Classified advertising is a kind of advertising which is particularly popular in newspapers, online on the world wide web, and other periodicals, e.g. Pennysavers or free ads papers . Classifieds advertising differs from conventional standard advertising in that it allows individuals (not just companies or corporate entities) to seek and solicit sales for products and services.
Classifieds advertising is generally text based and may consist of as little as the kind of item being sold and a phone number to call for more information. It can also have more detail, such as name to contact, address to contact or visit, a more complete description of the product or products (same with services). There are usually no pictures or any type of graphics in the advertisement. Sometimes a logo may be used.
|
Classified advertising has the nomenclature classifieds as in the publication where it is published, it is classified under headings such as Automobiles, Clothing, Agri Produce, For Sale, For Rent and much more. It is therefore grouped in a distinct section of the periodical. This makes it distinct from display advertising, which mostly contains graphics or some art work, more usually distributed throughout a publication next to editorial content.
|
|
A combination of two forms called classified display advertising can be found, in which categorized advertisements with larger amounts of graphical detail can be found among the text listings of a classified advertising section.
Business seekers often use classifieds to sell their services, mostly with 1-800 numbers. Classified advertising is also popular with many companies in recruitment for employment opportunities.
Printed classified ads are usually just a few column lines in length, and often filled with abbreviations to save space and money. It is a practice which classifieds readers have gotten used to.
For some years now, classified advertising or "classified ads" has moved from merely print advertisements in periodicals to include similar advertising on computer services, radio, and even television. In television, it is particularly cable television but often includes broadcast television. In broadcasts, it occurs early in the morning hours.
The Internet has not remained untouched by classifieds and the ads are a little different on the net. Internet classified ads do not use per line pricing models and hence are somewhat longer. They also offer easy search and tend to be more local in composition. Free classifieds are offered by Craigslist in US, and Kijiji and Gumtree internationally. Other companies focus on local hometown region and zip codes. Craigslist.org has a reputation for being one of the first online classified sites. Nowadays, it is the largest classified source, bringing in more than over 14 million unique visitors monthly.
Estimates of market size vary regarding the total market. In 2003, according to one market report, the market for classified ads in the US was $15.9 billion for newspapers and $14.1 billion online. The global market for classified ads in 2003 was estimated at over $100 billion. In 2007, classified advertising with a few of the larger newspaper chains has dropped 14% to 20% while traffic to classified sites has grown 23%.
|
