Etsy is conducting a survey about its advertising program, explaining in its invitation, "Today we are conducting a research study to help us better understand what is important to our sellers. As part of this study, we'll be asking a number of questions to help us better understand you and your Etsy business."
One seller who received an invitation to the survey today expressed skepticism. "I generally don't participate in surveys by the marketplaces. I almost always feel like "helping them understand what's important to our sellers" is code for mining for information to monetize against me in the near future not help me succeed on their sites."
The survey comes as sellers continue to complain about a radical change to Etsy's ad program it made over the summer. As we noted in
this August 27th article, a spokesperson described the new Etsy Ads program as follows:
"Etsy Ads unifies the company's existing tools (Promoted Listings and Google Ads) into one simple, turnkey solution. Sellers can now set one budget, and Etsy will leverage its data insights and marketing expertise to optimize how their dollars are spent across channels."
Many sellers say their budget gets eaten up too quickly with the new Etsy Ads and have expressed a desire to be able to purchase Promoted Listing ads separate from Google Ads, giving them greater control.
As for the reader who informed us of the survey, they added an observation that may resonate with sellers on Etsy and other marketplaces such as eBay as they try to generate more revenue from sellers as sales growth slows:
"As the field gets more and more crowded with sellers and merchandise marketplace corps are meeting their imperative growth mandates by finding new ways to charge for what was once free rather than having to deliver results to their sellers."
If you've taken the survey, feel free to let us know if you think Etsy is on the right track or not, without violating the non-disclosure agreement you were required to accept before taking the survey that prohibits participants from disclosing "any new products, tools, or concepts."
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Etsy Surveys Sellers on Ad Program: Changes on the Way?