I Set My Promoted Listings to 100% on eBay…Here’s What Happened.

#ebay
#promotedlistings
#flippinainteasy
Don’t try this at home. It’s pointless to promote your listings on ebay at 100% and it simply makes no sense to do so, ever unless you are trying to do some extreme hands on research as i try to do here in the video. While the video is a bit rough (this was a tough one for me), I learned quite a bit from this experiment and I share my thoughts and findings of this very small sample size.
Let me know your thoughts down below as always…
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[@KingStr0ng]

The fact that you can even *select* 100% is the problem. Insane.

[@FlippinAintEasy]

Right? Why is over 50% (that is still way too high) even an option?

[@ermeriodsassperini]

Lol

[@SiliDili]

How about they let us put it over 100% so that we can pay ebay for the privilege of selling on their wonderful and totally not glitchy website that definitely didn't lose hundreds of my product images a few years ago.

[@RigginTheRod010]

Right that's insane. They hope someone will slip up

[@Tejaneaux-ic8dp]

Then you just sell product for 200% !!!!

[@Yazzie101]

I tried 50% once it didn’t do a bloody thing! 🤷🏻‍♀️I wasn’t even in the search.. people with huge stores were ahead of me .. I was top rated plus they had bad reviews ! So that’s when I knew it was the big stores that are running eBay!

[@adammonahan687]

I do between 2 and 3.5 percent on all 250 items I have listed and I can always find my items in the top 10 usually sometime 15 but always first page.... weird how ebay picks and chooses. Do you list and ship daily and respond to your customers on time? Ebay likes activity

[@heavensentssmokingchannel9847]

@@adammonahan687 eBay shows you your own listing when you look it up you have to do it from a different device that’s not logged into your account to accurately see where you appear.

[@adammonahan687]

@@heavensentssmokingchannel9847 yup I'm logged into my father's account on a seperate phone thats wifi only for listing his items ( that I get 20 percent of ) never been my account once. I check my items on his and his items on mine.

[@Chicago48]

Flippin you should try to "sort" from lowest price to highest price and see if your items show up.

[@DrTiwade]

@@adammonahan687 correct. They want new items everyday.

[@whysoserious867]

I've always felt that it's just a money grab I really don't think there's much of a difference between 2% and a 100% as far as traffic goes In all honesty I wish everyone would just quit using promoted listings because it's pretty much just a way For eBay to get more fees out of us

[@egeniojaramillo9048]

Of course 2% and 100% would matter. If everyone had 100% and you had 2%, everyone would be seen before yours

[@paulsavidge8847]

@@egeniojaramillo9048 This is absolutely not true. I could show you instances with my own testing where the 2% listing listed before a 10% listing. The value of boost has no effect in terms of "rank" I would almost argue that "Promoted" listings are placed in a "rotator" regardless of value

[@paulsavidge8847]

Have you ever run ads on Amazon, Etsy or Facebook/Instagram? you pay by CLICK. eBay you only pay if the click converts. In the realm of online Ad spend... eBay Promoted Listings are under-valued... how could you NOT just put in the 2%? it is an absolute deal in terms of getting added attention to your listing.

[@TorranceJPlaylist]

It's all a money grab it's bs..I seen some of my items on the first.page of eBay without promotions an dthis is just cause my photos and titles are great...and these are items that have thousands of similarities...it's trash

[@paulsavidge8847]

@@TorranceJPlaylist This is the part that most dont understand... Promoted listings for with the exception of possibly giving you a second listing DO NOT effect search listings. The "Advantage" is the "other promoted Items" on your competitors listing page - that YOUR better images, Better Title, and Better pricing for a lack of a better term STEALS that sale and makes it yours - Sure its a money grab.. it should be YOUR money grab.

[@happyandjoyful7916]

What a fantastic job! This video sets the gold standard for deciding how to use promoted listings. I haven’t seen anything like it on Utube. What is so heartwarming is that you offer this information for free! You have such a kind heart John. I’m getting sales but I’m struggling so I increased the rate to 10% which has helped. You are so right about promoted listings being just one component. Also along with excellent photos and price, increasing the number of listings and being consistent every day along with refreshing my store with ending older listings then sell similar has helped. You’re a natural teacher John. I’m cheering for your continued success on Utube. We need people like you! You can be helping people put food on their table with having the dignity of being self sufficient by your videos! Thank you so much! 👏👏👏👏😊

[@FlippinAintEasy]

Thank you for your kinds words of support! It is very much appreciated.

[@happyandjoyful7916]

@@FlippinAintEasy You certainly deserve it! 😊

[@michellehartman2657]

I'm on the brink of giving up on ebay. My sales have come to a screeching halt. I stopped doing any promoted listings a few years ago when ebay charged me a promotion fee on two items that I literally never promoted. I am a part-time seller and for the past few years I made enough profit every single month to fully cover my rent. It helped me save up for a house, which I bought last September. Right now, I'm feeling more and more blackmailed/held hostage by ebay and I don't appreciate it. I can't keep giving them more and more of my income. I love selling on ebay. I love reselling. But I'm not OK with being forced to give them an additional 2% (minimum) on top of what they get already. In another year two, when ebay has enjoyed the extra income from the promoted listings, they will come back and demand a minimum of 3%, and so on. It will never end.

[@FlippinAintEasy]

I understand 100% where you are coming from but what is the alternative? Ebay is still a viable place to sell and still make money.

[@michellehartman2657]

@@FlippinAintEasy I agree ... that's why I'm on the "brink" and not full-on giving up. As I said, I love selling one bay, and I love reselling in general. I'm still considering options, and in the meantime (attempt) to continue to sell on the platform.

[@lamadeandfound7594]

@@michellehartman2657 I understand what you're saying regarding Ebay and I also feel the same way about Amazon. However, I am trying to launch my own website and I can tell you the advertising fees to promote my site and do all the leg work is stressful, expensive, and time-consuming. It actually made me appreciate how little I have to do to make sales on Ebay. No matter what you do, there is a cost of doing business. I'm okay with paying the extra promoted fees because it is still a lot less than what I have to spend on Pinterest, Facebook etc. Sometimes the grass isn't always greener is what I'm starting to learn. Peace! :)

[@WillmobilePlus]

I mean, what are you selling where you have no sales? You certainly arent being "blackmailed/held hostage by ebay ". You likely, like a lot of recent newbies, started selling back around 2020, got that massive rush of sales for two years listing virtually any old thing, and now find out that you never pivoted, while you are doing stupid gimmicks like "promoted listings". Like why on Earth do you people do that nonsense unless you are selling mall brand clothes and common Target brands, or do goofy stuff like "free shipping".

[@sundaywhiterabbit7679]

1. List 2. End listings and sell similar, edit listing. 3. Send offers to buyers 4. Send coupons Will produce more sales

[@theeasterbunny8308]

If everyone one does it then nothing really changes in rankings except ebay grabs more fees. Well done ya'll.

[@egeniojaramillo9048]

LOL "more fees". That's a strange term for them making not only 100% of the sale price, but also 12% on top of that for normal fees.

[@doubletrouble5026]

@@egeniojaramillo9048 It's another version of race to the bottom. I've started doing suggested rate capped at 10% and I'm making wayyy more promoted sales (yesterday 90% promoted sales). However, I'm getting much less than I'd have liked, and have good quality items. However the Price dictates. Ebay is a "get way less than you want" platform.. in so many ways.

[@biffboffo]

I don't use promoted listings because that strategy doesn't fit my category, but I love stuff like this experiment.

[@dgarreis]

Great video. Pretty sure your the first that has tried this on the YT. I had all my stuff at 5%. I took them all down to 2.1% last week. Going to go back and do each individually this week and set new rates. I do believe title and first pic is the key. Once again thanks again for the info.

[@Robert1546_Sea]

What happened to your sales when you took them down to 2.1%? Did you notice much of a difference?

[@dgarreis]

​@@Robert1546_Sea Yes a little. So after doing this I took everything back up to the suggested rate like 7-9% just to see. Sales really about stayed the same so now I have taken everything back to 4%. I do believe it helps if you do suggested but do not think it pays for itself at the higher rate. The product is really what is going to make the sale.

[@TheSteveBoyd]

In 2024, if someone clicks on the 100% promoted listing, doesn't buy it, but then goes on to buy ANYTHING ELSE IN YOUR STORE in the next 30 days, you will be charged that 100% rate. It just goes to show how they continue to push the boundaries between fees, and theft.

[@GYMGENIUSHQ]

I really like how you took a shot at the 100%, and are trying to learn how the eBay system is set up. It helps all of us understand the process better. Thank you for doing this!

[@travispreble]

I wonder if there have ever been any eBay whistle blowers that have come out and revealed anything. I'm pretty new to eBay so I wouldn't know.

[@rdnretiredatlast4918]

Wow, thank you. This was really fun to watch. Thanks for taking us along for this experiment, and thank you (as always) for the advice / guidance. 😁

[@FlippinAintEasy]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@downtownlife]

I think promoted listings doesn't just bump you up in the overall listing for the category. Instead, your item is more than likely to show up in the " suggested other items" list that appears towards the bottom of someone else's listing to give the buyer the option to instead buy from you. Just my thoughts, not fully confirmed.

[@colt5189]

I have to say, I think it's gross that ebay puts other people's items in your listing. It's not just bad taste, but confusing to look at. Ebay took a real simple listing layout and made it all complicated to where it looks like spaghetti thrown on the wall.

[@darciabel5133]

There is another part to promoted listings to also check out. When you click into a listing with a similar product, under their listing you should see a section called similar sponsored items. This is a good placement to be, if the listing they are looking at is not exactly what they want, people will scroll through those other suggestions. I have done it myself when looking for an item.

[@nemod3338]

Most people look for better prices. I never do what you have suggested, because if you use filters to find local merchants (excluding overseas ones), suggested sponsored ads will contain nearly all overseas merchants, I do not want to buy from. This feature is made by ebay on purpose to defeat filters. Also, you will never defeat straight from china prices if you are a merchant.

[@wandagreer9144]

I discovered not to trust promoted listings a long time ago. Once upon a time, eBay would tell me that the same item had a different recommended rate. Same category, same price. But the amount they wanted on one item was 4.2% while the same item same price would be 5.6% (examples). So I don't trust the recommended rate.

[@marthas.4456]

I noticed this also. The rates are varying wildly in the same categories!!! I don't know how ebay picks the 'recommended promotion rate'. I also believe the promotions don't work every time. I have got days, when I barely sell anything and just can't get any interests.... But the next day I will have lots of sales and the two days are similar - that means the weather was same, both days are working days - basically no difference.

[@drmminc192]

There are two things in play here. eBay will promote your listing ….but they also demote listings that get lots of views but no sales! 100% will get a ton of views but if no one buys really soon after the listing start it will move down the search list

[@antiqueantique7786]

@@drmminc192 Solution. End listing. Wait an hour then sell similar and tweak the photos and title. I get pretty good results with this.

[@palillo2006]

Personally it is a combination of a lot of things. Sell through rate and properly pricing an item supersedes promoting. Next in line is a good title with good pictures. Promoting listings is just an added benefit. I only promote things that are in competitive categories like clothing or if an item has a lower sell through rate

[@joecamerer2865]

great experiment. I've done an experiment with listing identical items for the same total price with free shipping versus buyer paid shipping and the lower base price buyer paid shipping got twice as many views and sold faster despite being the exact same total price. I will have to check out your other videos, this one was very interesting.

[@queenbee9581]

Im just tired of the guessing games. I bust my butt to make optimized titles, fill in all the item specifics, make good photos and descriptions, promote at suggested rates and STILL struggle to make enough to pay my bills. The old days of "list it and forget it" are definitely gone.

[@wesmuntz8797]

It is my understanding that promoted listings have little to no affect your placement in search results but are rather placed in the "Similar Promoted Items" section when viewing a competitors listing. They also appear in sidebars etc.

[@jarvisgrenn2788]

I agree. I don't think it's like website SEO and Google. I think it just puts it in "ads" near "similar items"

[@paulsavidge8847]

eBay goes back and forth with this.. currently if youlook at the Grid format, you will see the top 4 listings are generally "Promoted" listings - much like Etsy as a commerce example or Google within search haveing ads on top. Again eBay goes nack and forth with this.. this time around has lasted a while - longer than it usually does. I can say from MY experience, that being in the top 4 with a "promoted" listing is not boosting my conversion rate.

[@twinnish]

Everything I have been learning lately has been backed up by my previous experience as a reseller on eBay. You have all just been putting into words what I was realizing which was even though I found a great items I bought a lot of items that were perfectly good, but not perfectly desirable and I should have just stopped. I was kind of becoming like a hoarder of perfectly nice things that might sell in a couple of years. I think when I go back to reselling after educating myself again, I will be very focused. I will spend more to make more and I will have systems in place before I even start. I am in a place where I cannot resell at this time and so it’s a very good opportunity for me to educate myself on what I need to do when I get back home. I used to be a top seller and was doing pretty well, but I looked back and I realized how much time I wasted and space I wasted with items that were not going to jump off the shelf.

[@mortytheone]

Photos and titles are where its at. The thing now is PEOPLE DO NOT HAVE EXTRA MONEY TO SPEND so you have to have super in demand items to sale or just wait for buyers to come and when they do get them the best price you can offer. Great video as always Jon

[@kyleb4327]

Well said! eBay is like an online outlet mall. We're just the stores in that online outlet mall with items displayed in our front windows. Then eBay rewards those who wash their windows and present products nicely for the consumer by putting our store at the busy side of the outlet mall.

[@gaarcemail]

I think it's more on the items demand and pricing than anything else.

[@jenniferdeland4026]

I am a small retiree, seller. When I used "dynamic promoted " ad rates, I was selling more items which were in the $145 price range. I was enjoying the validation of the sale. The ding ding ding of the one armed bandit feeling. Most items I had purchased for $5 to $20 max. But when I really drilled down on my cost of goods sold which didn't include my gasoline or hours worked, my profit was dismal. And my profit goal for the item was usually in the negative. Advertising and fees was eating up all the profit. So, the ding ding ding when I drilled it down was a "dong" instead. I take really good and plentiful pictures. I really focus on the title. I list daily. I jump through every eBay hoop but I feel like I am a drone for eBay. Like fishing, it is more fun when you are catching than fishing. But not if the bait is more costly than the catch.

[@sololuisvlogs]

By watching many videos I come to learn when selling on eBay after 90 day period things that don’t sell I need to adjust the price, title or get rid of the item . Sometimes not even that, I been selling on eBay for about a year now and still learning the Algorithm. Thanks for sharing!

[@kolacjaprzyswiecach3798]

Let me tell you something from my experience. I have a habit of setting a few items as promoted in my ebay shop. These items appear on the first pages of ebay. And customers show interest in them and visit my shop out of curiosity if there are other attractive products. Unfortunately, I don't make any money on the promoted items and only use them as a way to attract customers to visit my shop.

[@criticalmass1884]

Casini is very complicated & the best match algorithm is based on SO many different factors besides promotion rate. The "job" of the algorithm is to provide the customer with a selection that makes them think they got a good bargain and fair/fast shipping that makes them want to come back to the platform. Casini also is based upon data gathered from the user doing the search. Maybe you are at 100% promoted listing, but I'm a buyer whose sales conversion rate is much higher on listings with free returns. In that case, Casini might be more apt to show me free returns listings above some other listings that would seem like a good fit based upon my purchasing habits. Fill out all the item specifics, price competitively, have a good return policy & fast shipping & your item WILL sell; as long as it is desirable!

[@FlippinAintEasy]

I tend to agree with what you are saying yet even with what you laid out there are still so many other factors that Cassini considers in this very same search ranking.

[@christinerobinson890]

I don’t look at my dashboard too often, but it appears that about half of my sales are sold on promotion.i list very item at 2%. It’s silly when you have a unique item, but I do it for consistency and to get rid of the line items on my sold page. I think you and Don at Auction Professor May be over analyzing this. You only get charged it under certain circumstances, and the item may not have sold without it. A sold item at 12% commission is better than unsold items at 10% commission. My sales really started picking up in August, for no apparent reason, and I’m pleased. I think my meager 2% helps sales. Thanks for doing the experience. That was clever.

[@FlippinAintEasy]

I use prompted listings on my main account for most of my listings and it works but I think ebay has sellers feeling it is more important than the basics. In think it is another component in the equation right up there with good title, price and photos.

[@UnbridledFinds]

Like 75% of my sales if not more are promoted. I do whatever they suggest and it's never more than 5%. My overall shop performance is great

[@nemod3338]

The way eBay is set up, the only way to get more sales is to REDUCE THE PRICE! simple as that. A lower price will appeal to more potential buyers, than an inflated price (which needs to cover the advertising). If you use promotions, you simply give money to ebay. By lowering the price you give money back to your buyers. Multibuy discounts are usually a good practice.

[@bigskyflipper4084]

I really thought this would help but I find out in my store some work some don't but I wasn't at 100% just 1% and 2%. Just a mystery. Thanks for the video and info. I feel will keep doing what I'm doing for now. Thanks again for the info and keep doing what your doing

[@babaracuda3747]

Very interesting! Thank you! As already mentioned here, PL only make sense when there is a lot of competition on the same article. What else you can try is for example 5% PL and 8-10% increase the price. So you can sometimes get more for your items.

[@EdTheResellingRider]

Thanks for all the information and your experiment. All the point you make is way more important then just promoting at 100%. If people arent searching for it then it will never show up.

[@MichaelMyers5678]

We need a new competitor site; one that puts its sellers and customers first. We all need to make a living and Ebay need to understand, without us, they would be dead in the water without paddles. We make them what they are, not the other way around.

[@unique11585]

Hi my sales was rock bottom and Traffic was all in Red, then I promoted all 1100 listing at 2% and my sales Increased Dramatically. Thanks for the Info

[@FranktheDachshund]

Great info thank you for taking one for the team!

[@daurgo2001]

My expectation is that your perspective of how the promoted listings work may be mistaken. I think the issue here is that putting 100% doesn’t automatically mean that your time is always at the top bc I think eBay only ‘slots’ a few promoted items PER search. Imagine if we had to scroll through thousands of promoted items before looking at any organic results? You’d be bombarded with items that you may not truly be interested in. So how do they control it? They control it by only having one promoted item for every 10~ items in a search, then, what they do is calculate a proportional ‘show rate’ for what item gets shown in that slot based off of what their % paid into it was. In other words: If 100 people put items at a 2%, and you put your item at 100%, that would give a total of ‘300 percentage points’, in this example, YOUR item will only appear 1 in 3 times due to eBay having to show other advertised items as well, but your item will just appear much more often than any other random item. I’d also suggest ALWAYS including BIN OBO rates. Allowing people to make offers makes it so that someone need your price point might offer something that is reasonable to you and you can make that sale. The item appearing two times also goes to show that things work the way I described them above. Basically, your item can be shown ‘organically’ once, and if it’s being promoted, may appear in the ‘promoted’ slot that eBay puts aside for advertising.

[@mCblue79]

I've always wondered what would happen with 100% promotion. Thanks for the vid mate. Soon as I can clear my ebay stock im out. Ebay is dead, sadly.

[@TJJohnson92]

I am like 90 something percent positive ever since Ebay rolled out that PPC/Advanced Promoted listings beta about a year ago they took the spot light off the standard,once upon a time I could legitimately have 1%(maybe up to 9 but nothing higher) and basically every sale would be promoted then at "some point" all of a sudden absolutely nothing(even as high as 40% promoted rate). I don't use them anymore for the most part since the only time they actually do tend to give me search impressions is when I either just list an item(where you already get the new listing boost so that doesn't make sense)and SOMETIMES when I turn them on(because I'm insane and sometimes will start a new campaign just to see if something has changed and they work this time around lol). Plus there was a time just recently(more so on my main account)where like all of the impressions just came from non search spots(AKA spots nobody really cares about or even see if it's at the bottom of the listing's page which still counts as impressions,clicking YOUR OWN STORE even counts as impressions lol).

[@creightonjason]

every sale would be promoted then at "some point" all of a sudden absolutely nothing - That happens to me, I thought I was paranoid

[@drmminc192]

I firmly believe that EBay has predetermined a limit to how many sales they think you can handle before the quality of service deteriorates. At that point nothing you can increase sales. Promoted listing will do nothing if applied to all listings. If you apply it to the things you really want sold it will help you sell those items at the cost of not just the extra fees but also other sales you would normally get but are now “demoted” due to the increase elsewhere!!

[@biscuittbutt1]

Could be possible PL Advanced is always priority over Standard. Since it's extremely rare for someone to do 100% Standard, the algorithm still puts Advanced ahead of standard regardless.

[@travispreble]

"I'm trying to learn" I felt that. There's a lot going on behind those eyes.

[@wintercrow8136]

Great episode. Never bought into the prompted listing idea though I did my own experiment when they started with it. Plus now most of my listings 'do not qualify' to be promoted. I have heard that promoted exposure flies out the window once you click on an 'advanced' search. Thanks for a great video and the research!

[@FlippinAintEasy]

Thank you!

[@earlgendron4893]

Yup promoted only shows if you sort by recommended

[@jennyg3937]

Now this means something a few months in and what? Wow but thank you for this how interesting and really really appreciated - just as y put said ‘eye opener’ and I have a lot to learn this is way bigger I think I get it - lol you need to be smart as with everything… one of the best videos I came back on for it !

[@FlippinAintEasy]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@joannurquizo7339]

What an eye Opener! I had no idea that it worked that way!! Thank You and will work my store today. I a very small seller. I don't sell that much and what I do make helps me pay my bills. I keep doing it to maybe make another sale and a little more money. Thanks!

[@charleskendall3839]

You don't get top listing because they are selling multi - units with proven sales on their listing. All those in the top slots for jeans have converted over 50 times some over 200 times. So, these listing were much more profitable for eBay and are boosted for successful conversion. I'm guessing your item ranked higher than any item that was a single listing and no sales on it.

[@thorazine0076]

good answer

[@heatherrosales6239]

So I think I can answer your question because I deal with something similar - I think it works this way with all ads like Google Ads and Facebook ads and Etsy and other marketplaces. The listings that get ranked highest are not the ones where someone paid to be there, it's the listings that have the highest conversion rate. They do that because when an item converts, they get like 10x the fees than an item someone is trying to push or pay for placement and it isn't really selling or converting. So instead of paying more money for ideal placement, what they want you to do is work on getting a higher conversion rate on your item and it will climb to the top naturally and with less money. Of course we all hate that option, because it is so much easier to just pay for placement and get results and making something grow in conversion naturally is lots and lots of work in optimizing and trial and error.

[@countrickter]

very brave experiment, gave me some insight I hadnt thought about. Also promoted listing helps when you click a similar item and scroll to the bottom of the page... you will see your item again in some various categories(other buyers also bought, similar items. or sponsored items,etc.) This was a good video, something that caught my attention and important for sellers. thank you.

[@FlippinAintEasy]

Glad it was helpful!

[@kristenlegg4223]

It’s like when google spam calls you to promote your business on google searches if you just pay them $500!! Ok so what about when you call the next guy and they also pay for you to do that google?? Oh, well we promote theirs… exactly.

[@J0hnnyTheKid]

Just a ebay strategy that will backfire on them. Just imagine all the scammers that are going to use the promotion tool. Best match should always be specific to top rated sellers or plus in my opinion. Already, I see counterfeit items as the top search on eBay smh they never learn 🤦

[@mikeshepard3827]

I've been using promoted listing for 18 months. Starting out i used what Ebay suggested, after a few months I cut that in half and the results are almost the same.

[@SMack-mj2bp]

I have to disagree with going with eBay's suggested promoted rate. Price comes before that, which you video pretty much proves that! Thank you for putting your $ on the line for knowledge sake! I'm exploring other marketplaces after two months of 90% drop in sales. Although I do believe most of the downturn is economic / seasonal related.

[@bluroks1]

Very good info. Long time seller here. Opened up our eyes. Lots to work on.

[@melaniespozio]

I just had to re sub to your channel no wonder i havnt seen any reminders🥵. This was good info on promoted listings. With so many stores on ebay they cant possibly promote right.

[@FlippinAintEasy]

Glad to have you back!

[@knitix]

Throw those items on FBMP with a good price. They will sell. Also from making and selling handmade items I can tell you eBay LOVES one of a kind listings. I have a lot of buyers with 0 feedback. That tells me that some of my items are unique enough to bring new buyers to the site. I totally stopped promoted listings.

[@FlippinAintEasy]

That's a good idea!

[@DougBenoit]

I think it really depends on what you're selling. Most of my items are games and DVDs, and some have lots of competition. I price similar to sold comps and found an increase in sales for a while after I started promoting at the minimum 2%. My sales have slowed since but it may just be the summer slowdown.

[@sidezskateshop1556]

Great work, Cassini is an evil beast we must work together to conquer!!!

[@sherricramer3648]

T his is incredibly interesting!! Thank you for doing this work for us and sharing your results.

[@StaceNyourFace]

I did the promoted listings deal for one month, and it was a total rip off. I sold approx. $1200 in items, paid $350 in promoted listing fees, $250 in regular ebay fees, and $350 in shipping costs, leaving me only $250 in profit...which doesn take into account the cost of goods sold. I am sitting on WAY YOO MUCH inventory, so I wasn't TOO bothered by the lack of revenue. Right now I'm just trying to get rid of some of the bulk. I think that I sold more items than I would've without using the promoted listing option, but the fees they are charging are ridiculously high. I removed the promoted listings after that one month and business slowed a little, but then things picked back up due to the holidays.

[@colt5189]

What, did you set promoted listings to something like 25%?

[@StaceNyourFace]

@@colt5189 No, it was around 6% I think.

[@SiliDili]

I've tried 100% promoted on an item that I had hundreds of, but couldn't sell. IT STILL DID'T SELL!!! Moral of the story is, it doesn't matter how much you pay for advertising if there's no demand for your item.

[@cardenas262002]

I was on a call with an eBay seller support specialist for at least 1/2 hour. They sent me an invitation to get advice for free, they said they were very happy with the performance of my store and the lady made it very clear to me that promoting clothing above 2% is a waste of money, she said do not go above 2% your sales will not change. I guess now it’s 3% since everyone has been forced to do a minimum 2%

[@arnolduk123]

I agree, ebay is pushing for 2% minimum now so I dont understand that and how upping from 1% to 2% is not massive jump. something else going on here and ebay are not transparent enough about it.

[@FlippinAintEasy]

That could be the right number.

[@TheMonkeyThrifter]

Thanks for the content extremely interesting article. Seems to be a waste of time promos at a higher rate. Cheers from Pete in The UK.

[@ACDC4LIFE]

I just canceled *ALL my promoted listings with the new higher postage rates profits are getting smaller & smaller on eBay … I also turned off the best offer feature I only sell used household items if items don’t sell there going in the donation bag.

[@Yazzie101]

When I turn off promoted I get 0 sales.. so I know I need it 🤷🏻‍♀️ all depends what we sell.. I sell nothing original..

[@ACDC4LIFE]

@@Yazzie101 - I’m fortunate that it’s a secondary income but I’m not catering to Ebay‘s greed & low ball offers i price my items cheaper then similar items if they don’t sell they go to the flea market or donation.

[@Playtrack22]

Thanks for taking one for team imo it’s a scam eBay want more fee to us.

[@SavagePickers]

Thanks Jon, interesting info. I figured out how to change my name on KZbin and didn’t lose my channels.

[@52ponybike]

Some of my store items are promoted at 2%, the MOST I would ever go. I've since stopped promoted because eBay, in their infinite greed, take 12% of every item I sell. That 12% INCLUDES item price plus shipping plus tax! HTF can they legally do that?! I sell exclusively in 'Motors', NOS and extremely clean used motorcycle parts and ZERO Chinese crap. I also sell new and slightly to heavily used motorcycle and snowmobile manuals. During the pandemic, my sales went thru the roof. I guess because some states had lockdowns, my state had none of that. People were dying right and left, at least 5 in my small town of 3500. Anyway, no more promoted listings! I'll be making big changes to my store items, deleting many and grouping like items for another seller to purchase and resell. It takes a lot of work to list and describe to a T each item because they all require a different description and/or category. Currently, I have under 200 items listed when in reality I could easily have a 100,000. Such is the life of a hoarder. First time watching a video on this channel and... I like it so I'll subscribe even though we don't at all sell in the same category.

[@zacatkinson3926]

I would only use items with huge promoted listings if the item isnt well known like really rare and specialized, really rare. Jeans is still a common item and ebay has thousands of jeans listed its impossible to be on page 1 as they might be using promoted listings and have better SEO metrics with Cassini

[@Beyondinstrumentals]

I find that promoted listings ruins my click through and sell through rates due to high impressions . Now that I switched it off its slowly increasing again

[@duncanvr7567]

Did you look where the items were found from a mobile phone view? Because mobile search is completely different than a PC view. I tried to find my store items on a mobile phone and it was not showing a lot of them at all. I'll always stick with 4% on most my items and no promoted at all on more expensive items. Of course the higher you promote on a few items will increase your over all views on your other items. So for a few dog items yeh maybe 20-30% is needed for some sellers to get their other stuff selling.

[@FlippinAintEasy]

@@duncanvr7567 only PC for this experiment

[@briangammage5351]

Amazing experiment sir!!!! Thank you for doing this for us!!! Great tips!! 🙂

[@FlippinAintEasy]

My pleasure!

[@JackBurton081]

Enjoyed the experiment. Good to know that no matter what you do sometimes ... a dog item is just that.

[@Mark-sy2bx]

If you go to your "traffic" page under "my ebay" you will see that with promotions the impressions and page views go up. So if they go up that should mean more sales, but it may mean on only certain items. I was selling one very competitive item, raised my promotion percent higher and I could only get third spot at best, and it wouldn't sell. The top two were selling this item like crazy. I lowered my price cheaper than them and I still couldn't sell the item. I'm a Top Rated seller, did the 1 day shipping, nothing worked. Gave the product away to family.

[@earlgendron4893]

I always thought the percentage is just what number of searches it will show up in, and had nothing to do with where in the placement it is

[@shinestorm1]

This is correct. Being 100% doesn’t mean at top of every search ever it’s not a competition of what rate to get you higher but rather gets in front of more people

[@stephaniemitchell5372]

I've been seeing about ad blockers which most people have and unless they are disabled for acceptable ads, promoted listing won't help because they are not seeing it. I also heard that if you promote an item, it will not be shown as organic and only seen at the bottom of the page, I could be wrong.

[@foyoGames]

Doing the lord's work

[@mikelaplante7873]

I promote all my listings at the recommended percentage. My wife and I built a website 20 years ago that we monetized and sell from, but it took literally years to get 3000 visitors per month. With eBay, by paying on the back end to let them promote for you, the traffic just flows instantly. It would be insane, in my humble opinion, to not take the promoted listing approach.

[@FlippinAintEasy]

I agree (for most items). If your items are one of a kind with no competition then you can do just fine without promoted listings provided the demand is there for your item.

[@paulsavidge8847]

I would suggest going with the flat 2% on any and every item and NOT the "suggested" percentage. there is simply no data to suggest the increase is doing anything. I have tested this 3 days to sunday and will regularly get a 2% listed item ranking or displaying before a 10% listed item. Just list at the minimum 2% that will list you on a competing items product page "Similar Items" block.

[@jshah1961]

Promoting my items has certainly helped me make sales but IMO price and quality photos makes an even bigger difference. My fastest sales have always come from lower then they should be priced items in some cases seconds 🤦‍♂️ while I’ve had high quality graded sports cards promoted much higher then recommended and they sat for months before I finally found a buyer. I see so many sellers in my field with 1 or 2 low quality photos it blows my mind. I picked up a LED photo box for $20 at walmart and it makes the cards and coins jump out on the search listing, seems to help a lot IMO. Great video definitely will subscribe!

[@meticulouselectronics]

One thing about promoted listing. They advertise you items in ads and online marketplaces. Ive sold items that buyers seen on places like kijiji, Craigslist, and even random eBay ads. It doesn't just put you at the top.

[@taduncan6614]

If you have an item that no one wants ... you could set the promotion fee to 1000% and it still would not sell. Try listing something that sells well and promote it at the suggested rate and see what happens. Lastly ebay doesn't just base the algorithm of where a listing appears based on promotion alone. There are about 8 other parameters used in the algorithm.

[@FlippinAintEasy]

Your correct. I did mention that at the end of the video that in my opinion the title is the most important aspect closely followed by price, photos, and Promoted rate. I intentionally used dead items for this experiment to see the affects of an extreme promoted rate. As mentioned in the video I noticed a 10x increase in impressions. Even then my item was not interesting enough or at a low enough price point to get the sale.

[@614westwood]

What’s your thoughts on Ebay’s suggested promotion percentage, I like to go just a little higher to get in front of competition who use what Ebay suggests. Example if Ebay suggests 3.1% I would pick above 3.2% depending on # of competitors .

[@FlippinAintEasy]

When you get a chance and set s few items in your store to the suggested rate. Then the next day, go back and edit those listings and see what the suggested rate is then. You will notice for many listings the amount has changed. Also i have two pillow cover sets in my store same brand and make bit different color. Both have different suggested rates. It almost feels random to me if I’m being honest.

[@614westwood]

@@FlippinAintEasy Thanks, will try that. Keep up the important info you have been giving us.

[@arnolduk123]

I've dropped mine as low as 1% from 3% and I still get promoted sales. I think it depends more on the category that your item is in and how many other similar items that you are competing with. If I turn off promoted listings, my impressions and sales drop quite alot.

[@uncommonthrifts]

Terrific information, thx much for doing all this work and sharing it !😊

[@CharlyJill]

I fixed a 90% drop in sales by doing this Yesterday morning 9am dispatch time was 5 days due to postage strikes changed to 2 days within 2 hours i had £100 in sales ( wax melts ) the server search loves fast dispatch, added multi buys and did NOT Promote , my problem was dispatch time,once i tweaked it the ebay search did its job, all i had to do was change my dispatch 😱😆 i normally have dispatch set to 1 day but changed it in November

[@kingnolan1514]

By dispatch do you mean handling time ?

[@davidhooper3118]

I like the work you have done to help I think it is to late the boat is going down

[@carltonleggett8222]

I have run promoted listings on all of my 1500 listings for more than a year. I use the suggested rate plus 1 to 2% over that amount. I keep up with my fees for promoted listings. My average fee is running about 4.7% of my total sales. This is because items sometimes will sell without be assessed a promoted listing fee. Paying only 4.7% is not bad in my book when I am using the suggested rate plus a percent or two. Sales are consisted and my impression rate is running about 125,000 daily. Not sure if this is good or bad.

[@countrickter]

sounds like you found the sweet spot. carlton. I think the fees are now a part of the ebay game. its hurts to give up profits but we have to do what works for us.

[@thebluetarp]

Ok but eBay does not show us the total view count of a store item any more! And not does eBay show us the original listing date of a store item. So it’s now very hard to know what items have been in the store for a long time?!

[@Soul_Reaper9000]

I appreciate you doing this. I thought about doing it so glad you did it instead 👍👍

[@FlippinAintEasy]

I enjoy learning and this was fun. I honestly did not mind of those items sold or not and was fully expecting them to. Thanks for watching!

[@orlandominichiello]

It's a crapshoot listing on EBAY, they want every fee from A to Z and we take all the risks. I rarely list unless advanced sales lookup shows good price. Thanks for doing that experiment. For a good title would it not be simple to check advanced sales and compare.

[@Sandman60077]

Promoted basically just means you'll show up on the first page. It doesn't mean you'll be the 1st spot. The order is random.

[@Chopper894]

Excellent and interesting video. .. I wonder if it needs more time to take effect as SEO does. Many of my ebay listings show on the first page when googling without promoting, but I am in a specialised niche. Try googling your stuff.

[@Ir-of4zn]

Question: If I can find my item on Google...does that mean it is highly ranked? I don't know much about SEO.

[@FlippinAintEasy]

I find there is usually a 1 day lag from changes made on eBay. If you start a sale this morning, you wont really see the effects until tomorrow. I figured 2 full days was long enough to see what was happening.

[@FlippinAintEasy]

As for items on Google, if your item meets Google's requirements (white background), has most item specifics completed and it meets the buyers criteria, your item has a chance to show up based on competition and likely the promoted rate you are using.

[@Chopper894]

@@FlippinAintEasy yeah I sell sewing machine parts photographed on a white tile. Looks stunning.

[@Nicolas-ic4dt]

Just to compare the effectiveness, have you thought about doing a promotion at 80% off (the maximum) to see the difference in impressions / views?

[@FlippinAintEasy]

I did mention i the video (before seeing the search results) that I was considering doing 50% and then maybe 25%, however I am not sure I will see much of adi difference to be honest.

[@Nicolas-ic4dt]

@@FlippinAintEasy Sorry I wasn't clear. I was talking about comparing the promotion to a regular sale to the customer (ie 80% off 25$, price to the customer will be 5$). Instead of giving the money to eBay, you give it to the customer. If the sale is limited in time to 2-3 days, I would expect that it will drive more traffic than a promotion and probably is more likely to end-up in a sale. Because the lower price will rank you higher in the search engine and the short promotion time will put pressure on the customer to act quickly. It will also make you appear higher in the "sort by lowest price" filters (eBay promoted listings are useless with this use case). If I am right, doing bigger sales might be a far better option than using a higher number for promoted listings.

[@JeriDro]

My sales have fallen dramatically since the Corona Virus.

[@carltonleggett8222]

I sell a lot of jeans and I can tell you if I list certain brands the view count is very high or about 20 a day. List an off brand then I might get one or two views a day. I just checked and I have 3.8 Million impressions for the last 31 days. Sold 300 items out of 1500 listed. 90% is used clothing and shoes. It also shows that my average promoted rate is 7.5%, but I am only paying an average of 4.7% on my total sales. So this proves one thing is you sell items that are promoted but you might not be charged. If someone just views your store and buys an item then I do not think you are charged a promoted fee. If your item appears in an ad and. they click it then you are charged a fee.

[@FlippinAintEasy]

That would be more in line with the promoted listing advanced feature with a keyword or pay to click model. With promoted listings standard, if the buyer clicks on your promoted listing and then comes back within 30 days to buy that same item, you are charged the promoted listing rate even if you had recently turned off promoted listings all together. But if they do not come back you are not charged for them viewing your listing as a result of it being promoted.

[@carltonleggett8222]

Never used the per click promotion and not going to use that service. Just looked at my traffic report. You have Organic vs Promoted percentage. If an item sells as organic then you are not charged a fee unlike promoted. I promote automatically every single listing at suggested rate plus I add another 1% or even higher. The past 31 days report shows I had 979,000 organic impressions and 3,500,000 promoted impressions. This is why you can promote 100% of your listing and you will not pay fees on 100% of your sales. I have been doing this for over several years using the same method.

[@kyleb4327]

Just my experience.. I don't use promoted at all, yet some of my items will show higher than someone with a similar item even when their listing says "sponsored." I think when you have an item that not only matches the customers key words but has sold time and time again, probably with feedback taking into consideration as well, the algo will favor you because of your items track record. My item is niche and there aren't too many out there though. However, I would imagine that promoted listings is only just a tool to rank higher when there are 10+ sellers that are selling the same exact item. I would also think that if you do a search beforehand and find that there aren't many of the same items listed, promoting it would be a waste of money if your title is descriptive enough since the promoted feature isn't a drop down that lets you pick extra keywords it'll promote under. Also, when I have an item that sells more than my average listing, that item/listing then starts to show 1st on Google when I search just part of the title. I know you mostly sell single items but this might show why someone's similar but totally different 2 lb weights that have sold 200 times with decent or great feedback would show higher than any promoted percentage you select. I hope that vendor/wholesale event you went to worked out well for you. The best listings are the ones that you only have to update one thing, the inventory amount.

[@FlippinAintEasy]

I agree and I go to this event next month and I will keep everyone updated. As for promoting your listings, in my mind there are a few reasons to do so. Better chance of non search and external search results (ie Google search), to get placement on page 1 of most searches for that particular item and to place as high as possible on page 1. If you have more than 20 competitive listings for that same item you should be promoting it. Most buyers will only scroll a little ways down the first page before they find what they are looking for. I appreciate your feedback.

[@paulc180]

what is interesting is knowing if anyone sets their item to promoted, waits until they get say 5 or 10 watchers then switches promoted off and send those watchers an offer?

[@reputablehype]

None of it matters unless ebay verifies impressions and clicks traffic as being potential human buyers. Same goes for any other selling platform. It's just fake numbers to make sellers manipulate sellers into doing what they want. Sales is the only metric that matters. Then just use your past sales to analyse why it potentially sold. Sticking to practicality and thinking like a buyer is usually the best advice.

[@mtutor5500]

If you have an item that didn't sell for 3 years, it still makes no sense to throw it away, if you have already made the effort to put it on-line (I barely have 1 % of my items on eBay, it's not my main business and it's very time consuming), unless it's very big and you are short on storage space (then you can just put the price drastically down). Anyway, sometimes, I have an item that sells after 3, 4 years, that happens. Anything has its buyer. Just maybe not tomorrow.

[@jerryriner1891]

Cassini is not a traditional search engine. It is a RELEVANCE ENGINE. No one searches for promoted listings; therefore, promotions are irrelevant. Also, eBay cannot mandate what off-site search engines do with your listings - promotions then, can only function on the eBay platform.

[@craigwinans1948]

I see that double listing a lot when I'm searching items. To me, your promoted test proves promoted does nothing for you. 100% should have been the top of the list no matter how bad the item is.

[@stephaniemitchell5372]

eBay has responded to this with item specifics is most important, but I think it goes hand in hand with a good title

[@Janpre2001]

Could they be listing the items by price? The higher price is at the top/beginning? The higher priced items selling they get more money. After all, not everyone can be at the top of the page (#1). What if everyone did the promoted listing? How does Ebay decide where to put the listings?

[@FlippinAintEasy]

Good question. I believe there are many factors. The promoted rate is only one of them.

[@arnolduk123]

Looking great man! Thanks for doing this experiment, was insterested to see the results. I've also noticed unrelated search items appear at the top of a search list, always a seller with huge ratings and sales. Are the promoted listings also shown in the similar items banner list on pages of other items that a buyer clicks. for instance, a buyer clicks on a listing for jeans and then other promoted listings are also shown on that same page ? also what results do you get when the search category is changed from Best Match to something else ? I think items with free postage are given more priority in the search list as some buyer use this to filter down their searches.

[@FlippinAintEasy]

I believe you are right, the listings shown at the bottom of another listing or even after they have bought our item eBay likes to show our competitors items. These are all external search results and I believe that most of them are driven by having promoted listings enabled

[@picklikeapro6952]

At one point when promoted first started I experimented raising them a few items all the way up to 50% and the items I listed didn’t have a lot of competition and my items weren’t showing up on Google or #1 on eBay and one of the items only had 1 page worth and I was the last one the next day 😆. I just do 10% max now on used items with a ton of competition where I’m pricing higher because mines in better condition than the rest.

[@MsBeautylive]

Yes!!!! Is all in the title !!i don’t promote my items before !!and i make a test on changing my title several times on a item until it pop up on top ,before i change it it wasn’t showing at all! After test it showed up and sell the next day!!!!!is all on the title people !!!fix yours titles!!!

[@SolarpunkMonk]

For the headphones I would assume it has to do with free shipping and free returns plus a deal put it one place ahead of yours

[@ivermectin3191]

I’ve been putting mine to 20% , gaining watchers , then backing it off to 5 and submitting offers

[@Massiveminion]

Although I see rather esoteric stuff I tried promoted listings months ago and saw no change other than more expense handed to eBay on those eventual sales. Naw, don't bother. I can see where offering 5% discounts per added sale in combined shipping helps as that works on me when I'm considering buying similar stuff off ebay from any 1 store that offers it. I tried that once also and got no takers other than private emails from potential buyers wanting me to drop my asking prices to point where gifting items to a local landfill would be wiser than their idea of discounting. On the flip side of multiple orders I've had buyers buy different items different days so I would have to ship each sale individually thus justifying their idea that I won't make any money off them on the postage charge baked in when I offer free shipping. The biggest mover of items for me is posting specific items that I'm selling on ebay to different collector websites. This way I have more eyes on the prize and the stuff moves out within 1 week after initial posting rather than wilt on ebay's vine from lack of exposure, too much choice/competition already out here, or buyer indifference.