Shop ads... Do they really help?

[CatWomanCrafts]

Dearest Etsians,

I've done shop ads before and have spent a good $30 on them in the past year and haven't made one sale from them. What's the point and what can I do to increase my sales? It's been so slow for me :( Help!

Nicole of CatWomanCrafts
>^..^<

[Former_Member]

I use shop ads and have had success

[Former_Member]

Search ads can be very good IF you select very targeted keywords and phrases.

But if you are selecting very generic words and phrases then chances are they won't be that successful.

Remember too that Etsy search ads are only seen by people who already know about Etsy.

I've found that the best way to increase sales is to market my work outside of Etsy and directly to my target customer.

[BrushStrokeOrnaments]

I think the biggest way to increase your sales would be to increase the number of items in your store. Try to get to at least 100 items. Many think of this as a type of magic number...but having more items in your shop really does help getting noticed...and getting more sales.

So, how can you expand upon what you do? I think your bows and flowers are so cute. How can you further market these darling items? Why don't you make some pony tail elastics (attach the bow to a pony tail elastic instead of a bobby pin). Sell more of your items in groups (it's an easy way to create more listings without having to make a lot more product! And people feel like they are getting more for their $ without having to pay extra shipping.) What about turning the flowers into some type of magnet or bookmark? Again, sell several in sets. Just brainstorming here, but could you attach the flowers to spikes to add to indoor green plants...or on the tips of pencils/pens and then display them in a vase? Get inventive with what you do and expand upon it. I think more sales will follow.

Good luck!

[Former_Member]

My husband is in marketing and one interesting tidbit he told me was that for such adds a 1% click rate was good. I was surprised.

Personally, I ran three weeks of adds for a very specific keyword and didn't reach a 1% click rate. I decided to invest in materials to build my shop.

[Former_Member]

IMHO search ads aren't great for the masses. Not all Etsy sellers have the know-how to use them properly and likely won't see much return for their investment. I don't use search ads because I'm willing to admit that I don't have the knowledge to maximize their effectiveness. If you don't have that knowledge of marketing, don't bother.

[Former_Member]

I have read very bad critiques on Search Ads. Also my experience is also not very good. Now I have them on one single journal and with only the keyword "leather journal". I don't want to spend too much.
To increase your sales you can add items, promote in tumblr, deviant, facebook, make a blog,... It's hard, and after a lot of work I am still not seeing good results, but I keep going on. Patience! :).

[kzannoart]

Search ads were definitely a waste of $ for me. What does help is pinning and tweeting items. I have been working hard to get followers on twitter and pinterest. When I list items I tweet and pin them along with facebook. This helps bring a lot of initial views. Now as far as sales, well that's a different story. It's super slow now so don't get discouraged.

[PrairiePrimitives]

Etsy ads were a waste of my money as well. I've tried them for about 4 weeks total since they started. Didn't make one sale during those weeks.

I feel that pinning has worked well for me. Also having at least 50 items in my shop (I know I'm waaay under that right now). Every time I have gotten to 50 items (or more), the sales literally start rolling in!

[LUSCIOUSLEATHERNYC]

Hello All

last year I used search ads and I hated them because I was spending money and not making any money. I actually at the end I sort of broke even.
This year I really paid attention, I read my stats looked at what people were looking at most, what where my highest viewed item, what were the most keywords.
I even did it for all time (meaning since I started) and I found a trend in my stats, so this year this past few months in particurlarly even though it was slow for me three sales came from shop ads I have been shocked.
But you can turn it on and forget it, you gotta work it and find items and words that match. It is not fun, but it was fun making those sales
good luck

[LUSCIOUSLEATHERNYC]

I think also you need to change pics and items and key words per season and that has been really helpful too.