Guides 6 min readUpdated 25 September 2026
eBay Promoted Listings and choosing an ad rate
Promoted Listings General charges nothing until the ad produces a sale, which makes it sound free. It is not: the rate comes out of the same margin everything else does, and it comes out of the sales you would have made anyway as well.
How the charge works
You set a percentage. If a buyer reaches your listing through the ad and buys within the attribution window, you pay that percentage of the sale. If they find you organically, you pay nothing.
The rate is applied to the total sale price, alongside the final value fee, not to what is left after it.
Picking a rate your margin can carry
Start from what is left after every other deduction. If a sale leaves 30%, an 8% ad rate takes it to about 22% — still workable. At 15% it is about 15%, which is thin.
The useful habit is to look at both numbers before listing: what the product makes organically, and what it makes if the sale came through the ad. If the second is not worth having, the rate is too high or the product too thin.
| Margin before ads | At 5% | At 10% | At 15% |
|---|---|---|---|
| 40% | ~35% | ~30% | ~25% |
| 30% | ~25% | ~20% | ~15% |
| 20% | ~15% | ~10% | ~5% |
When promoting is worth it
- A new listing with no history, which organic search will not show for weeks
- A crowded category where being on page four is the same as not being listed
- A product with enough margin to give some away
When it is not
On a listing that already sells well organically, an ad often pays for sales you were getting free. And on a thin-margin product it converts a small profit into none, which is a busy way to lose money.
Questions
- Do I pay if the buyer found me in normal search?
- No. Promoted Listings General only charges when the sale is attributed to the ad.
- What is a sensible starting rate?
- Low single figures on a product with a healthy margin, raised only if the listing is not being seen. Starting high is the expensive way to learn what the category costs.
- Can I set a rate per listing?
- Yes, and it is worth doing. A store-wide default with an override on the listings that need it is the usual arrangement.
Read next
- eBay fees and what is actually left
The arithmetic behind an eBay sale — final value fee, fixed fee, product cost, delivery and ad rate — and why margins look healthy until you include all five.
- Finding products worth listing on eBay
What separates a product that sells from one that sits: proven demand, margin that survives fees, and competition you can read before you commit.
- Keeping eBay prices and stock in step
What happens when a supplier raises a price or runs out, why manual checking does not scale, and what a sync should and should not change on its own.