Etsy Advertising: 2025 Guide for More Sales
Step 1: Understand Etsy Advertising Options
Research Etsy Ads vs. Offsite Ads
Etsy offers two primary advertising avenues: Etsy Ads (formerly Etsy Promoted Listings) and Offsite Ads. Etsy Ads are campaigns you actively set up and manage within your Etsy shop dashboard. They promote your listings directly on Etsy’s platform, appearing in search results and category pages. You control your daily budget, bids, and which listings are promoted. Offsite Ads, conversely, are managed by Etsy and promote your listings across various external platforms like Google, Facebook, Pinterest, and Bing. For Offsite Ads, you only pay when a sale is made through one of these ads, and the fee is a percentage of the sale price (typically 15% for shops earning under $10,000 in the past 365 days, and 12% for shops earning $10,000 or more). Shops with gross sales of $10,000 or more in a 365-day period are automatically enrolled in Offsite Ads and cannot opt out. It’s crucial to understand this distinction as it impacts your budget control and the reach of your advertising efforts.
Set Your Advertising Goals and Budget
Before launching any campaign, define what you want to achieve. Are you aiming for increased shop visibility, more sales for specific products, or clearing old inventory? Your goals will dictate your strategy. For Etsy Ads, start with a conservative daily budget, perhaps $1-$5, especially if you’re new to advertising. This allows you to gather data without significant upfront investment. You can always increase it later. For example, if your goal is to sell 10 more items of a specific product per week, and your average profit per item is $15, you might allocate $3-$5 per day to promote that item, aiming for a positive return on ad spend (ROAS). Remember that Offsite Ads costs are a percentage of sales, so they don’t require an upfront budget allocation from you, but they do impact your profit margins on those specific sales.
Step 2: Set Up Your Etsy Ads Campaign
Select Products to Promote
Go to your Etsy Shop Manager, navigate to “Marketing” and then “Etsy Ads.” Here, you’ll see a list of your active listings. Do not promote every listing. Instead, focus on your best-sellers, new products you want to gain traction, or items with high-profit margins. Consider products with strong, high-quality photos and well-optimized titles and tags, as these perform better in ads. For example, if you sell handmade jewelry, promote your unique, best-selling necklace designs that have already received positive reviews, rather than a generic pair of earrings that aren’t gaining traction organically. You can select individual listings or use the “Promote all listings” option (though this is generally not recommended for precise control).
Define Your Target Audience and Keywords
While Etsy Ads don’t offer direct demographic targeting like Facebook Ads, they allow you to influence who sees your ads through keyword selection. When you select listings to promote, Etsy automatically suggests keywords based on your listing’s title, tags, and description. Review these suggestions carefully. Remove irrelevant keywords and add highly specific, long-tail keywords that accurately describe your product and what a potential customer would search for. For instance, if you sell “handmade ceramic coffee mugs,” relevant keywords might include “unique artisan coffee mug,” “pottery mug with handle,” or “gift for coffee lover.” Avoid overly broad terms like “mug” as they lead to high competition and low conversion rates. You can also negatively keyword certain terms if you find your ads appearing for irrelevant searches (e.g., if you sell “adult novelty mugs,” you might negative keyword “kids’ mug”).
Step 3: Monitor and Optimize Your Campaign
Analyze Performance Metrics
Once your Etsy Ads campaign is running, regularly review its performance. Navigate to “Marketing” > “Etsy Ads” in your Shop Manager. Key metrics to monitor include:
- Views: How many times your ad was seen.
- Clicks: How many times your ad was clicked.
- Orders: How many sales resulted directly from your ads.
- Revenue: The total sales value generated from your ads.
- Spend: How much you’ve spent on the ads.
- ROAS (Return on Ad Spend): Revenue / Spend. Aim for a ROAS greater than 1, ideally 2 or higher, meaning you’re making at least $2 for every $1 spent.
Identify listings that are getting many clicks but few sales (indicating a potential issue with the listing itself, like price or description) or listings that are getting few views but high conversion rates (suggesting they could benefit from more ad spend). Check these metrics daily or every few days, especially when starting a new campaign.
Adjust Bids and Budgets
Based on your performance analysis, make data-driven adjustments. If a specific listing is performing well (high ROAS), consider increasing its daily budget or its individual bid (though Etsy primarily manages bids automatically, you can set a maximum daily budget for the overall campaign). If a listing is underperforming, try adjusting its keywords, pausing it from the campaign, or even pulling it from ads altogether. For example, if you’re spending $5/day on a product that’s only generating $3 in revenue, pause it and re-evaluate the listing details. If another product generates $20 in revenue for $5 spent, consider increasing its daily budget to $10. Experiment with your overall daily budget. If you’re consistently hitting your budget cap early in the day and your ROAS is good, increase it to capture more potential sales. Conversely, if you’re spending your full budget with low returns, decrease it.
Step 4: Leverage Offsite Ads for Broader Reach
Understand Offsite Ads Eligibility and Costs
Offsite Ads are distinct from Etsy Ads. You don’t set up campaigns for them; Etsy automatically promotes your listings on Google, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Bing. The key difference is the payment model: you only pay a fee when a customer clicks an Offsite Ad and purchases from your shop within 30 days. The fee is 15% of the order total if your shop has earned less than $10,000 in the past 365 days, and 12% if your shop has earned $10,000 or more. This fee applies to the entire order, including shipping. Shops earning $10,000+ are automatically enrolled and cannot opt out, while smaller shops can choose to opt out via Shop Manager > Marketing > Offsite Ads. Understand that this 12-15% fee will directly impact your profit margin on sales generated through Offsite Ads. Ensure your product pricing accounts for this potential deduction.
Review Offsite Ads Performance and Impact
While you can’t control Offsite Ads campaigns, you can monitor their impact. In your Shop Manager, navigate to “Marketing” > “Offsite Ads.” Here, you’ll see a breakdown of the revenue generated by Offsite Ads, the associated fees, and which platforms (Google, Facebook, etc.) are driving sales. Review this data regularly. If you notice a significant portion of your sales coming from Offsite Ads, it indicates that Etsy’s external promotion is effective for your products. If the fees are consistently eroding your profit margins on those sales, you might need to re-evaluate your pricing strategy. For shops under the $10,000 threshold, if the fees are too high relative to your profit, you can opt out. However, for shops over the threshold, this data helps you understand a mandatory cost of doing business on Etsy at that sales volume and allows you to factor it into your overall financial planning.
FAQ: How do Etsy Ads differ from Offsite Ads?
Etsy Ads are campaigns you actively manage within Etsy to promote listings directly on the Etsy platform (search results, category pages). You set a daily budget and pay per click. Offsite Ads are managed by Etsy and promote your listings on external sites like Google and Facebook. You only pay a percentage fee (12-15%) when a sale is made through an Offsite Ad.
FAQ: What’s a good starting budget for Etsy Ads?
A good starting daily budget for Etsy Ads is $1-$5. This allows you to collect data on your ad performance without a significant financial commitment. You can always increase it as you see positive results and a good return on ad spend (ROAS).
FAQ: How often should I check my Etsy Ads performance?
It’s recommended to check your Etsy Ads performance daily or every few days, especially when you’re first starting a campaign or making significant changes. Once a campaign is stable and performing well, a weekly review might suffice. Offsite Ads performance can be reviewed weekly or monthly as you have less direct control.
FAQ: Can I opt out of Offsite Ads?
If your shop has earned less than $10,000 in gross sales in the past 365 days, you can opt out of Offsite Ads via your Shop Manager. However, if your shop has earned $10,000 or more in the past 365 days, participation in Offsite Ads is mandatory and you cannot opt out.
