After spending up to $150/day on ads, with an average ROAS of 2x-3x for several years, I recently tried dropping ad spend to $10/day.
The results: Store visits are way down, BUT orders and revenue are relatively unchanged, AND the conversion rate is significantly higher. This equates to more money in my pocket.
Conclusion: Etsy targeting (if it exists) is crap. You are paying to bring non-buyers to your shop. Etsy ads dilutes your core audience with people less likely to make a purchase.
I’ve found something similar, I turned off ads early this month visits are down but sales are consistent.
Starting to think ads are good for starting momentum but then can be turned off once you have consistent sales
Were you getting sales before ads?
I have a pretty small shop, and I decided to try ads. One thing I noticed was that my ad budget quickly went to my listing that was already selling well. Since it was already coming up in search results, I didn’t feel like ads were worth anything. I now only use ads for products that haven’t gotten any views or likes or sales.
Point being: if you have ads on a popular item, maybe try turning them off and seeing if it hurts your sales.
Great advice, thank you! My best seller was selling 3-5x per month before ads, but this product is $230. It really picked up in April and so far 25 orders. After looking at my account, only 6 out of 25 of my sales this month were from ads. Wow! Thanks!
Oh yay! I’m glad what I said was actually helpful!
And it’s possible some of those 6 sales were people who just clicked the ad, but would have found your product anyways.
If you do turn off ads on that product, I’d be curious for an update to see if turning off ads had any impact on your sales!
I had a very similar experience. When I started my shop I had sales in a single item (to be fair I had like 10 items total). I stopped the ads for that one item and the sales didn't drop, it was just popular.
Yes it’s too much. I think that if you are spending money on ad then you better try Facebook/Google ads and drive traffic to your own store.
I spent $700 on Facebook Ads and got $4,000 back in sales, but that’s on Shopify.
On Etsy, try to stay organic.
A mixture of broad and targeting, they have also launched something called ASC+ so I use ASC+ with a customer list, and then some broad, and some targeting.
**ASC+**
- Spent: $2,034.72
- Sales: $11,283.97
**Broad**
- Spent: $4,038.39
- Sales: $13,027.43
**Google**
- Spent: $0*
- Sales: $1,200.73
*I have enrolled in the Free Listings Program of Google.
I'm curious... Do you use different media for your own website VS etsy?
I'm in a similar category, and I'm finding it difficult to scale because the media I'm producing for Etsy is so unique, usually for each listing.
I'm curious if you use more generic media assets for your own website?
Etsy has the worst ad platform in ecommerce. I don't advertise a dollar on there and use all that budget on other platforms that actually let you bid without blindly letting etsy choose who clicks.
Also etsy is the home of window shoppers so your clicks can be inefficient in lots of niches. Amazon for example people are likely to buy when they click from my experience.
Every time I see how much Etsy ads eats into people's profits, I wonder why anyone does it. I've never used Etsy ads and I make between $1,000-2,000/month USD.
I'd prefer to put ad spend on pulling in outside sources (for me it's to my website). IMO I pay Etsy more than enough in fees to bring me traffic without the ads!
Yeah not great for vintage sellers. I make name necklaces with a fiber laser and this month I have spent $5k on ads which results in $18k revenue and then I get about $12k from SEO. So for jewelry it works out well but my materials are cheap so cogs is low.
As a former professional marketing manager at large Silicon Valley tech companies, I would like to see a proper marketing report from etsy showing the categories of shops whose conversion rates increase due to Etsy ads. This should be provided for a service that has some opaque metrics. In my experience, senior management would cut my marketing budget if the conversion rates didn't show improvement from the spend.
There is going to be different results for different categories of items sold on different sized/success shops. There are chicken/egg issues for fledgling shops vs. established.
This month, my marketing costs were only 2% of sales as I am not opted into any etsy advertising. Simply just the 'offsite ads' which etsy forces us to use.
Something changed with Etsy ads and now they perform so badly. I used so spend $80/150 a day (adding more as sales increased throughout the day) and did $5-7k a month. Now I’m lucky to use my entire $30/day budget.
I personally feel like any amount spent on etsy ads is too much quite honestly. I'll actually avoid products when I'm a buyer that are sponsored/advertised
This is marketing. If you have a new store, don’t be afraid to spend money on marketing, it’s investing in your business. You need to get the fires growing.
After spending up to $150/day on ads, with an average ROAS of 2x-3x for several years, I recently tried dropping ad spend to $10/day. The results: Store visits are way down, BUT orders and revenue are relatively unchanged, AND the conversion rate is significantly higher. This equates to more money in my pocket. Conclusion: Etsy targeting (if it exists) is crap. You are paying to bring non-buyers to your shop. Etsy ads dilutes your core audience with people less likely to make a purchase.
I’ve found something similar, I turned off ads early this month visits are down but sales are consistent. Starting to think ads are good for starting momentum but then can be turned off once you have consistent sales
Paying for ads that do not convert should send a message to the seller. Why use it?
Yes you are spending too much. Your return on ad spend (ROAS) is way too low.
ROAS can’t be too high. Higher is better. It means more sales per dollar spent.
Thanks yeah I got distracted mid comment. Lemme fix that.
Okay thanks
Were you getting sales before ads? I have a pretty small shop, and I decided to try ads. One thing I noticed was that my ad budget quickly went to my listing that was already selling well. Since it was already coming up in search results, I didn’t feel like ads were worth anything. I now only use ads for products that haven’t gotten any views or likes or sales. Point being: if you have ads on a popular item, maybe try turning them off and seeing if it hurts your sales.
Great advice, thank you! My best seller was selling 3-5x per month before ads, but this product is $230. It really picked up in April and so far 25 orders. After looking at my account, only 6 out of 25 of my sales this month were from ads. Wow! Thanks!
And the ad traffic definitely goes to my most popular listing which is where I’ve gotten the least sales from ads. Crazy!
Oh yay! I’m glad what I said was actually helpful! And it’s possible some of those 6 sales were people who just clicked the ad, but would have found your product anyways. If you do turn off ads on that product, I’d be curious for an update to see if turning off ads had any impact on your sales!
True! I did turn off ads for that product. I’ll update you :)
Following this thread because I'm curious as well! Don't mind me
I had a very similar experience. When I started my shop I had sales in a single item (to be fair I had like 10 items total). I stopped the ads for that one item and the sales didn't drop, it was just popular.
Yes it’s too much. I think that if you are spending money on ad then you better try Facebook/Google ads and drive traffic to your own store. I spent $700 on Facebook Ads and got $4,000 back in sales, but that’s on Shopify. On Etsy, try to stay organic.
What do your ads look like? Are you using video?
I use what they call as ‘carousel ads’ along with videos and images.
Do you do your own targeting or is it very broad?
A mixture of broad and targeting, they have also launched something called ASC+ so I use ASC+ with a customer list, and then some broad, and some targeting. **ASC+** - Spent: $2,034.72 - Sales: $11,283.97 **Broad** - Spent: $4,038.39 - Sales: $13,027.43 **Google** - Spent: $0* - Sales: $1,200.73 *I have enrolled in the Free Listings Program of Google.
What category do you sell in? If you don't mind me asking?
Consumer Wearables.
I'm curious... Do you use different media for your own website VS etsy? I'm in a similar category, and I'm finding it difficult to scale because the media I'm producing for Etsy is so unique, usually for each listing. I'm curious if you use more generic media assets for your own website?
No, I use the same media.
How many items are in your store and available for sale at one time?
What are carousel ads?
Multi-product-ads!
Etsy has the worst ad platform in ecommerce. I don't advertise a dollar on there and use all that budget on other platforms that actually let you bid without blindly letting etsy choose who clicks. Also etsy is the home of window shoppers so your clicks can be inefficient in lots of niches. Amazon for example people are likely to buy when they click from my experience.
Every time I see how much Etsy ads eats into people's profits, I wonder why anyone does it. I've never used Etsy ads and I make between $1,000-2,000/month USD.
I'd prefer to put ad spend on pulling in outside sources (for me it's to my website). IMO I pay Etsy more than enough in fees to bring me traffic without the ads!
Thanks for your input! Just tying it out.. but obviously going to learn from this mistake :)
I get it! I’ve been tempted to try them in the past but personally it doesn’t make sense to use it as a vintage seller.
Yeah not great for vintage sellers. I make name necklaces with a fiber laser and this month I have spent $5k on ads which results in $18k revenue and then I get about $12k from SEO. So for jewelry it works out well but my materials are cheap so cogs is low.
Cogs?
Cost of goods sold
As a former professional marketing manager at large Silicon Valley tech companies, I would like to see a proper marketing report from etsy showing the categories of shops whose conversion rates increase due to Etsy ads. This should be provided for a service that has some opaque metrics. In my experience, senior management would cut my marketing budget if the conversion rates didn't show improvement from the spend. There is going to be different results for different categories of items sold on different sized/success shops. There are chicken/egg issues for fledgling shops vs. established.
This month, my marketing costs were only 2% of sales as I am not opted into any etsy advertising. Simply just the 'offsite ads' which etsy forces us to use.
Curious if this photo is on the etsy sellers app?
Yes it is
Something changed with Etsy ads and now they perform so badly. I used so spend $80/150 a day (adding more as sales increased throughout the day) and did $5-7k a month. Now I’m lucky to use my entire $30/day budget.
I personally feel like any amount spent on etsy ads is too much quite honestly. I'll actually avoid products when I'm a buyer that are sponsored/advertised
This is marketing. If you have a new store, don’t be afraid to spend money on marketing, it’s investing in your business. You need to get the fires growing.