eBay Promoted Listings have had a revamp, out goes ‘Trending rates’ and now you’ll find eBay Promoted Listings offers a ‘Suggested Ad Rate’ as a guide to your bid level. There are a few other tweaks, some cosmetic and some functional to improve usability.
Promoted and Organic Performance
Promoted Listings and organic performance are now in one place in the new eBay Promoted Listings dashboard. You’ll also find new graphs such as click through rates which should give some guidance as to how promoted listings are performing compared to organic listings. The update lets you drill down for insights or take a high level overview of performance.
Recommended Listings
eBay say that recommended Listings are tailored for you by leveraging improved user experience and algorithms to give guidance on what items to promote. This is an ideal place to start adding new listings. You can always check at any time to see new recommended items. The items also now default to the top of your listings selection flow.
Suggested Ad Rate
There’s been a name change from trending to suggested ad rate but this isn’t simply terminology. There’s new logic behind the Suggested Ad Rate which may include item specifics, past performance, seasonality, and current competition. As with the old trending rate, the Suggested Ad Rate is intended to help you balance performance and cost to find the ad rate that’s right for your inventory.
104 Responses
Of course Group captain Bacon of the
Ebay flying pig squadron , will be suggesting cost effective rates for the seller
Competing against about 50 million Chinese sellers for ads, Makes business difficult,
Maybe eBay should launch a subsite for domestic sellers at this point, so we didn’t have to compete for ads, etc with those that are not going to pay vat and are not subject to the same standards or taxes, and don’t get special treatment.
What they actually mean:
Ebay needs to raise funds for the $57,225,870 pay off to former CEO Devin Wenig.
Will you make a small 5% gift today?
When you make a gift, you will instantly receive an email with a profile of the Ebay Execs whose lives are being transformed by your donations.
5% will pay for a set of golf clubs and buggy
10% will pay for an all expenses paid 5 star luxury vacation
15% will pay for a new stretch limo
Even 1% will make a difference and enable Ebay Execs to continue a life of luxury and detachment.
To donate now, simply sign up for Promoted Listings.
Suggested Ad Rate = whatever fictional number EBay care to gouge you for?
Empirical evidence? Third party verification? Any ISO 9000 regulatory requirement ?
Just a thought.
Suggested Ad Rate = what ever it is plus enough to cover the 2 per cent government tax they said they wouldn’t charge.
But your items still wont sell that well because they are promoting some chinese guy, to save face because they spent x millions recruiting about 50 million of them and made huge promises of sales to try and stay relevant in China land of dreams and were so scared of aliexpress, they are happy to send domestic sellers to the slaughter.
im not sure that makes sense. i have checked quite a few categories so far and the suggested ad rate is actually lower than what the trending ad rate was.
There is more happening with this than meets the eye – it is not just a “name change”.
What I am seeing is the opposite of what the cynics are saying. If this was a money grab why would the suggested ad rate go down?
It would appear this is a strategy to make best match more relevant.
“Bad “quality” searches are what ebay are trying to avoid”
remove most of the hooky chinese sellers then search would improve
I dont know why Ebay just dont charge a flat 25 percent and be done with the hidden fees.
The promoted listing fee reminds me of the UK National insurance. A hidden 12 percent of my monthly salary
@Alan Paterson
An example of this is you create product x with a specfic sku, brand and GTIM and promote it heavily under a disposable account , gaining reviews, placement , and appearing to popular to eBays search engine. You then dispose that account, but control the brand and GTIN
You would need to have your business affected by Chinese sellers to see how some of it works. I dont think Chinese sellers have really affected your area of business.
@ Victor , as much as I don’t like the Chinese sellers often dominating a particular category , I don’t think you can simply say “yes they will manipulate that too” for everything that eBay launches. It’s just not true. With everyone bidding on the same system I don’t see how this can be manipulated by anyone. We are talking about the subject on the thread ?
@Ross-
I agree Ross, in fact it will be the opposite. This is not just a change in name. the actual way that best match reads and reacts to the “bid” has changed.
I suspected that this was to give a better “quality” search result. ebay have been talking about this for a while. They want to avoid the bad old days when you can simply pay money to be at the top of the search.
if anything this will “suppress” Chinese sellers from simply throwing money at a listing (although there were already parts of the best match algorithm that prevented this if the item was not converting).
Unfortunately some sellers – in their negativity – will immediately trash ebay when a new initiative is announced. this is what is happening here. Not all initiatives are good but the obviously “good ones” still get trashed by small minded sellers who lack the ability to work with ebay and would rather work against while simultaneously burning bridges and trying to alienate people.
Do you remember the personal development books I recommended? What we are seeing online at the moment from the majority of sellers is pretty much the opposite of everything these books used to teach. Everything is turned on its head and the very idea that we come on here to help each others – well , these sellers see that as offensive and preposterous.
instead they simply wallow in their pool of negativity and moan about everything ebay. If you wont get in their pool with them – they attack you, try to discredit you and see you as the enemy.
Well they are right about one thing……… with that attitude they wont be selling on ebay for long. But off course they will see that as ebays fault and not theirs.
On this particular initiative the Jury is still out. But all signs indicate that it is an improvement and probably designed to hamper Chinese sellers rather than promote them. The very idea that it can be “manipulated” by the Chinese is about as far fetched as them using the Corona Virus as a biological weapon. Yet some will believe it……..
Regarding my rant above – I would like to exclude sellers that express their opinion in a passive non-agressive way and dont ram their hatred of ebay down your throat.
For example Andys post near the top of the page made me chuckle. Bit of humour never hurt anyone.
Spreading rumours and here-say and conjecture can be quite damaging to a business such as ebay whos foundation used to be community spirit (no sign of that nowadays).
That is why I often defend ebay – and they are not here to defend themselves (its policy).
@ ifellow. Paterson is a savant. He will take you literally and you are one to talk.
That thread the other day. My God man. I thought you would never shut up. You attacked Paterson relentlessly through the night. What time did u get to bed lol? Nothing better to do? I think your posts might have inspired what he wrote above. Lol
Anyway, knowing him he would go off and sell Zips, make an income , take a few notes then come back on here to share.
And you? You would slag him off.
I see he is not reading or acknowledging your posts lol .
Ross k , Patterson
You need to seek treatment,
Or find an enhancement to your existing treatment
Not everything ebay does is bad or evil, the problem is people have become distrustful of ebay and rightfully so. It’s a big hole ebay needs to dig itself out of. I hope they do, not sure they can.
Personally I dispise the entire idea of promoted listings. The best improvement would be to completely abandon it. Not gonna happen though.
I agree with Alan on just about everything – I’ve worked with many hundreds of business sellers on eBay, across many different sectors, and the decisions eBay make is usually good for their business. Promoted Listings are not fun but it’s an extremely good way for eBay to increase profits, as Amazon has done.
I also saw the Suggested rate at lower rates than trending – yesterday a client who was promoting at 22% had a suggested rate of 9% – I changed it and monitored the results with no drop in position. This was a high selling item from a Top Rated seller, so cautiously I’m welcoming it too.
As Alan says, surely this discussion would be more useful if sellers collaborated to share best practices rather than just moan about eBay? That’s a really easy thing to do but not in any way productive.
22% rate for promoted. Whoa. In our category there’s “standard” margin to be earned, but when I promote our listings I set it at 1% without price change and some items sell. I could possibly increase the promoted % along with item’s price, but I prefer to spend that time on promoting and improving our own website and building own brand, and not spend time to get around another “feature” of eBay.
???
Myself and @Alan Paterson have had disagreements over EBay for many a month, but one thing I will say is that he will help ANYONE who is in need of guidance. We all disagree and have our own agendas, but the personal abuse of him is not right in my book.
@Tamebay
I know you rarely moderate but these guys arguing all the time on nearly every eBay thread is a detraction from the content on your site.
Also, there may be some of ‘those’ execs left at eBay and you might end up with horse’s head in your beds 🙂
joeb
You have a point
Unless you have blind faith in ebay and all that it offers , your Systematically targeted
?
@ Alan Paterson
what advice would you give for sellers who’s sales are on a decline. Would you use the new sponsored / promoted listings? How much different are they from the previous system?
I personally feel the % decrease by eBay isn’t to do sellers a favour, but to reel more punters into the program. They will put prices up after the initial reset- hopefully in their eyes with more sellers hooked into the program.
In my eyes it’s a race to the bottom- after all what would happen if we all chose 100% promotion rates? eBay is a business, not a friend out to do sellers a favour. They will make money any way they can, and sellers are the cash cow.
@Alan Paterson – how there, was wondering do you have more advice on how to increase sales conversion rate on Ebay, in my Performance stats mine is currently in the red at 10.9%
Thanks Alan. I have good products – collectable iron on patches and they sell well when my performance stats (all 4) are in the green. There is increasing competition in this category.
My seller stats are
1. Impressions 268,882 – up 68% (green)
2. Click conversion rate 0.2% – up 0.1pts (green)
3. Listing views – 1196 views up 11.5% (green)
4. Sales Conversion Rate 9.8% down 1.3%pts (red)
I use promoted listings on all 100 products, also I notice when my listing views shoot up with 1-2 sales my SCR goes down.
Also I list 1 new item at least once a week. Thanks for all advice.
@Victor
As a consultant who DOES charge for my services (and I’m not cheap because I get results) I think Tamebay has a real asset in Alan Paterson – his explanations above are spot on. eBay is not about doing one thing correctly – you have to get everything right. And it’s not easy, but plenty of people make good livings on eBay because they are willing to learn.
One thing about Promoted Listings is that eBay’s algorithm is much less concerned about the cheapest price for a product than it used to be. It’s still important to be competitive, but you are better off increasing your promoted rate and selling price to cover the increase instead of lowering the PL rate and having a low price – it’s just the way eBay is these days.
I’m not getting into a pointless and unpleasant argument with you Victor, but I was a Top Rated Seller on eBay for around 9 years myself, and moved into advising others about 10 years ago because I enjoy the puzzle that is eBay, and also because physical limitations meant it was difficult to continue selling myself.
It’s frustrating that on this discussion board negative attitudes from trolls mean that genuine help and support is not taking place.
Perhaps Tamebay could provide a negative forum and a positive forum for those who wish to either complain or collaborate?
This obsession with impressions, conversion rates, blah blah blah
We sell unique antique items by auction- there is little I can do if not many people click through to view the item or indeed if too many people click through and then only 1 person bids. There is after all only one item for sale. We completely ignore the four performance stats, we just offer good old fashioned customer service, plenty of photos and a great description. If that’s not good enough for ebay then tough- we can sell through online auctions now for far less commission rates, no packing and no worries about shipment…………… also NO RETURNS ?
Jumping through eBay hoops? No thanks, and looking at their antiques and collectibles listings now they are a pale shadow of what they were 5 years ago. So clearly, many sellers feel the same.
I think its funny how some short-sighted sellers seem to look down on sellers who dont have the burden of rent, rates overheads and so on.
i am one of those sellers who runs my business from home . I do my taxes and pay for an accountant. I am under the limit required to be VAT registered. I am not part time, spare time and my business is not a hobby. I do not have rent, rates, staff or any of the scary overheads I hear of.
Last year I earned a full time income. Yet, short sighted people on this forum seem to think they are better than me because they have a LTD company registration and are VAT registered. Their business might be collapsing but at least its a “proper business”.
I have traded through Covid. I have no staff to furlough so no bills for the government. I have no rent to pay as i run from home. I have no additional bills that I hear so much about. Yet the implications on this forum is I am not a proper business woman? Despite my income being relatively unaffected? is that not the sign of a good business?
This thread is a bit messed up if we are telling people that they only have a proper business unless they have the large overheads to match. Is this not the kind of businesses going under and needing bail outs at the moment?
Its a great pity sellers like Alan, Laura, Ross are not getting the opportunity to share their knowledge because of these short sighted sellers.
Me? im off Tamebay i aint sticking around to read good people getting constantly stomped into the ground.
Thanks Alan that’s much appreciated.
Carolyn
Cant recall yourself or ross ever sharing anything other than deluded hero worship,
Laura,& paterson
Charge for advice
They use tamebay at least in part as a shop window for their services
@Carolyn
Even if you have no staff, are under the Vat threshold and hold stock at home. The margins on Ebay with 13% Promoted listings and ever increasing postage costs year on year simply make online selling not worth while any more.
My brother has been running Ebay from home since 2005 and will quit this year as margins are not worth the effort any more. The final straw for him was Ebay charging 25% fee for items in his category. NOte his items dont sell unless promoted by 13%…… Sending next day delivery via 1st class and giving excellent customer support dont mean shi* anymore on Ebay….The only thing that works is 13% Ebay promoted fee which equates to 25% of the sale.
I think the core issue with Ebay is the site flooded with pile it high sellers who are happy to live of 10% margins. All is well with them when they are selling 100 of items a day but the margins are not suffice when sales drop to 30 a week. All in all they have wrecked Ebay and most buyers now expect goods for next to nothing.
staying under the vat threshold using the 20% to undercut is how ebay works these days
@ Alan Paterson.
Really annoyed you are being trolled which is totally out of order.
Don’t always agree with you, but you offer advice which is helping many sellers, so you don’t deserve this.
Whatever the problems on Ebay (too many to list!) I appreciate you are simply trying to help and are part of the solution, not the problem. (doughnut and hole again, I suppose ?)
Having read your detailed piece on Ebay tips, the two that are really ones that everyone should follow are the 60 day unsold rule and daily fresh listings.
The other things may or may not work, depending on your set up, but it’s pretty much nailed on that if you have stale items that don’t sell, you are going to be on a downward slope on Ebay.
Besides, it’s good business practice. If you’re stuck with slow moving items, why not have a markdown event to shift them, or lot them up to get rid.
Then go and find something that does sell ??
Also sorry to hear you have been unwell, Alan. Get well soon.
For those who, like me, have serious issues with Ebay, you either have to find a way to deal with them, or else get off the site and go and do something else instead.
BTW It would be nice to see some more active moderation on Tamebay to keep it friendly. It’s driving people away from the board.
Thanks again Alan for the insightful post. Seller performance metrics are absolutely key and vital to a successful Ebay store / account. I realized this at the start of this year and between January and June I had bumper sales as my Sales Conversion hovered around 12% and nearly every day was in green, so I always got 4-5 sales a day and on my best days 10-15 sales.
To answer your points in summary –
I’m a private seller, with near 100 items ( all collectable patches ) so I always use Royal 2nd Class / Large Letter. With the promoted listings I used to go over the suggested ad rate, and I used to get good sales but rack up a lot of fee’s. I now only promote at 2% rate and my listings are always at the top in the same places nearly as when I promoted at 15%.
My impressions were hovering around 40,000 at the start of July 2020 when I used to promoted about 30 of my listings. Now that I’m promoting all listings at 2% this would be part of the reason why my listings impressions are up 60 %.
I list different types of patches, from movies to cartoons and tv shows patches so I have been using relevant keywords ( along with the standard “ Iron On Patch “ ) in the title – depending on my stock I could be selling Simpsons, Star Wars, horror movies, anime patches etc from month to month so for example for Simpsons I would use “ The Simpsons “ in title. There was one keyword I added to all listings and that was badge.
I do have “ stale “ listings and would use sell similar to list items that haven’t sold in 30 days. However I have about 8 best selling patches that are GTC listings so I leave them as out of stock, when I am awating new stock from supplier. I have only received INR cases maybe 3 this year but my service metrics look find and I’m above standard.
I have also just checked and I have 4 listings that currently at 0% STR, although the last sales on these 4 listings would have been end of June / start of July. My current STR has increased to 9.9%
I would appreciate if you could give some advice on what keyword I shouldn’t be using – I believe keyword badge I shouldn’t use.
Private seller?????????
@ Alan Paterson – To confirm i’m a private seller
Yes I mean I’m a non business Ebay seller.
Thanks Alan for the advice which I will put to good use this coming month
… non business seller account that hasn’t registered as a business
we must be crackers
dear ebay can we be a non business please
we only turn over 50 k a month were not a real business
there are lots of proper businesses out there
Laura & Paterson
you need to add NON – business consultant to your CVs
If i had £1 for every Norman on eBay. Id be a multi-millionare.
All the venues are gradually integrating tax collection, as they should, Normans a perfect example… the tax man will likely eventually come around for the full amount due plus interest and penalty..thats no fun.. The venues need to collect the taxes for everyone’s benefit and safety…