When I first started selling on TpT, I didn’t even realize their was an option to pay for a promoted spot at the top of a specific category. After becoming more serious about my Teachers Pay Teachers store, I decided I would give their promotions a try. I sell middle and high school resources than span English, History, and Philosophy. I wanted to promote a philosophy product but “Philosophy” isn’t a subject category that can be promoted so I selected 11th grade instead. Well, the promotion date came around and I didn’t sell a single copy of the product I promoted. What high school philosophy teacher is searching for lessons by looking at the general 11th Grade category? None. That was a waste of money. Once I discovered how to land one of the coveted English Language Arts or History spots, then my promotions started to translate to sales. Read on to learn how (and when) to lock down a good promotional spot on Teachers Pay Teachers.
Before you begin, you want to make sure you have a product that will do well in a promoted TpT spot. The promoted spots cost between $3 and $10 depending on the category you choose. Like I mentioned earlier, my super specific epistemology lesson for high school philosophy was not served well in the very vague 11th Grade category. That product is simply too specific and a little too obscure to see results from a TpT promotional spot. Something that works for a much wider audience, however, will do well if you can snag a good spot when the new monthly promotional spots open up. For example, this subject and predicate review lesson works for any middle school English class so when I have promoted that product, I’ve seen additional sales (although just enough to cover the cost of the promotion). So your first step is to create and identify a product that teachers would be interested in of they were just browsing through a subject category like English Language Arts. My advice to sellers with high school lessons is to avoid the general grade categories if you have a lesson that is specific to a subject. High school teachers looking to buy on TpT don’t peruse the 11th Grade page.
Where Do Promoted Products Appear?
Each category has four spots at the top of the page for promoted products. What is very important to note about this is that your promoted product will only appear at the top of the page if the buyer is browsing that category. For example, the four promoted science products in the picture below appear only because I have selected “Science” from the Browse dropdown.
As you can see, your potential customer needs to be a science teacher who is just browsing the general category of science on Teachers Pay Teachers. It has to be selected from the Browse dropdown menu. A buyer who types “science” into the search bar isn’t going to see your promoted product. This is why it is really important to consider your product before dipping into your wallet to snag a promotional spot.
How Do I Schedule a Paid Promotion?
On your Seller Dashboard, click the Marketing tab. Then, select Promote.
This will take you the page where you will select your category and your product to be promoted. Select the category to see if any spots are available. Available days will appear in green. In the picture below, you’ll see that there are no available promotional spots in the English Language Arts category for January 2022.
The major categories sell out very quickly so you will need to have a game plan ready if you want to nab a spot in the major subject areas or in the elementary grade categories. Promotional spots open up at midnight on the night of the 19th going into the morning of the 20th. Spots open up three months in advance. So, the night of this November 19th, you can get spots for February. Some categories sell out really quickly so you need to figure out your category, product, and date ahead of time and then open the promotion page before 12am. Once it opens, move quickly to land your desired spot because the best spots can disappear within a minute if you dally. This is certainly true for the English Language Arts spots.
Once you’ve entered in your details for your promotion, click Review and Confirm to submit your promotion. You’ll have the option of paying for your promoted spot out of your TpT earnings if you have any.
Is a Promotional Spot Worth It?
It really depends on what you are trying to promote. You should try and pick a product that already has some good reviews so the star rating shows up when your product is promoted. Your product should be one that is very applicable to the general promotion category you’re using. Make sure you have great cover art that is eye catching. Even with all of these things, it’s possible you won’t make any sales. I personally feel the promotion slots could be reworked to perform better for some sellers, but we are stuck with the current setup. You’ll notice if you browse through promoted products on any given day that they tend to be higher priced items. If a category costs $6 for a one-day slot, then you only need to sell one higher priced item to make your money back along with some profit. You can also set your promoted item to be on sale on the day of its promotion in an effort to further entice potential buyers.
At any rate, just start with one product on one day and see what kind of results you get. You should be looking at views and any new Wish List numbers as well as these are important to your store’s success.
Good luck and set those alarms for 11:55pm on the night of the 19th!
The Unraveled Teacher 