eBay Promoted Listings Express For Auctions Expands To More Sellers
UPDATE 2-19-22
eBay expanded Promoted Listings Express to the desktop experience in December and announced enhanced reporting functionality coming soon in February.
Liz Morton
Liz Morton
CEO Jamie Iannone announced today on the Q3 earnings call that Promoted Listings Express for Auctions has expanded to be available to more sellers on the platform.
A post on the eBay Ads blog, says
Rounding out our portfolio is Promoted Listings Express, a new way to advertise your auction listings. For one flat fee, your listing receives increased exposure during the auction period to help drive views, bids and sales. Promoted Listings Express is available to all sellers whose seller level is Above Standard or Top Rated with recent sales activity.
Previously, Promoted Listings Express for Auctions was limited to in app only and only for consumer sellers using My eBay, not Seller Hub.
Liz Morton
I can confirm as of today, it does appear to be available for sellers using Seller Hub, though it is still limited to in app only.
Promoted Listings Express is a flat, one time upfront fee. eBay has not provided any kind of fee chart or any indication of what the fees will be - it is determined by category and duration of the auction and will be shown to the seller at the time they are promoting the listing.
Here's what it looks like with a $150 pair of shoes. After you create the listing, you'll see a banner above it if it is eligible to promote.
Clicking through takes you to a page that shows the fee and relevant terms & conditions.
The fee for this particular 7 day auction in the sneakers category would be $2.99.
I've asked, but have not received a clear answer, if the fees for Promoted Listings Express are dynamic or static - in other words, if this same account were to create a different 7 day auction in the sneakers category 3 days from now, would it still be $2.99 or does it change over time based on daily average rates or some other criteria?
I'll be monitoring trends in fees over time to see if it varies, but for transparency sake eBay needs to put this one in writing in the FAQ.
The Learn More link directs to this help page which has not yet been updated to remove the reference to sellers using My eBay:
It's interesting to note the language "buyers viewing your items" and "higher chance of a sale from increased views." In eBay's traffic page and other reports available to sellers, they typically break statistics down by impressions, page views, and sales.
Impressions: the total of all impressions, including organic impressions and impressions via promoted listings, during this time period. An impression counts when a link to your listing appears on eBay, and the buyer is one click away from your listing
Page Views: the total number of visits to your listings during this time period. It includes visits via promoted listings, organic listings on eBay, and from external sites, including search engines.
Quantity Sold: The total quantity of your items sold, including organic sales and sales via promoted listings, during this time period. For example, if a buyer purchases 5 items from a listing, we count it as 5 quantity sold.
This is important because in most reports and pages in Seller Hub, the word "views" specifically refers to an actual visit to your listing.
With Promoted Listings Express for Auctions, you are paying an upfront fee for your listing to be shown in ad spaces on similar listings, regardless of whether a potential buyer ever clicks through to view your listing. That would more properly be defined as an impression, not a view within the context of how eBay typically uses those words.
Is this an innocent mix up in terminology or is eBay obfuscating the fact that you will be paying a fee with no guarantee of even one visit to your listing?
What do you think of Promoted Listings Express for Auctions? Would it be worth it to you to pay eBay a few extra dollars to show your auctions in ad spaces across other listings? Let me know in the comments!
