5 ways promoting your listings on eBay can help you increase sales

As a paid advertising service, eBay Promoted Listings is an opportunity to get your inventory in front of more potential customers. If utilized effectively, it can give your sales figures a huge boost.

eBay Promoted Listings are eligible to appear more frequently and in prominent locations – similar to paid search engine advertising.

Judging by the estimated success of Amazon sellers’ products (which are used by an estimated half of all sellers), eBay’s paid service can certainly help sellers shine.

Read below for five key benefits of eBay Recommended Listings for sellers.

1. More attention to your products

Recommended Listings are a new way to increase your product’s visibility to more buyers and generate more sales.

Items in higher demand with better sales prospects can be promoted to more potential buyers. Sales from promoted items can also favorably impact Best Match items by attracting more clicks. The effects are worst for unique items like antiques and collectibles because the best match search terms are very specific and have much less competition.

Currently, the only excluded item types are items with "Auction" or "Buy It Now" listings.

2. No sales, no fees

You can specify a rate for each promoted item, ranging from 1% to 20% of the final sale price. The specified percentage of the final sale price plus sales and listing fees goes to eBay. You are charged only if a customer clicks on your promoted ad and goes on to purchase the item within 30 days. The amount you pay depends on the rate you set when a buyer first clicks on your ad.

If the item is returned or the buyer does not pay, you are eligible for free advertising credit. If the item does not sell, you do not pay.

eBay updates its fees every week and breaks them down by category. You can find those prices here.

And an example of prices for items in the eBay promotions category.

3. Super easy setup

The advertised price, images, and product descriptions are all pulled from your original eBay listing. In that sense, it's a very simple process, provided all the right pieces are in place.

It's simple to promote multiple listings using bulk uploads. You also have full control over the length of your campaigns. Stop or start your ads at any time.

It remains critical that your listing itself is optimized for conversions. Otherwise, your recommended items will not pay off.

4. Targeted Activities

Factors that determine where and when your ad is seen are ad rate, listing quality, and relevance. The more you invest in your ad, the more visible it will be. Competing for popular, high-value items in a competitive category means higher bids.

If you sell seasonal products, event-based products, or products that are likely to sell on public holidays, increase your products’ exposure with pre-set campaigns.

eBay actually recommends using Promoted Listings to further market your best-selling items. The idea here is that these items are optimized for conversion (images, price, etc.), so while you’re willing to give up a certain percentage of sales, in theory you should sell more units and ultimately have a better profit amount overall.

This is potentially risky, but it's definitely worth trying it initially to see if it works for you.

However, don’t necessarily take eBay’s advice as the final word. Many sellers report success using promoted listings to encourage slower-selling items.

Again, it’s about trying things to find out what works best for your business.

5. Detailed Report

Detailed performance data is readily available to optimize your campaign strategy. Your Seller Dashboard contains:

The number of impressions generated by the promotion ad

Potential buyers click on your ad

Total number of promotional ads that resulted in sales

Advertising rates and fees to be charged for each project

Total items sold and amount earned

Anything that can increase product visibility, improve sales, and increase profits is a good thing. In this regard, Recommended Products can provide a reward for sellers who know how to use it smartly.

Ultimately, like every decision in e-commerce, it has to be cost-effective. You can read more about calculating net profit on eBay here.

Only you can determine how appropriate a promotion is for your business.