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What is a featured ad? For $10 per day, you can have your car ad highlighted on the side of the page in the car section of the classifieds. Users that see the ad can click on it to see your full ad. This allows you to draw additional attention to your ad, increasing the likelihood of selling your car quickly.
What happened on November 6, 2008?
The following changes were made to the featured ad system:
- Featured ads now have a different format, with a much larger image.
- Only one featured ad is displayed at a time.
- The featured ad on the front page of KSL Cars randomly rotates between all purchased featured ads for that day on each refresh of the page.
- Only two featured ads per day are allowed per make and model search. Only one ad is displayed at a time, which randomly rotates between the two ads on each refresh of the page.
The cost of the ad is still $10 per day.
Didn\'t the new ad format on November 6, 2008 decrease how many times my ad is viewed?
On November 6, we increased the size of the featured ad but decreased the number of ads per page from four to one. This does decrease the number of times your featured ad will be viewed.
However, what matters is not how many times your featured ad is seen but how many people click on the ad. Your ad could be seen a million times, but it is likely worthless if nobody clicks on it. We believe that the larger ad size will attract our users\' attention much more than the older format, which will hopefully result in a higher number of clicks on each ad. The initial results that we\'ve seen have been encouraging, but we will continue to monitor the overall performance of the new ad format.
We would love to hear your opinion about this. Please contact us and let us know what you think.
How many times will my ad be seen?
That depends on how you decide to target your ad. When you buy an ad, you decide what make and model to target. Your ad will then be seen by all users that are searching for that make and model. Obviously, some searches are more common than others, and the ads targeted to the more popular searches will be seen more often.
Users that haven\'t searched for a make and model will see some random featured ads for that day. Hence, even if you are targeting an uncommon make and model, you will still receive some exposure.
What kind of response will I get?
It largely depends on the type of car you\'re advertising and the price you\'ve set. If you are selling a popular type of car, then you will get a larger response. Likewise, a low price will get more results than a high price.
Overall, featured ads seem get an average of 30-50 clicks, though it varies widely depending on the ad. Each of those clicks likely represents a person that is interested in more information about your car.
Keep in mind that, even if a person clicks on your featured ad, they might not contact you. The purpose of the featured ad is to tease people into reading your full car ad, and they might not be interested in buying your car if they don\'t like what they see.
How do I track the performance of my featured ad?
You can see how many clicks your featured ads have received by going to My Car Ads. Under your ad will be the list of days on which you\'ve featured your ad, as well as the number of clicks received on those days. If you purchase multiple featured ads for the same ad for the same day, the clicks will be added together and shown as a single entry for that day.
The click report is updated once at the end of the day, so it will only show historical data; it does not include any data about the current or future days.
Can I target a different make and model than my car\'s make and model?
Yes, you can choose to feature your ad in a different make and model search than your car would naturally fit in. For example, if you are selling a Honda Accord, you could choose to feature your ad in all Toyota Camry searches.
How can I increase the performance of my ad?
Obviously, lowering the price of your car will have a big impact.
Having a great picture is important, too -- many people will initially be drawn to the ad based on how attractive the picture is. Washing and waxing your car, having good lighting, and using an appealing backdrop are all good ideas. Don\'t try to abuse the system, though; offensive, distasteful, or unrelated pictures will likely get you banned from the system.
Can I buy a featured ad in a different section of the classifieds?
Not for now, but we would be interested to hear your recommendation. Contact us and let us know what you think.
Can I choose a different format for my ad?
Not for now, but we would be interested to hear your recommendation. Contact us and let us know what you think.
Can I change which car I\'m featuring? For example, could I pay $10 and feature one car in the morning and a different ad at night?
No, once you set up a featured ad for a particular car ad, you cannot change it.
Can I get a refund if my ad performs poorly?
No. You are buying advertising space, and it is up to you to offer a product that appeals to people. Refunds are only offered in the case of technical problems (e.g. double-billing). Contact us if you think there has been a technical problem.
Is this open to car dealers?
Yes, although it isn\'t tailored to them. We do not keep credit card information on file so we currently cannot do any kind of recurring billing or volume setup. All featured ads must be created one-at-a-time, which could be very laborious if you are selling many cars. Contact a sales representative at KSL-TV or KSL Radio if you are interested in a larger advertising campaign on the web site.
