How to create the perfect Pets4Homes advert and find loving homes

Are you planning to rehome your pets on Pets4Homes?

If you are, then it's important to know that there’s an art to writing an effective ad that will get the attention of potential buyers. While there are many ways to showcase your pets, our research shows the best way is to write an advert that is informative, friendly, and focuses on pet welfare. 

We recently conducted a survey that asked people who found a new pet from Pets4Homes what they looked for in an advert. We have summarised thousands of responses to give you the best tips and tricks for optimising your advert!

 

What do people look for in an advert? 

Our survey indicates that the top three, controllable aspects of an advert that attract buyers are:

• Description preview
• Photos that show great pet welfare
• ID verified breeder or not

We’ll go through each of these in turn and talk about what makes a good description preview versus one that people avoid, the best photos to use, and why buyers want ID verification. 

Other important factors that decide whether someone will click on your advert or not are your location and the age of the pet. While your location can’t be helped and pet age is fixed, for those of you rehoming young pets, we recommend putting your litters up on Pets4Homes as soon as possible to give plenty of time to find the right home.  

 

How do I write a successful advert description preview?

The most important aspect of your ad is the description, according to our newest pet parents. From the search results page, people only see a small preview - usually the first 60 words or so. And for ads in the boosted section, people only see the first 30 words. 

This means you need to get the key information in the first part of your descriptions to encourage people to click your advert and read more. So what counts as ‘key information’ in people’s minds?

Well, according to Pets4Homes users it is health information and the availability of puppies. In addition, this info should be written clearly, with good spelling and grammar and in a friendly tone. 

That’s not to say that things like socialisation, family history, personality traits etc aren’t important. But these should come further down in the description for after someone clicks on your ad. 

Top description tips:

• Get any health info in the first 60 words of your description
• Update your advert description with availability of pets as you find new homes for them
• Write in full sentences with good spelling and punctuation! You can always get a friend or family member to proofread your article if you’re not confident with spelling and grammar. 
• Sound warm and approachable. Use happy descriptive words for your pets like beautiful, gorgeous, use words like ‘I’ or ‘we’ to sound friendly, and avoid warnings or ALL CAPS TEXT early in the description. 

 

What types of pictures attract viewers?

Pictures are essential to a successful ad as they provide a glimpse of what your pets are like and the environment they live in. Based on our survey, here are what people want to see when searching for their new pet.

 

The most important (and mandatory) photo you need for young pets is one with the puppies or kittens together with their mother. This shows that the litter has been brought up on your property and they are still with their mom as they're supposed to be.

Top tips for your photos:

• If rehoming young pets - consider making your photo of them with their mother the cover photo for your advert - it instantly shows buyers you’re a responsible breeder.
• Include the environment your pets are living in your photos, people want to see your cosy, happy surroundings!
• Use a good phone camera in a well-lit location to get photos that are in focus
• Don't shy away from showing all the pets together, playing and fooling around!
• A third of buyers find it helpful when photos show the gender of pets in your litter. You can do this by having the pups wear different colours and specifying their gender in your description. You can also add a text to the photo before uploading it.

Potential buyers want to feel safe

Our survey says a significant portion of people looking for a new pet think ID verification is another crucial step to finding the right person to rehome from. A prospective buyer wants to have peace of mind that they are interacting with a trustworthy and genuine person before any kind of financial transaction. ID verification adds that extra layer of security and can increase trust between you and potential buyers.

It only needs to be done once and only takes a few minutes. All you need is a piece of ID and your mobile phone camera. 

Did you know that you can also request potential buyers ID verify themselves too if you want that added piece of mind? 

You can learn more about ID verification here

ID verification

 

To summarise, writing an effective ad for your pet(s) requires a combination of a clear, informative description, photos showing the pets are well looked after, and trustworthy communication. 

We hope you found these tips helpful and that they help you find a loving new home for your pets! 

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