When eBay Promoted Listings pay for themselves (as of Oct 2026)
With a general Promoted Listings campaign you pick an ad rate between 2% and 100%. If a buyer clicks your ad and buys within 30 days, eBay charges that rate as an ad fee, on top of the final value fee and per-order fee. The calculator shows your profit with and without the ad, and the highest ad rate the sale can carry before it loses money.
The ad fee is charged on the whole sale
eBay charges the ad rate on the total sale amount: item price, shipping, sales tax and any other buyer-paid fees. A 5% ad on a $40 item is not $2. With $8.00 shipping and $3.20 tax the total is $51.20, so the fee is $2.56.
A worked example
The default sale pays eBay $7.36 in normal fees in most categories. After the $12.00 item cost and a $7.50 label, profit without the ad is $21.14. At 5% the ad fee is $2.56 and profit falls to $18.58. At 10% it falls to $16.02. The break-even ad rate is 41.28%: above that, an ad-attributed sale loses money.
Break-even is not the target
An ad is worth it when it brings sales you would not have made, or brings them sooner. If the item would have sold anyway at the same price, the ad fee is simply lost profit. Since eBay changed how general ads are attributed on January 13, 2026, many sellers have questioned whether the extra sales cover the fees. Compare your sell-through with and without ads before raising the rate.
What this leaves out
- Priority (cost-per-click) campaigns, which charge per click.
- eBay Store subscriptions, which lower final value fees.
- Returns: check eBay’s current rules on whether an ad fee is credited.
Estimates, fees as of Oct 2026, from eBay’s official help pages. Not tax advice. Flip Profit HQ is not affiliated with eBay or any marketplace.