Promotion strategies

A properly filled listing not only helps buyers to quickly understand it, but improves your ranking in the eBay search results as well.

Start with an informative item title. eBay reports that listings that have titles longer than 60 characters sell 1.5 times better.

Write a comprehensive and distinct item description, use popular keywords, describe shipping options.

List your item in two or more categories to show it on several pages of search results. You'll pay an insertion fee for including a second category — this fee still applies even when using a free listing.

eBay data shows that high-quality photos increase sales by 5%. Show your item from different angles and get rid of everything else in the picture so that buyers are focused on the item itself.

It’s important to show the item as it is, without trying to hide or retouch unattractive details so as not to confuse buyers. Honest photos will not only speed up the deal but also reduce the risk of returns: Invesp analytics company report that 22% of buyers return items due to them not corresponding to the photos.

70% of items on eBay are listed with free shipping. Buyers are more likely to choose an item with free shipping over an item with a shipping charge even if the total cost is the same. eBay data shows that 20% of buyers will not order items with a high shipping price. That is why we recommend including shipping costs into the item price so that shipping is free for the buyer.

We recommend you provide free returns to your buyers. A flexible and customer-friendly return policy can help you increase your sales. You can increase conversion lift from your listings from 5% to 25%. In addition to that, 30-day free returns are a mandatory condition to get Top Rated Plus status.

eBay Advertising connects you with more buyers around the world with simple to use, high-performing solutions to promote your listings and eBay store.

You can set up three different types of advertising campaigns:

• Promote your listings — Drive sales by putting your listings in front of relevant buyers with access to ad placements
• Promote your store — Attract interested buyers to your store with targeted ads showcasing your top inventory
• Promote offsite — Highlight your eligible listings on popular external channels, like Google

You can access these advertising tools from the Advertising tab in Seller Hub. Once a campaign is active, you can monitor and update your campaign on the Advertising dashboard.

You must meet certain eligibility requirements to use eBay Advertising, such as having an eBay account in good standing and maintaining high seller performance ratings. Some advertising solutions, like Promoted Stores, require you to have an active eBay Store subscription.

Managing an eBay Store is like having your own online shop but without development and maintenance costs. With Store Subscription, you get branding tools to create a distinctive style for your page, your own storefront with your name, and a short website address (URL). If you list more than 200 items per month, Store Subscription saves your money on listing and selling fees.

An active eBay Store subscription gives you free access to powerful eBay tools. 

eBay Store subscribers get access to Promoted Stores, which attracts interested buyers to your store with targeted ads showcasing your top inventory.

Besides, eBay Store subscribers get free access to eBay research tools — Product Research and Sourcing Insights. Product Research and Sourcing Insights let you research what your competitors are doing, how they're doing it, and how you can improve your own listings on eBay.

Discounts Manager is a complex solution with ready-to-use marketing tools for eBay Store Subscribers. Sell out stocks, add codeless coupons to increase loyalty, announce discounts and special offers for purchasing multiple items — and boost your sales.

List your items not only on the global site ebay.com, but also on eBay's international sites (ebay.co.uk in the UK, ebay.de in Germany, etc.). Items listed on a local site are ranked better in search results for this specific country.

Use official eBay tools: eBaymag and Webinterpret automate the listing process on international sites and save you time.

Try eBaymag

Try Webinterpret

Scale your eBay business with expert guidance on tools and strategies to drive on and off eBay traffic to your listings, expand your inventory, scale your operations, sell globally, and advocate for your business. Get access to a wide range of free interactive courses!

Promoted Offsite is an advertising solution that lets you easily promote all of your eligible inventory on external channels, like Google. Reach new buyers and increase external traffic with easy to launch ads that are shown to buyers who start their shopping journey off of eBay.

When you promote offsite, you’ll:

• Attract interested buyers to your eBay listings with ads on popular external channels
• Save time with easy-to-launch campaigns that promote all of your eligible listings in just a few clicks
• Increase your external views with ads that reach a wider audience off eBay

Once you have activated a campaign, you can view the performance of all of your Promoted Listings campaigns from the Advertising dashboard on the Advertising tab in Seller Hub.

Your Campaign dashboard lets you see detailed reporting for each individual campaign. While on the Campaign dashboard you can make edits quickly within the context of your performance.

Digital Marketing Institute reports 74% of buyers make purchase decisions based on information on social media. That is why we recommend you post links to your listings on your official brand pages on social networks. Do not forget Stories: a third of the top-viewed videos in Stories are from brands. A good video does half of the promotion work for you.

Moreover, you can offer Coded Coupons to your social media followers to buy your items on eBay. This way, you increase your audience loyalty and enhance sales without significant promotion costs.

Even if you do not manage an official page on any social network, you still can reach its users by using targeted ads tools for this platform.

Detailed targeting that could be set up in social media provides you with an opportunity to create specific ads for every segment of your audience considering their interests and habits. Try various images and descriptions, run A/B-tests to determine the most effective versions, and show the best ads only to those buyers who are most likely to accept your offer. Of course, this type of promotion requires a lot of your time, so consider hiring an SMM agency or experts who can handle both your official page and targeted ads management for your brand if you sell many different items.

Paid search ads can help you reach exactly those users who browse search engines for items similar to those you sell. Google provides its special Google Ads platform that meets the needs of advertisers of any level. A user-friendly interface prompts you on the next steps and teaches you how to set up your ads correctly. If you don't have time to deal with the services yourself, you can outsource this task.

Online-buyers are not likely to make instant decisions to buy anything, but chasing them with your ads through internet sites may bring results. To show ads to those who have already shown interest in your or similar goods, use dynamic retargeting platforms, such as Google Marketing Platform or Criteo. These systems remember users who have visited your site recently or searched for items similar to those you sell – and show your ads directly to these people. Lead them to your eBay Store page so that they can buy from you with no extra steps.

The key criterion under the Google search engine is Best match. eBay search ranking is based on the same criterion, so if you list your items following the Tips on Listing Optimization, your listing is already optimized to basic rules. Still, it could be even better!

Take some time to select and test keywords, and use the most effective ones in the title and product description. To pick the most popular keywords, you can trust Google Keyword Planner (you will need a Google Ads account to get access). To expand the semantic core, look through related searches in the bottom of the first page of Google search results – this can give you many insights and ideas.

According to Mediascope, an influencer’s personal recommendation may produce better results than paid ads. You can use any opinion leader working in your specific niche or a reviewer with content based on unboxing and testing goods from top online-shopping platforms.

Give a free item to review for the blogger you have chosen (this is usually enough for a beginner or a micro-influencer) or discuss a paid integration.

Use Coded Coupons to offer a discount to specific customers and increase conversion.