Updates to Promoted Listings Standard
What you need to know
- Promoted Listings Standard now offers a dynamic ad rate strategy for both simple and automated campaigns
- You’ll soon see a new ad rate forecasting feature that offers you insights into the performance of your Promoted Listings Standard campaigns
Updates to Promoted Listings Standard
Keeping an ad campaign competitive in an ever-changing marketplace can be time-consuming, especially when having to make manual adjustments. With this in mind, we’re introducing two new features for Promoted Listings Standard that will make managing and understanding your ad rates much simpler. These new features are:
- Dynamic ad rates. You can now choose between a fixed or dynamic ad rate strategy where your ad rates can automatically be adjusted based on eBay’s daily suggestions.
- Ad rate forecasting. You’ll soon see a performance indicator when creating or editing a campaign that predicts how well your campaign could do (called your estimated impression share) based on the current ad rate you’ve set.
What’s changing
Stay competitive with dynamic ad rates
You now have the option to choose a dynamic ad rate strategy when setting up or editing an automated or simple Promoted Listings Standard campaign. Previously, only a fixed ad rate strategy was available for simple campaigns. Being able to select the dynamic ad rate option means that your ad rates can now automatically be adjusted to match our daily suggestions (up to a cap you set). This new feature will help to save you time and make it easier to stay competitive across the eBay marketplace.
Next steps
To use this feature, select the dynamic ad rate option when creating or editing a simple or automated campaign. Once selected, your ad rate will automatically align to the daily suggested ad rate.
Gain valuable performance insights with ad rate forecasting
Before launching a campaign, you’ll soon be able to see how your ad rate may impact your advertising performance and buyer reach. Our new ad rate forecasting feature will provide you with a real-time prediction of your estimated impression share during the campaign setup process and on your campaign details page. With this information, you'll be able to extend your potential ad reach, and budget your spending accordingly to help boost the performance of your campaign.
Next steps
Once the feature becomes fully available this summer, it’ll appear on both your campaign creation page and campaign details page. When adjusting your ad rate, you'll be able to see how increasing or decreasing your spending may impact the performance of your campaigns.
Dynamic ad rate FAQ
What is a dynamic ad rate strategy?
The dynamic ad rate strategy is one of the options you can select to determine how your ad rate is set. Rather than making manual updates, a dynamic ad rate strategy automatically aligns an item’s ad rate with eBay’s daily suggested ad rate, helping to keep your listings competitive in the marketplace. You’ll still always have the ability to set an ad rate cap to fit your advertising budget.
Why use a dynamic ad rate?
Keeping your ad campaign competitive in an ever-changing marketplace can be time-consuming. The dynamic ad rate strategy offers you an effortless way to secure high-visibility placements by automatically adjusting your ad rates to match eBay’s daily suggestions.
How are the dynamic and fixed ad rate strategies different?
The dynamic ad rate strategy automatically updates each of your listings to align with the daily suggested ad rate to keep your campaign competitive. With the fixed ad rate strategy, your ad rate won’t change once it’s been set. Whilst you can edit a fixed ad rate, adjustments to dynamic ad rates are done automatically.
How does this impact the campaign setup process?
There is minimal change to the campaign setup process. The dynamic ad rate will be available as a selection in the simple and automated campaign creation flows but otherwise the setup stays the same. The dynamic ad rate feature just gives you the opportunity to automatically update your ad rate to match eBay’s daily suggestions.
Can I select dynamic ad rate when I edit my existing fixed ad rate campaigns?
Yes, when editing, you can select the dynamic ad rate for your whole campaign but not for individual listings. To update the ad rate strategy of individual listings to dynamic, you’ll have to remove the listing from the existing campaign and add it to a campaign that uses a dynamic ad rate strategy.
Can I change my ad rates when I’m using the dynamic ad rate strategy?
When selecting the dynamic ad rate strategy for a campaign, eBay automatically updates each of your listings to match the daily suggested ad rate. You can however, adjust the cap for your dynamic ad rate which is the maximum ad rate you’re willing to spend. If you’d prefer to manually adjust your ad rates, we recommend selecting the fixed ad rate strategy instead
Can I update my existing fixed ad rate listings to match today’s suggested ad rate without switching my campaign to a dynamic ad rate strategy?
Yes. Head over to your campaign dashboard and select the listings you’d like to update. Then select today’s suggested ad rate and your listings will adjust to match it for the rest of the day. If you want your listings to match the daily suggested ad rate the next day, just go back in to make the manual adjustment again.
I’ve used the feature from Promoted Listing Standard’s automated campaigns that automatically updates my ad rate to match eBay's daily suggestion. Is the dynamic ad rate the same thing?
Yes. This is now called the dynamic ad rate strategy, and will automatically adjust your ad rate to match eBay’s daily suggestion. It’s available for both simple and automated campaigns.
Ad rate forecasting FAQ
What is the ad rate forecasting feature?
eBay’s ad rate forecasting feature gives you a real-time understanding of how your selected campaign settings impact your advertising performance. You can use this to better predict your impact and optimise your advertising spend before launching a campaign.
Why use the ad rate forecasting feature?
It’s not always easy to know whether your campaign’s ad rate is competitive and will reach the most potential buyers. Our at-a-glance ad rate forecasting feature gives you a real-time understanding of how competitive your ad rate is, and offers actionable ways to make the most of your advertising spend before launching your campaign.
How does ad rate forecasting impact the campaign setup and editing process?
There is no change to the campaign setup or editing process. You’ll set up and edit your campaigns in the same way, but now you’ll have more information to help you make the most of your time and effort. The ad rate forecasting metrics will automatically adjust based on the ad rate you set and the listings you choose. You can use this information to make selections that will help you meet your advertising goals.
Will the ad rate forecasting feature make my advertising campaigns more expensive?
No, the ad rate forecasting feature is meant to be used as a tool to predict your potential ad reach. You’ll still have control over how much you’d like to spend on your ad rates, but now you’ll be able to see how your rates may affect your performance in real-time.
What does the “estimated impression share” mean, and what should I do with the information?
The estimated impression share metric balances your chosen ad rate with the maximum possible impressions your ad could receive. It helps to determine the impact your ad rate may have on your campaign’s overall success and performance.
For example, if your estimated impression share is 85%, it indicates that your choices such as ad rate, listings, and ad rate cap may result in you receiving 85% of the total predicted impressions for a campaign similar to yours. You can use this estimate to adjust your ad rate, remove or increase any ad rate caps, or select different listings to reach the desired impression share that aligns with your advertising goals.