I've been selling on eBay for a while, mostly without paid advertising, but I'm thinking about promoting some of my listings for Black Friday. The problem is that my profit margins vary quite a bit between products, and I don't want to spend more on ads just to end up making less money. eBay suggests different ad rates for different listings, but I'm not sure how much I should trust those numbers. How do other sellers decide which products to promote and what percentage to set during busy shopping periods?
A couple of percentage points don't look like much until you run them across dozens of orders. During Black Friday that gets even harder to judge because competition moves quickly and the suggested rate can keep creeping up. General and Priority don't charge the same way, and that changes how much room you have to raise the rate. Before you set anything for Black Friday, read through this eBay promoted listings guide: https://easync.io/articles/ebay-promoted-listings/ . The article explains how the fees are calculated. Use that to work out your own ceiling before raising rates just because eBay recommends it.
Those suggested percentages always look pretty convincing when eBay puts them right next to a listing. The problem is that eBay knows what other sellers are bidding, not how much profit you actually keep on that item. Pick the products with enough room after fees, shipping and returns, then decide the highest ad cost you can accept before the sale stops being worthwhile. Some listings will probably do fine during Black Friday without any extra push at all.
Isn't it better to run meta/google ads and redirect crowd to your ebay? Not sure how effective ebay ads are, hearing it for the first time.