What Are Etsy Ads?

Onsite Ads

Previously known as promoted listings, Etsy ads are advertising of product listings that are shown on Etsy, like the search page.

You pay for the ads when shoppers click on your advertised listing.

To differentiate from offsite ads, I’ll use the term ‘Etsy onsite ads’ in this guide.

Offsite Ads

Etsy offsite ads are advertising of listings shown outside of Etsy like on Instagram and Google. Previous Google shopping ads are integrated into this offsite ads program.

Unlike onsite ads, you pay only when you make a sale from the ad.

Sellers are opted in Etsy offsite ads by default.

Where do Etsy Ads Show Up?

Onsite Ads

Etsy onsite ads show up primarily among the organic search results on Etsy.com. Do a simple search on Etsy and you will see some of the listings have the text “Ads by (shop name)” on desktop or “Ad” badge on mobile.

Also they show up on the category page, market pages and related listings as well. 

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Offsite Ads

They are promoted on platforms like Google, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, etc. Also publishing partners including Buzzfeed, Martha Stewart and Real Simple. Sellers have no influence of where and how the listings are advertised.

How Much Does It Cost?

Onsite Ads

Etsy onsite ads are charged per click. You pay when shoppers click on one of your ads. It’s not charged by impression or sale.

You set a daily budget, which is the maximum amount of money you will pay daily. Etsy will stop serving your ads once the daily budget is used up. But sometimes the daily budget won’t be used fully if you are not getting many clicks.

Some outdated articles say you can bid on price of the click, but that was changed a while ago. Now you can only change the overall budget but not individual bid for listings.

Usually onsite ads cost $0.2-0.5 per click, but the amount can be higher for higher-priced items.

Offsite Ads

Unlike onsite ads, you pay a percentage ad fee when you make a sale. It’s not charged by impression or clicks.

You will pay when the shopper clicks on your offsite ads and buys something from your shop. You don’t have to pay when a shopper clicks on another shop’s offsite ad and buy from you instead.

All the orders made by the same customers after clicking on your ads will be charged the advertising fee within 30 days. So if a shopper clicks and makes 3 orders in 30 days, you will need to pay ad fees on all 3 of those orders.

For sellers who made over $10,000 over the past 12 months, offsite ads fee is 12% of your total order value (product price + shipping). Otherwise, the offsite ad fee is 15%. This fee is on top of other Etsy fees like transaction fee, listing fee and Etsy Payment fee.

Offsite ads are mandatory for sellers making over $10,000. They are optional for sellers who made less than $10,000.

As you can see, the offsite ads can be quite expensive for many sellers. Adding 12-15% to other Etsy fees can mean that Etsy takes up to 25-35% of your sale price. One of the ways to combat this is to increase your price and profit margin. I’ve gone through some strategies in this chapter of the pricing course.

How Does Etsy Choose What Ads To Show?

Both onsite and offsite ads show listing with the same based on the same philosophy - show the listing that is most likely to convert to a sale. The better the products sell, the more ad revenue can Etsy get.

This means Etsy in general show products that have high click-through rates and conversion rates. This is one fo the reasons why Etsy made offsite ads mandatory for more successful sellers, as they have proven that their products sell, and Etsy is more likely to make ad revenue promoting their products.

If you want your ads to show up more, you’d need to focus on boosting your click- and conversion rates, which we will look at in the following sections.