Etsy Promoted Listings, it’s THE controversial topic on Etsy. Does it really work? How to use them effectively? Can I really have a big return on my investment?

It is so controversial that opinions are clear cut: some adore them while others hate them.

For my part, I’m more of those who can only see positive in Etsy Promoted Listings. After testing different techniques, I found the secret that allows me to earn 10 times more than my initial investment.

After reading this article, you should have a better understanding of why and how you can use Etsy Promoted Listings to increase your sales.

What are Promoted Listings?

Promoted listings are featured listings that potential customers can find when searching for specific keywords. They are recognized thanks to the small “AD” at the top left of the photos.

When a potential customer makes a search in the Etsy search engine, they will find a total of 8 promoted listings on each page.

These listings are featured according to the keywords added to the title, description and tags of the products. That’s why it’s important to optimize your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) to ensure that your keywords, titles and descriptions match your product before you set up any promotion.

The promoted listings are therefore a way to showcase your products to more people on targeted searches.

Why Should You Use Promoted Listings?

First, because it is an opportunity to invest a small amount of money and to have a fairly important return. It is not uncommon to see a return on investment in the range of 5 to 10 times more.

It is also and above all an opportunity to have your creations shown to people who might never have seen your products. This is particularly true on competitive searches where your products appear alongside the best sales in your market.

Customers make a connection between what they find first in their research and the perceived quality of products. Very few of them will go beyond the 5th page, which is why your products must be found in the first few results.

After 1 ½ years of using Promoted Listings, I think I found the perfect process. It is divided into three phases: before, during and after the promo.

• Before Launching Your Etsy Promoted Listings

• Careful, it is VERY important to have products related to research. Do not try to add keywords that are unrelated to your items or that are too vague; you risk losing your money.
• That’s why you must first analyze your product listings and answer these questions:
  • Does the title correspond to the product I sell?
  • Do the keywords match the product?
  • Did I fill in the materials, the description, the size, the category…?

Give as much information about your products as possible to remove any doubts that your potential customer might have. This process is extremely important because the goal is not only that people click on your promoted listing but also that they order as you will be paying at each click and not at the time of purchase.

Your investment will give you results only if you have optimized your products.

How To Use Promoted Listings Correctly?

• 1. Activate promoted listings. Go to the left column to Marketing > Promoted Listings and click on “Start advertising on Etsy”.

• 2. Choose your daily budget. I advise you to first go on a relatively low to medium budget. I started at $10, and it seemed like a good budget to start. You can also go with a lower budget of $5, for example, and increase it as indicated.

• 3. Choose a maximum cost-per-click (CPC) by clicking on the “Manage” button. CPC is the amount you will pay each time someone clicks on your ad.

By default, Etsy will offer automatic auctions, which are often very high. This is the reason why many Etsy sellers consider promoted listings as a waste of money and too expensive.

Etsy does not make a distinction between someone who clicks on your product and leaves immediately and someone who buys.

As soon as your ad is clicked, you pay.

For your promoted listings to be a success, put a max on your CPC. I suggest you put a very low CPC, the lowest possible. The magic number that I recommend is to put a max CPC of 1% of your average price.

Example:

Let’s say your average price is $10. 1% will correspond to a max CPC of $0.10 for each of your products.

And that’s the secret that will allow you to successfully use your promoted listings: set your maximum CPC at a very low cost.

 As a result, for the same daily budget, your products will be shown to a larger number of potential customers.

Daily Budget / Max CPC = Potential Customers

If your Max CPC is $1 and your daily budget is $10, you will have 10 clicks per day. ($10/1=10)

If you change this maximum CPC to $ 0.10 with the same daily budget of $10, you will have 100 clicks per day. ($10 / 0.10 = 100)

100 clicks! This is 100 potential customers who could buy your products.

• 4. Choose the products to promote. When Etsy gives you the opportunity, I advise you to activate all products in your shop and leave this promotion for a minimum of one month.

After the Launch of Your Etsy Promoted Listings

At the end of 1 month to 2 months, check the analytics of your promoted listings and sort the results by the number of clicks to see if the number of clicks is proportional to the number of orders.

If you have products that are often clicked but never bought, consider removing them from your promoted listings and analyze the reasons of this.

• 

To help your analysis, answer these questions:
• • Is the product well described?
• • 
Is the quality at the best?
• • Are shipping costs too important?
• • 
Is the price too expensive?
• • Do photos really showcase the product?

The answers to these questions should allow you to improve your product listings and optimize them in your research for potential customers.

Once this update is done, try again to promote them with promoted listings and see if these changes have a positive impact on your sales.

So, the key word is experimenting. Try, analyze and modify according to your results. The point is to find the perfect balance: the maximum CPC amount that will optimize the number of sales.