Etsy Ads and Offsite Ads: how they work and what they cost

This guide is built from Etsy Help: How to set up and manage an Etsy Ads campaign, How ads are placed in Etsy search, How to review the performance of your Etsy Ads and How Etsy's Offsite Ads work. If you also sell on other marketplaces, see our eBay ads and Amazon Ads guides.

Etsy Ads vs Offsite Ads

• Etsy Ads: ads on Etsy (search, category pages and Market Pages, on the site and app). You choose to run them, set a daily budget, and pay per click.
• Offsite Ads: ads outside Etsy, on "external sites like search engines, social media, and partner networks". Every shop is enrolled automatically; you pay a percentage fee only on attributed orders.

If a buyer clicks both, Etsy charges one fee: "If the buyer's final click before purchasing is through an Etsy Ad instead, only the Etsy Ads fee will apply."

Setting up Etsy Ads

Go to Shop Manager, choose Etsy Ads and set a daily budget (or do the same in the Etsy Seller app). Points from Etsy's setup article:

• New shops wait: "After opening your Etsy shop, there is a 15 day waiting period before you can begin an Etsy Ads campaign."
• All listings by default: "By default, all your current listings are advertised when you start an Etsy Ads campaign." You can switch listings on or off at any time.
• Where ads show: Etsy search, category pages and Market Pages, on Etsy.com and the app.
• Who sees them: "Your ads will only be shown to buyers in countries that you ship to."

Etsy is frank about what ads can do: "Ads can help you reach more shoppers, but they're unlikely to turn a low-demand listing into a top seller."

Daily budget and its limit

Your daily budget is "the maximum amount you're willing to spend each day. The minimum daily budget is $1, and you can change your budget at any time." There is also a ceiling that Etsy sets:

• "All sellers start with a maximum daily budget of $25."
• Etsy recalculates that limit weekly from your ad spend over the last 7 days, and it may rise if you consistently use your full budget.
• It also depends on your payment status; an unpaid amount due can lower it.

The key promise: "You'll never spend over your daily budget. Once your budget is spent for the day, we'll stop showing your ads on Etsy."

Listing strategies and ad groups

If your maximum daily budget is at least $25, you can give each listing one of three strategies:

• Greater visibility: "Spend more to increase your reach."
• Efficient spending: "Balance spending between visibility and cost."
• Lower click cost: "Pay less per click, but appear less often."

Below $25, every listing uses Efficient spending. Etsy recommends "running a strategy for at least 30 days" before judging it. You can also sort listings into up to 20 ad groups (for example best-sellers or new listings) to compare their results; each listing can be in one group at a time.

How Etsy places ads and sets bids

Etsy's ad placement article says "Ads on Etsy work through an auction system." Two things decide whether a listing wins a spot:

• Listing quality: a score Etsy bases on factors including listing and shop history and strong listing titles and tags.
• Bid: "the highest amount you'd pay for one click on a particular listing." Etsy sets it for you, looking at the shopper's search query, the time of day and the device they're using.

You do not enter keyword bids. Etsy says "Bids can change to keep your ad competitive in a given auction", and a listing with low quality may need a higher bid. Ads appear only in designated ad spaces in search, and "Ads use a different algorithm than results in regular Etsy search".

What Etsy Ads cost and when you are charged

"You're only charged when someone clicks on one of your ads." Views are free. What a click costs depends on "how many people click on your ads, and how valuable the place where your ad is shown is", and varies by listing and search.

• Clicks are summed for each day and added to your Payment account the next day.
• Charges appear under Spend on the Etsy Ads page and on your monthly statement.
• Etsy publishes no average cost per click.

Offsite Ads: fees and who must take part

Offsite Ads have no budget; you pay a fee on orders the ads bring in. The fee and whether you can leave depend on your shop's sales "within any consecutive 365-day period":

• Always under $10,000 USD: a 15% fee on attributed orders, and you are "Automatically enrolled in Offsite Ads but eligible to opt out".
• $10,000 USD or more at any point: a discounted 12% fee, and you are "required to participate for the lifetime of your shop".
• Cap: "The Offsite Ads fee for any individual order will never exceed $100 USD, regardless of the order total."

The fee is charged "on the amount you made from your sale before the advertising fee was applied". You cannot choose which listings Etsy advertises offsite: "listings are advertised based on what performs best on each channel." Channels include search engines, social media, Etsy Publishing Partners and the Google Display Network.

Opting out of Offsite Ads

Only shops that have never reached $10,000 USD in a 365-day period can opt out: in Shop Manager, go to Settings, select Offsite Ads and confirm the opt-out. You can re-enroll from the same page. Once a shop crosses $10,000, the 12% rate applies and participation is permanent.

Attribution and reporting

• Etsy Ads: "Orders are attributed to ads when someone interacts with an ad and then buys any item in your shop within 30 days." The Etsy Ads page shows views, clicks, click rate, orders, revenue, spend, ROAS and search terms; Etsy recommends looking at at least 30 days.
• Offsite Ads: an order is attributed when a buyer clicks an ad and buys from your shop within 30 days. "A single ad click can lead to multiple attributed orders," so separate purchases in that window can each carry a fee. The Offsite Ads dashboard shows revenue, fees, clicks, traffic and search terms.

Etsy also notes that not seeing your own ads when you search is normal, and suggests checking stats instead.

How we approach Etsy advertising

This is our own practice, not Etsy's guidance:

• We improve photos, titles and tags first, since Etsy counts strong titles and tags toward a listing's quality score in the ads auction.
• We advertise only listings that already sell, rather than all listings by default.
• We work out what a 15% or 12% Offsite Ads fee does to each item's margin, and price with it in mind, since larger shops cannot opt out.
• We judge Etsy Ads on ROAS over 30 days per ad group, not on daily swings.

If you want help with marketplace or ecommerce marketing, see our services.

Frequently asked questions

How much do Etsy Ads cost?

You pay per click, within a daily budget from $1. Etsy sets the bid for each listing in an auction, and you never spend more than your daily budget. Etsy publishes no average click price.

What is the Etsy Offsite Ads fee?

15% of an attributed order for shops that have always made under $10,000 USD in any 365-day period, 12% for shops that have made $10,000 or more, capped at $100 USD per order.

Can I opt out of Etsy Offsite Ads?

Only if your shop has never made $10,000 USD or more in any consecutive 365-day period. Above that, participation is required for the life of the shop.

How long until a new shop can run Etsy Ads?

15 days after opening the shop. The Etsy Ads dashboard shows a countdown.

How long is the attribution window for Etsy ads?

30 days for both Etsy Ads and Offsite Ads. For Etsy Ads, a purchase of any item in your shop within 30 days of an ad interaction counts.

For other marketplace ads, see eBay ads, Amazon Ads and retail media networks. To plan a campaign with us, see our services.