How to write a Facebook Marketplace listing

Plain words beat keywords

Titles allow around 100 characters, and the instinct carried over from Etsy or eBay is to fill them with search terms. On Marketplace that backfires. Buyers here type short, ordinary queries ("sofa", "bike", "dining table") and a title stuffed with variations reads as a dealer listing rather than a neighbour selling a sofa.

Say what it is, its condition, and the one detail that matters for that category. "IKEA Ektorp 3-seat sofa, grey, good condition" is complete. Size for furniture, capacity for appliances, brand and frame size for bikes.

There is no tags field on Marketplace at all. Whatever keywords you want indexed have to live naturally in the title and description, which is another reason stuffing shows.

Answer the collection question before it is asked

Most Marketplace transactions end with someone driving to a location, and the questions that follow every listing are the same three: is it still available, will it fit in my car, and can I collect this weekend.

Answer all three in the description. Rough dimensions, whether it dismantles, which area you are in, and when you are around. A listing that settles those gets a message saying "I will take it" instead of a thread of five questions that goes cold.

If an item needs two people to lift, say so. Discovering that on the doorstep is how a confirmed sale becomes a wasted evening for both of you.

Photograph it where it is, honestly

Marketplace buyers expect a real photo of the real thing in a real room, not a catalogue image. Using the manufacturer's product shot reads as a scam listing and gets treated accordingly.

Take the photos in daylight, get the whole item in the frame, and photograph the wear: the scratch, the stain, the missing knob. It converts better, because the person who arrives already knows what they are getting and does not try to renegotiate on the doorstep.

Common questions