Is advertising on Marketplace truly profitable?

[Viv Firelyte]

I want to start advertising my products on the Marketplace by featuring them on the category landing page. Truthfully, I'd only need to sell about two of the item to make it profitable, but what I want to know is, does advertising REALLY make a difference in the number of products you sell? I know more people would see it and stuff, but what are the chances that someone is gonna stumble upon my particular thing in the featured category? So, I just want to know if you think it's worth it. Opinions?

[Ishtara Rothschild]

Home page advertising really does help a bit, at least if the item appeals to a large audience (a niche product will always remain a niche product, no matter how many people see the ad) and has a good rating. I don't know about category landing page advertising though. Personally, I've never visited a category page, I've always found what I was looking for in an all-encompassing search.

[Ry0ta Exonar]

That subject has been discussed many times, so you might want to read some of those threads.

You will be reading also lots of peoples experience there.

I've been running 3 listing enhancements on the category landing page since the launch of Marketplace and I guess they function as such these days. Maybe you can give it a shot (short term one) to see if that makes any difference. Make sure the subscription won't be renewed automatically.

[Ziggy21 Slade]

I like this ...

A man wakes up in the morning after sleeping on an advertised bed, in advertised pyjamas. He will bathe in an advertised tub, wash with advertised soap, shave with an advertised shaver and have advertised juice, cereal and toasted bagel (toasted in an advertised toaster) for breakfast. He'll then put on advertised clothing and glance at his advertised watch.

He will ride to work in advertised car, call in to let his office know he's running late from his advertised cell phone, and sit down in an advertised desk chair when he gets to the office. He'll work at his advertised computer, and write with an advertised pen.

Yet this man hesitates to advertise (or market his business), worrying that marketing and advertising won't work. Finally, when his unadvertised business goes under, he will advertise it for sale.

I would say. if you only need to sell 2 items to pay for the advert I would definitely give it a try, but for me the Category Landing Page has not been a great spot. I think it depends to some extent what you are selling, generally I just type straight into search, occasionally I will drill down to a category, usually when I am looking for sculpties, no doubt others have their own specific habits.

I have had most success with the checkout page and the Homepage. I am currently running 10 homepage enhancements and I will be adding to this as we hit Winterval. Is it worth it?, absolutely without any doubt!, I had a short break from advertising last year when they migrated Marketplace from the old site, when I finally updated my listings and got advertising again my business increased 10 fold.

Make sure you make the enhanced listing count, fill in the entire listing including keywords and features, ensure all 8 related products slots are filled and SLURL is included, try and include 8 images (stick one in of other products (clearly labelled) if you don't have enough). Including an animated Gif has totally changed the fortunes of one of my products, and for some things you tube videos work well too, use everything at your disposal to drain every drop of value from the enhancement fee that you can. 

[Sassy Romano]

further to ziggy's post, aside from the advertising I do on MP, each month I renew some mall spots that never make money. its just brand awareness and advertising.

[Chelsea Malibu]

Oddly, when I advertise in MP or do enhancements, the item I am advertising rarely sees any additional traction however, overall my store sales goes up.  Never quite figured this out but it seems to be the case.

[Chelsea Malibu]

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Sassy Romano wrote:

each month I renew some mall spots that never make money. its just brand awareness and advertising.

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Sassy, you are all over the place and have done an amazing job marketing a product that I would have thought would be somewhat a hard sale but you rock.  Your products rock and I love your style!

But I do get your point.  My mall locations have only been to drive traffic back to my main store.  Everything, even MP is to drive traffic to my main store.

[Mylar]

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Chelsea Malibu wrote:

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Sassy Romano wrote:

each month I renew some mall spots that never make money. its just brand awareness and advertising.

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Sassy, you are all over the place and have done an amazing job marketing a product that I would have thought would be somewhat a hard sale but you rock.  Your products rock and I love your style!

But I do get your point.  My mall locations have only been to drive traffic back to my main store.  Everything, even MP is to drive traffic to my main store.

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Speaking of people doing an amazing job, I've been to your main store...very nice work :matte-motes-big-grin:

 

As to advertising on the market place, I agree with what others are saying; it's not about selling *that* product, it's about driving traffic. For me, I'm waiting till the end of August to advertise anything, and I've got a couple products that I'm making sure the listing on the market place is rock solid before I pay to feature them. That seems the most sensible way to go about it.

[Chelsea Malibu]

Are you talking about me or Sassy.  If me, (blushes) thank you very much and if for Sassy, yes I agree and I love all of her stuff especially her regular skirts.

[Mylar]

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Chelsea Malibu wrote:

Are you talking about me or Sassy.  If me, (blushes) thank you very much and if for Sassy, yes I agree and I love all of her stuff especially her regular skirts.

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the answer to that question would be yes, I've been to both your shop and Sassy's :matte-motes-big-grin:

[Josh Susanto]

I'm continuing to show gradually increased profits without any advertising.

Maybe I could make more money if I advertised, and maybe I would just waste money on advertising.

What's the rush to find out?

[Chelsea Malibu]

Word of mouth is by far the best form of advertising though a bit slow.  In the early days there was so little competition where in fact, nearly any idea we came up with was unique and new.

It took us a very short time to make SexGen the number one in it's category and now we have to fight for every sale. Given that we are sorely in need of our new updated animations but in the end, it's a hoot to watch things grow. 

Cept my kids, I don't want them to grow.

[VonGklugelstein Alter]

the truth is that Items can sell better without feature ads. I typically only advertise because I am sick and tired of the same person desperately spamming all his stuff all over the Top of certain categories in every conceivable manner.