If I may, I get asked TOO MANY TIMES: What do you charge for CL?
Rather than: I now post once a day in this area this way and I get this many leads, what strategy or what could you do to get me more leads?
Dealers are fixated in how many posts and for how much. So vendors have learned that if the equation is a little bit larger than the previous guy (more post and/or less money) it just sounds good enough.
Let me give you a quick guide on what to ask and look for:
Posting time:
Are the posts going up during CL peak search times (8am to 10pm) or in a 24h cycle?
Why: Postings at 4am will be too far down the searches many times. If you pay equally, request these to be during peak hours.
Posting types:
Do you have the ability to post with different templates during different days to have a dual strategy, for example price and no price.
Why: You can post once or twice a week with no price and a different name (New York Fiat and Used Fiats NY). You attack two different type of buyers for the same posting money.
Posting templates:
Do the templates have several calls to action and look professional?
Why: Customers are searching the dealer section for a reason. The same way a detailed car brings more confidence and money so a good template/display does. Website display rules apply here too.
Template links:
Are you linking to the website and even better, to your VDP.
Why: Ads straight to the VDP have a better conversion ratio.
Longevity and accountability.
Does the company own the technology or is this a guy that bought a tool for $200?
Why: A company that buys a tool will be behind the latest technology and unable to provide the latest changes since they depend on someone else to make the changes for them. As for longevity; in the Seattle market alone I have seen over 25 different people/companies show up and burn in the last 3 years. Took a lot of people's money along the way.
Area strategy.
Can you switch markets at will?
Why: If you have budget constrains but are in between 2 good markets, post 3 days of the week on each market. For people with only smaller markets around them, jump from one to the other.
Push forward.
Can you bump the postings per day with in the good posting times?
Why: Tax time, end of the month, Superbowl party at the dealer? Keep your regular posting schedule and add a new message with 500 extra ads for just one or two days to saturate the market and get you message across.
Reports:
Can you get reports of how many ads were opened, clicks, traffic to website? Don't settle for just phone calls.
Why: Craigs List is a lot more useful than how many calls. It can produce traffic for re targeting purposes, linked to a microsite it can boost its traffic and therefore-relevance in very little time, etc. Get a good report on whats going on, these also allows you to make changes and see if they produce more or less.
Track-ability:
Being able to click one link and find all your ads.
Why: Because you need to be able to find all you ads in Craigslist, not in some back end the company produced. If you can't find your ads, your customer can't find your ads.
Text:
Have ads that contain key words or text about the vehicle.
Why: Craigslist is a text search, so every typed key word ads "index ability" to the ad in the Craigslist search engine. An ad that is only one big image is easier to post than one that has text in it.
