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.
