How To Check the Number of Views on Your Craigslist Ad
Do you post ads on Craigslist? Have you ever wondered how many views your Craigslist ad has? Have you ever wished for an analytics tool to track your ad? If so, this tutorial is perfect for you!
Craigslist has been around for a long time and hasn’t changed much since it first launched in 1995. It’s one of those websites that would be hard to recommend if it wasn’t free and didn’t have everything you need. Unfortunately, Craigslist is also full of scammers, fake ads, and time-wasters. But we still use it.
If you advertise anywhere, you know the importance of analytics. It helps you track views and actions to see how effective your headline or call to action is. It allows you to see the percentage of people who viewed your ad and actually made a purchase. With this information, you can improve your ad and sell more. Although Craigslist doesn’t provide these analytics features, there are ways to track your ad.
Tracking Images on Craigslist
There is a popular trick that involves using an image and your own web hosting to track views. However, this method doesn’t always work perfectly. Some people say it doesn’t work because Craigslist removes HTML from ads. But others, including myself, have been able to make it work. It’s a win-win if you use images in your ads regardless, so it’s worth a try.
To use image tracking:
- Choose an image for your Craigslist ad.
- Upload it to your web hosting and connect it to your analytics.
- Add a link to the image within your Craigslist ad.
- Watch the view count increase.
The exact method will depend on the system your web host uses. For example, my host uses cPanel which doesn’t have a hit counter. Instead, I linked the page hosting my image to Google Analytics. If you have an analytics account, you should be able to do the same. It’s a slightly complicated way of doing things, but it works.
As I mentioned earlier, this method may not work perfectly because Craigslist sometimes removes HTML. However, if you can get it working, it’s a good way to track the number of times your ad is viewed.
Other Methods to Track Craigslist Ad Views
You can try using hit counters in your Craigslist ads. However, Craigslist also tends to remove HTML from ads, so this method may not always work. It seems to be an automated system, and it may depend on how busy the platform is.
If you don’t have a web host or if Craigslist keeps removing the link, you can try using a hit counter. There are various counters available, such as Simple Hit Counter, Simple Website Hit Counter, Free Craigslist Counter, or TinyCount. They all work in a similar way by adding HTML code to your ad to count the hits.
Again, this method doesn’t always work because Craigslist can strip out HTML and render this method useless. I managed to get a couple of ads to work, but the majority did not.
Using Tracking Pixels to Check Craigslist Ad Views
The final method I know of to check the number of views on your Craigslist ad is to use a tracking pixel. It’s a similar setup to the image method I mentioned earlier, but instead of using a visible image, you use an invisible pixel to track the ad. You can set this up yourself or use a service like ClickMeter to handle it for you.
To make this method work, you will need a ClickMeter account. Out of all the methods I researched, this one seems to be the most reliable. However, there are still no guarantees.
I apologize that this tutorial isn’t as detailed as my usual ones. Given the nature of Craigslist, it’s difficult to be as specific as I would like. Craigslist is a unique platform – it can be incredibly useful at times but also frustrating. However, if you already advertise on Craigslist, you probably know this already.
I apologize that this tutorial isn’t as detailed as my usual ones. Given the nature of Craigslist, it’s difficult to be as specific as I would like. Craigslist is a unique platform – it can be incredibly useful at times but also frustrating. However, if you already advertise on Craigslist, you probably know this already.
