There's no better way to increase sales on an e-commerce website than to appear at the top search results.
Think about it: when a customer is shopping for something online, what's the typical workflow?
- Navigate to either Google / e-commerce website of choice
- Perform keyword search
- Click listing(s) from results that appeal to them
- Purchase
Step #3 needs to be highlighted as the "make or break" point for most sellers:
If your product isn't the one that's clicked from search results, then the likelihood of you getting the sale falls to 0.
And you can't get clicked if the potential customer never sees your product as an option in the results.
There's a popular saying amongst e-commerce entrepreneurs:
The best place to hide a dead body is on the 2nd page of search results
Very few online shoppers will go beyond page 1 in search of ANYTHING. How often do you go to page 2+ in search results on Google, Amazon, Etsy...?
That's why we need to do everything we can to appear not only on page 1 of results, but at the TOP of the search results if possible.
Fortunately, Etsy Promoted Listings lets us bid against other sellers for a select number of "Ad spots" in search results, dramatically increasing our odds of getting sales if our bids are high enough.
In the example below I searched for "Trump Gag Gift" - check out the results:
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8 of the first 20 search results (40%) were ads!
This is why you're able to buy visibility on Etsy for so cheap! Their results page (SERP) is littered with ad spots that are for sale.
Here's how you can take advantage of this opportunity using Promoted Listings in a very passive, time & cost-effective way.
How To Enable Etsy Promoted Listings
Promoted Listings is what Etsy calls it's pay-per-click (PPC) advertising arm.
All Etsy listings
should have Promoted Listings
ENABLED!
The reason you should enable it on all of your products is because the minimum bid is only $0.02!
Setting your CPC bids to 2 cents per click means that if Etsy displays your listing at the top of search results as an ad, you'll be charged no more than $0.02 for a click.
At this price, you can afford to advertise anything & everything all day!
Here's how to easily enable promoted listings on all your products:
- Click "Marketing" followed by "Promoted Listings" in your Etsy Shop Manager
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- Under "Ad Performance" click the "$XX.XX" per day link to launch the settings
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- Click "Advanced Settings" to expose all options
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- These are my current settings - I'm experimenting with different bids - Currently I'm testing $0.11 Max CPC
I recommend advertising new listings automatically & allowing your max CPC bid to ensure that spending doesn't get out of hand
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- To enable Promoted Listings on your current listings, select them all & click "Turn On" next to "Advertising Status"
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You absolutely need to cap your CPC bids and NOT use Etsy's "recommended bids".
In my experience, Etsy's recommended bids are often much higher than they need to be to get your products visibility.
I also noticed that within a 24 hour period, if you let Etsy adjust your bids dynamically, your "Avg CPC" can DOUBLE.
Seriously though, this has happened to me countless times.
So take it from me - use the settings I shared here & adjust your max CPC bid as you see fit.
They make it very easy to see how your ads are performing on the dashboard, & they will even email you on the 15th & the last day of every month with your advertising statistics.
Dashboard:
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Bi-monthly Email:
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This is a simple, effective approach to maintaining your Etsy Promoted Listings, increasing visibility, & managing ad spend in an efficient + passive way.
Are Your Promoted Listing Campaigns Profitable?
There's no point in coming all this way only to lose money selling on Etsy!
I was inspired by a post on the Gearbubble Facebook Group where a seller using the Gearbubble integration was asking if she was operating at a profit or not.
A lightbulb when off in my head: I should make a video walking through how to know if your Etsy advertising campaigns are profitable or not.
Check it out below!
Click here to view the Google Doc I used in the video with the outline of the revenue - expenses = profit logic.
