Craigslist to charge for vehicle listings?

[Alexander Lau]

Am I missing something here, I thought they already had done this a long while back?

https://www.autoblog.com/2019/04/12/craiglist-ends-free-car-listings/

Or is this per private seller?

 

[craigh]

Or is this per private seller?

This is just for private sellers. Dealers already had to pay $5, now so does everyone else.

 

[John.H]

Too many dealerships had sales staff posting inventory via Craigslist as personal vehicles. Now everybody will have to pay the $5.00 fee - which can stack up to some astronomical numbers, if you tend to go through inventory quickly.

 

[craigh]

Too many dealerships had sales staff posting inventory via Craigslist as personal vehicles. Now everybody will have to pay the $5.00 fee - which can stack up to some astronomical numbers, if you tend to go through inventory quickly.

If you're going through inventory that quickly, $5 per car shouldn't be a problem.

 

[Alexander Lau]

Too many dealerships had sales staff posting inventory via Craigslist as personal vehicles. Now everybody will have to pay the $5.00 fee - which can stack up to some astronomical numbers, if you tend to go through inventory quickly.

Great point, that workaround they caught up with quite quickly. I mean, you're not hiding anything that are unable to catch up with, kinda' funny...

 

[John.H]

If you're going through inventory that quickly, $5 per car shouldn't be a problem.

Take this into account. Most New/Used dealerships have about 500-1000+ cars on hand and in inventory on a monthly basis. On average, dealers can sell 300 a month per location, easily. (at least in Chicago)

If you're making 300 new listings per month, that's $1,500 every single month for zero promises, zero obligations, just a simple listing on a website. No real way to track/measure performance. It's just as good as a news paper ad - that's what craigslist was made to replace.

If you've got $1,500 to spend a month, you can make it go a much longer way by purchasing ad space and forming educated decisions, or having an SEO go through your website/webmastertools and remove/disavow cannibalistic links, which you'll see improve search metrics.

There's no tracking metric on craigslist, other than views, that'll help you improve your craigslist leadgen strategy. Not to mention.. it's a lot of work that can be better spent elsewhere.