![For Sale - Classifieds](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/84/For_Sale_-_Classifieds.jpg)
Classified advertising is a form of
advertising
Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a product or service. Advertising aims to put a product or service in the spotlight in hopes of drawing it attention from consumers. It is typically used to promote a ...
, particularly common in
newspapers
A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background.
Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sports ...
, online and other
periodicals
A periodical literature (also called a periodical publication or simply a periodical) is a published work that appears in a new edition on a regular schedule. The most familiar example is a newspaper, but a magazine or a Academic journal, journal ...
, which may be sold or distributed free of charge. Classified advertisements are much cheaper than larger display advertisements used by businesses,
although
display advertising
Digital display advertising is online graphic advertising through banners, text, images, video, and audio. The main purpose of digital display advertising is to post company ads on third-party websites. A display ad is usually interactive (i.e. ...
is more widespread.
They were also commonly called "want" ads, starting in 1763, and are sometimes called small ads in Britain.
Newspaper classifieds
![Ukulele & Calabashes](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bb/Ukulele_%26_Calabashes.jpg)
Advertisements in a newspaper are typically short, as they are charged for by the line or word, and are one newspaper column wide.
Publications printing news or other information often have sections of classified advertisements; there are also publications that contain only advertisements. The advertisements are grouped into categories or ''classes'' such as "for sale—telephones", "wanted—kitchen appliances", and "services—plumbing", hence the term "classified". Classified ads generally fall into two types: individuals advertising sales of their personal goods, and advertisements by local businesses. Some businesses use classified ads to hire new employees.
One issue with newspaper classified advertising is that it does not allow images, even though display ads, which do allow images, can be found in the classified section.
Developments
In recent years the term "classified advertising" or "classified ads" has expanded from merely the sense of print advertisements in periodicals to include similar types of advertising on computer services,
radio
Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...
, and even
television
Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...
, particularly
cable television
Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with broa ...
but occasionally broadcast television as well, with the latter occurring typically very early in the morning hours.
Like most forms of printed media, the classified ad has found its way to the Internet, as newspapers have taken their classified ads online and new groups have discovered the benefits of classified advertising.
Internet classified ads do not typically use per-line pricing models, so they tend to be longer. They are also searchable, unlike printed material, tend to be local, and may foster a greater sense of urgency as a result of their daily structure and wider scope for audiences. Because of their
self-regulatory nature and low cost structures, some companies offer free classifieds internationally. Other companies focus mainly on their local hometown region, while others blanket urban areas by using
postal code
A postal code (also known locally in various English-speaking countries throughout the world as a postcode, post code, PIN or ZIP Code) is a series of letters or digits or both, sometimes including spaces or punctuation, included in a postal a ...
s.
Craigslist.org was one of the first online classified sites, and has grown to become the largest classified source, bringing in over 14 million unique visitors a month according to
Comscore Media Metrix
Media may refer to:
Communication
* Media (communication), tools used to deliver information or data
** Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising
** Broadcast media, communications delivered over mass el ...
. The sex ad section of the site was probed by authorities until it was shut down indefinitely. A growing number of sites and companies have begun to provide specialized classified marketplaces online, catering to niche market products and services, such include boats, pianos, pets, and adult services, amongst others. In many cases, these specialized services provide better and more targeted search capabilities than general search engines or general classified services can provide.
Facebook
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...
marketplace provides classified-style services but prohibits the sale of
firearm
A firearm is any type of gun designed to be readily carried and used by an individual. The term is legally defined further in different countries (see Legal definitions).
The first firearms originated in 10th-century China, when bamboo tubes ...
s. Other online classified ads websites now exist, Gumtree and Preloved are well known examples. A relatively new entry to this group is Little Breeders Pet Portal that provides its services to UK residents.
A number of online services called
aggregators crawl and aggregate classifieds from sources such as
blog
A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order ...
s and
RSS
RSS ( RDF Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication) is a web feed that allows users and applications to access updates to websites in a standardized, computer-readable format. Subscribing to RSS feeds can allow a user to keep track of many di ...
feeds, as opposed to relying on manually submitted listings.
Additionally, other companies provide
online advertising
Online advertising, also known as online marketing, Internet advertising, digital advertising or web advertising, is a form of marketing and advertising which uses the Internet to promote products and services to audiences and platform users. ...
services and tools to assist members in designing online ads using professional ad templates and then automatically distributing the finished ads to the various online ad directories as part of their service. In this sense these companies act as both an
application service provider
An application service provider (ASP) is a business providing application software generally through the Web.
The ASP model
The application software resides on the vendor's system and is accessed by users through a communication protocol. Altern ...
and a
content delivery platform
A content delivery platform (CDP) is a software as a service (SaaS) content service, similar to a content management system (CMS), that utilizes embedded software code to deliver web content. Instead of the installation of software on client ser ...
.
Social classifieds
Social organisms, including human(s), live collectively in interacting populations. This interaction is considered social whether they are aware of it or not, and whether the exchange is voluntary or not.
Etymology
The word "social" derives from ...
is a growing niche.
Statistics
In 2003 the market for classified ads in the United States was $15.9 billion (newspapers), $14.1 billion (online) according to market researcher Classified Intelligence. The worldwide market for classified ads in 2003 was estimated at over $100 billion. Perhaps due to the lack of a standard for reporting, market statistics vary concerning the total market for internet classified ads. The
Kelsey Research Group __NOTOC__
Kelsey may refer to:
Places Canada
* Kelsey, Alberta
* Kelsey, Manitoba
* Rural Municipality of Kelsey, Manitoba (unconnected with Kelsey, Manitoba)
* Kelsey Airport, Manitoba
* SIAST Kelsey Campus, one of four campuses of the Saskatche ...
listed online classified ads as being worth $13.3 billion, while
Jupiter Research
Mecklermedia (formerly Internet.com LLC, Jupitermedia Inc., Mediabistro Inc. and WebMediaBrands Corporation) was a U.S.-based corporation. The original WebMediaBrands was established in 1994, and headquartered in New York. Founded by Alan M. ...
provided a conservative appraisal of $2.6 billion and the
Interactive Advertising Bureau
The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) is an American advertising business organization that develops industry standards, conducts research, and provides legal support for the online advertising industry. The organization represents many of th ...
listed the net worth of online classified revenue at $2.1 billion .
Newspaper's revenue from classifieds advertisements is decreasing continually as internet classifieds grow. Classified advertising at some of the larger newspaper chains dropped by 14% to 20% in 2007, while traffic to classified sites grew by 23%.
As the online classified advertising sector develops, there is an increasing emphasis toward specialization.
Vertical market
A vertical market is a market in which vendors offer goods and services ''specific'' to an industry, trade, profession, or other group of customers with specialized needs. A horizontal market is a market in which a product or service meets a nee ...
s for classifieds are developing quickly along with the general marketplace for classifieds websites. Like
search engines
A search engine is a software system designed to carry out web searches. They search the World Wide Web in a systematic way for particular information specified in a textual web search query. The search results are generally presented in a ...
, classified websites are often specialized, with sites providing advertising platforms for
niche market
A niche market is the subset of the market on which a specific product is focused. The market niche defines the product features aimed at satisfying specific market needs, as well as the price range, production quality and the demographics that it ...
s of buyers or sellers.
See also
*
Classified magazine
A classified magazine is a magazine that publishes small ads and announcements, known as classifieds, for free or at relatively low cost. Typically these include items for sale and wanted, and services offered; they may also include personal ads. ...
*
Newspaper display advertising
Newspaper display advertising is a form of newspaper advertisement - where the advertisement appears alongside regular editorial content. Display ads are generally used by businesses and corporations towards promotion of their goods and services a ...
*
Personal advertisement
A personal advertisement, sometimes called a contact ad, is a form of classified advertising in which a person seeks to find another person for friendship, romance, marriage, or sexual activity. In British English, it is commonly known as an adv ...
*
Secondhand good
*
Tradio
Tradio is a type of talk radio show format, though now considered archaic, where listeners call in to buy or sell items. The concept is analogous to classified ads in local newspapers and most prevalent in the south and midwest.
"Tradio" is a p ...
References
{{Authority control
Advertising publications by format