You choose your own percentage rate for each listing, so you will never pay more than that. That makes it easy to control the cost of Promoted Listings, in comparison to cost-per-click programs with variable pricing like Google Ads or Amazon Sponsored Products.
But to be successful – to actually get your item boosted to the top of the search results – you will have to compete against all the other sellers with similar items who are using Promoted Listings.
To help answer this question, eBay provide average ad rates, updated weekly, across 32 main categories and hundreds of subcategories.
The typical range is 5-10% but there are exceptions reaching as low as 2% and as high as 18%. However, despite the level of detail, these are still just category averages. The amount you need to pay to promote your specific items can be completely different to the category rates shown.
To find the real cost, and avoid overpaying, you need to find the level yourself. Start with a low percentage, even 1%, and see how your items sell. If there are no additional sales, increase it to 2%. Keep going in small increments, until you see a spike in sales.
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The short answer, unfortunately, is that it’s trial and error for each unique listing.