Promoted Listings: Tweaking and Experimenting

Your Promoted Listings campaign is up and running. Is it going well? Are you ready to make some adjustments?

There are at least four aspects to your ads to consider when experimenting:

• What items are you promoting? Everything? Older items? Certain categories? Just a few higher priced items?
• How much per bid? Automated bids, custom bids, or a mix? Have penny bids worked?
• How much per day? What time each day do you reach it? Have you raised that on peak days?
• Are you only promoting at times? Only during some months? Just certain days of the week, say weekends only? Or do you let your budget run out every day, so you are not advertising late in the evening?

Because of so many variables, it is wise to tweak only one aspect of your advertising campaign at a time. Whatever you adjust, keep the other three factors the same. That way you can isolate those changes when evaluating results. 

When experimenting, be sure to allow enough time. A day or two do not provide enough statistical data to make important decisions. Allow at least two weeks for evaluation, perhaps as long as a couple of months. It might take that long by the time you tweak what you are promoting, how much per bid, how much per day and when you are advertising your items.

Reports from sellers vary from losing money to making back over ten times what they put in. The average seller I polled makes about four to five times what they spent.

At a cost of $35.66, there was revenue of $188.99

Yes, you must work hard for such a return. Vintage sellers must buy, research, list, pack and ship vintage items. However, making back four or five times what you spent might be worthwhile.

Here is some more information from Etsy.

Plus, there are benefits beyond the ads. Are ads working well for your shop? Can you make them work even better?