Promoting on Etsy: The Lowdown

Promoting on Etsy: The Lowdown - making your Etsy shop WORK for YOU!

Now that you have an Etsy shop, how do you make sure you are being seen? The Promotion tool is a good one- but only if you know how it works, and how to utilize it properly.

Let's start with some words used in Etsy Promotion, and the meaning behind them.

• Impressions - This word means how many times your ad is seen by Etsy users. Each impression is a chance for a sale.
• Click - This word means how many times people have clicked your ad open to view the actual shop item. Each click is a chance for your shop to be viewed.  
• Cost - This is how much you have paid Etsy to promote your items.
• Revenue - This is how much your shop has made based on people purchasing items you have ad's for. They only count money that comes directly from an ad Click. 
• Daily Budget - This is the amount of money you are willing to pay each day for your ad's to be shown.
• Bid - This is the amount of money you are willing to pay per click on each specific item. This amount can be $0.05 to $0.99. 

Ok, now you know the words, but what do they all mean for your shop?

Over the past 2 months, I have done a lot of tests on my daily budget, how many items I promoted at a time, and how much I bid each item at.  Below is my promoted listings graph for a 7 day period. You can see my daily budget (currently $3), my impressions (over 3500), my clicks (73), my cost ($11.42), and my revenue ($37).

You can also see that my daily graph goes way up, then starts coming down. The last day is small only because it's only 4pm right now, and it is not representing a full day.

The change represents my budget. From Feb 10-20th, I had a daily budget of $1.50. I split it over 5 items in 2 categories. During that time frame, my promoting was not successful. I got clicks, but I ran through my daily budget fast, leaving me with no advertising for the rest of the day.

On the 21st, I bumped my budget up to $2.50, and cut back my items to 3 items, all in the same category, with the same keywords. That's when you see the jump. My 7 day revenue is solely based on purchases made from Feb 21-25th. There was no purchase during the first few days when I was at $1.50/day.

Here are my suggestions, based on what I have seen work with my own shop.

1. The amount you bid, and your keywords, determines  where your items are seen. Etsy shows up to 250 pages of items when you do a basic search. If your keywords are not up to snuff, you'll be on page 5 or 10, or 25. You won't be seen. If you only bid $1.00, but expect that $1 to cover 45 items, you will blow through your budget before 6am, and won't be seen. Bottom line- pay in more than $1, and make sure your keywords are SPOT on. 
2. Your bid amount matters. If you bid your items at $.05 each, but another shop in the same category bids $.15 each, which do you think Etsy will bump forward on the page? You can bid up to $.99 per click, but I do not recommend it. Unless you are paying $20 a day, that $.99 click will shut down your advertising every day before it really starts. There is an automated amount- this amount determines how much other shops are paying, and will try to come in the middle of the line. It won't bump you to the front of the list, but it won't let you linger at the back. For people just starting out, automated is perfectly fine. If you plan to do a custom amount, start out around $.15-.25, and see how it goes.
3. You pay for every click. This is one thing that confuses new users. Quite often, I see the question, "Why is my bill so high?" or "Why am I paying to promote if I'm not getting sales?" The answer is "Because you are promoting your items." When you promote an item, you are paying for people to click the ad open. You are not paying for a sale (if that were the case, we'd all spend a LOT!). Each time someone opens your post when it's an AD, you are paying the amount you bid on it. This add's up fast, so make sure you are prepared for the cost. Start low, and go up as your shop grows.
4. Promote a few items, not a lot. It's counter-intuitive. You want to promote everything in your shop, right? Well, here's the problem. If you promote everything, your budget is spread out over all of it. Without a large budget, that means you are not getting the most bang for your buck. Because your ad's end when you hit your daily budget limit, you are less likely to be seen when it's spread out over 50 items. Instead, concentrate on 3-5 items at most. I found sticking to 3 gets me the best results. I also promote the items that are all in the same category, with the same keywords. This means I'm seen more often under that search result, usually 1 ad each on the first 3 pages. When someone searches that item, they'll see my 3 ad's, plus the 3-6 items I have that show up on the first 3 pages as well. Lastly, keep this in mind- even if all your items are unique, drawing someone in by blasting your ad in 1 category still brings people into the shop. They still see the other items you have.

With all of that in mind, it takes a bit of playing around to see what works best for your shop.

Personally, for me, $2.50 worked great with 3 items promoted. I do switch out the items I promote, but I stick to the same category. That means people who may regularly search those keywords are not seeing the same thing over and over again.

Promoting can work great, but you have to be willing to spend money to make money.

Want to know more about making your Etsy shop work for YOU? Check out my links below!

10 Tips For Selling on Etsy

Promoting Your Etsy Shop Online
Etsy: Setting Goals