Fiverr Paid Gig Promotion Ads – Are they worth it?

Well, well, well, the great fiverr mystery has just been solved.

Finally, I was able to replace the missing pieces of the puzzle!

In case you are wondering…

What is Fiverr and how does it work?

Fiverr is a marketplace where buyer meet sellers. Fiverr connects businesses with freelancers offering digital services in 300 + categories around the globe. Fiverr is known to be the largest marketplace for digital services.

So, getting back to our original post, you must have recently stumbled upon many fiverr sellers complaining about having no views, impressions or clicks on their gigs. (even the best selling gigs had none).

Many sellers panicked and reached out to fiverr support only to be assured by fiverr that, “We’re working on getting your Gigs’ impressions, clicks, and views back online. No worries – your Gigs are active, and all the metrics are calculated as usual.”

So it was confirmed by Fiverr itself that their gig Analytics page was out of order for some time (no views, impressions or clicks whatsoever).

But the good news is not only fiverr’s views, and impressions are back. Fiverr is also coming up with something BIGGER and BETTER.

Yes, Fiverr is going to launch a new Promote Gigs feature for seller

And thats what we are going to discuss in the post.

Is it the good news?

Yes, as your gig will be shown as an Ad and will get more exposure (and possibly more orders too) but to avail this feature, you will have to pay some extra cash to Fiverr (spend money on ad spend). But wait, there’s more to it (which we will discuss in a bit).

This is how your new gig analytics dashboard is going to look like, (refer the screenshot below)

Fiverr Promoted Gigs ? How they work?

Just like Google Ads, Fiverr’s promoted Gigs is a paid advertising tool that let sellers promote their Gigs on Fiverr.

You will be paying on per click basis. The more you pay, the more clicks your promoted gig will achieve!

Using Promoted Gigs, you can now push your Gig to prime locations in category pages and search results, gain more visibility, and get more orders.

So, basically, all you have to do is just pay some money to fiverr and your gigs will start appearing infront of buyers and you will get dozen of orders while you are comfortably lying on your bed, sounds so simple, huh?… easy peasy, right? WRONG!

WHY? Read on!

The thing to understand here, its not that simple as Fiverr make it sound, The ad’s display is based on an auction between sellers, and depends on the price you’re willing to pay for each ad click (bid).

For instance, you pay $10 for per click on your gig, but other seller has more money and of course a good budget to spend, so he/she decided to go higher than you and bids $20, another buyer will pay $50 bid, and this will go on and on unti someone pays the highest bid that nobody is able to beat and will secure the position on first page and that too for 24 hours only.

So even if you spend good amount but someone has more money than you, he/she will gain a slot on first page and you might appear on second page.

If you notice how cunningly Fiverr is actually manipulating through this bidding system and shamelessly claiming you’ll pay a fee only when buyers click on your ad. This is a sham in my opinion, and many unfortunately many sellers will go for it until they start understanding how it works..

But in any case its a win-win for Fiverr and maybe for those who have great budget to spend and see it as a way to double their business, but for a common seller its no less than a disaster.

Will it kill organic reach?

Of course it will! As much as Fiverr tries to deny the possibility. But the truth is if it doesn’t kill the organic reach you will never be compelled to try Fiverr’s paid ad feature.

Fiverr’s Claim

According to Micha Kaufman, Fiverr founder and CEO,

“As we continue to grow and enhance Fiverr’s e-commerce experience, it’s important to provide freelancers on our site the opportunity to invest in and grow their online business. So far the response has been overwhelmingly positive,”

He further elaborated, “In our beta test earlier this year, our seller community found it intuitive to use and there has been a strong clickthrough rate from buyers. Promoted Gigs is a fantastic way for high quality, talented and motivated freelancers to stand out, earn more and build a stronger business on Fiverr.”

So, can anyone promote their gigs?

No, to maintain quality ad experience for the buyers, Fiverr is offering this paid promotion service to handpicked sellers only, especially to those who meet their quality metrics.

Fiverr will evaluate your eligibility as per the following standards:

• You should be a Level 2 or Top Rated seller
• At least one of your Gigs should be in an eligible category
• Your Gig score shouldn’t be less than 4.7 in public rating
• Your Gig Must have at least 30 reviews
• You MUST meet additional quality metrics

Eligible Catogories to Promote Gig

• Voice Over
• Illustration
• Logo Design
• Proofreading & Editing
• Whiteboard & Animated Explainers
• WordPress
• Social Media Marketing
• Articles & Blog Posts
• Web & Mobile Design
• Photoshop Editing
• Architecture & Interior Design
• Web Programming
• E-commerce Development
• Mobile Apps
• Book & eBook Writing

Can Anyone Create a New Gig and just start Promoting it?

No, new sellers can’t use this promote gig option right away. Their new Gigs will need to run for a while in the marketplace in order to ensure they meet the quality criteria  stated above.

Pros & Cons

Just like every other system Fiverr paid gig promotion also has its share of pros and cons, too.

Let’s first disucss the benefits.

Pros

• It can push your Gig to prime locations in category pages and search results. (which otherwise might not have been noticed by your potential buyers).
• Help your gigs gain more visibility, and get more orders. (When your gig is visible your chances to get more orders also increases).
• You get to showcase your talent to your targeted buyers.
• You only pay once a buyer click. (No click no pay).
• If you are hardworking and have the right skills, this feature will give a boost to your business.

Cons

• Your will lose money even when your competitors just click on your gigs for fun.
• Just because your gig ads are visible doesn’t guarantee you will get sales too.
• Competition will become even more aggressive, sellers with more money will win the race.
• Seller will either increase the prices of their gig or will make even lesser money.
• Buyers finding gigs expensive will start looking for other alternative.
• The competition will mainly held between top rated and level 2 sellers, new sellers will automatically be kicked out from the competition. In other words, sellers with more money will quality for the fiverr paid promotional ad feature.

The fiverr paid gig promotional feature is still in beta , which means its still going through trial and error and available to a limited number of sellers. And if more and more sellers are ready to spend money on fiverr promotional ads, (which in my opinion isnt a good idea ),then chances are its going to be launched soon.

Fiverr’s Sellers Responses

Below are some of the responses from the sellers.

My 2 Cents

In my opinion, this is going to get bloody, and Fiverr’s has tactfully tried to filter between sellers who have money to spend and those who don’t.

In the end, those with more money will have more power and more business which will consequently bring fiverr more business too.

In a nutshell, Fiverr isn’t interested in keeping sellers with no money. So, in my opinon new sellers have lost it already, for new sellers, the game is finished! its a competition between top rated and level 2 sellers.

But again these are all speculations based on personal narrative and judgement, we have yet to see how this new feature rolls out, but as far as we can see not many sellers are happy with it.

Let’s sum it as, The more you pay to Fiverr, the more you will earn from Fiverr.

What are you thoughts? Share in the comment section below.