Promoted Listings Question

[2nd-time-around-jewelry]

I know eBay is really pushing us to use Promoted Listings. I have noticed some listings with the word Sponsored on them. Is that the same as Promoted?  I actually find them very irritating. Everytime I look at certain catagories of listings for new items, the Sponsored ones always pop up as the first one.  I am sick of seeing them over & over again.  I'm wondering if people who constantly see the same one pop up first, will get fed up with it.  Instead of Promoting the listing it is actually hurting the listing.  Also noticed that some people have the same listing up twice, once as Sponsored & the other without being sponsored.

[pjcdn2005]

Yes, a sponsored listing is a promoted listing. Ebay has them set up to show twice..once as a sponsored version and once as the regular version. 

Do you always use best match to search? I don't know if the sponsored listings show up just in best match or in all the search modes.

[2nd-time-around-jewelry]

I type in what I am looking for in the Search bar & it always comes up as Best Match first. Then I change it to New Listings or Ending Listings. And pick the country I am searching.

[ricarmic]

I have been using promoted (sponsored) listings for a long time now.

It has been the same set of items promoted for several months now.

Sales as a result of some promoted listings have been very good for two reasons:

-the item is promoted and shows up early in searches

-because more people see it/buy it, regular sales of the same item are higher too because its visibility is increased in a non-sponsored way too (and it doesn't cost anything if someone buys the non-sponsored version (without having looked at the sponsored version in the last 3? 30? days)).

As with all things ebay, they will sit for weeks and then all the sudden a bunch go (some sponsored and some not sponsored, often about half of each) and then it goes quiet again.

I have noticed during some slow times, the $$$ impact of promoted items is making a difference (ie it would be nothing or next to nothing without them), so I am glad that I am using them.

One has to have margins to support paying the ad fee (although I get some free each month as part of my store subscription).

I believe, but haven't spent enough time to confirm that the fits and spurts may be a result of other promotions ending and mine being the highest at the moment so I show up more.

[2nd-time-around-jewelry]

Promoted listings may work well for selling stamps & coins.  But I find it very annoying for selling jewelry, seeing the same item listed first all the time. I just ignore it & move on.

[ricarmic]

I agree, there are those in my categories that are paying more than me and they are always coming up with my searches, I also find it annoying that it's the same ones every time, however I find myself checking their stuff once in a while to see how they are doing.... presumably my buyers are doing the same thing when mine come up.....and buying my item.

Have you ever tried using promoted listings? It might be worth an experiment, folks will see a "new" item in the promoted listings.... it might be an advantage, even if used intermittently?

[reallynicestamps]

@ricarmic 

(although I get some free each month as part of my store subscription).

Oh? Please elucidate? 

Also, how do you end a Promoted Listing?

I use them on  some popular items and would like to move them to different popular items.

[ricarmic]

Hi RNS! 

I have an anchor store subscription which gets me at least $30 off any ad fees each quarter. (I'm never sure how much exactly I get, given how they count me across sites etc....and I don't have the time/energy to figure it out).

Stopping or pausing them is easy. Just go to the "promoted listings" link on your my ebay/seller hub under selling tools. The actions include ending and pausing. Let me know if you need more details.

[zee-chan-jpn-books]

What I found out recently, is that even if you ended a promotion on a promoted listing, is that eBay will still charge you the promoted listing fee. So I probably wouldn't have bothered ending a promotion if I'm gonna be charged the fee anyway.

[ricarmic]

I believe the rule is if the person buys up to 30 days after they look at the item you get charged.

If I look at your item today, you "unpromote" it tomorrow, and I buy it the day after, I can understand why they would still charge you, I found/looked at it when it was still promoted.

[momcqueen]

I've used Promoted Listings as a seller since they were launched on ebay Canada; I don't have a problem with them as either a buyer or seller. Anyone accustomed to online shopping will see a Sponsored listing on ebay and either decide to view it or ignore it, the same as they would on any other online shopping site. All of the big e-commerce sites that I visit as a buyer utilize a 'sponsored' program like this one. Ebay is simply getting with the times; it's an industry standard.