Craigslist is a classified advertisement website with sections for housing, household items, jobs, services, vehicles, and much more. With a high volume of website traffic and a long-standing history as a popular platform, Craigslist offers an immense opportunity for dealerships looking to sell used vehicles. In this article, we’ll review why dealerships should be listing their inventory on Craigslist, best practices when doing so, and the steps required to get a listing live. 

Why Dealers Should Sell on Craigslist

Craigslist sees a high-volume of traffic each month, with as many as 170 million visitors coming to the site. In fact, it ranks as the 71st most visited site in the United States.¹ The added benefit is that visitors to Craigslist tend to be at the bottom of the sales funnel – ready to buy a vehicle soon and quickly. 

Therefore, it makes sense for dealers to list their inventory on the marketplace, as it allows them to tap into a pre-existing market of eager buyers without having to do any lead generation. With that in mind, keep your Craigslist listings limited to your used inventory — buyers on the platform don’t come online to find new cars so you won’t see a successful ROI on those listings.² 

Craigslist Best Practices for Dealers

There are a few best practices dealerships should keep in mind when looking to make sales on Craigslist. The first is to always post as a dealer and not as an owner. While posting as a dealer has a $5.00 fee, posting as an owner can violate the terms of service, which can then have negative ramifications for your Google and Yelp reviews.² 

When posting, there are a few options to consider: you can post the listings yourself, hire an outside agency to manage them for you, or use a digital tool.³ The best choice depends on how many listings you plan to manage at any given time, and how much bandwidth your team currently has for answering inquiries and messages on the platform. 

Finally, there are some best practices when it comes to posting based on peak times users visit the site. For example, the most post views occur on Sundays, followed by Saturdays. For car dealers, listings do best during the work week when posted between 10 am to noon or at 5 pm. When posting on the weekends, morning listings perform best.⁴ 

A Step-by-Step Guide to Posting Vehicles on Craigslist

1. Select a Location: When you begin your listing, it will ask you to choose a location to tag the listing. Note that your listing will also show up in the general category for that area, even without the vehicle filter. 

2. What type of posting is this: Here you have the option to select “For sale by dealer” or “For sale by owner.” Select the dealer option, as it adds more credibility and avoids penalties. 

3. Choose a Category: Select “Cars & trucks” here to get your listing featured in the right section of Craigslist. 

4. Create the listing details: This section is where you input the specific features and details of the vehicle you are selling, including creating a title for the listing. This section will include: 

• Posting Title: We recommend using the make, model, and year within the title.
• City or Neighborhood: The specific location where your dealership is located and where customers will be able to pick up the vehicle. 
• ZIP Code: Referring to the listing location.
• Price: This is where you choose what the listing price is – be sure to base this on research and get a sense of what other similar listings are selling for within the Craigslist marketplace. 
• Estimated monthly payment: This field is optional, and you can fill it out if applicable for the vehicle. 
• Description: Include a detailed description of the item, including any relevant information and features, package options, and list any modifications that have been made to the vehicle to offer the utmost transparency to potential buyers. 
• Make and model: As mentioned above, these details should also appear in the product listing title. 
• Odometer: The current mileage of the vehicle.
• VIN: This is optional.
• Condition: Select the condition of the item (e.g., new, like new, good).
• Cylinders: The number of cylinders in the engine.
• Drive: The drive type (e.g., FWD, RWD, AWD).
• Fuel: The type of fuel the vehicle uses (e.g., gas, diesel, electric).
• Transmission: The type of transmission (e.g., automatic, manual).
• Type: The type of vehicle (e.g., sedan, SUV, truck).
• Model year: The year the vehicle was manufactured.
• Paint color:
• Title status: e.g., clean, salvage
• Language of posting: The language used in the listing.
• Contact info: Your email, email privacy options, optional phone/text fields, and optional address location of your dealership.

5. Add images to your listing: Craigslist allows you to upload up to 24 images to your listing. It’s advisable to add as many images as possible, with detailed shots of the interior and exterior. 

6. Post listing: It costs $5.00 per listing, and they expire after 30 days. 

Partner with ACV Auctions to Buy & Sell Used Car Inventory

Making your used vehicle inventory available to online shoppers is key to driving sales today. And to sell the most cars, you need the best possible inventory. To obtain high-quality inventory, work with us at ACV Auctions. Our online auctioning platform makes it simple to obtain the best inventory in your area. Reach out to us to start sourcing some quality used car inventory.

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Sources

1. SEM Rush. “Craigslist.org July 2024 Traffic Stats.” SEM Rush. Retrieved August 16, 2024. https://www.semrush.com/website/craigslist.org/overview/ 
2. Ask the Manager. “How to sell cars on Craigslist – A primer for car dealers.” Ask the Manager. Retrieved August 10, 2024. https://askthemanager.com/2016/12/how-to-sell-cars-on-craigslist-a-primer-for-car-dealers/
3. WizPoster. “The Best Craigslist Posting Tool for Dealers.” WizPoster. Retrieved August 10, 2024. https://www.wizposter.com/craigslist-poster 
4. WizPoster. “When is the best time for posting cars to Craigslist?”  WizPoster. Retrieved August 10, 2024. https://www.wizposter.com/blog/when-is-the-best-time-for-posting-cars-to-craigslist 
5. Craigslist. Retrieved August 10, 2024. https://boston.craigslist.org/