Should I try Etsy search ads?

[Former_Member]

I've been debating over trying them out for quite a while and wanted to hear your opinions... I heard before that Etsy's ads are relatively good, but how effective are they in bringing in actual sales, not just views?

If I do use the ads, do you have any advice on what item(s) I should target in relation to what I have in my shop?

Thank you!

[Former_Member]

I have never had much luck with Etsy ads. I've heard people call them the "Newbie Tax." Still, I do it everyone in a while and now only do for one section of my site.

[PrairiePrimitives]

I've been trying the ads for about 2 months now. I have a $5/week budget which hasn't been surpassed yet! I made one sale early on, at which time I had spent about $1.16 on the ads. I think I'll be stopping the ads soon.

[Former_Member]

I've found that if I have great titles and tags then my items get found in a search whether or not I use search ads.

Search ads are only seen by people who are already shopping on Etsy. Why not expand your horizons and try to reach people who don't yet know about Etsy? there's a huge wide world out there!

[maydaylabels]

Here is a decent thread on search ads:

https://www.etsy.com/teams/10713/etsy-relevancy-seo-and-stats/discuss/12000847/page/1

They work for us, but only for some items and with some terms.

[SimpleKnitShop]

I tried search ads for 6 months and did not see any lift in sales, so I stopped. I've had better luck with other promo channels.

[Former_Member]

For me, Facebook ads have been significantly more beneficial. Search ads didn't seem to be worth the money for me.

[Former_Member]

I'm actually trying the search ads right now with a $5 limit (that has yet to be met) and I get tons of impressions (sarcastic woohoo) barely any clicks (which says around 20 clicks is what you're suppose to get) no favs and definitely no sales !! I may give it a try for 2 months .. but if nothing changes, I won't use it anymore .... Also I don't like that you cant choose or add to the tags being used ...

[PaperBoundLove]

It didn't work for me. Cost way too much and didn't increase my sales. (:
I just work on my titles, tags and other SEO stuff!

xx

[Former_Member]

Hmm, okay, thank you for the feedback! Looks like I won't be getting the ads then.

How about fb ads?

Helen - what do you mean by "other promo channels," if you don't mind my asking?

[Former_Member]

Matthew and Sara - thanks for the link! I just read a few posts, and they're quite interesting...

[PrairiePrimitives]

If you try FB ads, be sure to pick the best target market(s). "People who like Etsy" was one of the choices I was given when I tried FB ads earlier this year, but it wasn't the best option for me.

[Former_Member]

I also tried fb ads as well and I had two ads going ... Trying to bring ppl to my Etsy shop & the only thing that worked really well was getting likes for my fb page ... Not much action happening for Etsy ... I got a few views (only a handful in total) no favs or sales ..... Had the ads run for about 3 months - got about 150 fb likes ..... Which was nice but not what I was aiming for ... More traffic to Etsy would have been nice

[MaxplanationPhotos]

Search ads work for me under the new format, increase your budget to around $35 or so dollars for more impressions since you only pay per click. The trick is to only market 1 to 3 very similar items, good luck

[jayval]

Im trying it today , though I am relevant...Not sure why my views though are not as high as I want..I seem very relevant