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#+title:#+title: S05|L08 - my exact low budget etsy ad strategy

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Tutorial Notes

Hey everyone and welcome back! In this video, I’m going to share with you my exact low-budget Etsy ad strategy. Now, it probably goes without saying but I highly, HIGHLY recommend that you go back and watch my first video on Etsy ads.

In that video, I explain what Etsy ads are, how they work, their limitations, and also how you actually turn them on. So, if you haven’t watched that video, I’d strongly recommend you do so. Here’s the link to that video:

How I Use Etsy Ads To Boost My Free Traffic & Sales

Now, let’s get started on my strategy. And it’s a strategy that people have emailed me a lot to ask about: after I revealed on the YouTube channel I showed how I turned $25 into $142 in sales in a new Etsy store with ads.

file:../../_share/media/img/step_05/lesson_05/ex01a-performance.png

ad performance graph

And yes, before anyone asks: not only did my ads break even after you add in my production and shipping costs, but I actually made a profit on that $142 as well.

Yep: because the profit margin on those products were anywhere from 30% to 40%, depending on the item. And so, I’d have to check the exact items I sold that day, but the profit margin was around 15-20%, even with the ad costs included.

Plus, as I explained in the last video on Etsy ads, when I run the ads, not only do I make money from the sales that I make from the ads, but I also make money from the increased sales that I get from Etsy’s free, organic traffic.

And though that free traffic is actually the majority of my sales and traffic, I’m still very happy to have the paid ads because they are a small yet important chunk of traffic. While Etsy ads are important to me, I am not about to pretend here that they don’t have limitations.

But of course, as I said in the last video, there is a downside to Etsy ads: and that is that when you first turn them on, Etsy will ask you to run your ads for 30 days.

Yep. It does this, so that it can test your ads with a bunch of search engine phrases, to see which ones get the most clicks from viewers, so it can narrow your ad down to the phrases that actually work. But, as I also said, that is kind of a slow process.

So, you know what? In my experience, I’ve found that I can usually figure out if a product converts well with ads, after spending about $10 Per Product on ads.

Now you might be thinking, well Sarah – is it better for me to spend $10 on ads per product like you recommend or be patient and wait the full 30 days which Etsy recommends?

And I’ll be honest with you, I’m sure the data I could collect on which products do well with ads would be even more accurate, and more optimal, if I ran my ads for the recommended 30 days.

But, usually, I’ve found that once a product has been about $10 on ads, the data that shows whether it converts well or not is going to be similar to if I just let that ad run for the full 30 days. So I’m happy to end my ad on that 10 dollar-spend mark because it’s usually both cheaper, and it’s quicker.

So here’s what I’ll do: I’ll come and turn an ad on for a product. And then, I’ll let Etsy run an ad for it, keeping an eye each day on the money it’s spent on clicks for it.

file:../../_share/media/img/step_05/lesson_05/ex02a-ad_choice.png

ad feautres

Once it reaches $10 spend for the product, I’ll then see if the ad is at least breaking even for sales. For me, that is usually a 3x return or higher. This ad for example had a 4.57 return. Which means for every dollar I spent, I made $4.57 back in product sales.

file:../../_share/media/img/step_05/lesson_05/ex02b-ad_results.png

results on using an ad

This of course begs the question of Sarah, if I run my ad for 10 dollars, what ROI number should I be looking for?

And well, unfortunately, I can’t just give you an exact number to look for, which would be much more convenient. Instead, the real answer is that it depends on what the profit margin is on the products that you are selling.

Based upon that, you can figure out what your break even point is, you can then figure out what each individual ROI you are looking for.

So, for example, let’s say you had a product with 50% profit margins. In which case, you might want to see an ROI of 2. In other words, for every $1 you spend, you make $2 back in sales.

file:../../_share/media/img/step_05/lesson_05/ex03a-roi_2.png

if the profit margin is 50% you need 2 times back in sales

Whereas, if you had a product with smaller profit margins of let’s say, 20% profit margins, then you would likely want a higher ROI. You might for example want a ROI of 5. For every $1 you spend, you make $5 back. 

file:../../_share/media/img/step_05/lesson_05/ex03b-roi_5.png

if the profit margin is 20% you need 5 times back in sales

This is also why, as you can probably see, some items are better suited for ads than others. If you have some products in your store with small profit margins of 5% to 10% it may not even be worth running ads for them at all.

Because to be successful with an item that has 5% profit margins, you’d need an ROI of 20. As in, for every $1 you spent, you made $20 back in sales. 

file:../../_share/media/img/step_05/lesson_05/ex03c-roi_20.png

if the profit margin is 5% you need 20 times back in sales

That is a LOT and would be VERY unlikely to achieve. So it is probably not worth advertising products with a super low profit margin like that.

In saying this though, there is a strong argument that depending on how much money you have, you might want to consider NOT breaking even and actually make a small loss as your target ROI number.

And that is because remember, as we’ve discussed in the previous video: the more sales you make, the more reviews your store gets. And the more reviews your store gets, the higher your conversion rates because customers are more willing to buy from a store with more reviews due to the social proof. 

And of course, the higher your conversion rates, the more Etsy is willing to promote your store in its free traffic algorithm which earns you more money.

So, if you can afford to aim for an ROI that is technically making a slight loss, this might help you make more money in the long term. Because it will increase your sales, which will help increase the free traffic that Etsy sends you as well in the long-term.

But again, this depends entirely on your personal position because remember, business isn’t really a sprint, it is a marathon. Being sustainable in your approach to running a business will help you not burn out and stay running the entire race.

So I personally think that if it would place someone in a bad or uncomfortable financial position to run at a loss in the short term, that it is not a good idea. Instead, I think it is a much better idea to only spend and invest money into a new business venture that is actually sustainable. 

Either way, running at a small loss is entirely up to you. It is just something to consider.

But yes, back to the ad strategy. If a product reaches $10 in ad spend, and meets my ROI, like this product here did, I keep the ad on.

file:../../_share/media/img/step_05/lesson_05/ex04a-roi_target_met.png

ad ROI target met

But, if it doesn’t, I’ll then just turn the ad off.

file:../../_share/media/img/step_05/lesson_05/ex04b-turn_off_ad.png

ad ROI target met

And look, here’s the thing right.  Currently, there is no way to automate this process. I can’t ask Etsy to turn off the ad after it reaches $10. And so, unfortunately, this is a manual process to manage this. But, luckily, it is very quick to do.

I just open up the ads each day, and check to see if the ads for the new products I’m testing have reached $10 or not. And if they have I decide if I’ll keep them on, or turn them off. And it honestly just takes a few seconds to check. 

The most important thing though, is to keep in mind that you also need to manage your ad budget well. And to explain why – see here, how as each hour progresses, more of my ad budget gets spent? I chose $25 for my ad budget for this store because I knew it would last me throughout almost all of the day, based on the number of products I was advertising, which was about 100.

file:../../_share/media/img/step_05/lesson_05/ex01a-performance.png

ad performance graph

If I had opted for my ad budget to be just $5, then I probably would have run out of money for ads in the morning. Which wouldn’t have been good because as you can see, my best time is the afternoon and early evening. So you want to manage your ads so that you won’t just run out of money before then.

file:../../_share/media/img/step_05/lesson_05/ex05b-best_time_for_ads.png

best time for ads in the afternoon

And so there are 2 ways you can do that. One is to, like me, increase your ad budget. Or two, you can set your ad budget to be low, say $5 a day, or even $1 a day, but also only test a few items at once. Because in general, $20 to $40 will allow ads for around 100 items to run throughout a whole day.

So if you want to reduce your ad budget down to say, $5 a day, then you can opt to turn on ads for about 15 to 25 products. And this leads to a common question that I get asked which is this: Sarah, which products should I test first? Because you might be watching this, and already have 50 or 80 or 100 or 200 plus products in your store.

So, out of all of those, how do you pick just 15 to 25 to test? Well, I’d recommend doing 2 things. Firstly, I’d look over my items and see which ones have already had sales organically with customers. If organic, free traffic customers are purchasing your products, testing those winners first is a great idea.

But then, secondly, if you don’t have enough products that way, I recommend using your own personal judgment. Which products do you think are best? Which do you think are the most clever that you’ve created? Give those a go first, and then go through your products batch by batch.

Now of course, there is something else that you’ll need to keep in mind: and that if your $10 ad tests successfully results in items that are selling well, like this ad here did, then you’ll need to add them into your budget.

file:../../_share/media/img/step_05/lesson_05/ex04a-roi_target_met.png

ad ROI target met

For example, let’s say you had a $5 a day budget. And you tested 20 items. And you had 2 successful products in it that made sales. Great! 

Well then. When it comes time to test a new batch of products, you’ll want to increase your ad budget so you could keep these ads on for those 2 winning products.

So now for example, you might try out another new group of 20 items for $5 a day, but, actually set your ad budget to $6 or $7 a day while also keeping the ads on for those winning products that you’ve found.

Of course, this is less of a financial burden if you have successful winning products, because the sales they make will be paying for the extra money you’ve added to your ad budget.

And another question people often ask me is this: OK Sarah, if $5 a day on average is enough to test 15 or 25 items throughout an entire day, how do I know where I fall on that spectrum?

How do I know if I can advertise 25 products, or 20, or 15, or maybe even less, without running out of ad budget too quickly in the day? 

And it’s a good question and, unfortunately, there is no easy answer to this. This will also be a manual process. But it’s honestly pretty quick. Just open up your computer or phone occasionally throughout the day, and check in on your ad spend. If you see that you’ve run out, then you know to either increase your ad budget, or to turn some ads off for tomorrow. 

And I do have to stress that again, running Etsy ads is optional. You do not need to run them, to have a successful store. Obviously I’m very happy to be running ads since I’m making money from them, but if you don’t want to run ads, that is fine, you can stick to free traffic.

Because remember: I and others are constantly getting sales to new Etsy stores, without running any ads. If you’ve watched my previous videos in this course, you’ll know that in my latest store, I started making sales within the first 2 weeks of it being open.

file:../../_share/media/img/step_05/lesson_05/ex01a-performance.png

ad performance graph

And Etsy won’t even currently let a new store run ads for 2 weeks. So all of those sales were made organically from free traffic.

So no: Etsy ads are NOT required to be successful at all. They are just nice to have. 

Thanks for watching, and I’ll see you in the next video.

Review

Core Idea

This lesson explains a low-budget Etsy ads testing strategy.

The basic strategy is:

  • test products with Etsy ads
  • spend about $10 per product
  • check whether the product reaches the needed ROI
  • keep ads on for winners
  • turn ads off for losers
  • move through products in batches

Key Result Mentioned

The example given:

  • $25/day ad budget
  • $142 in sales in one day
  • ads broke even after production and shipping
  • ads also produced profit
  • product margins were around 30% to 40%
  • ad-driven profit margin was around 15% to 20%

Why Etsy Ads Are Useful

Etsy ads are not the main traffic source.

The main traffic source is still organic/free Etsy traffic.

But ads can be a useful small traffic source because they can help generate:

  • early clicks
  • sales
  • reviews
  • customer data
  • better conversion history

Etsy’s 30-Day Recommendation

Etsy recommends running ads for about 30 days.

Reason: Etsy needs time to test your ad against different search phrases and learn which ones get clicks.

This is useful, but slow.

The $10 Product Test

Instead of waiting the full 30 days, this strategy tests each product until it has spent about:

  • $10 in ad spend

At that point, check whether the ad is producing enough sales to justify keeping it on.

Why $10

The claim in the lesson is that after about $10 of spend, the product often gives enough early data to judge whether it is likely to work with ads.

This may not be as accurate as a full 30-day test, but it is:

  • faster
  • cheaper
  • good enough for low-budget testing

What To Check After $10 Spend

Once a product reaches $10 in ad spend, check:

  • sales produced
  • ROI / return on ad spend
  • whether it breaks even
  • whether it meets your required return

If it works:

  • keep the ad on

If it does not work:

  • turn the ad off

ROI Depends On Profit Margin

There is no single correct ROI number.

The required ROI depends on the profit margin of the product.

Example: 50% Profit Margin

If a product has a 50% profit margin, an ROI of 2 may be acceptable.

Meaning:

  • spend $1
  • make $2 in sales

Example: 20% Profit Margin

If a product has a 20% profit margin, you may need an ROI around 5.

Meaning:

  • spend $1
  • make $5 in sales

Example: 5% Profit Margin

If a product has only a 5% profit margin, ads may not be worth running.

To break even, you may need an ROI around 20.

Meaning:

  • spend $1
  • make $20 in sales

That is difficult to achieve.

Low-Margin Products

Products with very low profit margins are usually poor candidates for ads.

Low-margin products may be better left to:

  • organic traffic
  • upsells
  • bundles
  • higher-priced positioning

Optional Loss Strategy

Sometimes it may make sense to run ads at a small loss.

Reason: Even if ads lose a little money upfront, they may help produce:

  • sales
  • reviews
  • conversion data
  • long-term organic traffic

But this is only appropriate if the seller can afford it.

Financial Comfort Rule

Do not run ads in a way that creates financial stress.

Business is a marathon, not a sprint.

Only invest what keeps the business sustainable.

Break Even vs Small Loss

Both are valid choices:

  • break-even ads = safer
  • small-loss ads = potentially faster growth

Choose based on your financial situation.

Manual Process

This strategy is currently manual.

You cannot automatically tell Etsy:

  • stop this product after $10 spend
  • keep this product if ROI is high
  • turn off this product if ROI is low

So you need to check manually.

Daily Ad Check

Each day:

  • open Etsy ads
  • check product-level ad spend
  • find products that reached $10 spend
  • check their ROI
  • keep winners on
  • turn losers off

This should only take a short time.

Budget Management

The daily ad budget needs to last long enough through the day.

If the budget runs out too early, Etsy cannot show ads during later high-converting times.

In the example, the best time was:

  • afternoon
  • early evening

So the budget needed to last long enough to reach those hours.

Two Ways To Manage Budget

If ads run out of budget too early:

  1. increase the daily ad budget
  2. advertise fewer listings at once

Low Budget Option

You can start very small.

Examples:

  • $1/day
  • $5/day

If the budget is small, test fewer products at once.

Product Testing Capacity

Approximate testing capacity from the lesson:

  • $20 to $40/day can test around 100 products
  • $5/day can test around 15 to 25 products

This is only an estimate.

How To Choose Which Products To Test First

If you already have products listed, choose products in this order:

  1. products that already made organic sales
  2. products you personally think are strongest
  3. products that seem clever, clickable, or niche-specific

Start With Organic Winners

If a product already sells from free organic traffic, test that product first.

Reason: Organic sales are evidence that customers already want it.

Use Personal Judgment

If you do not have enough organic winners, choose the products that seem strongest.

Look for products that are:

  • clever
  • niche-specific
  • visually clickable
  • different from competitors
  • likely to appeal to a clear buyer

Batch Testing

Test products in batches.

Example:

  • choose 20 products
  • run ads
  • wait until each reaches about $10 spend
  • keep winners
  • stop losers
  • move to the next batch

Increase Budget When Winners Appear

When a product wins, it stays in the ad budget.

So if you test a new batch, you may need to increase the daily budget.

Example:

  • $5/day tests 20 products
  • 2 products become winners
  • next batch also has 20 products
  • raise budget to $6 or $7/day to keep winners running while testing the next batch

Why Budget Increases Become Easier

Once winning products are making sales, increasing the ad budget becomes less painful.

Reason: The winning products are helping pay for the ads.

How To Know How Many Listings Your Budget Can Support

There is no exact formula.

Check throughout the day:

  • has the budget run out?
  • did it run out too early?
  • are ads still running during strong buying times?

If the budget runs out too early:

  • increase the budget
  • or reduce the number of advertised listings

Etsy Ads Are Optional

You do not need Etsy ads to succeed.

The lesson emphasizes that new Etsy stores can still make sales with free traffic.

In the example, the store made sales within the first 2 weeks before ads were even allowed.

Etsy New Store Ad Delay

The lesson says Etsy currently does not allow brand new stores to turn on ads for the first 2 weeks.

So early sales can still happen without ads.

When To Avoid Ads

Avoid or delay ads if:

  • money is tight
  • ads feel stressful
  • listings are not optimized
  • photos are weak
  • products are generic
  • profit margins are too low
  • you cannot afford testing

Best Candidates For Ads

Good ad candidates usually have:

  • healthy profit margins
  • clear niche targeting
  • strong thumbnail photos
  • proven organic sales
  • clever product concept
  • strong customer appeal
  • good listing keywords

Main Strategy

The low-budget Etsy ad workflow:

  1. choose a small batch of listings
  2. turn ads on
  3. monitor spend daily
  4. let each product reach about $10 spend
  5. check ROI against the product’s profit margin
  6. keep profitable or acceptable products running
  7. turn off weak products
  8. increase budget slowly as winners appear
  9. test the next batch

Key Insight

The goal is not to advertise everything forever.

The goal is to identify which products can profitably use ads, then keep only those ads running.

Bottom Line

Start small.

Test products with about $10 in ad spend each.

Keep winners, stop losers, and gradually increase the budget only when winning products help pay for it.

Transcript 

00:00
Hey, everyone, and welcome back. In this video, I'm gonna

00:03
share with you my exact

00:05
low budget Etsy ad strategy. And of course, it probably

00:08
goes without saying, but I highly, highly recommend that you

00:12
go back and watch my first video on Etsy ads

00:15
if you haven't seen it already. In that video, I

00:18
explain what Etsy ads are, how they work, their limitations,

00:22
and I also explain how you literally turn them on.

00:26
So if you haven't watched that video, I strongly recommend

00:29
that you go do so. But for now, back to

00:32
this video and back to my strategy. And it's a

00:35
strategy that a lot of people have emailed me to

00:38
ask about after I revealed on the YouTube channel that

00:41
I turned 25 dollars a day into 142

00:45
dollars in sales in a new Etsy store with ads.

00:49
And yes, before anybody asks, by the way, not only

00:52
did the ads break even after you add in the

00:54
shipping and production costs, but I actually made a profit

00:58
on that 142

00:59
dollars as well. Yep. Because the profit margin on those

01:02
products was anywhere from 30 percent to 40 percent, depending

01:06
on the item. And so I had to go back

01:08
and count up the exact items that I sold that

01:11
day, but the profit margin

01:13
on those items that I sold with ads was around

01:16
15 to 20 percent. Plus, as I explained in my

01:19
last video on Etsy ads, when I run ads, not

01:22
only do I make money from the sales that I

01:25
make from the ads, but I also make money from

01:28
the increased sales that I get from Etsy's free organic

01:32
traffic. And that free traffic is actually the majority

01:36
of my sales and traffic, but I'm still very happy

01:40
to have the paid ads because as I have explained,

01:43
they are a small yet important

01:45
chunk of traffic. But while Etsy ads are important for

01:48
me, I am not about to pretend here that they

01:51
don't have limitations.

01:52
And 1 of the limitations

01:54
that I discussed in that last video is that when

01:57
you turn on an ad on Etsy, it will ask

01:59
you to try and run it for at least 30

02:03
days if you can. Yep. And the reason why it

02:06
asks this is so that it can test your ads

02:08
with a bunch of different search engine phrases to see

02:11
which ones get the most clicks from customers so that

02:14
it can narrow down your ad to the phrases that

02:17
actually work. But as I said, this is kind of

02:20
a slow process. So you know what? In my experience,

02:24
I have had pretty good results at figuring out whether

02:27
a product converts well

02:29
with ads by spending

02:31
10 dollars

02:33
per product on ads.

02:35
Now you might be thinking, okay, Sarah, well, is it

02:38
better then for me to spend 10 dollars per product

02:41
on ads like you recommend,

02:42
or instead

02:44
be more patient and wait the full 30 days, which

02:47
Etsy recommends.

02:49
And look, I'm gonna be honest with you. I'm sure

02:52
that the data I could collect on which products do

02:54
well with ads would be even more accurate and even

02:57
more optimal

02:58
if I did actually run my ads for the full

03:00
recommended 30 days. But I have found that, generally speaking,

03:04
once a product has spent about 10 dollars on ads,

03:07
that usually the data that shows whether that product converts

03:10
well or not with them is going to be similar

03:14
to if I had just let that ad run for

03:17
the full 30 days. So I am personally happy to

03:20
end my ad at that 10 dollar spend mark because

03:24
not only is it usually quicker,

03:27
but it's usually cheaper. So here's what I will personally

03:30
do. I'll come and I will turn on an ad

03:32
for a product, and then I'll let Etsy run an

03:35
ad for it, keeping an eye each day on the

03:38
money that it spent on clicks for it. Once it

03:40
reaches a 10 dollars ad spend for the product, I'll

03:43
then see if the ad is at least breaking even

03:45
for sales. So for me, that is usually a 3

03:48
times return or higher. This ad, for example, had a

03:51
4.57

03:52
return, which means then that for every 1 dollar I

03:55
spent, I made 4 dollars and 57 cents back in

03:59
product sales. So this, of course, also begs the question,

04:02
which is this. Okay, Sarah, if I run my ad

04:05
for 10 dollars,

04:06
what am I looking for as a good ROI

04:10
number to aim for? And well, unfortunately,

04:12
I can't give you 1. It would be nice to

04:15
be able to just give you 1 right now because

04:17
that would be way more convenient.

04:19
Instead, the real answer is a lot more messy.

04:22
The answer is that it depends.

04:25
It depends

04:27
on the profit margins of the product that you were

04:30
advertising.

04:31
Once you have figured out what your profit margin is

04:33
and where your break even point is with a product,

04:36
you can then figure out what each individual ROI that

04:40
you are looking for. So for example, let's say that

04:42
you had a product with a 50 percent profit margin.

04:46
In this case here, you might be happy to see

04:48
an ROI of 2. In other words, for every 1

04:51
dollar that you spend, you make 2 dollars back in

04:54
sales. Whereas if you had a product with a smaller

04:56
profit margin of, let's say, 20 percent profit margins, then

05:00
you would likely want a higher ROI number. So you

05:04
might, for example, want an ROI

05:06
of 5. For every 1 dollar you spend, you make

05:09
5 dollars back. This is also why, as you can

05:12
probably see, there are some items on Etsy that are

05:15
a lot more suited for ads than others. If you

05:19
have some products in your store that have a low

05:21
profit margin of just 5 percent to 10 percent,

05:25
it might not even be worthwhile

05:27
to run ads for them at all. Because to be

05:30
successful

05:31
with a product with 5 percent profit margins, you would

05:34
need to have an ROI

05:36
of 20. In other words, you would need to be

05:39
spending 1 dollar to make 20 dollars

05:43
back in sales. That is a really high ROI, and

05:46
that would be very difficult to achieve, which is why

05:50
it's usually

05:51
not worth running ads for products like that. In saying

05:55
that though, there is actually a strong argument that depending

05:58
upon how much money that you have to spend, that

06:02
your best ROI number

06:05
might not even be at breakpoint.

06:08
You might want to make a small loss. And that

06:11
is because remember, as we discussed in the previous Etsy

06:14
ad video, the more sales that you make on Etsy,

06:16
the more reviews that your store gets. And the more

06:19
reviews that your store gets, the higher your conversion rates

06:22
because customers are more likely to buy from a store

06:25
with more reviews

06:27
due to the social proof that this gives you. And

06:29
of course, the higher your conversion rates on Etsy,

06:32
the more willing that Etsy is to give you free

06:36
traffic,

06:37
which makes you money. So if you can afford to

06:40
aim for an ROI that is technically making a small

06:42
loss, then this might help you make more money in

06:45
the long term because it will increase your sales, which

06:47
will help increase your conversion rates, which will help increase

06:50
the free traffic that Etsy sends you into the long

06:53
term. But again, this entirely depends upon your personal situation

06:57
because remember, as I say, business isn't a sprint. It

07:01
is a marathon. Being sustainable in your approach to running

07:04
a business will help you to not burn out and

07:07
to stay running the entire race. And so in theory,

07:11
even though it's true that if you were to run

07:13
your ads of small loss, that this might actually make

07:15
you more money in the long run, I don't think

07:18
that that's a good idea for somebody

07:25
uncomfortable financial situation.

07:27
Instead, I would recommend that people invest as much or

07:31
as little money into a new business that helps keep

07:34
them in a financially comfortable

07:37
position

07:38
because that is what is sustainable. Either way, whether you

07:41
choose to run your ads at a small loss or

07:43
whether you choose to run them at a break even

07:45
point, either choice is fine. It's completely up to you.

07:49
But yes, back to my ad strategy. So if a

07:52
product reaches 10 dollars an ad spent and it meets

07:56
my ROI like this product did here, I keep the

07:59
ad on. But if it doesn't, then I'll just turn

08:02
the ad off. And look. Here's the thing. Right? The

08:05
annoying thing is that currently, as of me filming this

08:08
video,

08:08
there is no way to automate this process. Nope. Unfortunately,

08:12
I can't just ask Etsy to turn off an ad

08:15
for a product after it's reached 10 dollars. I wish

08:19
I could, but I can't. So currently, this is a

08:22
manual process.

08:24
Luckily, though, it is very quick to do. Yes. So

08:28
I just open up the ads each day and check

08:30
to see if the ads for the new products that

08:32
I'm testing have reached 10 dollars in ad spend or

08:35
not. And if they have, I decide if I will

08:37
keep them on or if I will turn them off,

08:39
and it honestly just takes a few seconds to check.

08:42
The most important thing to keep in mind, though, when

08:45
you're checking your ads for the day is to make

08:47
sure that you are managing your ad budget well. And

08:51
to explain what I mean, see here how as each

08:53
hour progresses,

08:55
more of my ad budget gets spent.

08:57
I chose 25 dollars for my ad budget for the

09:00
store because I knew it would last me throughout almost

09:02
all of the day based on the number of products

09:05
that I was advertising,

09:06
which was around 100. Well, here's the thing. If I

09:09
had opted for a smaller ad budget for those products

09:13
of, say, dollars 5,

09:15
I would have run out of ad budget in the

09:17
morning, which would not have been very good, would it?

09:20
Because as you can see here, my best time is

09:22
actually in the afternoon and early evening.

09:25
So you want to manage your ad budget so that

09:28
you won't just run out of money before then. And

09:31
so there are 2 ways that you can do that.

09:33
1 of them is that if you see that your

09:34
ads are running out of money earlier in the day,

09:37
then you can just increase your ad budget. Or 2,

09:40
you can start out by setting your budget to be

09:42
low, say, dollars 5 a day or even 1 dollar

09:45
a day because you can advertise for just 1 dollar

09:48
a day on Etsy,

09:49
but only test a few items at once. Because in

09:52
general, I find that spending around 20 dollars to 40

09:55
dollars will let me test around 100 products a day.

09:58
And so with that in mind then, if you were

10:00
to lower your ad budget to say 5 dollars a

10:03
day, then you could just lower the number of listings

10:06
that you're choosing to advertise to. So on average, that'd

10:09
be around 15 to 25 listings. But of course, this

10:13
often leads to a very common question, which is this.

10:17
Sarah, out of all of my listings,

10:19
which ones should I turn ads on for

10:22
first? Because you might be watching this and you've already

10:25
got 50 products or 100 products or 200 products added

10:29
into your store. So then, out of all of these

10:31
products then, how do you pick just 15 or 25

10:35
products to test? So I would do 2 things. Firstly,

10:38
I'd look over all of my items and see which

10:40
ones have already had sales organically with customers. If organic

10:44
free traffic customers are purchasing a product of yours, then

10:48
testing that winner first is a very good idea. But

10:51
then secondly,

10:52
if you don't have enough products that way, I recommend

10:55
just using your own personal judgment. Which products do you

10:58
think are best? Which do you think are the most

11:01
clever that you've created?

11:02
Give those a go first and then go through your

11:05
products batch by batch. Now, of course, there is something

11:08
else that you need to keep in mind, and that

11:10
is that if your 10 dollars ad tests successfully

11:14
result in items that are selling well, like this ad

11:17
did here, then you'll need to add these items into

11:21
your ad budget. So let me just explain what I

11:24
mean. For example, let's say that we spent 5 dollars

11:28
to test 20 products.

11:30
And well, out of that, you've had 2 successful products

11:33
in that batch that made sales. That's pretty great, isn't

11:36
it? Well then, when it comes time to test another

11:40
batch of 20 products,

11:42
you will want to increase your ad budget so that

11:44
you can also allow for keeping the ads on for

11:48
those 2 winning products. So now, for example, you might

11:51
be testing a new batch of products at 5 dollars

11:54
a day for 20 items. Well, you can also increase

11:58
your ad budget up to, say, dollars 6 or 7

12:01
dollars while also keeping the ads on for those winning

12:05
products that you found. And of course, something to keep

12:08
in mind too when you increase your ad budget is

12:10
that this should be less of a financial burden for

12:13
you to now increase your ad budget from where it

12:16
was previously

12:17
because of the fact that you're making sales, which will

12:20
help pay for your ads. And another question that I

12:23
get asked often is this, okay, Sarah, on average, dollars

12:27
5 a day can allow me to test somewhere around

12:30
15 to 25 products. Well, then how do I know

12:34
where I fall on that spectrum? How do I know

12:37
if my store is the sort of store that can

12:39
test 25 products for 5 dollars or 20 products for

12:42
5 dollars or 15 products for 5 dollars or maybe

12:45
I can only test 10 products for 5 dollars because

12:48
my store falls outside side of the average? And that's

12:51
a good question. Right? And unfortunately, again, there is no

12:55
easy answer for this. Figuring out where you sit on

12:57
that spectrum is also going to be initially a manual

13:01
process, but it's honestly pretty quick. Just open up your

13:04
computer or phone occasionally throughout the day and check-in on

13:07
your ad spend. If you see that you've run out

13:09
of money, then you know that you either need to

13:11
increase your ad budget or you need to turn some

13:14
ads off for tomorrow. And I do want to, again,

13:17
note that if you're listening to this and you're feeling

13:19
stressed because of the money involved in running Etsy ads,

13:22
that you do not have to run any advertising at

13:25
all to be successful. Obviously, I'm very happy that I

13:29
am in a financial position where I can run ads

13:31
because it helps to make me money, but you don't

13:35
have to run them at all. You can have a

13:37
successful Etsy store entirely

13:39
based off of free traffic. Because remember, I and others

13:42
are still getting sales to our new Etsy stores without

13:45
running a single ad. If you watched my previous videos

13:48
in this course, you'll know that in my latest Etsy

13:51
store, I started making sales within my first 2 weeks

13:54
of that store being open. And during that time, I

13:57
didn't even run a single ad because currently right now,

14:01
Etsy will not allow you to turn on any ads

14:04
for 2 weeks when you open up a new store.

14:07
So I was getting sales and traffic for free before

14:10
I had even turned on an ad. So no. If

14:14
you're feeling stressed by that, don't worry. Are Etsy ads

14:17
nice to have? I would say yes. But are they

14:20
needed? Absolutely

14:22
not. So then thanks for watching, and I will see

14:24
you in the next video.