Offsite Ads is the only Etsy fee you get to switch off, and most sellers decide it on instinct: “15% is outrageous” or “free traffic, why not”. Both are wrong as general rules. Whether it pays depends on three numbers you can find in an afternoon — your gross margin, how much of your traffic already knows your shop, and how far you are from $10,000 in trailing sales.
This guide sets out what Offsite Ads really costs a UK seller in 2026, the rule that removes the choice, a margin test with a worked example, the cases where staying in is right, and the steps to opt out. Fees quoted are Etsy’s published rates as of September 2026; check the Etsy fee calculator for your own products.
What Offsite Ads is, and what it actually charges
Etsy takes your listings and advertises them on Google Shopping, Bing, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest at its own expense. You cannot pick listings, set budgets or write the ads. When a shopper clicks one of those ads and buys from your shop within the next 30 days, Etsy charges an Offsite Ads fee on that order. The rules that matter:
- Rate: 15% of the order total for shops under $10,000 USD in trailing 365-day sales; 12% for shops that have passed it.
- Base: the whole order — item price plus postage plus gift wrap, before any tax Etsy collects. A £25 item with £3.50 postage is charged on £28.50.
- Cap: $100 per order. On a £600 commission the fee stops at roughly £75, which is why high-ticket sellers sometimes do better than the headline rate suggests.
- Attribution: 30 days. Any order from the same buyer within 30 days of the click is billed, even if they came back through Google or a direct link.
- Pay per sale only. Clicks that do not convert cost nothing.
- On top of normal fees. The 6.5% transaction fee, the 4% + £0.20 payment fee, the 0.48% regulatory operating fee and the listing fee are all still charged.
The UK VAT detail most guides miss
Etsy adds 20% VAT to seller fees for UK sellers who have not supplied a VAT number. That applies to the Offsite Ads fee too, so 15% becomes 18% of the order and 12% becomes 14.4%. If you are VAT-registered, enter your number in Shop Manager → Finances → VAT and the fee is charged net.
The $10,000 rule that removes the choice
Opting out is available only while your shop has made under $10,000 USD in the past 365 days. The moment you cross that line — roughly £7,500 to £8,000 depending on the exchange rate — two things happen: your rate drops to 12%, and participation becomes mandatory for the life of the shop. Not for a year. Permanently, even if sales later fall below the threshold.
This changes the question. A shop doing £500 a month is not choosing between 15% and 0%; it is choosing between 15% now and a mandatory 12% in about fourteen months if growth continues. The sensible plan is to decide your pricing as if Offsite Ads were already permanent, and use the opt-out window only where the margin genuinely cannot carry it.
The margin test
Run it per product, not per shop. You need the retail price, postage charged, cost of goods including packaging, and your normal Etsy fees. Then:
- Net after normal fees = order total − transaction fee − payment fee − regulatory fee − listing fee − VAT on those fees − cost of goods − postage cost.
- Offsite cost = 18% of order total (15% plus VAT), or 14.4% once you are over $10k.
- Offsite net = net after normal fees − Offsite cost.
- If Offsite net is below £2 or below 15% of the price, the ad sale is not worth having; opt out or raise the price. If it is comfortably above, stay in.
Worked example: a £25 print with £3.50 postage
Order total £28.50. Normal Etsy fees come to £3.49, or £4.19 with VAT. Suppose the print, packaging and postage cost you £12.60, leaving a net of about £11.70 on a normal sale. Now apply Offsite Ads: 15% of £28.50 is £4.28, and with VAT the total fee bill rises to £9.32. Your net on that order falls to roughly £6.60 — still positive, still more than a fifth of the price. This product passes. Run the same numbers on the Etsy fee calculator with Offsite Ads switched on and off to see both figures side by side.
Now change one input. If the same print sold at £15 with the same £12.60 cost, a normal sale nets about £3 and an Offsite sale loses money. Same shop, same ad, opposite answer. That is why the test has to be per product.
Three cases where staying in is right
- You are still building reviews. A new shop’s biggest ranking problem is zero social proof. An order that costs 18% to acquire and produces a five-star review improves your position in every Etsy search that follows. Treat the fee as a marketing cost, not a tax.
- Your products are gift-led and never searched by name. If buyers find you through “personalised gift for gardener” on Google Shopping rather than by your shop name, the ads reach people you would not otherwise meet. Cannibalisation is low.
- You sell high-ticket items. The $100 cap means a £1,000 order pays about 7.5% — half the headline rate. Furniture, fine jewellery and commissioned art usually do well.
Three cases where opting out is right
- Thin margins. Below about 30% gross margin after normal fees, Offsite sales are break-even or worse. Fix the price first; if the market will not bear it, opt out.
- Most of your traffic already knows you. Check Shop Manager → Stats → Traffic sources. If a large share is direct, from your own social media or from repeat buyers, an Offsite Ad click can intercept a buyer who was coming anyway and bill you 15% for it. The 30-day window makes this worse: a repeat customer who clicked a Pinterest ad three weeks ago is charged on their next order too.
- Low-value, high-volume items. Stickers, digital downloads and small accessories often net a pound or two per sale. There is no room for a fee.
Digital products
Offsite Ads applies to digital listings exactly as it does to physical ones. A £4 download nets very little after the £0.20 fixed payment fee; adding 18% on top usually makes the sale worthless. Most digital sellers under the threshold are better off out.
How to opt out (and what still gets charged)
- Shop Manager → Settings → Offsite Ads.
- Click Stop promoting my products and confirm.
- Check the confirmation: the page should now say your listings are not being promoted.
- Expect fees for up to 30 more days. Orders from buyers who clicked an ad before you opted out are still attributed.
- Watch Finances → Payment account for a full month to confirm no new Offsite lines appear.
If the option is greyed out, your shop has passed $10,000 in a 365-day period and you cannot opt out. The only levers left are pricing and the product mix you keep listed.
Before you decide, fix what makes the ads expensive
The fee is a percentage of a sale that only happens if the listing converts. A listing with weak photos or an unclear title pays the same 15% but converts fewer clicks — and every click it wastes is an ad Etsy might have shown for a competitor instead. Run the 27-point Etsy SEO audit on the listings Etsy promotes most (Marketing → Offsite Ads shows which), and if the shop gets traffic but few orders read why shops get views but no sales. Good tags matter here too: Etsy picks which listings to advertise partly from the same relevance signals.
If you would rather have the margin test, the traffic-source check and the pricing changes done for you, the Etsy Shop Audit covers all three and tells you, product by product, whether Offsite Ads should stay on.
Frequently asked questions
How much does Etsy Offsite Ads cost in the UK?
15% of the total order value, including postage and gift wrap, on any sale attributed to an Offsite Ad click in the previous 30 days. Shops that have made $10,000 or more in a 365-day period pay 12%. The fee is capped at $100 per order, and UK sellers who are not VAT-registered pay 20% VAT on top of it, so 15% effectively becomes 18% of the order.
Can I opt out of Etsy Offsite Ads?
Yes, if your shop has made under $10,000 USD in the past 365 days. Go to Shop Manager → Settings → Offsite Ads and choose Stop promoting my products. The change applies to new clicks straight away, but sales from clicks that happened in the previous 30 days can still be charged. Once a shop passes $10,000 in a 365-day window, participation becomes mandatory permanently.
Do I pay for Offsite Ads clicks that do not lead to a sale?
No. Offsite Ads is pay-per-sale, not pay-per-click. Etsy funds the ads on Google, Bing, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest and only bills you when an ad click results in an order within 30 days. A buyer who clicks and never buys costs you nothing.
Is Etsy Offsite Ads worth it for a new shop?
Usually yes, provided the margin supports it. A new shop has no reviews, no repeat buyers and little search visibility, so an order that costs 15% to acquire is often better than no order. The reviews it generates improve ranking for every future search. Switch it off later if your margins or your branded traffic make it unprofitable.
How do I know which sales were charged an Offsite Ads fee?
Open Shop Manager → Finances → Payment account, then view your monthly statement. Offsite Ads fees are listed as a separate line per order. You can also see attributed orders under Marketing → Offsite Ads, which shows how many clicks and orders the ads produced.