Using custom text codes in your Craigslist ads is a great way to control how potential leads experience your website or services. If you can control that, you have a higher chance of getting them to register as a lead.

The general rule of thumb is, if you ask someone to do something to get the info they WANT, and they actually get it with as little fuss as possible, you're likely going to capture their info.

So, you can plan this out in a few steps. 

1. Decide what you want to give that potential lead. More info on the property they are viewing? Or perhaps a call to action that gives them access to your free home searching app? Which is better? Hard to say without trying both!

2. Create the custom text code that you want to use in your ad.

3. Use the Craigslist Posting Tool to get a listing onto Craigslist, and edit the default call to action generated in the ad text, to match the custom code you created instead.

Giving people multiple options to text to get different pieces of information, or access different services increases the chance they will text in. 

When a lead texts the code to the smart number for your brokerage, the system will recognize you built the code and route the information directly to your dashboard on the Inbound Text Leads tab with a summary on the information the lead is requesting so you can act accordingly.

The information you see will in the Inbound Text Leads tab will include the lead phone number they texted from, and the information they were seeking based on the code you created. 

In this example below, I had created a custom text code "house1" for a home of 46 Oak Street (which is now off market.)

Please remember to create custom codes that are words with perhaps numbers attached. If you create a text code that starts with numbers you will run into technical issues with the system trying to find an address instead of seeing a custom code.