What is Spotlight?
We want to help you sell faster, by putting your listing in the Spotlight!
Spotlight is a seller tool designed to increase the visibility of your listing on the marketplace. As the name suggests, it places your listing in the spotlight! Your listing will be pinned across categories in search results, ‘Your Daily Picks’ and ‘Recommended For You’ sections, allowing as many potential buyers as possible to come across it.
You’re able to set a daily budget (depending on the desired number of clicks) and the duration of your Spotlight campaign. Once you’ve reached your target number of clicks for the day, Spotlight will pause from running.
Spotlight guarantees that you only pay for the clicks that your listing gets. The cost of each campaign depends on your budget. The higher your budget, the more clicks the campaign will try to deliver to your listing.
How do I put my listing into Spotlight?
- Select a listing from your profile and tap on ‘Promote’
- Look for Spotlight and tap “x coins/click”
- Customise your Spotlight campaign with a daily budget by setting the target number of clicks, keywords and priority. You’ll need Carousell Coins to make a purchase.
- Start your Spotlight by tapping on “Run Spotlight”.
Track the clicks and progress of your Spotlight campaign through Listing Insights or in the Seller Tools page “View Stats”.
How long will my listing stay in Spotlight?
Your listing will stay in Spotlight for as long as you set your campaign duration to be (3–30 days) and will pause for the day once you’ve reached your daily budget (or targeted number of clicks per day).If your Spotlight is paused, it could be due to:
- The daily coin limit you have set for your Spotlight campaign has been reached
- Your coin balance is now under 100 coins. Please top-up your Carousell Coins and your Spotlight campaign will resume automatically.
Marking your listing as “Sold”, “Inactive”, “Reserved”, “Deleted” or changing its category will stop your Spotlight immediately. Reserved listing's promotion will be paused for a maximum 24 hours. Within 24h, relist the listing will bring back the promotion automatically. Over 24h, then it will be stopped.
Why is my Spotlight in a 'Paused' state?
There are 2 scenarios that can put your Spotlight into a 'Paused' status:
- Your listing was marked as 'Reserved'
If you unreserve the listing within the next 24 hours, the Spotlight campaign will automatically be restored. If your listing remains reserved for more than 24h, the Spotlight campaign will be stopped and the unused coins will be returned to you - Coin balance is below the minimum of threshold
For Spotlight to continue running, you need a minimum amount of coins in your wallet.
• Singapore, Taiwan: 100 coins
• Hong Kong, Malaysia, the Philippines: 20 coins
Top up your coins wallet within the next 24 hours to have your spotlight campaign restored.
Can I stop my Spotlight?
Most definitely! To do so:
- Go to the listing that has an active Spotlight and tap promote
- Look for Spotlight and at the bottom right of the card, click on "Stop Spotlight"
- Click 'Confirm'
Your Spotlight will be moved into an ended status with immediate effect. You may click 'Run Again' to start a new Spotlight campaign at anytime!
How do I pay for my Spotlight?
Instead of allocating a fixed amount of Carousell Coins to pay for your Spotlight and receiving refunds for unused coins, sellers will only pay after clicks get delivered to your listing. Coins will be deducted on a daily basis from your coin balance when your listing gets clicks. All you need is a minimum of 100 coins (min. 20 coins for Hong Kong, Malaysia and Philippines markets) in your balance to start a Spotlight campaign!
I can't find my spotlighted listing! Where can I find it?
Not to worry! The appearance of spotlighted listings is determined by its relevance for each user and the number of clicks and priority you’ve set. It’s customised for every user and hence, you may not see it in your own search results. To check the performance of your Spotlight campaign, simply view your listing insights.
Campaign insights page under "View Stats" or your listing insights page as well.
Why does my spotlighted listing not have the 'Spotlight label' when I search for it?
The 'Spotlight' label will only show on listings in the spotlight reserved slots.
We deduct coins for clicks that were received when your listing is selected to be in the Spotlight reserved slot and has the 'Spotlight' label. If your listing was not selected for Spotlight in a browse session, it will show as an organic search listing which will not have the 'Spotlight' label.
What happens if I reserve my listing while it is in Spotlight?
Once you mark your listing as reserved, your campaign will be paused for up to 24 hours. If you unreserve your listing within the next 24 hours, your listing will be placed back in Spotlight!
How do I know if my listing is promoted with Spotlight?
You can track the progress of your Spotlight campaign through Listing Insights or in the Seller Tools page “View Stats”.
What is the difference between clicks and impressions?
When a user browses a category or search result page, they don’t always tap into all the listings that they see. When they scroll past a listing, it’s counted as an impression. When they tap into the listing to view more details, it’s counted as a click
A user has to tap into your Spotlight listing for us to count it as a click. On top of that, each click will be unique; if the same user taps into your listing twice, it will only be counted as 1 click.
Does Spotlight guarantee a sale?
Spotlight provides your listings with more visibility. However, we cannot guarantee that a Spotlight will lead to a like, chat or offer. To make sure you get the most out of Spotlights, use them on good-quality listings.
How is Spotlight different from Bumps?
Spotlight and Bumps both help to improve an item's visibility, but they work differently.
Spotlight guarantees that you only pay for the clicks that your listing gets during the campaign period.
A Bump pushes a listing to the top of the category for a short period of time, and costs the same regardless of the clicks it delivers. The performance of each Bumped listing depends on the demand for the listing and quality of the listing. From our case studies, a seller can enjoy an average of 2 - 4x more views on a Bumped listing than a regular new listing, depending on the type of Bump.
You can also buy a Bump while your listing is running a Spotlight campaign. The Spotlight campaign will run independently from your Bumped item. The Listing Insights are different and will be able to show the performance of each feature separately. Rest assured that the clicks that you get from Bumps don’t count towards the fulfilment of your Spotlight campaign.
Spotlight priority
Priority means sellers pay for an increased chance to be shown in more prominent positions when buyers search and browse for a relevant item or service. The ad inventory available for Spotlight ads are limited, and sellers who pay for priority are more likely to have their campaigns successfully delivered.
However, ads are still subject to other considerations such as listing relevance. Only in conditions where two running campaigns are in the same category and are equally relevant to a buyer’s search term will the prioritised Spotlight ad be favoured over the non-prioritised Spotlight ad.
For example, if a buyer searches iPhone X, two Spotlight ads with the title iPhone X will compete for prominence in search results. The Spotlight ad with greater priority will be shown first.
Why should I pay for priority?
Priority shows your Spotlight ads in more prominent positions compared to other similar ads, thereby delivering clicks faster for a successful campaign and competing with other sellers in the category in a given period of time.
If I do not pay for priority, does this mean my Spotlight ads will perform poorly?
No. Your Spotlight listing will be shown in relevant search and browse results. We will still aim to deliver 100% of your daily budget. Your Spotlight performance will not be impacted. Priority feature is built for the serious sellers who urgently want more exposure and clicks in a specific given period of the time.
Will I be able to see how much my competitors are paying for priority?
Yes. In the priority setup page, you will be able to see how much your competitors are prioritizing overall in the category of your listing. However, you will not be able to see how much individual sellers are prioritising their listings.
What if all other sellers pay for the same priority? Who will be prioritised?
If all other sellers are paying for the same priority, then all of their listings will be prioritized equally. This is the reason why we show what the average prioritisation in the category so that the sellers can optimise their Spotlight ads accordingly. We recommend that sellers buy at least 25% priority over the average in the category.
Keyword targeting
We all know that buyers search what they want to browse and purchase. As a seller, you would like to put certain keywords in the listing title and description with the hope of being shown in the prominent position for the highly intended keyword. Keyword targeting assures your hope into reality. You can simply select the keywords you want to target at a specific price and your listing will be shown in the keyword search result!
Note: Not available in the Philippines
Can I add a custom keyword to target?
No. The list of the keywords will be automatically generated based on your listing information, and it will be ordered by our recommendation. You can only choose any keyword within the recommended list of keywords.
How do I know if my Spotlight ads are shown from keyword targeting?
You can check the click distribution of targeted keywords in the listing insights page.
If I choose one keyword for the targeting, does this mean my Spotlight ads will only show for that keyword?
No. Keyword targeting will only give an extra boost to your listing for that keyword search. Your Spotlight performance for organic search will not be impacted. Keyword targeting is built for sellers who want more exposure and clicks for a specific keyword.
Is it possible to use the priority feature with keyword targeting? How it will be charged?
Yes. You can use the priority feature with keyword targeting. Based on the daily budget you set for Spotlight ad with priority feature, keyword targeting will run as long as you have sufficient coins to support the cost of each keyword.