Hammer Corp, Better Craigslist SEO?

[Dave Lemmon]

Probably 95%. We see minimal lead generation from Backpage, but its free.

 

[Drey K]

Yes that is what I think too, CL is doing way much better then Backpage, that is if Backpage doing anything at all. What about YouTube do dealers get any leads from there?

 

[Dave Lemmon]

We see some click traffic although very few leads. Mostly, our dealers like having the videos (which are just a slide show set to music) so they can use them in text and email lead replies. Nice bonus to be able to link a video.

 

[Dave Lemmon]

So to kind of put a pin in this, and forgive me but its pretty long. Had a client reach out because Hammer had contacted her making the claims discussed in this thread. She forwarded me their email and I did some research and replied. I'll include both here. Bear in mind, one of the factors in search relevance is age of post, so just as his numbers didn't match anymore, mine may not either...but the gist of it will clarify a lot.

Thanks for taking a minute to speak with me today. We specialize in keeping your Craigslist ads on top of the search results for 1-3 weeks. It's all done using a strategy called Search Engine Optimization (similar to Google). Just imagine the results of being on Craigslist's first page for 14 days instead of being on the first page for only 2 hours!

A GREAT example of my work is the Los Angeles craigslist market, the most saturated market in the United States. With over 1,500 Chevrolet Silverados posted, my client, R&B Auto Center, rules the front page!!!

https://losangeles.craigslist.org/search/ctd?query=chevrolet+silverado.

We officially own 35% of the posting share on the very first page of Craigslist's search results. If you go to any market and type any Make/Model, you will see approximately 35 out of the first 100 ads are Hammer Optimized Ads. We're now trying to fill the other 65 spots.

I know quite a bit about them, they have a pretty solid tool for just Craigslist and if you were an independent lot with a couple dozen cars, they'd be a great option. They really aren't ideal for franchise stores, as they don't do one of the most important things Craigslist is doing for you...driving website traffic. More importantly, let's just take their claims one at a time:

• They have sent you a screenshot of a report for Extreme Cars & Trucks showing high lead counts...but if you search right now for that store, they aren't even on Craigslist in that market. More importantly, Hammer doesn't de-duplicate leads and they count every text within an exchange separately, so this reply to your email would be counted as "two email leads" instead of one. We're transparent. Also, you wouldn't have any email leads, because their ads have a reply button that you can't use to send emails.
• Click the link that he's provided you...you're going to see Jim's Auto Sales, Mira Motors, STG Auto Sales, all over the front page...our clients. In fact, right now, we hold 17 of the top 100 spots...Hammer holds 16 for this client, who also happens to just have a ton of Chevy Silverado's. We have ads that are well over a week old...still on the front page, despite his claim (which he was pretty foolish to put in writing).
• More importantly, now search "truck" in that same market. (and we believe more people are likely to search more general terms than specific makes and models). They have the same truck posted 4 times on the front page...and nothing else at all, despite a client with a dozen Silverado's, as he already showed you. We, however, between Jim's, Mira, STG, Future, Ontario, and Vista make up roughly 80% of that search result, with ads dating back weeks.

Here's the reality about search relevance on Craigslist, no one knows exactly how it works because Craigslist keeps it proprietary and dark. They also change it on a regular basis. We have an in house development team...because we're a full scale software company...who analyzes that search relevance weekly and continuously works to maximize it. Anyone claiming they have the secret sauce is simply trying to sell you a bag of magic beans.

Additionally:

• They don't link to your VDP's, the link goes to your home page in their ads...and it isn't tagged, so the traffic is invisible. Why? Because they aren't really a tool designed for dealers or groups like Penske, as you can see we are working with via the search results he provided. We've sent over 400 website page views to your store this month alone...in addition to your leads.
• We provide you a pricing analysis that comps your vehicle price, down to trim level vs. Craigslist. So you actually know, not how you're priced vs. Black Book or anything else, but the actual advertising medium you are paying to advertise in.
• We provide you with Drop & Swap...their story about having 2 week old ads still on the front page is great, but what they don't tell you is that if you sold that vehicle a week before you'd still be advertising it because they don't edit the post and replace the inventory like we do. Our search results are all vehicles you actually have for sale.
• They also only do Craigslist. All of the other outlets we provide aren't available to you with Hammer, they also don't have a Facebook Advertising Program, they also don't have conquest email, etc.
• They charge you a software fee, plus a fee per post. This promotes an inability to make unbiased recommendations from their team of customer success people when it comes to what your budgets should actually be, because they make more the more you post. They also don't actually have a customer success team, to my knowledge.

Finally, if you look at R&B's post count here you'll see that they have over 1400 posts live on Craigslist today. In fact, they have almost 500 ads for Chevrolet Silverados alone. I'd be hard pressed to ever recommend a client spend over 8,000.00 in Craigslist Budget alone, as this client does.

If I was a dealership paying .99 a post for 492 Chevy Silverado ads and only 16 of them came up when someone searched "Chevrolet Silverado", I wouldn't be particularly happy.

Between the .99 per post and the software fee, they are paying Hammer directly approaching $2,000.00 per month. You pay a fraction of that to us for all 3 stores.

 

[flosho]

a) Prioritize my cheaper cars
b) Prioritize postings in certain days
c) Prioritize certain areas

That is the key for the tool, how flexible are you to post means that you can play with and when the market responds to your postings.

Good Luck!

I'm interested in a way to determine what days, in what markets are busiest. We post in several different close markets, in a repeating pattern that changes up what day we post where and when, but if there was a way to determine when "City X" had the highest traffic at "8pm to 10pm" I would schedule my posts for 7-10pm etc... But there is no way to track that, that I know of.

 

[Dave Lemmon]

Its an excellent question and I want to answer it in two different ways. The first is how to identify lead volume by market and time/day and there is a way we accomplish that relatively easily. We use a unique tracking number in each market and the leads are all time stamped. That data is then graphed out automatically so we can see the specific lead trends by market/day/time/etc., use that data via our Customer Success Managers to determine if we need to make changes. You're right though, that there isn't a way to see actual traffic. Again, this is Craigslist M.O., they don't share that type of information at all. Much like everything else, trial and error is the answer here.

The more complicated part is the "magic time" theory of posting. We dedicated a fairly long development sprint to "time slicing" and campaigns and identifying the best days and times to post. What we found was that, in most cases, posting at a roughly peak time (like 10 AM) is most effective and that creating windows didn't really have that much impact (particularly compared to the rabbit hole that you can go into trying to find your "magic time" to post). We also found that in general it was best to post every day, not taking any days off.

I've seen the data, I 100% agree with my team that it supports this...but...I do think in the handful of really large markets in the US, this becomes more complex. Places like the Pacific NW, where people overpost in huge volume, posting strategies that take into account time of day and day of week may be more important and could have a small (single digit percentage) impact on lead volume...but small impacts on lead volume aren't without merit.

 

[Drey K]

If you want to be at the top in your business you need the best technology used now a days, we have the team of experts and best Craigslist Tools in the market.

You don't have the best tool
Your SSL is not even setup properly

After reading through this forum its hard for me to say that any company that provides craigslist solution can call themselves the best craigslist tool.
Even my company, DICE Services, I can't say that we are the best, we do try to provide the best services we can but at the end of the day the dealer is the one who is deciding if someone is the best for them or not. For some dealers, one company is the best, for others, another company is the best.
One company is better at one thing, anther company is better with something else.
That is why there are more than one company out there so that the dealer has a choice.

So for those that are providing a solution for dealers, keep making it better

 

[Alexander Lau]

If you want to be at the top in your business you need the best technology used now a days, we have the team of experts and best Craigslist Tools in the market.

That's f*cking awful and blatant spam.

 

[AdamMurray]

Priceless!

You don't have the best tool
Your SSL is not even setup properly

Now a days Classified Ad Posting Services seems to be the best way to make your online presence and are helping you and you business grow.

 

[Alexander Lau]

Priceless!

BWAHAHA