How to Opt Out of Etsy Offsite Ads (And When You Can't)

How to opt out

If your Etsy shop made less than $10,000 in the past 365 days:

1. Go to your Etsy shop manager 2. Click "Marketing" 3. Click "Offsite Ads" 4. Toggle the switch to "Off"

That's it. Your listings will stop appearing in Etsy's Google and social media ad campaigns. No more 15% fee on ad-attributed sales.

The change takes effect immediately for new ad campaigns. Sales from ads that were already running might still incur the fee for up to 30 days (Etsy's attribution window).

When you can't opt out

If your shop earned $10,000 or more in the past 365 rolling days, offsite ads are mandatory. You cannot turn them off. Etsy reduced the fee from 15% to 12% for these higher-volume shops, but you're locked in regardless.

This is one of the most controversial Etsy policies. Sellers with established shops and strong organic traffic are forced to pay for ads they may not need. The argument from Etsy: they're driving incremental sales. The argument from sellers: many of those buyers would have found the listing through organic search anyway.

There's no workaround. If you're above $10K, the only way to avoid offsite ad fees is to reduce your revenue below $10K (which obviously defeats the purpose) or move sales to other platforms where you control the marketing.

The math on whether to opt out

For shops under $10K, the decision depends on your product prices and margins.

On a $20 digital product without offsite ads: - Fees: $2.35 (11.8%) - You keep: $17.65

Same product with an offsite ad sale: - Fees: $5.35 (26.8%) - You keep: $14.65

That's $3 less per ad-attributed sale. If 10% of your sales come through offsite ads, the blended impact is about $0.30 per average sale. On 100 sales per month, that's $30 extra in fees.

Is $30/month worth the extra sales the ads bring? Maybe. The problem is you can't easily measure which sales are genuinely incremental (wouldn't have happened without the ad) vs which sales would have happened anyway through organic search.

My recommendation for shops under $10K: opt out. The fee savings are guaranteed. The "extra sales from ads" are uncertain. You can always opt back in later to test.

We analyzed this in more detail in [are Etsy offsite ads worth the 15% fee](/blog/are-etsy-offsite-ads-worth-it).

What happens to your visibility when you opt out

Opting out of offsite ads does NOT affect your Etsy search ranking. Your organic visibility stays the same. Your listings still appear in Etsy's internal search results exactly as before.

The only change: your listings stop appearing in Etsy's external ad campaigns (Google Shopping, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest ads that Etsy runs). For most digital product sellers getting 70%+ of traffic from Etsy search, this external ad traffic was a small percentage anyway.

For shops stuck above $10K

If you can't opt out, manage around it:

Price offsite-ads-heavy products higher. If a product frequently generates offsite ad sales, increase its price by 5-10% to offset the fee. Track which products get hit most.Shift repeat customers to other platforms. Include a Gumroad link or your own website in your thank-you PDF. Repeat buyers who purchase through [Gumroad](/blog/gumroad-fees-complete-breakdown) (10% fee) save you money compared to buying through an Etsy offsite ad (12-15% extra fee on top of standard fees).Track your offsite ad percentage. Monitor what share of sales come through offsite ads each month. If it climbs above 20-25%, something may need to change in your traffic strategy.

For the full fee math at any price point, use our [Etsy fee calculator](/tools/etsy-fee-calculator). For understanding all Etsy fees together, read [Etsy fees explained](/blog/etsy-fees-explained-what-you-actually-keep).