Topic: The Best Craigslist Ads For Apartment Marketing

Craigslist is always a hot topic, and I was wondering if you all would be willing to share your best ads that you use? (I can help get screenshots if you can't)

I'm very creative, but I have no talent! :ohmy: But here's my ad.

(it does have pictures and my phone #, it just doesn't show up in the screen shot photo


portland.craigslist.org/wsc/apa/3345215541.html

I have been using Craigslist for about 4 years. I post ads with Postlets and with ForRent.com templates. I get a lot of phone calls from the ads.

These are two of my recent ads using each source:



charlotte.craigslist.org/apa/3354937080.html

charlotte.craigslist.org/apa/3333479605.html

Working in a college market, I'm able to think outside-the-box. The vast majority of our traffic is generated by craigslist and I have a formula of 4 different types of ads that I post.
The ads that have gifs and a sense of humor always seem to be memorable to prospects. Here's an example:
www.craigslist.org/apa/3333929507/html

Hi Heather - it looks like your ad was taken down. Do you have another version to share?

Oops! Sorry!
lawrence.craigslist.org/roo/3345328042.html
Gangman Style!!

How do you insert a video to craiglist?

I noticed that Craigslist is now flagging and removing ads that use Postlets or USE templates. Does anyone know how to get around this?

Re: Deleted posts using templates. You can push through the code to remove the terms of service violation words (ie. powered_by_postlets.com), but postlets encrypts the photo saves with their postlets.com name,so you can get the basic parts of the template, and the main picture only.

It's a lot of work for something that doesn't look so hot, anyway.

If anyone finds a way to work it, I'd be interested in learning.

Consumers and competitors often flag listings on Craigslist (CL). I work with many PM's, Agents and brokers across the US and I hear this all the time. In San Francisco it is rampant. CL has an auto-removal system after a listing gets enough flags. So, if a consumer calls you and doesn't like what they heard from you, or a competitor thinks your listing makes theirs look bad, or maybe you just don't have that many friends - your ad comes down with no remorse, or worse it gets "ghosted". Ghosting is when you think your ad went up, it looks like it is live, you can find it, but when consumers search - it is not there in the results.

Some tips:
1) do not post your ad multiple times, especially the same ad. People will flag you. If you are posting multiple ads to stay at the top of the results, you need to rethink your strategy.
2) Provide photos and good information so your listing looks legitimate.
3) Try other cross-posting tools to see what happens, Trulia has a free cross-posting tool which has no links back to the site, so CL allows it. You can add unlimited photos and it looks really clean and simple. Trulia also has some good anti-fraud measures.
4) If you have links back to sites like Postlets, CL can block the ad by default if it feels that traffic is being siphoned away.
5) work with sites that have reviews of flagged listing, not just auto-removal, this way your competitors or angry tenants can't flag your listings out of spite.

Great! Thank you!!

The appearance of the ad is not what is important for Craigslist it is much more important to not get flagged and/or ghosted. For that you need a tool like RentSentinel to create and post your ads that has reports on what sort of responses you are getting for each post and what ads are working and which ones are not. :whistle:

Yesterday, my ad using Postlets was blocked for the first time.

I read that Zillow's engineers were working on it. Don't understand why Craigslist would block these ads. They are nice ads.

I will have to use ForRent.com, at least until they decide to block them, too.

The appearance and content of your craigslist ad is very important. We continue to see that a "traditional looking" craigslist ad receives more ad views and a greater response than an ad that appears to be a "designed template". Click here to view what one of our ads looks like: bakeextracookies.com/sample

Feel free to incorporate the elements that we've found to work well into your own ads. Also, feel free to reach out to me directly if you have any questions, I'm always happy to chat about all things craigslist.

I use www.smilebox.com for a lot of ads. You can choose from hundreds of templates! Add photos, video and music.
These make really eyecatching ads. I pay for a premium account, but the templates can be used for photo albums, scrapbook pages (that I save as photos to use in my craigslist ads), newsletters and more!
We get lots of traffic and compliments on these ads.
The most viewed are short 10 second videos that I upload to the collage templates and I call them Craigslist Commercials.

Our friends at RentSentinel , who provide some fantastic Craigslist posting tools, have been nice enough to share some of their effective Craigslist ads for apartment marketing!

They also sent along this note:

norfolk.craigslist.org/apa/4159088363.html

hey diddle diddle is your apartment too little?
norfolk.craigslist.org/apa/4150955932.html

our prices are out of this world
norfolk.craigslist.org/apa/4090649628.html

At 950 sf, our apartments are pretty spacious for our area, so I really like the "hey diddle diddle." I will definitely use that one when I get a vacancy again. My most successful ad I've used in the past is

10 reasons you should have moved here the last time your lease expired.

10. You can save money on going out! We have two pool tables, table tennis, and a book exchange! (OK, this one's a little corny, they get better.)

9. One word: apartmentratings.com -- Check it!

8. Indoor pool! Heated and Open year round!

7. 24 hour fitness center, right here in our building. No excuses! (did I mention the indoor pool?)

6. On-site laundry, in the same building as your apartment, mailboxes too. No need to go out in the rain.

5. ASSIGNED parking. Your parking spot is assigned and comes included with your rent (just one space per apartment though, sorry.)

4. Closet space. Over 65 sf of it. Is there such a thing as too much closet space?

3. Never drive to the store. We are walking distance to hundreds of shops and restaurants. Hundreds. Right.Next.Door.

2. Location, Location, Location. The mall, Target, Grocery Outlet, 5 bus lines. One block from Highway 217 (OK, this one sucks for drivers at Christmas time).

1. You will not find better customer service. We care about our residents because you are also our neighbors.

Pictures on our facebook page. Please LIKE our page while you are there!
www.facebook.com/media/set/set=a.4742257...61&type=3&uploaded=9

We are happy to show you our community by appointment between 10 & 4.

Georgetown Manor Apartments
See more pictures on our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/georgetownmanor

9050 SW Washington Square Rd
Tigard, OR 97223
503-646-7674
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Our Website: www.princetonproperty.com/georgetownmanor
Reviews: www.apartmentratings.com/rate/OR-Tigard-...anor-Apartments.html
9050 SW Washington Square Rd
Tigard, OR 97223

To bad we cant see the ads you have added as reference :dry:

I used both craigslist and Trulia to advertise my urbansiderentals apartment and deals in Houston. These two real estate sites works great on me. Last month, I posted one available apartment for rent in downtown and High rise in Craigslist and got quick response two days after that.