Etsy Ads are split into Onsite Ads (advertised within Etsy) and Offsite Ads (advertised outside Etsy on platforms like Google and Instagram).

• Onsite Ads: These ads show up on Etsy’s search pages, category pages, and related listings. You need to opt in to promote your listing through this.
• Offsite Ads: You pay a percentage (12% or 15%) of the sale value when an ad results in a sale. These ads are shown on external sites, and participation is mandatory for sellers earning over $10,000/year.

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Before running any ads, it’s important to optimise your listings (titles, tags, photos, descriptions). Ads alone won’t guarantee sales; your shop needs to be prepared to convert clicks into sales.

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7 Steps For Testing Profitable Etsy Ads

1. Choose 10-20 initial items - They can be bestsellers, recently sold products, products with high margin, products in many shopper's carts, etc. It’s important to choose listings that are already converting. One common mistake is running ads on low-converting listings; if they don’t convert with organic search traffic, they’re not likely to convert with paid ads traffic either.
2. Test for a week - I use a budget of $5 daily. Setting the budget too low or the testing period too short makes it impossible to make informed decisions to improve their Etsy ads performance.
3. Analyse & improve - After a week, go to the ads analytics and do the following:some text
   1. For high conversion rate listings (>3%), keep running them
   2. For low click rate listings, test new listing photos
   3. For listings with low view, click and conversion rates, turn them off
4. Add new products to test if necessary - They could be products recently sold, products on sale, etc.
5. Test for another week and analyse again
6. Turn off listings that still have low conversion rate or click rate. You should be left with the best performing listings, and your return on Etsy ads should improve.
7. Increase ads budget to scale up traffic

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Some additional points to keep in mind

• Only run ads on optimised listings - High quality photos, strong unique handmade offer, etc.
• Mid- to high-priced items with higher margin generally gives you better return on ads spent
• Ads can be a good way to get initial traction for new shops
• Monitor performance regularly and adjust strategies as needed

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