I don't believe in increasing friction through password protection! Below is a high level outline of the business problem, research approach and impact. Happy to share full details in private spaces.
ROLE AND TIMELINE:
Research Lead, Sep' 24
RESEARCH METHOD AND PARTICIPANTS:
MaxDiff survey, Moderated Interviews
PRODUCT SQUAD PARTNERS:
Product Manager, Engineering Manager, UX Designer, Data Scientist
SUMMARY:
Led moderated interviews and MaxDiff analysis to uncover underlying needs for advertising controls, leading to the introduction of goal based campaigns and informing a strategic shift toward maximizing seller ROI
Business problem
Etsy Ads has long been a steady revenue stream, but as discretionary spending declined, Etsy (and Etsy seller) sales trended downward. Less intentional buyer clicks drove a significant drop in seller ROAS in turn leading to sellers pulling back on ad budgets, putting both Etsy’s and sellers’ growth at risk. As a result, the Ads team shifted gears from focusing on pure revenue driving efforts to increasing Ad attributed GMS.
Customer problem
Driving GMS required more seller investment, but sellers were hesistant to invest more as they lacked agency on how their money was spent across their shop. On the other hand, Etsy Ads was reluctant to add too many controls in fear of them being misused by sellers. To resolve this tension, I prioritized foundational research to move away from solutioning and define the true seller problem behind their ask for controls.
RESEARCH APPROACH
Question storm with stakeholders
Gather questions and concerns around what a future state with ad controls would look like
Hypotheses generation
In-depth interviews with sellers to learn their performance expectations from our ad product
Feature prioritization
MaxDiff survey to size and prioritize controls across different seller profiles
In past studies where controls came up, sellers often jumped to suggesting features which they encountered on other ad products. This research was taking a step back from features and understand more about desired outcomes and the underlying attributes that lead to their asks.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
- When sellers ask for controls, what outcomes are they hoping for
- How do sellers use these controls on competitor platforms?
- Are our target sellers asking for these controls? (or) which sellers are asking for these controls?
- Which controls/outcomes are higher priority for our target sellers?
Learning #1: Agency trumps 'controls'
Through interviews, we learnt that sellers' control asks were greatly influenced by item category and growth strategy but maintaining a good ROI was a critical underlying motive across the group. At the core, sellers wanted the ability to choose the right course of action for their shop and listing strategy as they did not completely trust Etsy to know what's best for them.
“It could be argued that if most of your budget is going towards one high-performing listing, then that listing is a successful advertisement for your shop. Shoppers see that item and it draws them in – your ad is working and doing its job. On the other hand though, this is not how some of us WANT to use our ad budget." - Anonymous participant
Learning #2: ROI is priority
Our MaxDiff analysis further confirmed the strong underlying need of maintaining a desired level of ROAS and revealed that budget controls consistently ranked as the top priority for sellers across all segments, above creative or targeting controls. With Etsy Ads taking a one size fits all approach, all sellers tenured or new, reported this strong preference for budget controls that helped control their ROAS level.
IMPACT
This research decisively clarified the underlying needs behind advertisers’ requests for controls and identified which levers would meaningfully increase trust and investment. The insights directly guided the development of goal-based campaign strategies, a scalable solution that gives sellers the right level of agency while preserving system health. As a result, Etsy Ads launched a new campaign framework (currently available to high-budget advertisers) that supports diverse seller goals (e.g., visibility vs. efficiency) and encourages greater budget investment. The work also aligned cross-functional teams around a shared understanding of advertiser needs, reducing internal resistance and enabling forward momentum on a previously stalled roadmap.