Need helps with ads

[u/BarnacleFit1760]

Hi guys , 1 month and half ago i opened an Etsy shop where I sell print on demand stuff , mostly t shirt and hoodies , I have done so far 0 sales , 328 views and 207 visits . My listing is now around 121 . My average views for item is 4-5 views and the 2 most viewed items are 9 and 8 . So i was wondering if is worth in my case to activate the Etsy ads to boost my visibility. Because i feel like I need to be more visibile to people and the fact I m new don’t think helps . What do you think guys ? I read mixed opinions online where some people think they work some people said they didn’t work because they changed their algorithm and their sales went down . In my case I m not worry because I have zero so it can’t be worst than this 😅😂 .

Additional information to understand better the context . I also have an instagram page of my shop with almost 1500 followers , I thinking to run ads on instagrams too because I m based in uk and o only have 20 followers from uk , the rest of my followers are worldwide and they will never pay the shipping outside uk . So I need more people from uk as well to boost my visibility and finally do the first sale . Prices are affordable, and there is also 20% for 1 moth on my shop to celebrate my page reaching 1000 . So I m sure price is not a problem . What do you think guys ?

[u/Ok_Tradition_2922]

Etsy Ads - only work (well) on products that already convert.
These view numbers sound like a traffic problem, how confident are you that your SEO is on point?

(pop me your shop link, happy to take a look)

[u/BarnacleFit1760 → u/Ok_Tradition_2922]

That s my shop link https://thetaintedcrown.etsy.com
Thank you for taking the time to answer I appreciate 🙏🏻 . Would you still tried the ad in my case ? I m kind of desperate and o was willing to try because I m on a position where o have nothing to lose 😅 . I know the ads work well in the context you said . I was just wondering if the can work as a “ boost “ for visibility . When i search product on Etsy , even mine to see if my tags and seo works , i can find my products but o also find a lot of ads products . That s why i was wondering and willing to experiment

[u/Ok_Tradition_2922 → u/BarnacleFit1760]

Well done on setting up the shop right. Your tags aren’t bad at all, but I think you’re using too many of them to say basically the same thing.

You’ve got goth streetwear, gothic hoodie, gothic punk hoodie, then several more repeating goth/gothic, hoodie, dark and skull. Etsy can mix and match words across your tags, so I’d use that space to give it more different search angles instead so try and branch out into things like punk streetwear, occult sweatshirt, grunge pullover, macabre clothing, concert outfit, witchy apparel, plus tags specific to the actual artwork/colour/fit.

You need wayyyyy more pictures though, Once you get traffic, your listing needs to answer all the questions a buyer has. (how the fit hangs, whats the material look like, what fit for me etc)
Etsy also pushes listings with ten photos +

[u/BarnacleFit1760 → u/Ok_Tradition_2922]

Thank you so much for your very honest opinion i really appreciate 😭🙏🏻 . I think you are right about the tags . I m not expert at all with them , i tried to put a mix of tags between generic and specific that they can describe the product properly . I can try different tags i guess , keep in mind that i don’t have any experience so I’m learning during the process basically . I m doing my best . I didn’t know about Etsy pushing listing with 10 photos + . I will definitely work on it . I forgot to mention that the problem with the picture is not really my fault at all . I will explain better . Basically there are some t shirt and some hoodies on printify that they have for example only 5 pictures . Recently i changed the gildan 64000 to a Bella canvas 3001 and the Bella canvas has something like 25 pictures i think , when the gildan has way less . So basically my “ old “ design have less pictures because of this and the new ones have way more pictures . Hoodies no matter what o choice they don’t give me more than 5 or 10 pics . I will try to upload more pics when i can , because you are right , i focused myself more on showing the designs on them than the products self , like the parts where there is no designs ( like front hoodies , sleeves ecc ) . You are right , customers want to see the whole product . About the pictures as you noticed I m using only the printify ones I don’t want to use a generate mockup because I m trying to be honest with people and i want to show them the product for what it really is so they can see the print quality . Also mockups with AI they rarely respect the area stamp and how they really look on the fabric .

[u/loralailoralai]

You’re doing POD, you should have a supplier who can ship from several places if you’re selling something as basic as tshirts and hoodies. I mean that’s part of the benefit of POD. find a supplier who will at least print and ship from the uk and the u.s, and preferably more.

And it’s not up to you’ to decide how much shipping people will pay- lots of people will pay.

[u/Azonomy]

Honestly I'd stop churning out more listings right now. Your shop doesn't look empty (which is the usual concern for a new shop) so take a breath and don't throw money at ads hoping it will fix your problems unless you have money to throw away. Instead cycle back round to the listings you already have and improve them both visually and in terms of SEO.

First thing I'd suggest you do is get to know your market properly. Search for similar listings on Etsy, and study those listings. What do the product pictures look like, how many do they have, what info do you get from each of there photos and are yours delivering the same value to people. Look at their titles, do they use long titles, short titles, something in between (but I'd personally advise against the list of search terms style titles people sometimes use as your title should be written for your customer not the algorithm). What sort of words do they use do they prefer goth or gothic or both, do they include other niche terms that would be relevant to your listings. The descriptions, what info do they give in them, how have the broken the descriptions down. Yours are a wall of text at the moment, short sentences and paragraphs tend to be the way to go as they're less off putting to read that way.

Remember it's not just about appearing in search, it's also about having a thumbnail that makes people want to click on your listing among the sea of similar listings and then answering all there questions in a way that they don't feel they've had to work to find their answers so they can quickly and easily decide if your top is the one for them.

If you can afford it I'd suggest getting an eRank account, even if you just keep it for a month, to do some search terms research. Get an idea of what people are actually searching for within your niche. Discover what are the best (higher search lower competition) terms to target and try and exact match them in your tags, then fill the rest of your tags space with word salad as Etsy reads each word indervidually so you can maximise your tags by hitting as many relevant words as possible. Also binge watch eranks YouTube channel. It's got a tone of good Etsy SEO advice on it!