Ad cost
eBay Promoted Listings fee calculator
Enter your price, costs and ad rate to see the General campaign ad fee eBay adds on top of final value fees, what you keep, the highest ad rate your margin can carry, and how much lower that ceiling really is if some promoted sales would have sold anyway. Nothing is uploaded.
Breakdown
Ad rate ceilings
| Ad rate | Ad fee | Profit | Margin | Pays off if extra ≥ |
|---|
Priority vs General
Returns
How the numbers work
A General (cost-per-sale) campaign charges your ad rate on the total amount of the sale. That is the item price plus shipping, sales tax and any other applicable fees. You only pay when the promoted item sells within 30 days of a click on your ad. Watchlist adds, add-to-cart and quick view all count as clicks. You set the rate anywhere from 2% to 100%. eBay charges the rate in effect when the item sells, not when it was clicked.
The ad fee comes on top of the normal final value fee (FVF). FVF uses the same total, so tax raises both fees even though you never keep the tax. Most categories pay 13.6% up to $7,500 with no Store, or 12.7% up to $2,500 with a Basic or higher Store, then 2.35% above that. Every order also pays a per-order fee: $0.30 on totals of $10 or less, $0.40 above. Athletic shoes at $150 or more pay 8% (Store 7%) and no per-order fee.
- Break-even ad rate = organic profit ÷ total amount of sale. At that rate a promoted sale earns $0.
- Target-margin rate = (organic profit − target margin × (item + shipping)) ÷ total amount of sale.
- Incremental rate. eBay charges for every attributed sale, including buyers who would have bought anyway. If only a share k of promoted sales are truly extra, promoting pays off only while ad fee ≤ k × organic profit. So the ceiling is k × break-even rate.
- Priority (cost-per-click) is priced in a second-price auction. You pay for every valid click, sale or not, so cost per sale = your CPC ÷ your conversion rate. Divide that by the total amount of sale to compare it with a General rate.
Example (the default inputs): $40 item + $6 shipping + 7% tax = $49.22 total amount of sale. No Store FVF is 13.6% × $49.22 = $6.69, plus $0.40 per order. Costs are $18.50, so organic profit is $46 − $7.09 − $18.50 = $20.41. A 5% ad costs $2.46, which is 6.15% of the $40 item price, and leaves $17.95. Break-even is 41.5%, and the most you can pay and still keep a 15% margin is 27.4%. If only half your promoted sales are extra, the real ceiling is 20.7%.
FAQ
How is the eBay Promoted Listings fee calculated?
For General campaigns: ad rate × total amount of sale (item price + shipping + sales tax + other applicable fees). eBay charges it only when the promoted item sells within 30 days of a click on your ad. The item must be promoted both when it is clicked and when it sells. You pay it on top of the final value fee and the $0.30/$0.40 per-order fee.
Why is my ad fee bigger than my ad rate times the price?
Because the base includes shipping and sales tax, not just the item price. A 5% rate on a $40 item with $6 shipping and 7% tax is $2.46, or 6.15% of the item price. Offering free shipping lowers the base, but you pay the label yourself.
What is a good ad rate on eBay?
There is no single number. eBay suggests a daily rate per listing based on item attributes, seasonality, past performance and competition, and a Dynamic ad rate simply follows that suggestion. Use the ceilings above as your hard limit. Break-even is where you make $0. The target-margin rate is where you still hit your goal. The incremental rate allows for sales you would have made without the ad.
Do I get the ad fee back if the buyer returns the item?
It depends on why. eBay’s fee-credit table credits the General ad fee in full when you cancel for a reason outside your control (the buyer asked, or there was an address problem). It is also credited when you fully refund a buyer’s-remorse return (changed mind, doesn’t fit, found a better price) through eBay. For not-as-described, damaged or defective returns, item-not-received refunds, and accepted payment disputes, the table credits only the variable FVF, so the per-order fee and ad fee are lost. No fees are credited if you refund outside eBay or eBay steps in to close the case. eBay’s own partial-refund example does credit the ad fee proportionally, so check your Payments tab.
Should I use Priority instead of General?
Priority (cost per click) charges for every valid click, whether or not anything sells, with prices set in a second-price auction. It only beats General when your CPC ÷ conversion rate works out below your General ad fee per sale. Enter your own CPC and conversion from the Advertising dashboard to compare. A listing can be in several Priority campaigns but only one General campaign. eBay attributes each sale to the last click.
Is this my exact eBay bill?
No. It is a planning estimate from eBay’s published US rates for one single-item order. It leaves out Promoted Offsite and Promoted Stores, the extra FVF for below-standard sellers, international fees, optional upgrades, and insertion fees. Compare it with the ad fees in your Seller Hub Payments tab.