If you’re like most user experience researchers I know, recruiting reliable participants for a study can be pricey and time-consuming. Depending on your circumstances, it might even be difficult to get the budget needed to leverage professional recruiting tools like UserTesting.com or UserZoom.

Well, as surprising as it is, Craigslist can be an affordable and effective alternative for those who have a more modest budget. It can be so effective, in fact, that Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky called it out in their book, Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days.

Most of the time, to recruit people who exactly match our target customer, we use Craigslist. We know it sounds crazy, but it works.

— Sprint book, Page 119

With that said, if not done carefully, you can collect misleading results and waste resources. To get 100% pure, uncut user data, you should follow these simple steps:

Let’s break them down…

First, identify an enticing incentive

It’s true that many (if not most) Craigslist users are looking for a quick buck, but that isn’t a problem if they also match your target persona and participate in good faith.

With this in mind, there is one fantastic trick for collecting thousands of applications on a tight budget. Counter to popular belief, you don’t need to compensate each survey respondent. That becomes expensive, fast. Instead, you only need to offer respondents the opportunity to earn $80+ dollars if they’re selected for an interview.¹

This works for a few reasons:

1. three to five minutes is a small price to pay for an opportunity to earn more than most people make in an hour,
2. the slim chance of earning $80 dollars is more exciting to people than a guarantee that they’ll earn two to three dollars; and
3. people generally overestimate their probability of being selected.

Using this method, you can collect thousands of survey responses and only pay $400 for five interviewees.

Once you determine your incentive, you’re ready for the next step…

Draft a screener to weed out unhelpful applicants

Screeners are critical to selecting ideal participants for any qualitative research, but they serve an additional role here. When using Craigslist, you’ll often have bad faith applicants hoping to game it for a quick buck. To prevent these applicants from polluting your data, it’s important to (1) ask probing questions, and (2) not disclose your preferred persona.

1. Asking probing questions. Simple, precise questions are important for any screener, but to weed out dishonest respondents,it’s important to follow-up these questions with plain-text inquiries (such as, “Would you like to share additional details about your experience?”). Due to the added effort and lack of guidance, plain text answers can reveal sincerity (or lack-thereof). Scammers may use generic language to mitigate the risk of a wrong answer, and, when working together, may even use identical responses. Additionally, the added effort encourages disingenuous or unenthusiastic respondents to drop-off before submitting.
2. Not disclosing Your Preferred Persona. Just like leading questions, sharing (or even hinting at) your preferred persona has several negative side effects. First, it discourages people outside that persona from participating, which creates a form of measurement bias. Second, it biases the opinions of honest respondents, making it hard to trust their answers. And third, it makes it easy for swindlers to trick you into selecting them.

Even after selecting a vetted participant, you should remain vigilant during the interview. Depending on the software you use for the interview, you may be able to see where in the world they’re calling from, when they submitted the form, and what type of internet connection they’re using. If you determine a caller is a bad actor, terminate the call as soon as possible and do not provide compensation.

Once your screener is ready, upload it to a free form builder, such as Google Forms, TypeForm, or SurveyMonkey. You’ll be linking to the published version of this form in the next step.

Craft an effective advertisement

Whereas your screener plays a role in weeding out unfit applicants, your advertisement leads the way for attracting fit ones. I’ve found that the template below gets the best results:

Title Field: [X]Minute [Subject] Survey (paid)

Body Field: An established company is seeking the opinions and insights of people like yourself on a [research topic].

All information collected is anonymous. Participants who are recruited into the study receive $[X] dollar gift cards.

If you’re interested in participating, please view our survey here: [survey link]

Postal Code: Select any random code for the city.

Pay Option: Check “Paid”

Compensation Field: $[X] dollars to recruited participants

Contact Info Option: Check “no replies to this email”

Click continue, and when presented with a map, move the location to the center of the city.

Here’s example copy for an actual completed advertisement (with the original form’s URL removed):

2 Minute Survey For People With Diabetes (Paid)

An established company is seeking the opinions and insights of people like yourself on a digital diabetes product.

All information collected is anonymous. Participants who are recruited into the study will receive $80 dollar gift cards.

If you’re interested in participating, please view our survey here: https://www.fakeform.com/example

This template works because it’s short, draws attention to the limited time commitment, emphasizes that it’s a paid opportunity, highlights the purpose of the research and the legitimacy of the researcher, and addresses privacy concerns.

Note the part about anonymity. You’re probably asking, if they’re anonymous how do I contact them for an interview? The answer is simple: the last question of every screen should be something along the lines of, “We’re looking for participants to provide feedback on [subject]. Participants receive a $80 dollar Visa gift card. Are you interested in participating?” If the respondent answers “Yes,” you ask for their e-mail address. If they respond, “No,” you end the survey. In my experience, over 90% of participants respond in the affirmative.

Once you have your advertisement ready it’s time to…

Post under the correct category

Craigslist has hundreds of categories, but in this case, you only need to post in one. After choosing the city (or cities) you want to target, follow this site path:

Go to [city].craigslist.com → Gigs (bottom right)→ Post (top-right) → City Region → Gig Offered → I Want to Hire Someone → Computer Gigs

Thousands of people scroll through Computer gigs on a regular basis, looking for paid surveys or interviews to participate in. It costs between $0 and $10 to post under Computer Gigs for any given survey. Each post can bring in hundreds of applicants (with tempered expectations for smaller cities). If you plan to post ads often, you can get a discount by purchasing posts in bulk.

From here, it usually takes about 24 hours to begin seeing results roll in. I regularly check my response rate and, when I see it beginning to slow, I publish another ad in a new city. Some larger cities are broken down into subcategories, allowing you to post multiple times across different regions. But be sure not to over-post within a short period of time or Craigslist will ban you for spam.

Conclusion

Craigslist can save any organization thousands of dollars on research fees while providing reliable results. However, it does require a level of discretion that isn’t necessary when using recruitment tools such as UserTesting.com or UserZoom. With that in mind, this is an outstanding approach best utilized when on a budget or in a hurry.

What do you think? Have you used Craigslist for UX research? If so, what was your experience?