eBay offers Promoted Listings campaign types for every type of seller. Learn more about what we offer on our Promoted Listings overview page
Promoted Listings Standard is available to sellers with an Above Standard or Top Rated Seller level, and enough account activity.
Using Promoted Listings Standard
You can promote your listings using the Advertising dashboard, your listing tool, My eBay Active or Seller Hub Active listings.
- Select Create new campaign.
- Choose either Simple listing selection, Bulk listing selection, or Creating rules (automated campaigns).
- We'll take you through the process: selecting which listings to promote, choosing how much you'd like to pay for the ads, and then reviewing and launching your campaign.
Using simple listing selection
If you choose to promote using Simple listing selection from the Advertising dashboard, here's what to do next:
- Choose your ad rate strategy - Suggested ad rates are applied by default. If you want to change your strategy, here are your options:
- Apply suggested ad rates. Suggested ad rates are tailored to each of your listings, to help you find the optimal balance between cost and performance
- Adjust suggested ad rates. Set the percentage you’d be willing to pay below or above the suggested rate
- Set an ad rate cap. Set the maximum ad rate you’d be willing to pay. Your ad rate will never exceed this amount
- Apply fixed ad rate. Choose an ad rate to apply to all your listings
- Apply suggested ad rates. Suggested ad rates are tailored to each of your listings, to help you find the optimal balance between cost and performance
- Set the maximum ad rate you’d be willing to pay. Your ad rate will never exceed this amount.
Bulk listing selection
If you choose to promote using Bulk listing selection from the Advertising dashboard, you'll be given two options: “Help me select my listings” or “I'll upload my listings in a CSV file.”
- Check the boxes beside the eBay categories or Store categories that you want to promote.
- We'll promote all listings in the categories you select (e.g. the coins category)
- If you check the “Include all recommended listings” box, we will promote all recommended listings as well, even if those recommended listings are not in the categories you selected
- Any listings that are already being promoted in another campaign will not be included
- Choose your ad rate strategy for all listings in your campaign. You can choose from the following options:
- Apply suggested ad rates. Suggested ad rates are tailored to each of your listings, to help you find the optimal balance between cost and performance
- Adjust suggested ad rates. Choose a percentage below or above the suggested ad rate. If you have a strict maximum rate you want to pay, you can also set an ad rate cap
- Apply single ad rate. Choose an ad rate to apply to all your listings
- Set individual ad rates. Upload a .csv file with the item IDs that you wish to promote in column A and the ad rates for each item in Column B
- Review and launch your campaign.
- Prepare a CSV file with the item IDs that you wish to promote in column A and the ad rates for each item in Column B.
- Upload the file. (See file format specifications below.)
You can also edit your listings in bulk using a CSV file. Here's how:
- Select Actions next to the campaign you want to edit.
- Download the campaign file and include suggested ad rates.
- Make your changes to the CSV file and save the updated file.
- Upload the file.
- Review and launch your campaign.
File format
- The file needs to be in CSV format
- You can add up to 50,000 Item IDs in one file
- Ad rates can be provided in 0.1% increments
- Item IDs need to be in number format with no decimal points
- Do not use the “%” sign
- Large files may take up to an hour to upload
Any changes you make to your listing will automatically appear in your ad.
For more information, see our video on promoting your listings in bulk - opens in new window or tab.
Using automated campaigns
If you choose to promote by Creating rules from the Advertising dashboard, here's what to do next:
- Apply rules to your inventory using the filters provided. These selections will be applied to current and future listings to determine which ones should be promoted.
- After setting up your filters, choose an ad rate strategy to apply to the listings in your campaign–remember that any future listings that meet your rules criteria will be promoted with the strategy you choose. You can choose to automate suggested ad rates or to apply a single ad rate.
- With automated suggested ad rates, you have additional controls like setting an ad rate cap or adjusting the suggested ad rate to fit your needs
- Once you launch your campaign, the rules you created will be used to determine which listings will be promoted and which ad rate strategy they'll be promoted with.
- At the bottom of the Listing details page, check the Sell it faster - Promoted Listings box.
- Select an ad rate.
- From the Select a campaign dropdown menu, choose an existing campaign or a new campaign.
- Select List item.
Note: If you have an active automated campaign, you won’t be able to promote your listing in the new listing tool. Instead you should use your Advertising dashboard.
After you create your listing in the quick listing tool, you'll be asked if you want to promote your listing at a suggested ad rate.
Note: You won't be able to set your own ad rate in the quick listing tool. If you want to set your own rate, you should use the Advertising dashboard.
- Open the dropdown menu beside the listing you want to promote.
- Select Promote.
- Use our suggested ad rate or, under “Ad rate (%),” set your own rate.
- Select a campaign.
- Select Promote listing now.
You can also edit or stop promoting a promoted listing in My eBay Active. From the dropdown menu beside the promoted listing, select Edit promoted listing. You'll then have the option to Update promoted listing or Stop promoting.
- Select Promote beside an eligible listing.
- Set an ad rate.
- Select an existing campaign or create a new one.
- Select Promote.
To stop promoting a listing at any time from Seller Hub Active Listings - opens in new window or tab:
- Select the Actions dropdown menu beside the listing.
- Select Edit promoted listing.
- Select Stop promoting.
- Select Edit promoted listing to save your changes.
- Check the boxes next to the listings you want to promote, or check the box at the top of your listings to select up to 200 listings at once.
- Select the Sell it faster dropdown above your listings, and then select Promoted Listings Standard.
- Use the suggested ad rate or set your own ad rate and/or maximum ad rate.
- Select an existing campaign or create a new one.
- Select Promote.
Tip
You can monitor the performance of your promoted listings in the Advertising dashboard - opens in new window or tab.
Promoted Listings Standard fees
You choose how much you want to pay for your Promoted Listings—we call this the ad rate. Based on the listing's quality, its relevancy to buyer search, its ad rate, and other factors, the Promoted Listings Standard system determines which listings to show and where they are displayed.
Here's how the fees work:
- You choose an ad rate between 2% - 100% of the item's total sale amount. The higher the ad rate, the higher the possibility of ad placement, leading to increased visibility
- Suggested ad rates are calculated based on a variety of factors such as item attributes, seasonality, past performance, and current competition for each of your listings
- You will only be charged when a buyer clicks on one of your ads and then buys that item within 30 days
- The ad fee is based on the ad rate you chose, and is applied to the total sale amount of your item (including shipping, taxes, and any other applicable fees)
- Ad fees are shown in your Payments tab in Seller Hub, or the transactions page in My eBay
Visit our Seller Center to learn more about Promoted Listings Standard.
Promoted Listings Standard FAQs
If a buyer clicks on your promoted listing, we only charge the ad fee if they buy your item within 30 days.
No. You are charged the fee that applied when the buyer last clicked on your promoted listing within the 30-day window.
You will be charged whichever ad rate was active when the buyer last clicked on your promoted listing within the 30-day window. You can't change the ad rate with Promoted Listings Standard .
For example, If a buyer clicks on the same promoted listing three times before making a purchase, you will be charged the ad rate in effect for the click closest to the sale. In this case, that would be the ad rate in effect at the time of the buyer's third click.
If you accept a Best Offer price from a buyer who clicked on that listing through Promoted Listings Standard, you'll be charged an ad fee based on the final sale price.
From your Manage Offers page, we’ll let you know if the buyer has clicked your ad in the past 30 days and show you what the ad rate was.
This ad rate may be applied to the final sale price if you accept the offer, so keep this in mind when managing offers.
There may be some circumstances where the ad rate displayed isn't applicable, including:
- The buyer clicks on your ad again (the applicable ad rate will be the click closest to the sale)
- The 30-day attribution window expires once the offer is accepted (no ad fee applied)
Promoted Listings Standard may appear in prominent placements across the eBay network, including the search results page and and product pages.
The eBay network is a group of sites where your promoted listings could be featured, including eBay and partner sites across the internet.
Your promoted listings may appear in sponsored placements off eBay, including search engines, to help drive traffic to your listings when buyers are actively searching and shopping across the internet.
By default, all listings in Standard campaigns are eligible to appear in external sponsored placements. Those ads may preempt other eBay-funded marketing efforts we may take on your behalf.
If you would like your Standard ads to appear on eBay only, you can submit a request to opt out of off eBay placements - opens in new window or tab. You can expect to be opted out 7 days after submitting a request.
If you would like to opt back in, you can submit a request through the same form above.
You may still see "Promoted Listings Standard sales (via external placements)" in your downloadable reports after you’ve opted out due to our 30-day attribution window. For example, if a buyer clicked on your promoted listing before you opted out, then returned to purchase your listing after you opted out and within 30 days of that click, you would still be charged the ad rate in effect at the time of the click.
To promote listings on another eBay site (e.g. ebay.co.uk), log in to that eBay site and create campaigns using that site's local Promoted Listings tools.
For detailed metrics on how your campaigns are performing, go to your Advertising dashboard - opens in new window or tab. From here you can monitor:
Impressions: The number of times your promoted listings have appeared on any eBay site
Clicks: The number of visits to a listing page from a promoted listing.
Sold: The number of promoted items purchased within 30 days of a click on your promoted listings
Ad fees: The total amount of fees incurred by items sold within 30 days of a click on your promoted listings
Sales: The amount of sales generated by promoted items sold within 30 days of a click on your promoted listings
CTR (Click-through rate): Clicks divided by Impressions. The CTR is the percentage of times buyers saw your ad and clicked on it.
Sales conversion rate: Sold divided by Clicks. The sales conversion rate is the percentage of promoted listings that are purchased after the buyer has clicked on them.
Average sold ad rate. Ad fees divided by Sales. This number represents the average ad rate for items sold within 30 days of a click on your promoted listings.
You can also monitor comparative and organic data from your Advertising dashboard:
- Comparative data: Compare last month's performance to your current performance using the comparative data underneath each Summary metric. When you change the time period, the comparative data changes accordingly
- Organic data: Compare your promoted listings and organic performance for items in Promoted Listings Standard campaigns. You can see organic data for impressions, clicks, and sales
You can view listing-level sales data from your campaign dashboard to understand how specific items are performing.
Campaign dashboards are currently available for all Standard campaigns created using simple or bulk listing selection. Automated campaigns don’t have a campaign dashboard at this time. From your campaign dashboard, you can see detailed listing-level reporting and make edits quickly.
You'll find your campaign dashboard by going to your advertising dashboard and selecting the campaign name from your campaign grid.
The eBay Marketplace is a dynamic environment. A number of factors can cause a fluctuation in your Promoted Listings Standard impressions, clicks, or sales. They include:
- Recent changes to ad rate
- Recent additions or removals of listings in a campaign
- Changes in organic search rank for promoted listings (e.g. boost from Promoted Listings Standard sales increases overall organic sales)
- Changes to the competitive landscape (e.g. other sellers start or stop promoting items in the same category and/or make significant changes to their ad rates)
- Buyer traffic or demand for a certain item - Seasonality - Third parties, such as a brand manufacturer, choosing to start or stop promoting certain items
- Issues with your account (e.g., high claim rates, breaches of eBay’s third party fulfilment policy, VeRO violations)
- General platform improvements, quality thresholds, or eligibility changes
There are four selections from the Condition filter in automated campaigns: New, Certified Refurbished, Seller Refurbished, and Used. See the below groupings to see the item conditions that are included within these four consolidated selections.
“New" grouping:- New
- New other (see details)
- New - open box
- New with defects
- New with tags
- New without tags
- New with box
- New without box
- Brand new
- New/Factory sealed
"Certified Refurbished" grouping:
- Manufacturer refurbished
"Seller Refurbished" grouping:
- Seller refurbished
- Remanufactured
"Used" grouping:
- Used
- Used - like new
- Used - very good
- Used - good
- Used - acceptable
- Used - fair
- Pre-owned
- For parts or not working
If you use the price filter to select your listings, we will use the lowest price of your variations to determine if it should be included.
Example: You have a listing with three different prices for three different colors ($8, $10, $12). You set your price range filter as $10 - $100. This listing would not be included because the lowest price for the listing ($8) does not meet your price range criteria ($10 - $100).