Top three helpful tips

Make your headline descriptive
The headline is your first opportunity to introduce yourself to a prospective buyer. If the headline doesn't entice the buyer to click to learn more, you've lost a prospect. Remember, your ad is in competition with other ads appearing on the screen at the same time. You need to make sure buyer's click on your ad first. If they check out another ad's details, they may never be back to your ad.

A great headline calls out to the buyer immediately. It should be enticing, but not misleading. It should also highlight at least one strong attribute of your business. For example, if you're selling a tanning salon, the headline "Tanning Salon" doesn't do much in selling. However. "Upscale Tanning Salon with loyal clientele" tells the reader two positive attributes about the business. If you're not showing the excitement of your business in your ad's headline, why should the reader be excited?

Note: You can edit your Ad as often as you want. Try a different headline each week and see which one get the most clicks.

Pre-qualify your prospects
In selling your business yourself, your ad is your first introduction to potential buyers. Make sure your ad works on your behalf by "pre-qualifying" those who respond by email. Pre-qualified buyers are more likely to be viable prospects, rather than "tire kickers."

The best way to pre-qualify buyers is to disclose enough information in your ad to enable readers to determine if it is a business they want to seriously pursue. This will eliminate many of the inquiries that simply state, "Please provide me more info." It also generates excitement about your sale, that other's fail to do.

Note: How much detail and the type of information you choose to reveal in your ad is up to you. Maintaining confidentiality while disclosing useful information can be extremely tough. But keep in mind, the time spent crafting an informative ad is time you'll save not having to provide those same details in future emails.

Reveal Your Business Location
Identifying the city in which your business is located is one of the best ways to ensure potential buyers find your ad. Many buyers search the database by selecting a particular state, and then entering a specific city name (e.g. San Francisco) as a key word. This type of search displays only those ads with the matching city name. This means that if you don't identify your city, your ad won't be found in any of these types of searches.

Note: If you are worried about maintaining confidentiality of your sale, and if revealing the city would immediately identify your business (e.g. you are the only candle store in town), you may want to consider leaving the "city" field blank.