ETSY ADS STRATEGY AS A BEGINNER | BUILDING A 6 FIGURE DIGITAL PRODUCTS STORE AS A BEGINNER IN 2023

*Please submit your etsy referral link here: forms.gle/dJSkLzkaQCn4q8mdA
Link to my monthly sales videos: • Etsy Monthly Sales Upd...
Link to my niche research video: • ETSY NICHE RESEARCH AS...
Link to my design video: • DESIGN DIGITAL PRODUCT...
Hannah’s video on ads: • Should you run Etsy ad...
**Once again, DO NOT spend ad money on listings that are unproven/not optimized.
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Are you wanting to build a 6 figure Etsy digital products store and make extra income or leave your 9-5?
My goal is to grow a 6-figure Etsy store by the end of the year, so join me on this journey to building a full-time income from Etsy! In this channel I will be sharing all my strategies, my monthly sales numbers and what I am doing to scale my Etsy shop!
In this video I’m sharing my Etsy ads strategy for beginners! I share my 4 step process and some mistakes to avoid to not lose money!
00:00- Intro
04:16- My 4 step ads strategy
14:02- Summary of when I toggle ads off
15:37- Other marketing strategies
17:26- Referral link giveaway
This is video 5 in a 5-part series where I’m sharing all the strategies I’ve used in my Etsy shop up to this point!
The series is:
1. Mindset and developing a system
2. Choosing a niche/ideal customer
3. How to create good designs- that also includes listing photos
4. SEO
5. Marketing and ads!
These strategies are totally repeatable and you can start implementing them today :)
Thank you so much for joining me on my Etsy journey and best of luck with your Etsy store!

[@glasshour902]

I admire your growth and watch every single one. I find the monthly number video the most entertaining one as I like to manifest it for myself

[@whatshaesells]

Thank you so much for watching! Those are my favorite videos to make!! You can totally get there :)

[@KaliHuntArt]

Thanks so much you giving all the tea

[@nadog9998]

I just discovered your channel and it is so good. Great tips and just overall entertaining. I’ve looked for weeks to find a good ad strategy but every time I keep loosing so much money. Now I’m going to leave them for 30 days, checking the terms every morning and see what happens. Thank you❤😊

[@whatshaesells]

Yay I'm glad my videos are helpful! Yep that's the way to go for sure! Also make sure the listings that you're running ads on are already proven/optimized. Good luck!

[@manueladurson701]

Best video I’ve seen about ads, I finally understand how to track them, thank you!

[@whatshaesells]

Great! So glad it was helpful!!

[@livingrichlyonabudget100]

Thank you for a helpful video that’s easy to understand. I watched so many where they were talking too corporate ish and I didn’t learn anything. I learned so much from this video. Thank you!

[@whatshaesells]

Glad it was helpful!

[@sarahdulat3613]

You are so sweet to spread the love with the referral links. ❤

[@whatshaesells]

Of course!! I am more than happy to :)

[@penstar]

Amazing locks! :)

[@whatshaesells]

Aww thank you ❤️

[@neutralzsdesigns488]

Hello Shae 🌺 what if my top selling products are not bundles ? in this case in ads should i still be advertising bundles without top sellers or just topl seller which are low price 3 dollar only ? THANK YOU

[@fillipa3189]

Hi Shae! Another amazing video, thank you so much for sharing your advice. I have been using ads for a couple of months and rarely spend more than $1 a day even though my budget is much higher, what would you recommend I do to increase my ad spend? Thank you! 😁

[@whatshaesells]

Hi! Oh that is interesting. I definitely have the opposite problem where my max ad spend goes very quickly lol. Most likely the keywords for your items probably aren’t searched a lot so there aren’t a lot of opportunities for Etsy to go in and show your ads :/ my advice would be to make more listings or find more products in your niche that you can try out!

[@heyeez]

Thoughts on selling two different digital products on your store at the same time? Ex. templates and clip art? Or would it be best to focus on one digital product at a time? Thanks!

[@whatshaesells]

Hi! Good question. I do think it makes sense to stick to a niche, however, if those two types of products are in the same niche (for example clip art for teachers and templates for teachers), then that would work great I think!

[@eternalspring4080]

Hi Shae, First and foremost, I'd like to extend my sincere gratitude for the valuable content you create on this channel. It's heartening to find such genuine and trustworthy voices in the vast sea of KZbin. Your insights have been an inspiration for me and have painted a clearer picture of what a well-planned and successful ETSY selling strategy looks like. If you don't mind, I'd love to gain a bit more insight from you on a couple of topics. Firstly, I noticed that you've chosen to work with the free version of Canva. As I'm currently weighing the merits between Canva and Corjl, I'd highly appreciate any advice or experiences you might want to share on these tools. Additionally, I'm seeking guidance on the selection of fonts for creating editable templates. I've come across many free versions, though they are typically limited to personal use. Do you believe it's more prudent to invest in paid versions? Thank you in advance for your time and assistance. Your input would be immensely beneficial.

[@whatshaesells]

Hi! Thanks for reaching out. Glad my videos have been helpful! I chose Canva because I had used it before (but briefly), and it seemed to be more well known than Corjl. And I use the paid version of Canva, but all my templates are made with free items only so that anyone can use them. Also when it comes to fonts, Canva has plenty of free fonts that you can use on your templates! You are allowed to sell Canva templates made with free elements

[@aaronlaflin]

Such a good video! I do have one question, I have been steadily increasing my ad budget over the last few months and have been trying to think of a trigger that would notify me when to increase it. Have you found any success in finding a reason to increase the ad spend? Right now, once I increase my ad budget and it has performed over 1 ROAS for a week straight, I increase my ad spend. I also have been keeping an eye on the overall shop revenue and visits after I increase ad spend to see if it follows suit. Just not sure if that is a smart reason to increase ad spend.

[@whatshaesells]

Hi! Thank you :) That's a really good question. I don't have a trigger for raising ad spend, other than raising it on a monthly basis, and sometimes more frequently if my ads are doing well. That's totally a reasonable way to increase ad spend in my opinion and that's basically what I'm doing, although more on a monthly basis. I don't know if frequency of increasing matters as much as keeping your keywords in check and being really stringent with the items you do decide to advertise.

[@benebr1978]

Hi Just discovered your shannel. Thanks for sharing.

[@whatshaesells]

Hi! You’re welcome, glad you came across it!

[@FreshArtsy]

ok, I shall admit, my etsy store lost hundreds due to ads (no joke), but I shall persevere as I believe I will recover them some day! Also doing no research and just put in store w/e I want probably didn't help, but I believe in my brute force ways!

[@whatshaesells]

Oh no! You definitely can recover by being more strategic and doing the research!

[@FreshArtsy]

​@@whatshaesells it's ok i adjusted my strategy by increasing daily ad budget to 200 dollars now (this part is actually real), and I have a light post on my street picked out incase I go homeless and need to steal power. You always have to have a backup plan in life u know. especially that hyperinflation is around the corner. not a time to take risks.

[@ElijahLomo]

Just discovered your channel. Very helpful info! Would you be uploading new videos soon? :)

[@user-ps2ls5bq7h]

Love your videos! Are you selling to a specific business or in general to business owners?

[@whatshaesells]

Hi! Good question. I actually have a mix of both but I try to stay as specific as possible!

[@aashirwadmorye561]

Hi Shae, do you think the 'Ads goal' option affects the sales in any way? (Currently I have selected 'Drive orders short term' as my ads goal') Any suggestion?

[@emouws1562]

hmm, was wondering the same!

[@whatshaesells]

Oh good question! I should have mentioned it in the video. I also have selected drive orders in the short term. I think that probably is the best one to choose although I’ve done research and haven’t been able to find any definitive answer as to the differences between the ad goals

[@aashirwadmorye561]

Thanks so much 🤝 My all doubts about Etsy ads got cleared awesome video💯

[@emouws1562]

@@whatshaesells Thank you so much!

[@ifeelfantastic8956]

When you sell your canva templates, do you use pro elements or just the free ones? Thank you.

[@whatshaesells]

Hi! You have to use free elements only if it's a template! That way buyers can use the free version of Canva with it. Also I think it's against Canva terms to use pro elements in editable templates. You can use pro elements for things you aren't selling though, like to make your listing photos :)

[@ifeelfantastic8956]

@@whatshaesells Thank you.

[@Alexasparkks]

Hi Shae, do you think some niche are saturated as Wedding, Planners, Pet,... ?

[@whatshaesells]

Hi! Most digital products niches are "saturated", but that doesn't mean there aren't opportunities to make money in those niches! I think the wedding niche has a lot of opportunity because trends for weddings are constantly changing so you can definitely break into that niche as a beginner!

[@user-hi7en9or1f]

Hi! How do you exactly toggle off a particular keyword on an ads? I can't seem to find that option.

[@whatshaesells]

Hi! Go to your Etsy ads dashboard, scroll down to your listings. Then click on one, then click on "searches that led to this ad", then you can toggle them on and off! Sometimes if the ad is new, you won't have keywords on there yet so that might be why you can't see them yet!

[@ChingTeoh]

Hi Shae, Thank you so much for sharing your strategies. They are all very helpful. I have been running ads for over a month now. But, when I clicked into "Searches that led to this ad" they show zero until today. May I know where can I retrieve the data like yours and refine the keywords?

[@whatshaesells]

Hello! Is your ad spend really low? I think it takes a while of running ads in order for etsy to gather data. So it might take a bit more for the keywords to populate

[@ChingTeoh]

@@whatshaesells thanks Shae for getting back to me. My budget is pretty low. Previously I did have the data showing the keywords but lately, it has gone. I have reported this in the Etsy Forum Technical Support. Hopefully, someone will look into it. Thank you so much, Shae. Keep up the great work! I love what you are doing. ♥

[@GoldPREMIUMposter]

Hello Shae, when you say that you include 3 listings a day, how do you do it? All 3 at the same time or throughout the day? I sell printable wall art, how could I do SEO in such a competitive niche? Thank you very much, I love your videos!

[@whatshaesells]

Hi! It depends on the day, but I usually list all my listings at once that day. If you have the time, it could be a strategy to spread out the listings throughout the day but I'm not sure how much of a difference that would make. Wall art is a very difficult niche for beginners. But I think you could do well by finding very trendy designs and getting in at the beginning of the trends. it will take some knowledge/research of trends, so going somewhere like pinterest to do research for wall art trends could work!

[@GoldPREMIUMposter]

@@whatshaesells Thank you Shae!

[@khesalafzal9242]

Hi Shae❤ Would it be okay if i sell same digital planners on BOTH Etsy and Amazon kdp (Kindle direct publishing)?

[@whatshaesells]

Hello! I don't also sell on kdp but yes I believe you can. Here's an article going into detail: chuckzerotoone.medium.com/amazon-kdp-or-etsy-you-need-to-know-this-or-you-may-be-leaving-money-on-the-table-171bfc302921#:~:text=It's%20really%20not%20a%20choice,Ebook%E2%80%9D%20to%20sell%20on%20Etsy.

[@khesalafzal9242]

@@whatshaesells thank you so much 💜

[@matthijs_chess]

I love these videos because they give great insights on how you can realistically grow your shop! One thing I was wondering is, since I sell digital products for quite a low price (around 2 dollars) do you think it is worth it to do ads at all? I've tried it and even tho they gave me sales and helped growing my shop, I lost money on them, so I am in doubt if I should continue doing ads.

[@whatshaesells]

Yes good point. I have some lower cost products that I don’t do ads on for the same reason. These days I don’t really run ads on products that cost under $7. My advice would be to create bundles and try to get higher priced items to run on ads. I agree it wouldn’t be worth it for a $2 product!

[@matthijs_chess]

@@whatshaesells Thank you so much! That's a great idea!

[@olukulujoezekiel6090]

@@matthijs_chess Yes, bundle designs are fast selling now. So depending on which niche that will help you rank faster and make more sales

[@matthijs_chess]

@@olukulujoezekiel6090 Thanks, I have started making bundles, and even without ads they are selling surprisingly well!

[@khesalafzal9242]

Hey Shae❤ Love your videos. But it would be very helpful for beginners if you could show an eg of products you're selling so as to know how to make stuff that is selling. As a beginner I needed to see an eg of two of the canva products.

[@whatshaesells]

Hi! Glad my videos are helpful :) that’s a great idea to do a video of basically what makes a great selling product/how these products look. I can definitely make a video like that in the future!

[@khesalafzal9242]

@@whatshaesells thanks

[@VV-iw1ly]

Hi, How many days do you keep the item on ads for before you turn it off if it not selling and how many days before you turn off non relevant keywords How many sales do a product would have done organic before doing ads on them. Thank you for answering all 3 questions

[@whatshaesells]

Hi! Generally about 30 days on ads unless the product is doing horribly and loosing quite a bit with no organic sales. I turn off non relevant keywords immediately. I will start running ads on a new product after its first sale, if it also looks promising in views/favorites.

[@Moonlightwhale]

How do you price your Etsy? Like Revenue 30-50% cos etsy take alot fees….please help. Thank you

[@whatshaesells]

Hi! It's all based on what competitors are pricing. I tend to price the same as or higher than the competitors, but provide more value (like include a bonus item, or additional features that the competitors don't have).

[@niklaus009]

How do you get ppl to leave a review? My shop has 4 sales and no reviews. I always message the buyer back shortly after the purchase thanking them, letting them know I’m happy to help if they have any questions, let them know that Etsy will send them a 10% off coupon for there next order (I also tell them the coupon code) and always end with a call for a review if they enjoyed their purchase and experience. No one has messaged me back or left a review. How do I navigate this situation? 🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾

[@whatshaesells]

Hi! I have the same issue, very few people leave a review and they usually don’t respond when I’ve asked in the past. The best option is probably to just be patient or get someone you know to buy/leave a review so you at least have one! I know it’s frustrating that so many people don’t leave reviews!

[@annadesn665]

I started my shop 6 weeks ago, just reached 87 listings yesterday and still waiting for my 1st sale! My goal was to set up the ads after I reach 100 listings... I really don't wanna do that, but there's barely any traction. Etsy only brings around 30% of my traffic, not sure what is the other 70% of Direct Traffic, as I never click on my own listings..

[@whatshaesells]

Hi! What kind of products are you selling? That is strange that you are getting so high direct traffic. My advice would be to keep doing research and trying to create competitive listings so that you can make your first sale!

[@laurenhook9495]

Hi Shae did you sell Etsy shop consults? I am New digital shop 400+ sales, star seller, also took Hannah’s aggressive approach but I’m still not profitable because of ad spend and need help tweaking the dials.

[@whatshaesells]

Hi! I don't do consults but I am happy to help answer any questions I can :)

[@xdpico652]

Do you have any experience with negative reviews?

[@whatshaesells]

Hi! Good question. I might make a video about this at some point but yes I have gotten a few negative reviews. I always message the buyer privately first to see what's up. Sometimes it's a mistake and they meant to give me a good review, so they will go back and update their review. Other times they genuinely had a bad experience and there's nothign I can do to fix it or they just don't respond. In that case, I will respond publicly on the review the best I can!

[@valeriag2842]

Hi Shae! I'm coming back to you for some more advice... Today I listed a new product and in a matter of a couple of hours I received a message from a buyer telling me that they couldn't check-out because of an error. I offered to help them but they insisted on getting my email, of course I didn't give my personal one. A few minutes later I received an email from "Etsy" telling me that the buyer had completed their part of the transaction and that I had to click a button for the confirmation page. Of course this sounds very scammy, also, the email address itself doesn't look legit at all. Instead of containing the word Etsy like any other email from the platform, it contains a person's full name and that's it... what should I do? Has this ever happened to you? I don't want to press the button in the email because I'm worried they could hack me. Anyways this is also a headsup for anyone else who is selling on the platform!

[@whatshaesells]

Thank you so much for mentioning this and making people aware! This is definitely a scam. They do not need your email at all, ever, to make a purchase. I haven't had this happen to me on Etsy but definitely on ebay and other platforms. Definitely report them!

[@valeriag2842]

@@whatshaesells yeah when I tried to ask them about their purchase and payment they completely ghosted me...

[@TheJazzy1037]

I love watching your progress each month it’s really inspiring. Do you do Etsy shop audits? My shop name is SakuraDreamsDesign. I mainly sell acuity templates. Any advice you could give about my shop I would appreciate. Thank you for these informative videos!

[@whatshaesells]

Hi! Glad you like my videos :) I'm not currently doing any shop audits but I might in the future!

[@abdinooribrahimderiye641]

Etsy not accepting any payments from my country. Any advice please

[@whatshaesells]

Hi! Unfortunately I don’t think there’s any way around it if your country is on the list of countries that Etsy currently doesn’t operate in :/ you could try different options like selling digital products on Amazon or creating your own Shopify store. So sorry! Hopefully Etsy extends access to your country soon!!

[@Moonlightwhale]

How long did you took to make the first sale?

[@whatshaesells]

It was about 10 days in, but I was listing about 3 items a day at that point

[@Moonlightwhale]

@@whatshaesells thank you. Did you do any Pinterest?

[@Moonlightwhale]

@@whatshaesells how did you get the views for people yo find you? I find that my products are not on the 1st page. Do you need to pay? Is esty ad worth it? Thank you

[@whatshaesells]

@@Moonlightwhale it definitely took some time to get first page listings. It just came down to listing every day and then eventually the Etsy algorithm starts to pick up your store and your listings more! Etsy ads are only worth it if you follow some of the strategies I explained in the video!

[@Moonlightwhale]

How many listing do you need on etsy? 40? 50? 60?

[@whatshaesells]

Hi! That depends on so many factors, including your niche and type of product. If you are selling digital products or print on demand, I recommend listing at least 1 item per day to grow your shop!

[@swavyhighlights2770]

I’ve had no sales used ads have had to pay Etsy like £200 what shall I do

[@yuliyana7401]

From the advices I got from the video, I think you should only put ads on your top performing listings, those listings should also have a few good reviews. Else you will be losing money on ads if you put on most or all your listings. If you haven't found your top performing listings, that's something that you need to dig deeper to find reason why and how to improve your listing better.

[@whatshaesells]

Yes I completely agree! Stop running ads and instead work on creating listings that start selling organically first. It takes some time to improve designs, but you’ll get there!

[@monys1974]

Hi @whatshaesells , thank you for the value you offer with the insights. I have a question regarding ads where I am not able to find the right answer so I hope you can help. As with running ads you can choose the goal, I am not sure what longterm the best would be, running orders short term or pushing up sales a notch, what would be your suggestion? I hope you will find the time to respond. Thank you!

[@whatshaesells]

Hi! I have tried to find the answer to this question in the past, but there is very little info out there about it. I think either of those ads goals will work, mine has been "drive orders short term"

[@kalyanivasaikar5607]

What is admirer in Etsy?

[@whatshaesells]

Hi! I’m not sure what you mean, where did you see admirer?

[@kalyanivasaikar5607]

@@whatshaesells many shops has admires on Etsy.

[@yuliyana7401]

Admirer is someone who likes/follows/press the heart icon on a shop page. Whenever the shop listed a new product or launched a new discount, the admirer will get a notification.

[@LolaLolaHulaHula]

I'm losing money on ads.. I've had 2 orders in the last 30 days and both came from ads but I've spent about £50 on my Etsy fees and ads and made about £2 😂 I'm trying to pay off my debts, not create more! argh.

[@whatshaesells]

Oh no!! Yes ads can be so tricky at first. I’d stop running ads and focus on creating listings that start to get organic sales before turning on ads again