As we begin the season of gift giving, we want to arm eBay sellers with as many best practices and optimization tips as possible to increase their sales. One of the ways that sellers can kick their campaigns into overdrive and generate the most ROI is through the use of our expanded Promoted Listings portfolio.
So in the spirit of giving, we’re answering some of the top questions we get surrounding the use of Promoted Listings Standard and Promoted Listings AdvancedBETA campaign types. Let’s take a look at the top questions asked by you, the sellers.
Promoted Listings Standard questions
My inventory is too unique – if someone is going to search for it, they’ll find it. I’m one of the only sellers who have it. How would using Promoted Listings Standard benefit me?
There are over 154 million shoppers on eBay at any given time.1 That’s a lot of potential shoppers that might be interested in your product. With Promoted Listings Standard, your inventory will reach an audience beyond the shoppers who are already familiar with your product. Your potential audience pool increases in size due to the variety of placements Promoted Listings Standard gives your listing, outside of search, across the entire eBay marketplace.
Promoted Listings Standard ads are also featured as External Promoted Listings at no additional cost to sellers. External Promoted Listings appear on search platforms (such as Google) and expose your listings to an off-eBay audience.
Does an increased ad rate mean that my listing will show up higher in search results? Similarly, does a low ad rate mean that my listing will show up in item carousels more often compared to search results?
Your ad rate is just one of the many factors that help determine where your ad appears across the eBay network. Other factors include:
- Ad rates of other sellers
- Quality and relevancy of your listing
- Past performance
Sellers will get the most out of Promoted Listings Standard by following our listing best practices guidance. We also recommend applying our suggested ad rates – these are calculated on an item level and are designed to help you stay competitive while finding the optimal balance between performance and cost.
Since the automated Promoted Listings Standard campaigns adjust their daily ad rates, where can I see the current suggested ad rate?
Sellers can see their current suggested ad rates by going into the edit flow of their automated campaign and clicking the “view details” button in the ad rate section.
Can I add or remove individual listings from bulk and/or automated campaigns?
Bulk listing should be used for consistent inventory with lower turnover rates. Start by visiting the advertising dashboard, click on “Create campaign” and choose the “Bulk listing” selection. From there, upload your inventory with a .csv file, or use category selection, set your ad rate, review your selections and launch your campaign.
Sellers cannot do this with automated Promoted Listings Standard campaigns.
Can I create exclusion rules for automated campaigns?
Promoted Listings Standard automated campaigns allow sellers to streamline how listings are added to their campaigns through creating rules. These rules are easily managed with filters like price or eBay/store categories, with more options rolling out in the future. Unfortunately, Promoted Listings Standard automated campaigns do not allow a seller to individually exclude listings.
Promoted Listings AdvancedBETA questions
Why would I use Promoted Listings AdvancedBETA when I can just use Promoted Listings Standard with great results?
Both Promoted Listings campaign types help your items stand out among billions of listings and be seen by millions of active buyers when they’re browsing and searching across the eBay network, increasing the likelihood of a sale.
Promoted Listings AdvancedBETA gives you the high visibility you want and the control you need to increase sales on eBay.
Promoted Listings AdvancedBETA campaigns currently let you bid for the top slot in search with control over your daily budget, keyword selection, and keyword bids. This level of control is not available for Promoted Listings Standard campaigns.
For sellers looking to gain more insight into performance metrics, Promoted Listings AdvancedBETA also provides listing-level, keyword-level, and search query reports to help you monitor your performance.
Promoted Listings Standard campaigns let you promote your listings across the eBay network and only pay when you sell. Standard campaigns are quick and simple to set up. Since you only pay when you sell, Standard campaigns are a unique to market way to boost visibility.
Can you explain what top of search means for Promoted Listings AdvancedBETA? Is it only the number one slot, or is it the top two to three sponsored placements?
Top slot in search for Promoted Listings AdvancedBETA is the first item that appears at the top of a buyer’s search on eBay.
If there is no relevant Promoted Listings AdvancedBETA to show, for whatever reason (including no bids on a particular keyword), buyers will see Promoted Listings Standard listings or organic listings. Both Promoted Listings AdvancedBETA and Promoted Listings Standard ads are displayed as “sponsored,” but a viewer of that listing would not know if it’s a Promoted Listings Standard or Promoted Listings AdvancedBETA listing.
How can we get more accurate suggested keywords as there are so many that are generic and it’s difficult to scroll through and check everything?
Suggested keywords are available for most listings. Suggested keywords are search terms that we’ve determined are relevant and likely to perform well in your ad group. We evaluate keywords based on how frequently they’ve been used in recent searches and how relevant those searches are to the listings in your ad group. These keyword suggestions are designed to help you target buyers who are actively looking for items like yours. For best results, add at least 10 keywords per unique product type in each ad group.
You can also include your own selection of keywords. When adding your own keywords, keep in mind your item title and the search terms that you think buyers will use to search for your listings. Using generic keywords works best for phrase matching while more targeted/specific keywords are best for exact match.
Monitor your keyword performance by downloading keyword-level reports for each campaign. Remove any low-performing keywords and replace them with new suggested keywords to further optimize your campaign.
We hope these answers will help optimize your campaigns on eBay. Check out our eBay Seller Center for more answers to common Promoted Listings Standard and Promoted Listings AdvancedBETA questions. You can also join our eBay Seller Community, where we have a dedicated group to answer Promoted Listings AdvancedBETA issues, and ask any additional questions you might have there.
1 eBay First-Party Data, as of 9/30/2021
