What Are Etsy Offsite Ads? They Worth It?
Since its introduction, there has been much confusion about what Etsy offsite ads involve, what the fees are, and how it works. What Etsy essentially wants with this is to do more advertising outside of their own platform, for instance social media or search engines.
If you own an Etsy shop and want to increase traffic and sales, you should seriously consider using Etsy offsite ads.
If you don't know what they are, don't worry; here you will find everything you need to know about Etsy offsite ads.
What are Etsy Offsite Ads
Offsite ads are paid advertisements that Etsy places on third-party websites such as Google, Facebook, and others on your behalf. You don't have to care about anything because the ads are managed by the Etsy team.
When someone clicks on the offsite ad that shows your product and purchases from your shop, you will be charged a small percentage of the sale. This percentage is determined by a number of factors, which we will discuss further.
When Did Etsy Offsite Ads Start
Esty began their offsite advertising programs on March 27, 2020, with the option to opt out beginning on April 10th of that year. Some Etsy sellers were upset about this promotional strategy because they believe it adds extra costs to sales.
Before the opt-out option was introduced, many Etsy sellers threatened to leave the platform. This was because they already had to pay a 5% shipping and transaction fee, as well as a 3% transaction fee plus $0.25 per transaction.
How Do Etsy Offsite Ads Work
Etsy collaborates with other websites and networks like Facebook or Google to advertise your listings on their sites. They send them all Etsy listing inventory information available, including photos, descriptions, titles, etc.
The advertising algorithm on the site uses these details to fit a user's search or profile information to your listing ad. They make certain that the most relevant items are displayed for each user profile or search query.
When someone clicks on the advertisement, they are directed to your Etsy shop, where they can purchase your product. If they buy something, you'll have to pay Etsy a percentage of the sale as advertising fees.
Can I Choose Which of My Listings Etsy Promotes
The task of choosing which listings are advertised depends exclusively on Etsy's advertising team and the partner site where the ad will be displayed. Active listings are promoted based on how well they perform on each channel.
What you can control is which countries' customers see your ads. Your ads will only be displayed to customers in the countries where you ship. However you can add or remove countries manually from your shipping profiles settings.
As an alternative you can enhance the quality of your listings with EtsyHunt tools to increase the likelihood of them being advertised.
How Can You Improve Your Listing’s Quality
Within EtsyHunt's variety of tools you’ll find the listing optimization tool, which after registering on the page will allow you to analyze your listings.
It’ll provide you useful information about what can be improved in order to get a better organic positioning on Etsy search results. Which by extension will increase the chances of being promoted offsite. Let’s take a look:
You’ll need to sync your Etsy account with EtsyHunt’s one in order to load your listings to be analyzed. Once done, the tool will give you several tips to increase the quality of each listing you have published.
Where Does Etsy Advertise Offsite
Etsy covers the initial costs of advertising your listings on search engine results, social media sites and apps, partner sites, and the Google Display Network. The services they promote may vary over time.
Etsy Offsite Ads Channels
Etsy Offsite Ads may appear on the following places posted in the offsite ad channels list:
● Etsy Publishing Partner Sites
● Google Display Network
● Bing
An Etsy Publishing Partner is a page that displays selected shopping listings where offsite ads listings may show up. The Etsy Publishing Partners who have been approved are:
● Buzzfeed
● Shape
● Lyst
In your Offsite Ads dashboard, you will see which orders are from Etsy Publishing Partners.
Google Display Network (GDN) is an ad publisher network through which we can target specific audiences. GDN enables us to target buyers across multiple sites they visit, even when they are not actively searching.
GDN may advertise your listing on over two million websites, including Zillow, YouTube, Gmail, MSN, Weather.com, and AOL. Based on buyer behavior, these sites may change on a weekly basis.
Should I Use Etsy Offsite Ads
These are some of the main reasons why you should consider using Etsy offsite adds:
● Etsy Offsite Ads are handled by the Etsy team and will yield the best results.
● No upfront payment is required; you only have to pay a small percentage of the sale price when someone purchases from your shop via an offsite ad.
● Offsite Etsy ads are a great way to boost traffic and sales to your Etsy shop.
So, if you are in need of generating more traffic and sales, it would be smart to use Etsy offsite ads, because it doesn't need any investment.
What Are Etsy Offsite Ads Fees
If you have made below $10,000 in the past 365 days, Etsy will charge you a 15% offsite ads fee. On the other hand if you have made more than $10,000 in the past 365 days you will be charged with a 12% offsite ads fee.
This means that if you have made less than $10,000 in sales, you will be charged a 15 percent fee for each off-site sale you make. And if your sales exceed $10,000, you will be charged a 12 percent off-site fee.
Remember that this fee only covers the advertising portion; you will still be responsible for the Etsy transaction fees and taxes.
You May Be Unable to Opt-Out
This isn’t necessarily a cause for concern. Yet, it is something important to clarify that, depending on your sales volume, you may not be allowed to opt-out of participating. If you earned less than $10,000 in the year preceding the date you chose to begin with Etsy offsite ads, you will be able to opt out.
However, once you exceed $10,000 over an uninterrupted period of 365 days, you will no longer be able to opt out. This way you will be required to participate in offsite ads in the future, even if your annual sales fall below $10,000.
If you earned more than $10,000 in the previous 365 days, you cannot opt-out of the Etsy offsite ads and must participate.
How to Turn On Etsy Offsite Ads
Follow these steps to begin using Etsy offsite ads:
1. Sign into your Etsy account and navigate to Shop Manager.
2. From the left sidebar, navigate to the settings tab and then to the Offsite Ads button.
3. Now you can enable Offsite Ads; if it is already enabled, leave it alone; you do not need to do anything else.
How to Turn Off Etsy Offsite Ads
To opt out of Etsy offsite ads, sign in to your Etsy seller account, go to shop manager, then account settings from the left sidebar, and offsite ads.
You can now disable Etsy offsite ads from there, but remember this isn’t always possible.
Where to See Your Etsy Offsite Ads Statistics
Go to the account settings page, click on the offsite ads tab, and then click on the "See Offsite Ad Stats'' button. There you’ll see some statistics about Etsy offsite ads like information on the sales made through them. All the details that will be provided over there are:
● Total amount of clicks
● Total amount of sales
● Listing name
● Where the sale came from
● Date of the sale
Other Etsy Offsite Ads Details
These are some details about Etsy offsite ads that are worth to mention before you make the decision of using them or not:
● Ad clicks are attributed to off-site ads for 30 days. So, when someone clicks on your ad, buys something from your shop, loves it and returns 2 weeks later to buy something else, you'll have to pay the ad fees again.
● You will not be charged if someone gets in via ads from someone else's listing and orders from your shop. So someone who clicks on an ad and then browses Etsy and arrives at your listing will not cost you anything.
● You are not charged if someone does not purchase anything after clicking on an ad. The majority of advertising is pay per click, which means you pay even if you don't sell anything. These ads are more commission-based, so it doesn't cost you anything if you don't make any sales.
● You have no control about how much your products are advertised for.
● Unlike promoted listings, for which you set a budget, you have no control over spending on off-site ads. That is, you cannot ask them to promote your items more, nor can you ask them to advertise your items less.
● Etsy offsite ads will primarily promote best-selling listings that convert well organically. This is because Etsy and its partners want to promote listings that will actually sell. Therefore, ads are less likely to have a significant impact on listings that do not receive organic traffic or sales.
Etsy Ads vs Offsite Ads
So far everything was about Etsy offsite ads, but how do they differ from Etsy onsite ads? Well here you’ll find the differences between the main categories.
Where the Ads Are Displayed
Etsy onsite ads appear alongside organic search results on Etsy. When you search on Etsy, you will notice that some of the listings contain the word (Ads by "x"). That is paid advertising. They are also displayed on Etsy's category and market pages.
On the other hand, are listing advertisements that are promoted outside of Etsy. Etsy promotes product listings on a variety of popular websites from a pool of partners including Google, Buzzfeed, Facebook, and others.
How Can You Control the Ads
Onsite ads can be managed in your Etsy dashboard under 'Marketing' and 'Etsy Ads.' Only a few things are under your control. You can adjust your budget, turn it off and on, and select which listings to promote. It is not required and can be started and stopped at any time.
Offsite ads on Etsy are less controllable than onsite ads. You cannot modify the listings to advertise or the budget. If your annual earning is less than $10,000, you can opt out. Otherwise, there is no way to opt out.
You can control which countries' customers see your ads. Your ads will only be available to customers in the countries where you ship. To add or remove countries, go to shipping “profiles” under “settings”' on your dashboard.
How Much They Cost
When customers click on your Etsy listing ads, you pay for an onsite Etsy ad (Cost per click). It does not charge for views or sales. Most sellers pay between $0.2 and $0.5 per click for an Etsy ad.
Unlike onsite advertised listings, you only pay for offsite ads when a customer purchases your product after clicking on it.
Etsy charges a fee of 12-15 percent for each successful Etsy offsite ad, which means the buyer clicks the ad and makes a purchase. Sellers who have made over $10,000 on Etsy in the last 12 months pay a 12 percent ad fee, while the rest pay a 15 percent ad fee.
This ad fee is in addition to the transaction fee, listing fee, and Etsy Payment fee.
Are Etsy Offsite Ads Worth It
Offsite advertisements are definitely worthwhile if you want to raise the traffic and sales of your Etsy shop.
The fees are very reasonable, and you just pay when someone purchases from your shop via the offsite ad. The advertising amount is also fixed, so you'll never pay over 15% or 12% of the sale price, regardless of how much Etsy spends on advertising your products.
So answering if Esty ads are worth it? Yes, Etsy offsite ads are an excellent way to raise traffic and sales, and it would be smart to start using them right away.
Conclusion
It would be advisable to track the return on ad spends so you can see how this marketing affects your sales. You must consider the costs, whether it is worthwhile to obtain that client information, and whether the clients you acquire have a high enough lifetime value.
If it's profitable, you should certainly try using Etsy Offsite Ads as a tool for advertising your shop. It's possible that the increase in sales will offset the cost of the offsite ads.
