Etsy takes 15-20% in fees, so you're used to thin margins. Google Ads adds costs, and sellers refuse to spend enough to get data—resulting in perpetual testing with no results.
Example: $5/day budget spread across 50 products = zero data on any product
Etsy buyers expect unique, handmade products. Google searchers expect fast shipping and professional service. Mismatch creates returns and bad reviews.
Example: 20% return rate from Google buyers expecting 2-day shipping on handmade items
Personalized products are Etsy's strength, but Shopping feeds can't handle customization requests. Either you exclude personalized items or face order fulfillment chaos.
Example: Shopping ad for 'personalized necklace' lands on generic page, 2% conversion vs. 8% on Etsy
Many Etsy sellers price lower on Etsy (accepting lower margin for traffic) and higher on their own site. Google Shopping shows your higher prices, customers compare and buy on Etsy.
Example: $45 on your site vs. $35 on Etsy—customers click your ad, buy on Etsy, you pay for traffic
Etsy titles are keyword-stuffed for Etsy search. Google Shopping penalizes this style. Your product titles look spammy and unprofessional, killing CTR.
Example: Etsy title: 'Personalized Dog Collar Custom Leather Dog Collar Pet Name Collar' vs. clean Google title
With a single asset group, Google optimizes for aggregate ROAS by heavily favoring your top 5-10 products. The rest of your catalog gets almost no impressions. Worse, low-margin products drag down profitability while appearing successful in aggregate.
Fix: Segment products by performance tier: Winners (scale), Potentials (test), Underperformers (cut or fix). Create separate asset groups for each.
PMax claims credit for brand searches that would've cost $0.30 through a dedicated brand campaign. Without exclusions, you're paying 3-5x more for customers already looking for you.
Fix: Add brand exclusions to PMax and run a separate Brand Search campaign with exact match keywords.
Missing GTINs, generic titles, no custom labels, and missing sale prices hurt your Shopping ad performance. Etsy-style keyword stuffed titles
Fix: Rewrite all titles for Google—NOT copy from Etsy
Your 5x ROAS might look great until you realize 70% of sales are repeat customers who would've bought anyway. You're paying to acquire customers you already have.
Fix: Segment reporting by new vs returning customers. Set up customer match lists and analyze true CAC.
Not all campaign types work for etsy sellers stores. Here's what to skip:
Can't handle customization workflow
Can't compete with mass-market on price
Will push to generic traffic that doesn't convert
Follow these best practices to maximize your Etsy Sellers Google Ads performance:
Budget: 40-50% • Target ROAS: 2.5-4x
Budget: 15-20% • Target ROAS: 4-8x
Budget: 25-35% • Target ROAS: 2-3.5x
Budget: 10-15% • Target ROAS: 4-6x