Adverts

This article will explain how to preview an advert, how to group adverts together, and how to add information and photos to adverts. It will also include instructions on how to publish adverts and how to use the let direct feature to avoid advertising and bidding. 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Advert Preview
• Eligibility
• Advert Grouping
• Additional Advert Information
• Photos
• Advertising and Publishing Properties
• Let Direct

Advert Preview

This function allows you to check how the property advert will appear once published. Its also where you'll find the buttons to advertise, publish, let direct or in some cases nominate. To view the advert preview, follow the steps below:

1. Click on the "Advert" tab on the property's page
2. Click on the Advert Preview on the right hand side of the screen
3. The "Advertise", "Publish", "Let Direct" and "Nominate" buttons will show at the top of the advert preview depending on the circumstances. 

Eligibility

The eligibility property task is used to determine who can bid on the property. The details within this will be unique to your allocations policy. Please see example image below:

Advert Grouping

Grouped adverts can be used when you have 2 or more identical properties. When adverts are grouped only one advert appears on the public website, but a bid would be placed across several identical shortlists. To use advert grouping, follow the steps below:

1. Click on the "Advert" tab on the property's page
2. Click the "Advert Grouping" task on the left hand side of the screen 
3. Create an Advert Group number of up to 3 digits
4. Set the Advert Group Lead to "Yes". Subsequent grouped adverts must have the same Advert Group Number but the Advert Group Lead must be set to "No"
5. Click "Complete and Next" or "Save"

Note: Adverts should only be grouped when all main features match for example, 2 properties in the same block on different floor levels should not be grouped.

Additional Advert Information

The main requirements of a property advert will be around type, bedroom size, rent and adaptions. But adding unique selling points can really improve an advert and provide the bidder with useful additional details. On some systems this may include the ability to add hyper links to an advert. To add additional information to an advert, follow the steps below:

1. Click on the "Advert" tab on the property's page
2. Click the "Unique Selling Points" task on the left hand side of the screen
3. Complete the desired fields
4. Click "Complete and Next" or "Save"

Photos

Here you can upload property images to the advert and crop them to size. For guidance on how to do this, follow the steps below: 

1. Click on the "Advert" tab on the property's page
2. Click the "Photos" task on the left hand side of the screen
3. Click the blue magnifying glass icon 
4. Double click on the desired photo from your folder
5. Photos have to be a minimum of 650px width and 400px height, therefore you may need to resize the image, or if the image is too big, a screen will show where you can crop the image to size
6. Once you are happy with how the photo looks, Click "Crop"
7. Add an Aria Label description to describe the image for accessibility on the public site

Did you know: Adverts with nice images attract more attention. Add property images wherever possible.

Advertising and Publishing Properties

If you would like guidance on how to publish an advert, follow the steps below:

1. Click on "Advert Preview" on the right hand side of the screen
2. Check you are happy with the content and images
3. Click "Advertise" 
4. Then click "Publish"

Note: You will not be able to publish an advert if mandatory fields have not been completed. 

Let Direct

This function allows you to match a property directly to an applicant without the advertising and bidding stages. For guidance on how to do this, follow the steps below:

1. Click on the "Advert" tab on the property's page
2. Click on "Advert Preview" on the right hand side of the screen
3. Click on "Let Direct", then click "Yes"
4. Once the Task pop up box shows, Select either "Yes" or "No" to 'Let direct without specifying a member'. This will most commonly be the "No" option.
5. Select either "Yes" or "No" to 'Let direct to go through to offer stage' 
6. Enter the 'Let Direct Reason' and the 'Let Date', then click "Save"
7. If "Let direct to go through to offer stage" has been set to "Yes", you will then need to use the "Add person to shortlist icon"
8. Search for an applicant and click the add button next to their details

Note: Selecting "Yes" to 'Let direct to go through to offer stage' will allow you/them to retest or refuse and add another applicant to the shortlist. Selecting "No" will set the applicant directly to the Let status.