Paid Advertisements on Zazzle vs. Marketing Fees

[Jadendreamer13]

Instead of charging marketing fees that are deducted from Zazzle designers’ royalties, Zazzle could offer paid advertisements — like Etsy does — that designers pay for by setting a specific budget that is used on a pay-for-click basis.

This way, Zazzle could generate the extra income they want from paid ads instead of reducing designers’ royalties.

The paid ads would be placed on top of search results with a “Sponsored” notation, and the top-selling products would be displayed under the paid ads.

In this case, it would be a win-win situation — not a win-lose situation, which best describes designers’ current situation.

[CLC]

...you would probably lose money with paid ads.  If there was a pay for advertising available, just like on Etsy the algorhythm  would favor the top sellers and push those products to the front, sellers products that have not sold would never receive any impressions and you would be charged by clicks if someone did click on your ad. You could get 10 clicks at a cost of .70 each and own $7.00 without selling a product....

[Jadendreamer13]

Not every Zazzler would need to purchase paid adds; it would be optional….

[CrazyMermaid]

If a few purchase ads and get top rankings, it stops being optional for people who want to be competitive. The market place would belong to the rich. I also think it looks spammy to have sponsored ads at the top of the market place. It certainly doesn't increase the trust factor.

[Jadendreamer13]

As with anything designers do on Zazzle — like designing, researching, and marketing — running an ad campaign needs to be done strategically and thoughtfully in order to be successful. Setting an ad budget of $20.00 is affordable for most — and again, it’s optional.

[CLC]

If you want to pay to advertise your products there are several options available that would actually get you more exposure than this marketplace and earn you a referral as well, it would also be a good way to test if paid marketing was a viable option for you. I don't think Zazzle would drop the current advertising fee, but just add this option.

[Jadendreamer13]

I think that if we — designers and Zazzle don’t work together to find and establish a win-win solution, then nothing will change.

[Connie]

For sure pay-to-play is NOT a win-win situation! Not all change is good, and being forced to pay to show up in the search results is NOT a good change!

[Wesha]

Exactly ... please no paid ads on Zazzle like Etsy !

[kimmpossible]

I can promise you, the self referral thing is not worth it. I maybe get a couple per day and the rest of my sales are third party, where I am losing thousands per month and maybe getting like $20-$40 per day on self referrals. 

[sanainvi]

Have to evered paid to adverised your products ? I am thinking about doing this , coz i am a noob in this field , so i am not exactly sure about what to do like which plateform to use ? and how much money to put ? its confusing me

[CrazyMermaid]

The etsy sellers I know, don't think of it as optional and they pay a lot more than $20. They feel they have to do it to be competitive. So choice is only if you don't want to make a living from it. 

[Jadendreamer13]

If sellers have established — in their minds — that they have to pay for advertising, then that’s what they will feel compelled do.

Paying for advertising is optional.

This is all about mindset.

“Whether you think you can - or you think you can’t, either way, you’re right.”

[CLC]

...advertising is absolutely essential on marketplaces such as this, it's the only way to get products in front of buyers. Without our artwork showing on products on major search engines we would literally have no views or sales, in house advertising would not be enough, but advertising cost should be configured in the final cost of the product being sold by the maker, not deducted from commissions on artwork by artisans

[tamirazdesigns]

Agree!

[Connie]

If you have a "mandatory-ad-spending" mindset, good for you. There are plenty of places online to pay for advertising, places where your advertising dollars will go a lot further than competing with nearly a million other sellers for the top spots on Zazzle searches. Most of us DON'T want Zazzle to become a pay-to-play fiasco like Etsy!

[kimmpossible]

Again, no. You pay what you want. I have my budget at $1.30 per day and make a great income. The fees are much lower on Etsy and I would love to see Zazzle come closer to those numbers. Zazzle third party sales are eating my income. 

[jophb]

I've tried ads just about everywhere for my other business which was a very targeted audience and market.  It's like throwing money out of an airplane, it goes just about anywhere but where you need it to.  On Pinterest, $20 would disappear in literally seconds : ( 

[kimmpossible]

Totally not true. You still get plenty of traffic without ads. 

[chefcateringbiz]

Bingo - paid advertising is for the already successful, with marketing campaigns in different venues, no matter what industry you're in.

[Fiona]

I will pass this on.

Thank you!

[Connie]

This is a TERRIBLE idea! It favors the top sellers who can afford to spend more on ads, and it's not just a matter of setting a budget and sticking to it.  As demand increases, ads become more and more expensive, and it becomes mandatory to spend more and more to try to get placed favorably in the marketplace.

The current system is much more fair- the more sales we make, the more we spend on the marketing fees, but not until AFTER we have made the sales. And there is the incentive to do more outside marketing to get self-referrals.

Etsy is no longer a trustworthy handmade marketplace, but a free-for-all for all the junk that people can afford to spend ad money on. As a buyer, when I search on there, it takes me forever to find what I need, because I have to wade through row after row of garbage that are tagged with the keywords I'm searching for, relevant or not.

[kimmpossible]

Respectfully, you have this all wrong. Etsy has done a lot of work making their ad system fair. It used to be as you described, but now you set a daily budget for ads if you want them. When I wasn’t advertising, I still saw a lot of traffic. Etsy promotes new items, also, so I see sales a day or two after listing, vs here on Zazzle it can take months. 

Also, third party sales here on Zazzle are taking a huge percentage of our income vs just the $1.00 per day on Etsy. So basically, people in the Ambassador Program are making more money on my items than I am here on Zazzle.

[waterart]

I sure hope Zazzle does not go this route. If anyone is willing to pay for ads, like others have said there are plenty of places you can do that, but please, not on zazzle

[kimmpossible]

We are paying for ads, substantially. Half of my royalties are going towards 3rd party fees right now, therefore my Zazzle income has been cut in half. I am only paying a small amount of advertising fees on Etsy and a listing fee, which is a like 40 cents. Profit margins on Etsy are much higher now, so I am working on promoting Etsy over Zazzle. It’s a shame because I genuinely do love Zazzle and the variety of products. It’s just not worth my time right now. 

[CrazyMermaid]

It is good that you have the option of working on two very different platforms. I want that option as well, because I prefer Zazzle over etsy. 

[kimmpossible]

I prefer Zazzle as well, but now that my income has been cut in half, it doesn’t really make sense to invest my time making less money here. If royalties got back up to where they were a couple months ago, it would be similar to what I make on Etsy. I’m sure it’s different for each seller. I sell invitations, signs, plates, napkins, etc. 

[CrazyMermaid]

I am really tired of people trying to turn Zazzle into Redbubble or etsy. I just want Zazzle to understand that not everyone wants the etsy model implemented here. 

[Bluebird]

I prefer the option to pay for ads rather than face a large marketing fee that takes nearly half of my earnings and cannot be turned off.

[kimmpossible]

I am baffled that people would rather pay half their income to third party sales, than a set fee per day - that you can choose. Here on Zazzle I have lost thousands per month to third party sales. On Etsy I pay around $40 per month and that is all!! Not to mention, I receive 20% commission on print orders through Corjl, the editing service I use for my customers. So not only am I receiving a much higher amount per sale on Etsy, I am also getting 20% commission on print orders. I don’t think Zazzle will change its advertising system because they are making way more money claiming third party sales. They don’t even tell us where the sale came from. Also, people in the ambassador program are making 15% (I believe) of each order they refer, making three times more than the designers who spent the time creating and listing each product. I make more money on my self referrals than my actual design royalty. On orders of like $200 I maybe make like $9.00. You guys - this is not working. 

[igiftcenter]

Turn Z into an advertising platform for designers... is a truly bad idea.  This marketplace is hard enough to compete on but once you start changing it over to an Etsy ADV marketplace.... the entire playing field is skewed towards those with more $ in their pockets and those who have the time, knowledge, and strategy to put their products in a favorable marketplace position..... and you can say good bye to a LOT of designers who will fall by the wayside as a result of this. In addition new designer who are just starting out would be discouraged from believing they could succeed against the experienced and those with deeper pockets.  I'm pretty sure Z who is always looking of new / more talent would not want this to be the case.

[Bluebird]

I don't view this as a bad idea. I'm also selling merch on demand, KDP, and Etsy, and I'm still making sales without paying for ads. My focus has been on creating designs that people actively search for and optimizing them for SEO. However, I would prefer to pay for ads rather than lose almost half of my income to marketing fees. My main concern with Zazzle is the lack of growth this year. Despite the time I’ve spent designing and promoting my products, I haven't seen any positive results. Additionally, when I search for Zazzle on Google, I come across these very concerning questions.

[LTurg]

Sorry, thumbs down on this idea.  When I signed on years ago, the deal was I design, Zazzle markets.  Just like any business, advertising needs to be budgeted and Zazzle makes a healthy profit to afford spending part of it on marketing.

[sanainvi]

Yes , this is also concerning for me , my profit margin has reduced a lot . I don't wanna pay half of my earning for advertisement.