There are over 10 million people that use Craigslist every day, and many of them are actively looking for your services.
That being said, Craigslist is essentially a robot that works based on keywords.
You need to make sure you are writing your ad in such a way that Craigslist understands who to show it to.
Not to mention that your ad should come off as professional so that customers actually hire you after viewing it.
After running Craigslist ad campaigns for years, we are well aware of how to do it effectively.
This guide will go over everything you need to know to get a consistent flow of new customers from Craigslist.
We will also attempt to make this process as simple as possible so that beginners can do it too.
What Factors Make Up an Effective Ad?
All you need for your ads to work are the following 6 elements:
1. Catchy title
2. Images
3. Proper grammar and spelling
4. Clear call to actions like: “Call now for a free quote”
5. HTML (Advanced)
6. Lots of relevant keywords (Advanced)
This may sound difficult at first, but the good news is that you don’t actually need to understand all of that stuff in order to succeed on Craigslist.
Instead, you can just use the following ad template that already has most of the necessary elements in it.
Example Ad Template:
Title: Joe’s Local Handyman Services — FREE ESTIMATES
<big>
Hi, my name is Joe and I am a jack of almost all trades. I pride myself on doing quality work for my clients and providing great customer service.
<u>Call (phone number) now for a free quote!</u>
Some of my services include:
* Roofing
* Painting
* Tree work
* Landscaping
* (include at least 20 more services using keyword related verb-age)
<u>Call (phone number) today for a free estimate!</u>
</big>
Keywords: (Include 10+ more keywords)
What Makes This Ad Effective?
This ad checks all of the boxes that are necessary to succeed on Craigslist and more.
It has a catchy title that entices people to click, it has proper grammar and spelling, it has some keywords, it has HTML, and it has 2 clear call to actions.
In fact, we ran an ad just like this with more keywords and images that generated 4 calls per day for one of our clients.
Which leads us to the hardest part of the guide: finding and implementing relevant keywords, and designing professional images.
Keyword Research and Implementation (Advanced)
Proper keyword research and implementation is ironically the most important factor to your success with Craigslist advertising, while also being the most technically challenging.
You absolutely cannot skip this step, or your ads will likely not work.
Since it is not easy for beginners to learn, we recommend that you book a call with one of our Craigslist advertising experts to do it the right way the first time for you.
If you want to do it yourself though, here’s how to do it the right way that actually generates leads:
1. Keyword Research: Use keyword tools like the Google Keyword Planner in order to put together a list of at least 40 high search volume keywords in your industry.
2. Keyword Implementation: Once you have found the keyword list, take the keywords with the top metrics and put them primarily in the following 2 sections of your ad:
1. In the middle of the ad where you list your services
2. At the bottom the posting in a comma separated list
Note: try not to repeat any keywords too many keywords, or do this in an overly spammy way, because you may get your account banned by Craigslist.
Images
It is important to portray your company as personable and reputable so that people will trust you coming into their property.
A great way to do this is by using our professional ad image design service to design you an image like the one below.
If you would rather do it yourself, we recommend making sure all of the photos you use are high resolution and portray you as a personable expert.
How Often Should You Post Your Ads?
Craigslist’s posting limit policy requires that you wait 48 hours before posting the same ad over again, and we find that posting every 48 hours generally yields good results.
Bonus Tip: Best Day and Time to Post on Craigslist
Posting at optimal times can give your ads a small boost assuming that you already have the basics we discussed earlier down.
In our experience, Saturday mornings seem to be the best time to post on Craigslist because people often look to get home service projects done on weekends.
When it comes to the best time of day to post, we generally find that posting in the early morning usually produces good results.
Take Action!
Now that you have learned everything you need to know to predictably get new customers from Craigslist, we urge you to start applying these tactics right away!
Crafting a high converting ad should only take you less than a couple hours, and without it, or some other predictable way to get new customers, your business is dead in the water.
Like completely lifeless…
That being said, some of these concepts may be difficult to implement for beginners, and you definitely want to make sure you do it correctly or else it won’t work.
Not to mention that you are busy running your business, and Craigslist advertising is probably not something that you have put a ton of prior thought into.
So what if our team of professional Craigslist advertisers just handled it all for you?
We’re talking everything: Crafting a catchy title, image design, keyword research and implementation, HTML implementation, and more.
All you need to do is answer the phone when it starts ringing off the hook with new customers!
In fact, we are so confident in our service that we are even willing to offer a full money back guarantee!
That’s right, if our ad doesn’t give you AT LEAST a 10X return on ad spend, we will give you all of your money back with no questions asked!
Book a free call with one of our Craigslist advertising experts now to get started!