Marketplace listing enchancements. How?

[Felicia Silversmith]

Greetings everybody!

I have question - how people make that their products appear on top of search pages? I doubt very much that items listed at top rows are really have best selling rating or best relievance. Some of them cost over 2000-3000 L$ and am long enought on marketplace to not believe that people buying more items for that price then freebie or much cheaper products with same quality. But that expensive products are still at top of search. I have tested all 3 types of listing enchancements but they not giving described above result. I mean when product appear on top of search results page. So, can somebody tell please how they do that products appears on top of search?

 

Thank you.

[Amethyst Jetaime]

You have to buy ad space there, called listing enhancements.  There are more ads than spaces for them so all ads rotate in and out of the spaces.  You may never see your ad there unless you happen to log in when it is shown or sit for hours refreshing your screen.  There is a report you can generate on the Merchant Home page called listing enhancements that will tell you how many impressions it gets.

Only you can decide if the price they charge is worth it as there is no guarantee of  a minimum number of impressions. 

 

[Felicia Silversmith]

Sorry Amethyst, but looks like you havn't read my message carefully. As i told i tested all 3 types of listing enchacements. But products i was talking about appears on top of search for specific word ALWAYS. Its not look like enchanecement. And also as i said i doubt a lot that products are really bestselling because price are really high and market have a lot of much cheaper items with similar quality. So question is still actual.

[Tari Landar]

It depends entirely on which search function you're using. Relevance is, not one any of us have really figured out. I don't honestly believe relevance works the way it should(or the way ll says it does).

You have no idea how often something another person has sells, though. It's entirely likely some items sell more often than you think. No one can "make" their items list at the top of search results in the way you might be thinking they can. Using keywords, advertising, etc... are ways we can get better noticed, and have things sell, more often, as it were, and then they'll show up at the top of the pages.

I have had items show in the top when folks search certain keywords before. I've had other merchants question me as to how this is possible. My answer is always the same... I don't know. I use the keywords, advertise here and there, and they just appear. I don't do more than most folks when I sell on the MP. Funny part is, my best selling items have *never* been those ones on the top of any search listing. So, there isn't really a definitve answer to what you're asking. Those things showing up first on the listings is always subject to change too. Whether or not it does change, it can.

It could be they are the most searched items, the most bought, the most relevant...could be any number of things(and more likely, a combination of a few).

You may think freebies sell more often than others, and you may be right for some things. But there is no way to know with any certainty. Unless each individual merchant is willing to tell you "yes, that item is one that sells often". My best selling items, for example, are not the free items. Although nothing of mine is high cost anyway. So many would call mine all low cost items. But my free items don't sell nearly as often as the ones that are over $50l.

[Felicia Silversmith]

Thanks for detailed answer Tari. Just you see there are some rules according to wich items sorted in each case. Its hard to say about sorting by relevance. But when we talking about sorting by best selling i guess rules are clear. Products sorted by number of sales for some last period of time. And that is what makes me really suprised when i see on top items wich can not be on top by sales. So question is how does they get on top? That is what i trying to find out. Imagine such situation: search results by some word shows furniture about 2000 L$ cost and avatar attachement about 100-150 L$. We all knows that there are much more people in SL who dont have own land at all. So, people bying attachement more often then furniture. Plus difference in price. 2000L$ is a big enought money for many people, in opposite much more people can afford 100-150 L$. But.... I see furniture at top of search result. I dont know about others, but for me its nonsence. Yes, there are famous brands and big inworld shops wich have own groups and with right marketings they can do really good sales. But we talking about Marketplace. And when i see product of not famous brand, and even more - very specific product wich people need rarely at top of bestselling i have question: "How so?" If it is some way of advertising i guess all creators should know about it. Because i have experiance with list enchancement - they dont give exectly similar result. So if answer is "i dont know" question is opened still. I really appretiate your opinion, but i want marketing to be fair and if there are some ways how they do it, i guess creators have right to know about such ways. Thats it.

[Tari Landar]

Take my store for example. If you go to it(I'm not telling you to, lol). You might be confused by what you see. You might think "Oh, that $5l item has GOT to sell more than that $250l item" or "that piece of furniture can't possibly sell better than something that doesn't need land at all". You are likely 100% incorrect-depending on which item you're talking about. You can't know how often something of mine sells unless I actually tell you. So you shouldn't assume what you're seeing on "top sales" isn't possible. Because you don't honestly know. People shop a lot, we can guess all we want at what people want(and it's what we merchants usually do, at some point) but we honestly can't know what others are really selling more, or less, of. Price range really has nothing at all to do with it, people will pay whatever they want to pay. You're right that more people do not own land at all, than do. But you may not be right in assuming that people buy more items that don't require land, than items that do(we also have to take into account how often people don't use the mp for either such purchase). Some of the items I sell require land, and I happen to know that some of the people that buy my items, or have bought them, don't own land(how they then use the items, I don't know, and can't know, but it's not for me to know, really). Not owning your own land is not a hinderance. I wouldn't look at it from that angle because you'll end up driving yourself nuts trying to "figure it out".

I was talking about marketplace as well, not inworld shopping.

There isn't some special unknown way of advertising that others are using that you are not, that gives them some sort of edge or puts their items at the top and not yours. That's what I was trying to say. Outside of the most obvious things, like having an inworld presence, advertising in your profile, advertising in your signature on the forums, having a website or blog(or advertising in others'), using keywords properly, having a good product, and things like that...there isn't some magical way. All merchants have access to the same things. Advertising, sales, keywords, etc..are all things that put items on the top in search results. We all ahve equal opportunity at those.

If you're asking what other merchants do to advertise, that's not the question you're posing, so I can see why some wouldn't understand what it is you're asking. If you're asking for advice as to how to get your products on top, there are lots of merchants willing to help, you just have to ask(there are also lots of blogs and such with great advice, as well as other threads here on the forums too). If you're saying it's impossible for another merchant's items to be on top based on what you believe should be true judging entirely on their price or what they are, it's not factual and you're going to keep feeling like you're hitting your head on a brick wall if you continue thinking that way. The fact is, it IS possible, that's why they show up that way.

 

[Amethyst Jetaime]

I am sorry to have misunderstood your question.  You asked about how things appear on the top of pages, and that is always ads.

In answer to you question now that i understand what you asked, I think you make too many assumptions.

How do you know that something can't be the top selling item based on price or what you perceived would be their demand?  All you are doing is making assumptions based on perhaps your own products or anecdotal evidence.

Many people are willing to pay for quality and those low price items are generally not the best.  So it very well may be that a item selling for 300L sells better than one for 25L. I have found you generally get what you pay for and probably wouldn't even consider a 25L item unless I knew the creators work well and knew it was always high quality.

Leaving aside price and quality there are a lot of things that sell like hotcakes in SL that I wouldn't give 2 cents for.  I'm continually amazed at what people will  make the next big thing.  Just because your opinion is that not many people would want something doesn't make it a fact. Some things that I thought would have a low demand when I put them up for sale have turned out to be some of my best sellers.

Also best selling sort order may use a combination of price and quantity.  So everything else being equal, if something sells for 300L and ten are sold, it will be placed more towards the top than something that is priced at 25L and sells 100 times.  I am also sure time has a lot to do with it too, or everything on the first page would be things that have been available for a while.  Yet many times things appear there that were just put up for sale within the last few weeks.

The fact is that the formulas used by LL to determine the order things are shown are deliberately kept secret so they can't be gamed. They may even be changed once in a while to keep them that way.  If anyone actually figured them out they wouldn't be answering you here anyway.  Why would they?  They'd lose their competitive advantage.

 

[Spica Inventor]

I'll give you a straight answer Felicia, because I have no reason to be deceptive not being an LL employee/agent/fanboy. L.L. pumps higher priced stuff further up on relevancy search results thinking that they will make more money that way inflating prices. Of course they end up loosing customers and revenue doing that in reality. I'm not sure what the formula is however. I'm not even sure if it is even linear. Probably some sort of curve upward with price.