Etsy Offsite Ads: the fee, the $10,000 threshold, and opting out

Offsite Ads charge a percentage of an order when a shopper clicks an Etsy ad on another site and buys within 30 days. The rate and your right to opt out both depend on how much your shop has sold.

The short answer

• Under $10,000 USD in every consecutive 365-day period so far: 15% fee, and you can opt out.
• $10,000 USD or more in any consecutive 365-day period: a discounted 12% fee, and participation is required for the lifetime of your shop.
• The fee on one order never exceeds $100 USD.
• No sale, no fee. You pay only when an ad click leads to a purchase.

What Offsite Ads are

Etsy promotes your listings on external sites: search engines, social media and partner networks. Etsy's list includes Google, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Bing, publishing partner sites and the Google Display Network. Etsy shares "listing data (title, images, descriptions, etc.)" with those platforms. "You don't need to take any steps to be eligible", and Etsy states: "All sellers are automatically enrolled in Offsite Ads."

You have less control than with Etsy Ads. "You can't choose which listings are advertised", and "Offsite Ads don't have a budget setting." Etsy's advice for getting listings advertised is "improve the quality of your listings", so the guides on titles, tags and photos apply here too.

What the fee is charged on

Etsy's fees article says the 15% is "on the order total". The Offsite Ads article words it two ways: "on the order total" and "on the amount you made from your sale before the advertising fee was applied". Check the Offsite Ads dashboard for the figure on your own orders. As arithmetic: a $40.00 order costs $6.00 at 15% or $4.80 at 12%. The $100 cap starts to bite at $666.67 at 15% and $833.33 at 12%.

The threshold counts your shop's revenue "within any consecutive 365-day period". If your shop currency is not USD, revenue is converted "with the currency exchange rates Etsy used at the time that the sale was processed." Etsy checks monthly: "We'll take a look at your sales each month."

When an order counts as an Offsite Ads order

• A buyer clicks an ad and "completes a purchase from your shop within 30 days."
• One click can lead to several attributed orders. Etsy: "each order may incur an Offsite Ads fee."
• If the buyer's final click before buying is an Etsy Ad, "only the Etsy Ads fee will apply." The ads vs organic guide covers Etsy Ads.

Can you opt out?

Only if "your shop has never made $10,000 USD or more in any consecutive 365-day period." Once it has, "participation in Offsite Ads is required", from then onwards. To opt out, go to Shop Manager, then Settings, then Offsite Ads, choose Opt out of Offsite Ads and confirm. To come back, open the Offsite Ads page and choose Turn on Offsite Ads.

The Offsite Ads dashboard (Shop Manager, Marketing, Offsite Ads) shows revenue, fees, clicks and ad traffic. Etsy suggests using it to "see how much of your sales come from Offsite Ads and use that context to guide pricing and margins."

Pricing with the fee in mind

The fee calculator and pricing calculator both have a checkbox for a sale that came from an Offsite Ad. They apply 15%, or 12% at the threshold, and cap the fee at $100 for USD shops. The Ad labels Listrank adds to Etsy search results mark ads inside Etsy. Offsite Ads run on other sites, so Listrank cannot see them, and the dashboard in Shop Manager is where those numbers live.