The Lifecycle of a Craigslist Ad

PostEngine for Desktop with Scheduled Posting is our latest product innovation, please email help@rooof.com to request this update!

Overview

This page will go over in detail the lifecycle of a Craigslist ad.

Craigslist Lifecycle

A Craigslist ad follows a cycle, the cycle is listed in the numbered list below:

Drafted
Published
Renewed
Expired
Reposted
Deleted

Drafted

When you've started creating a new ad and have filled out all of the information, this is a draft. In the Drafted stage, only you are able to see the ad because it isn't live on the listings page. When you're happy with the draft of your ad, click Publish.

Please note: You can view your unpublished drafts in the drafts tab in your Craigslist account.

Published

In the Published stage, your ad is live on Craigslist and can be viewed and searched for by prospects. People viewing your ad will be able to respond to your ad.

Please note: You will receive a confirmation email from Craigslist every time you publish a new ad.

Renewed

Renewing brings your ad back to the top of the Craigslist listings page. This increases the visibility of your ad and improves the chances of it being viewed and responded to by prospects.

Ads are eligible for renewal approximately 48 hours after publishing. If you have PostEngine set to automatically renew your ads, it will routinely check to see which ads are eligible for renewal and will renew one at a time!

Please note: Learn more about PostEngine's Auto-Renew feature: PostEngine's Auto-Renew

Expired

An ad expires a set amount of days after it was first Published. The number of days differs, depending on the Craiglist region you're posting into (usually 30-45 days, 7 days in busier regions). Once an ad has expired it's no longer live on Craigslist and is not visible or searchable by the public.

Reposted

Once an ad has expired, you are able to repost it. This duplicates the original ad and restarts the lifecycle. An ad is in the reposted stage when it has expired and been reposted.

Deleted

When an ad is completely removed from Craigslist, it is in the deleted stage. This happens when a user chooses to delete an ad before the expiry, or if an ad has expired and not been reposted. Ads are not visible to or searchable by the public when in the deleted stage.