How to Advertise on Craigslist the Smart Way

Business owners who advertise on Craigslist are able to tap into some of the benefits from this website. Craigslist is an online community where users can exchange information, buy and sell items, look for a job or even find friends or romantic partners. There are a number of advantages to advertising on Craigslist.

Two of the main advantages are the cost and the ability to reach a wide audience. This article focuses on these two benefits, along with advice to ensure that your advertising is not just reaching a wide audience, but to reach your target audience.  It also essential that you understand Craigslist’s Terms of Service (TOS).

When you consider the cost of advertising on Craigslist compared to the price for advertising on other websites, there is simply no comparison. The vast majority of ads on Craigslist do not cost anything. Free advertising!

Only a limited number of ads, including specific job listings for cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York or any type of brokerage advertising in New York, are required to pay a fee for the publication of advertisements. Even these customers only pay a minimal fee for their advertising.

I will say this again. All commercial advertisements for products and services are published free of charge. Advertising on Craigslist is a more financially attractive option compared to other advertising, where the company's owner is charged each time the ad is displayed even if it is not converted to a sale or even a lead generation.

In addition to affordability, another benefit to advertising on Craigslist is the potential for the ad to reach a broad audience. Craigslist receives approximately four billion page views per month from approximately ten million visitors. This is interesting because it gives an advertiser the ability to reach a wide audience effort with only minimal effort.

Many Internet users follow Craigslist, which provides a large group of potential buyers who already turn to Craigslist to find whatever they are looking for.  Getting that large audience is half the battle that is already achieved for you as an advertiser. Since you already have high traffic to the website, now you just have create an eye-catching and appealing advertisement to attract customers.

Craigslist certainly has an existing fan base of regular users, but the mass audience does not necessarily ensure advertisers aim.  Having a target audience is what will convert the sales. Craigslist is an extensive online community, but the goal to reach a target audience is more important than reaching the entire community.

Business owners may invest a lot of time and energy by placing their advertising in the various areas of the site, but that is not likely to be effective. Craigslist is divided into the basis of a number of different sections and categories for a specific reason. It is broken down in order to help users find information they seek.

For this reason, advertisers need to set their focus on placing advertising in sections that aim at the target members. Ads in multiple sections will likely result in the Craigslist site moderators considering your advertising spam and will delete them. If ads are ineffective, or misleading, it is unlikely you will convince buyers of the target audience to purchase your products or services anyhow.

The bottom line is if you are smart about advertising on Craigslist, you should reap the benefits and reach the target audience, who will hopefully buy your product or service. BUT, do not be a spammer!

Craigslist does not tolerate affiliate marketing and will get not only your ad booted off, but can cause further problems that is simply not worth taking the chance. Here is a clip from their TOS:

You can not post material or listings that:

k) that constitutes or contains "affiliate marketing," "link referral code," "junk mail," "spam," "chain letters," "pyramid schemes," or unsolicited commercial advertisement;

l) that constitutes or contains any form of advertising or solicitation if: posted in areas of the craigslist sites which are not designated for such purposes; or emailed to craigslist users who have not indicated in writing that it is ok to contact them about other services, products or commercial interests.

m) that includes links to commercial services or web sites, except as allowed in "services";

Do not try to be sneaky by creating a “landing page” because that is essentially the same thing. It is perfectly okay to link to your site (not a squeeze page or a sales page), but don’t try to find loopholes! It could get your removed from the affiliate program as well. You WILL get caught.

While it is okay to advertise, be smart about it, target the right audience by posting in the right category, and do not mislead your viewers.