Want to increase visibility and boost sales for your eBay listings? Setting up promoted listings can help exponentially more buyers find and purchase your items.
In this comprehensive guide, I‘ll explain what promoted listings are, provide step-by-step instructions for enabling them, and share optimization best practices used by top eBay sellers.
By the end, you‘ll know exactly how to configure promoted listings to sell your products faster on eBay. Let‘s get started!
Overview of Promoted Listings on eBay
eBay gives sellers the option to "promote" their listings for a small advertising fee tied to sales price. Essentially eBay gives promoted listings prime visibility across their platform in exchange for a percentage of revenue.
Benefits of running promoted listings include:
- Higher search ranking and featured placement
- 10-30% more sales on average
- Exposure beyond just eBay to search engines and partner sites
There are two main types of promoted listings on eBay:
Standard Promoted Listings: Basic eBay ad units displayed at the top of search and category pages.
Advanced Promoted Listings: Additional promotion options for more control and customization.
I‘ll cover both in this guide – let‘s start with setting up standard promoted listings.
Step 1: Enable Promoted Listings in eBay Listing Tool
Enabling basic promoted listings only takes a minute and can be done when creating new listings or for existing live listings.
For New eBay Listings
- Click "Sell" at top of eBay homepage then "List an item". Fill out details as usual.
- At bottom under "Promoted Listings" tab, toggle button On and adjust suggested ad rate if desired.
- Preview listing then click blue "List It" button.
Done! Your new listing now has standard promoted listings enabled.
For Existing Live eBay Listings
- Go to "My eBay" then "Sold" to view active listings.
- Check listings to promote and click "Sell it Faster".
- Select "Promote" from drop down menu to bring up promotion page.
- Adjust ad rate and save. Listing(s) now promoted!
Tip: Bulk select multiple listings to quickly promote them simultaneously.
Fig 1. – Toggling on Promoted Listings from eBay seller platform
And that‘s it! Enabling basic promoted listings is a breeze whether creating new listings or updating existing ones.
Now let‘s discuss how to set your fees…
Step 2: Set Competitive Promoted Listings Ad Rates
A key component of promoted listings on eBay is setting your ad rate, which determines the fee eBay charges when your item sells.
When first enabling promoted listings, eBay provides a suggested ad rate based on factors like:
- Item category
- Competitiveness
- Sale price
- Shipping fees
This rate fluctuates dynamically based on their algorithm. As a seller, you can choose to use the suggested rate or override it with your own fixed rate.
Lower rates = cheaper fees but less visibility
Higher rates = more visibility at increased cost
I recommend starting at the suggested rate. Monitor performance over the first few sales and tweak it to find the optimal balance between maximizing visibility and profit margin.
Promoted Listings Ad Rate Impact on Fees
To illustrate the impact of ad rate on fees, here‘s a sample breakdown:
| Sale Price | Ad Rate | Fee |
|---|---|---|
| $100 | 8% | $8 |
| $100 | 10% | $10 |
| $100 | 12% | $12 |
As you can see in this example, higher ad rates increase your promoted listing fees, but generally also increase visibility and sales volume. Strike the right balance for your profit goals.
Step 3: Analyze Metrics and Optimize Over Time
Like any digital marketing initiative, the key is to continually track KPIs and optimize your promoted listings for peak efficiency.
Make sure to monitor metrics like:
- Click through rate
- Conversion rate
- Total sales volume
- Incremental sales driven
- Return on ad spend (ROAS)
Based on this data, tweak variables like:
- Ad rate
- Target categories
- Headline & ad copy
- Images
- Pricing
Follow eBay‘s promoted listings best practices to further optimize performance. Their data shows promoted listings drive a 10-30% sales increase on average when configured effectively.
Over time, you can expect promoted listings to increase both total sales and return on each eBay listing. Dial these in to maximize results.
Once you‘ve got the hang of standard promoted listings, consider upgrading to eBay‘s Advanced Promoted Listings for more customization and control.
Benefits include:
- Customize target categories
- Set individual budget caps
- Bid adjustments to fine tune visibility
- Reporting on conversion metrics
And with Advanced Listing Tools (ALTs), power users can segment and target promotions even further.
Learn more about Advanced Promoted Listings directly from eBay here.
Promote eBay Listings to Increase Sales
Hopefully this guide provided an easy-to-follow overview of how to effectively promote listings on eBay.
To recap the key points:
- Enable promoted listings via eBay bulk listing tool
- Set a competitive ad rate
- Track performance and optimize over time
- Consider upgrading to advanced promoted listings
By spending just a few minutes setting up promoted listings per eBay product page, you can expose listings to significantly more buyers. Listings generally see a 10-30% increase in sales on average according to eBay.
So what are you waiting for? Set up promoted listings today to get your eBay products in front of more buyers and boost your store‘s bottom line!
Have any other questions on running promoted listings on eBay? Ask in the comments!
