Of all Etsy's charges, Offsite Ads generates the most payout-shock threads in seller forums — because it's large, it arrives unpredictably, and many sellers didn't know they were enrolled. Here's how it works for UK shops in 2026.
Etsy advertises your listings on Google, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and Bing at its own expense. If a buyer clicks one of those ads and buys from your shop within 30 days, Etsy takes a cut of that order — 15% if your shop made under $10,000 (roughly £8,000) in the trailing 12 months, 12% if you're over. You pay nothing for clicks that don't convert, and the fee is capped at $100 (about £75–80) per order.
Under the threshold, you can opt out in shop settings — many small sellers never look, and stay opted in at the higher 15% rate. Over the threshold, participation is permanent: you cannot opt out, ever, even if your revenue later drops. The 30-day attribution window also means one ad click can claim a fee on an order full of items the buyer found organically.
Take a £10 item with £3.50 postage from a non-VAT-registered UK shop. Normal fees come to £2.20, leaving £3.01 profit after a £4.79 product cost and £3.50 postage. If that same order arrives through an offsite ad at 15%, the ad fee is £2.03, VAT applies to it like every other fee, and total fees hit £4.63 — 34.3% of the order. Profit: £0.58. The sale still "worked", but four-fifths of the margin went to the ad.
Three sensible responses, depending on your shop. If you're small and margins are tight, opt out — you're paying the 15% rate for traffic you may not need. If you're above the threshold, price it in: work out what share of your orders are offsite-ad attributed (your payment account shows each one) and pad prices by that expected cost. And either way, know your per-sale worst case before a promotion pushes a low-margin item into ad rotation — a product that can't survive the 12–15% haircut shouldn't be your ad-facing bestseller.
Rates and thresholds verified August 2026; confirm against Etsy's current fee schedule. Not tax or financial advice.