RESULTS! What Happened When I QUIT Doing Promoted Listings On Ebay!

[@representing50plus]

Im so sick of trying to keep up with these algorithms ...... promoted listings..... volume pricing...... markdown sales....... coupons...... best offers.... offers to watchers..... IT's INSANE just let me sell my sweater for 12.99 + shipping and i'm on my way.

[@SarahStylesLLC]

yea it is complex at times but that's e-commerce selling.. I get it though I am definitely not in the mental space anymore.

[@R.L.KRANESCHRADTT]

AMEN. Iv'e been a seller for 20yrs... full time. last week was the worst since I began... they've crated a system 'rigged' against us which demands we do battle with it to survive. It's insane.

[@bdml77]

It's a race to the bottom. I've been selling on ebay and online since 1999. It gets harder and harder and more expensive to sell. The more they mess with these platforms, the worse it gets.

[@R.L.KRANESCHRADTT]

Promoted listings are just a mob protection racket... "Say, that's a nice listing you've got there... it'd be a real sham if nobody ever saw it"😎

[@debk3135]

Ebay needs to be sued like Amazon for hiding listings unless you promote

[@SarahStylesLLC]

are they hidden? or just not at the top? Mine come up in search still. but promoted is at the top

[@mihalyfreeman5928]

@@SarahStylesLLC Its a fact that they are hiding. Its easy to see. Simply search for an item then on the left have a look at the new and used boxes. There are numbers in there. Now compare that number with the TOTAL number shown at the top of the page. You will know the number hidden by 1) adding up the numbers from the new and used boxes then looking at the numbers at the top. My example shows 700 or so hidden items for my search. RIDICULOUS! This means Ebay does not think that your item title is relevant enough to be shown, even on the 1st 20 pages. After that your dropped!!!!!!!!!!

[@Tyejohnston]

I had 3,000 listings sales were not good like $50 days… ended everything listed 600 again in 2 days and today I sold 14 for $278 I was promoted at 12% now doing 5% more sales

[@TorranceJPlaylist]

Oversaturated items promote, non saturated items dont promote

[@SarahStylesLLC]

Yup!

[@RadRelics]

If you are selling one offs with very little competition you do not need promoted listings but if you are selling in a flooded category then you need it.

[@SarahStylesLLC]

Yes Exactky

[@madmediagal2388]

I called eBay out on this in a message, recently. If I am the only person selling a unique item, do not say the average promo of 12%. It cannot be compared to another item in the category. I have a feeling that the slow downs are because of one of two things: Fall Updates. This is when they work on the site and items may not present as usual. Or, EB is going to want to change for tiers of exposure. The PPC Is a waste of money. Tried that - it did nothing and I feel others did, too. They are always looking for ways to get more money out of sellers, just like AMZ.

[@dk1291]

OMG, this is the most informative video I've seen to date (1 month). I had my wife watch and now she understands my convoluted dialog while on this topic. THankS

[@SarahStylesLLC]

Awe glad it helped!

[@TheThriftyBroad]

Every time I try to not promote at all or under 7% this is what happens for me. I sell mainly common items as you know so I do the dynamic rate. It helps me make more sales which is what I am after. I have accepted this is just how it works now. Hope you are well friend! 💕💕

[@SarahStylesLLC]

Yup! Most my categories average from the listing quality report is 7% so make sense since we are in similar categories

[@travisw6378]

I guess it depends what your selling, I got tired of the promoted listings like 6-7 months ago, and moving forward from that date I stopped promoting 90% of what I list, I did leave up anything that was already promoted though. My sales have been consistent and I’m on track to do better than last year, if you have good items they sell. I think people that sell a lot of clothes and really common items have to worry about this.

[@SarahStylesLLC]

yes correct. and in women's fashion that's just what it is...

[@michelleapple1214]

I'm selling women clothing and it's so slow, you are correct. I wonder what's good to sell.

[@travisw6378]

@@michelleapple1214 Categories oI have done well in camera lenses, video games, handblown glass - especially signed pieces you can identify the maker, collectible 80s and 90s toys - gi joe, transformers, power rangers, star wars... just try and buy larger collections, also costume jewelry the garage sales or estate sales that have usually have a lot and can buy for 25 cents to a few dollars a piece, some stuff like crown trifari can potentially fetch lots of money for the right piece, enamel pins are an easy one too, disney, ski resorts, sometimes certain military or fraternal groups have small pins that are 14k gold that i have sold for 50$ each, diversifying your categories and knowledge is key in my opinion.

[@Bawkr]

I have a store about 1/4th the size & my chart looks similar in up and downs and when those happened... I think economy & or ebay bugs+glitches on top of that. There's definitely a lot of fear in the news & peoples bank accounts right now that to me would definitely reflect in my store as well.

[@misseyespy1]

They are turning off and on no doubt about that now grrr

[@SarahStylesLLC]

yes true about outside factors we cannot control..

[@AwesomeFinds24]

Great Info! We are just getting started, so any Advice you can give is Very Helpful! Thank You 👍😁

[@SarahStylesLLC]

Glad it was helpful!

[@jaysawyer9516]

Thanks for the video - I promote my items at a very low rate and sell collectables. Some are the only ones available. Even as a one off item, I will promote it because i find a lot of sales are through promoted, and it also gives exposure as a listing if people are looking at other similar listings.

[@SarahStylesLLC]

yes true! and in collectibles you can get away with smaller % for sure

[@SpiceBear]

We love you Sarah! ❤ love your videos!

[@SarahStylesLLC]

Awe thanks

[@kathyhayward5730]

It's impossible to figure out what really works on Ebay these days. I downgraded my store to Basic and stopped all promotions. My sales tripled, even though impressions and page views tanked. It's important to note that the organic impressions and views remained steady.

[@StygianStyle]

That's really weird. Why do you think it had such a huge effect to stop all promotion?

[@kathyhayward5730]

@@StygianStyle Here's what I'm thinking... Ebay shows promoted listings to people who aren't even looking for the item. (I see lots of "here are similar things you might be interested in" at the bottom of the page when I'm searching for something.) If they don't click on the item, your click-thru and sales conversion rates drop, which makes Ebay think you have non-desirable items, which drops you lower in the algorithm & search results. For instance, my click-thru rate dropped from about 1.5% to 0.7%, and my avg. sales conversion rate dropped from 5.1% to 3.9% when I started promoting. Could be wrong, but that's my theory.

[@reynanledesma9580]

Thanks for Sharing your experience Sarah!!!!!

[@SarahStylesLLC]

You are so welcome!

[@juliedubois5650]

Hi Sara, this is helpful thank you ! Did you do dynamic cap at 15% or 15% fix rate ?

[@SarahStylesLLC]

dynamic, capped at 15%

[@juliedubois5650]

@@SarahStylesLLC thank you Sara !

[@LizGarrisonReaLiZeU]

At least you don’t pay for promoted items on eBay unless you sell that item.

[@SarahStylesLLC]

very true! Nice to see ya Liz!

[@NathanGrant75]

Not necessarily true. eBay does offer one time fees for promoting auctions. You pay whether the item gets a bid or not.

[@kimhanson2623]

I am new to selling on eBay.. with promoted listings, just curious as to the overall fees from what I understand I'm paying 13.25% to sell an item on eBay so with you paying 15% for promoted listings that means eBay is taking 28.25% for each item that you sell?

[@robertdeveau7445]

Good stuff Sarah!

[@SarahStylesLLC]

Glad you liked it!!

[@Howsithanginebay]

I went down in promoted list by 2% and it has taken about 2 months to get back to normal.

[@Mark-sy2bx]

I turned off promoted listings for a few days then turned it back on and my impressions are the same.

[@SarahStylesLLC]

Um… that’s so interesting definitely not the case for me. Did you end a campaign? Or just edit them off?

[@Mark-sy2bx]

@@SarahStylesLLC I just did a bulk end promotions. Then after a few days did bulk add 3%.

[@SarahStylesLLC]

@@Mark-sy2bx yea ok so I think this way doesn’t impact as much as with campaigns.. I’ve done that before too. But now I use campaigns.

[@SarahStylesLLC]

For the data…

[@ronman5415]

I just started listing...is it okay to give primary Bank account info to get paid if something sells ?

[@SarahStylesLLC]

yes it's how they will send you money

[@ronman5415]

@@SarahStylesLLC I can't find my listing 🤷‍♂️

[@Bobbie-Loves-To-Thrift]

Different subject. Poshmark i got 90 looks like bots ? Joined under my closet name! I didnt invite anyone and they had wierd names and number. Then my sales stopped. Before this my sales were normal. Did this happen to anyone else?

[@everlyeverly3090]

You're not the only one, it's happening to me too

[@SarahStylesLLC]

oh posh is dead and I'm definitely getting new registered when I don't promote at all

[@WhatEdThinks]

Me too. Like 200+ people.

[@mihalyfreeman5928]

You need to work out how PM works. Its all about sharing your items from your closet. Get one of those automated programs such as closet tools and run it so it shares the items in your closet. If you dont share you wont make sales. Keep your closet at around 500 items and no more. Once your closet BLOATS higher than 500 its much harder to share your entire closet MULTIPLE times a day even using an automated program. Run it for a week and see if you start getting sales. Dont follow anyone, dont follow closets, dont use any feature other than, SHARING YOUR ITEMS and SENDING OFFERS. Its been tested and proven that you dont need any other feature of the program to make sales. Thats it!

[@cathyeller5722]

I just moved most of my stuff off of ebay. They are giving what I'm paying for why pay them? I have another 800 items I'm going to pull off and put on another platform. They want higher sell through rates is what I keep hearing so mark all you items to 5 dollars everyone sinks to the bottom along with ebay's profits. They want to play games with peoples income, screw them.

[@SarahStylesLLC]

Where are you putting them?

[@StygianStyle]

What happens when you increase the percentage fee? You get more impressions?

[@catwhisperer968]

THE END of ‘End & Sell Similar’? How does this idea sound? I am currently on dynamic promotion with 13% cap My new listings I do NOT promote 30 days I mark down sale. 60 days promote dynamic. After 90 days I will revise. If you are in dynamic promotion you have to end ALL dynamic promotions to end & sell similar. (Unless I’m missing a step) Which will take a while to catch up to rest of your store. If you have your photos stored off site you can end items you can create a whole new listing without ending dynamic promotions. Hope I am making sense.

[@SarahStylesLLC]

yes I do sell similar almost daily, my store turns over in 2-3 months and it helps. I have a video on it. I was doing promoted after a week but with the new campaigns it automatically do it..

[@misseyespy1]

I don’t know how I have three campaigns lol I have all different rates 9 12 and sometimes I do seperate 15 still super slow . I was doing 3-6 sick of paying feees better to get cash in so I upped the proms . Thanks stats really interesting .yes good point 30 days . I have lots old dead stock need to move bla bla lol Have a great week ! I need visibility too might have to go 25 % see what happens on 100 listings. I have 500

[@TravisInDallas]

Is promoting items that aren't moving at 25% really effective or just running up the rate for everyone else? I don't promote new listings for 30 days. Then I promote at 2.6%. I have around 250 listings with a .04 click through and 2.7% conversation. I list 3 a day since July and have sold 73 items over the last 30 days. A little over $1000 profit. Working on getting my ASP up now. Then I will start listing more. Having items people want is the most important thing.

[@misseyespy1]

Hi yes good stats, just an idea to go to 25% not sure if I go that high have to do numbers .. Many not promoting and some going ing higher! that’s a choice ect . You might not need to at all? Sarah’s videos on statistics on her store ..sales and impressions I have learnt lot from Sarah’s analysis of them! Yes clearing and changing stock out for sure was promoting that at 4 maybe

[@SarahStylesLLC]

worth a shot to see what happens and look at stats. Last year I went up as high as 25% and did a video... It worked but at a cost.

[@hzzn]

What happens if you pay for promoted listings and eBay doesn’t actually promote any of them?. That’s what happened to me. They may be happening to countless sellers, they just don’t realize it

[@SarahStylesLLC]

yea that's hard to know. I only do basic so only pay if it sells.

[@hzzn]

@@SarahStylesLLC sellers need to check each and every listing they have up in search because eBay is probably scamming untold amounts of sellers this way.

[@mihalyfreeman5928]

Exactly! See my post on this.

[@sogent56]

What rate do you use

[@SarahStylesLLC]

@@sogent56 I’m currently at like 7 I think.

[@sogent56]

@@SarahStylesLLC thanks… I changed to 2 to see the activity

[@jorejaha]

Selling costs of 42.5%? Just shoot me. My selling costs fluctuate between 29%-32% and includes ALL of my shipping.

[@HustleSlow]

Thanks for sharing! Have you tested different percentages? I usually stay under 5% 🫣 but I also don’t mess with it much. I should do more testing.

[@SarahStylesLLC]

I have over last year and I plan to mess with in monthly this year. Going down to find a lower rate without sacrificing too many sales..

[@whiterobin01]

YT will not let me like this video. No idea why.

[@SarahStylesLLC]

Oh that’s odd. Thanks for commenting!