Promoted Ads and The Market.

[vettefever17]

When will PAs (promoted ads) break the market? I have a ton of items that have at least a 300% mark-up with variations to provide for a market. But when you have promoted ads that "suggest" 15-20% of your total sale plus the roughly 13% and the taxed on 5% for "high defect rate" that can be completely BS, it begins to tear into any margin. Let's not add to the royal screwing eBay throws at the seller by charging those fees on the TOTAL sale with the taxes. That technically has nothing to do with our sale and is simply collected at the end of the sale. I've gotten to the point of seeing 30-35% of the sale evaporated to eBay itself. Then on an item that is under say 50 bucks the 4 dollars to ship a pound or under matters. I feel like I'm collecting crumbs from large-volume selling. And don't get me started on the competition going into price war and just tanking it all. In all my years of selling, it is getting tighter than ever and it's not even the wholesale market.

Another point, who here believes the "suggested" promoted listing rate is truly based on others and not just some algo/AI adjusting to what a seller may bite at?

[997turbo]

the suggested rate is BS.I list same item on different account the rate given are totally different.it seems higher on the higher sale volume account.

[997turbo]

I normally set to 10% for a few weeks.once there are enough watchers I drop it to 3-5% and let it stay that way.

[agent006140]

what is that 5% for?
The cheapest USPS shipping I believe is now more than $4

[rsot]

Originally Posted by 997turbo

I normally set to 10% for a few weeks.once there are enough watchers I drop it to 3-5% and let it stay that way.

have you done a comparison if it has helped sales compared to before with no use of promoted ads/

[997turbo]

Originally Posted by rsot

have you done a comparison if it has helped sales compared to before with no use of promoted ads/

really dependingon the item.if its most wanted one it make no huge different without promoting.but if its something has many competitors to sell you will see drop once stopped promoting.

[yobar]

I think promoting products is a double-edged sword, maybe at one point you will sell a lot but if you stop promoting you won't sell as much, there are a thousand accounts that sell windows and generally they all pay for ads, when you stop paying you will go far behind. on the second pages.

[vettefever17]

Originally Posted by rsot

have you done a comparison if it has helped sales compared to before with no use of promoted ads/

Been testing dumping cost to shipping and playing with the promoted.

[vettefever17]

Originally Posted by yobar

I think promoting products is a double-edged sword, maybe at one point you will sell a lot but if you stop promoting you won't sell as much, there are a thousand accounts that sell windows and generally they all pay for ads, when you stop paying you will go far behind. on the second pages.

This! If you are in a massively competitive category of a single item, you will encounter this problem. You'll get red hot, see a price war, then a balance and stalemate. In my experience, I suspect it is Chinese accounts and over supply.

[vettefever17]

Originally Posted by agent006140

what is that 5% for?
The cheapest USPS shipping I believe is now more than $4

The extra 5 percent is from the bull**** fee they add on for returns/descriptions, etc. A customer can lie and the standards are set at less then 5 percent of overall sell in my category, despite delivering guaranteed product and no issues on my account parameters.

[agent006140]

Most buyers paying via MP use their credit cards,and we end up paying credit card fee for sales tax ,just like going to a retail store.
No one is getting rich selling on Ebay .or AMZN or Etsy