When I returned from San Antonio over 5 years ago, I was looking aggressively for opportunities to advertise my business online that were either free or inexpensive. I was also looking for those opportunities that wouldn’t take a lot of time to do. So as I explored the options, the online classified ads websites rose to the top of the heap of possibilities.
There were basically 4 that seemed to meet that criteria.
- Craigslist
- Ebay Classifieds (Kijiji)
- Oodle
- Backpage
As I tested each for my own business, only one rose to the top, in terms of traffic, leads and sales.
Craigslist.
For about 2 years, half of all my new accounts came from Craigslist ads. There were several reasons that advertising on Craigslist worked so well.
- Small amount of competition.
- Google had a love for indexing Craigslist Ads.
- Ability to build beautiful html ads with links to your website.
Then, about 3 years ago, things started to change.
- The number of businesses putting ads on Craigslist grew substantively.
- Google lost it’s love for indexing the ads.
- Craigslist removed the ability to do html ads with links – they decided to go socialist on us and force everyone’s ads to be the same. They removed the competitive advantage of building lead generating ads.
- The quality of phone calls and leads dropped to the bottom of the barrel – so to speak. All of the sudden, I was speaking with the “cheapest price” only prospects. Unfortunately, you can never be cheap enough for them because they do not understand quality and service.
I think, ultimately, it was Google not loving Craigslist ads and giving them top of search engine prominence that killed it.
Do I still place ads on Craigslist? ….. YES
It is still FREE and only takes a minute each day to repost or relist the ads. I keep about 12 running at all times. I still think it’s worth doing, but just can’t rely on it for half of my new sales anymore. I also learned to get people off the phone quickly that don’t meet my client criteria quickly.
The other online classified ads?
I never got a lead from them, but have had friends in other business verticals that did get new clients from a few of them occasionally, You have to test and try everything that comes along – especially the free ones. There is always that diamond of a client out there to be found – you just have to do some digging to find them.