Etsy Offsite Ads launched with auto opt in to pay additional fees

Etsy have announced Etsy Offsite Ads, a new program to attract buyers to your Etsy listings with no upfront costs.

Firstly, if you already set and Etsy Ads budget, this previously went to both on Etsy Advertising and Google. Now it will go entirely towards promoting your products on Etsy giving you more control of where your budget is spent.

Etsy Offsite Ads will use Etsy’s budget and expertise to promote your items on multiple high-traffic sites including Google, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Bing. When a shopper clicks on one of those online ads for your products and purchases from your shop within 30 days, you’ll pay an advertising fee ranging from 12%-15% of the order value — capped at $100 per order — depending on the volume of sales they’ve made on Etsy. The Etsy Offsite Ads fee is in addition to Etsy’s transaction and payment processing fees.

You only pay an advertising fee when you make a sale, Etsy will market your goods for free and if you don’t make a sale then you pay nothing. It’s only if you get a sale from your shop within a month than the additional fees will be charged.

There will be an auto enrollment in the program, so if it’s not for you then you’ll want to opt out pretty fast.

“All sellers are automatically enrolled in Offsite Ads. If you’ve made less than 10,000 USD on Etsy in a 12-month period you can decide if you want to participate in Etsy’s advertising.”
– Etsy

As most products on Etsy are handmade, it’s likely that many sellers have significant margins but an additional 15% is still noticeable and you don’t want your margins down towards zero and certainly don’t want to be making a loss. Sellers with greater volumes will be required to participate but will get discounted rates of 12%.

“For most sellers, Offsite Ads is optional, but it’s a great opportunity to grow your business, so all sellers will be automatically enrolled. You’ll get risk-free advertising run by our experienced team of experts and you’ll only pay a fee when you make a sale, so there’s no upfront costs for you.

If you’ve made more than 10,000 USD (approximately 7,800 GBP) in sales on Etsy in a 12-month period you’ll benefit most from offsite advertising. So, you’ll be required to participate for the lifetime of your shop and you’ll get a discounted advertising fee.”
– Etsy

Etsy reckon that about 1 in 10 sales will be attributed to Etsy Offsite Ads and give an example of how it could impact your total fees over the course of a year:

“Let’s say you make 1,000 USD (approximately £780) a year on Etsy, that would mean your advertising fees for the year would be just $15 (approximately £12) based on a 15% advertising fee.

If you sell 10,000 (approximately £7,800) on Etsy each year, you could expect to pay about 120 USD (approximately £95) with a 12% advertising fee.”
– Etsy

Etsy sellers are likely to view this one of two ways – either annoyance at being opted in to pay additional (and for some mandatory) fees on a proportion of sales (but these should be incremental sales as they’re attracting off-Etsy customers), whilst others will welcome the move by Etsy to drive more traffic to the marketplace and be happy to pay so long as they see a significant uplift in sales.