for you on them. It really makes my day when you get exactly what you want and you love it. I also deal with liquidated stock any profit I make on this stock I pay it forward.'

By giving your buyers their legal rights, which they should have anyway if you traded correctly they would have the option of returns, details of business seller, no buyer protection fee. It would probably cost you less than the amount you are paying in promotions and you would be trading legally, giving you credibility and your buyers would pay less so sales may increase.

[pegr-834437]

Didn't even notice it was a business on a private account, changes some things in my opinion, you are already ripping your customers off and then to say you are passionate about fairness whilst forcing any potential buyer to pay a fee that they shouldn't have to pay is not fair at all.

With regards to @jonatjonatjonat I think eBay will always have to be different to other businesses with regards to advertising, many correctly and most incorrectly registered businesses will be done around other jobs or child care so to have somebody spending time each day checking up on key words is never going to work. Really though eBay shouldn't need advertising, its just a way to squeeze more juice from the pips, if it was just the best accounts were highest on best match they'd still get plenty of money.

[plpmr]

adding to the advice already given -

"I'm bleeding money and profit"

As a registered private seller profit cannot come into it.

however a private seller cannot be holding stocks of and selling brand new items.

for example - "Wow London Matte Lipstick Shade 36" over 100 available.    

[guymafo · Accepted solution]

It really is ridiculous how many private sellers running businesses on the wrong account post on these boards with these questions, about profits, stock, SD and BPF.

GM

[coyotetower]

I do well with them but u have to limit ur clicks to the lowest amount (used to be 6p and now is 20p). No doubt soon itll be min click £1

[bgoodstradingscot]

With profit after costs, reinvesting with more stock I pay it forward and donate profit into the charity work I do. I also work for a non profit organisation and this is a model I am familiar with. So I need profit in order to do good. So yes it is an accurate quote you have taken from my profile but I genuinely don't think its a concept you are familiar with. You are correct, anyone can raise an issue and return an item to me. I have excellent feedback. I dont presume to know everything and I am sure I have loads to learn. I think buyers have good access to me if they needed to contact me about anything, yes buyers pay a protection fee which is an addition to their budget they may not have planned for which is another issue. What credibility is it you think you are giving me here? I question if priority advertising is worth it and you didnt choose to share your thoughts you chose to raise an issue with me. It would be patronising to say this was entirely helpful 'cobwebcottage'. If you would like to understand more about paying it forward or what I do for charities with clothing donations and other paying it forward opportunities, please feel free to reach out.

[bgoodstradingscot]

So even though I'm self employed and use the invoices on here I still have to register as a business here? I can no longer have a private account?

[tressygirl]

You can have both private and business accounts,  you just need a different username ID and email for both.

To be clear,  you list your used unwanted, second hand items,  such as a garage / wardrobe / attic clear out on a Private account.

For your Brand New items,  you list all those on a Business account.

@bgoodstradingscot 

[cobwebcottage]

The credibility, if you are raising funds for a charity is to be correctly registered legally as all charities are.

I have given my views, as requested, to how you can improve your performance as per your title 'I'm bleeding money and profit'.

I held the position of C.O. of a registered charity for over 10 years although I am still willing to learn new things so feel free to pm me with your suggestions.

[bgoodstradingscot]

Thats fab I work for a charity and clear out loads to add to the Christmas campaign and do additional orders through a couple of wholesalers for 2 other charities I worked for who also do xmas campaigns.  I have worked in charities for over 25yrs. So that is my main source of income. I'm just learning how everything works and testing the market over the last year so just navigating best approach. I appreciate all feedback too.  

[bgoodstradingscot]

I am a newbie over the last year to selling but really open to learn and navigate here. I work for a charity and do donate loads but that is by the by its a personal choice Ive always tried to get deals from wholesale and donate most and cover my costs selling.  Im not interested in making this a full time job or income. This may be something which becomes something but ticking along reinvesting but appreciate how tough it is to get prominence, the market is always changing and want to learn as much as I can.  I am not interested in people buying because I donate profits by donating and reinvesting so taken that out my description. My priority needs to be people getting a good deal and quality item they genuinely need. Im just learning, it may become more but there is so much I need to understand and listen to from people with more experience 

[pegr-834437]

The best piece of advice I can give you is to change your account to a business one, you are currently breaking the law by misrepresentation and charging your buyers the buyer protection fee when they shouldn't be charged that as you are a business not a private seller getting rid of unwanted personal items. I see you have removed the self confession of being a business from your page but that doesnt change the fact you are a business. 

Its also good to offer the buyers the best service you can and misrepresenting yourself and charging them a fee when it should be you as a business paying the fee is not great. It already is a business even if you are just breaking even or doing it as a hobby/side gig/whatever the latest buzz word for a small business is. 

Your priority should be complying with the law, ebay policy and not making customers pay fee's they by law shouldn't have to.

[nigel_paul_wright7557]

If someone doesnt want your item it doesnt matter how much you promote it.

By the time you have promoted an item and adjusted sale price to suit it becomes too expensive compared to the competition.