Advertising on Billboard for Car Sales Leads

Display, video and sponsored content across Billboard's music fan audience, targeted to readers in your zone.

Billboard is the music charts, news and industry magazine and site, part of Penske Media, read by music fans following the charts and by the industry itself, with advertising sold by geography, topic and audience segment through its advertising operation, directly and programmatically, along with sponsored content, video and event sponsorships. The audience is young, diverse and engaged with music culture, and it skews toward the entertainment capitals but reads nationally.

For a dealership that means a young, diverse audience in its zone reached beside the music coverage it follows, with a first car, a compact model or a payment message, and the option of sponsored content around a local concert or festival. It is a culture placement for a young buyer rather than an intent placement.

A store spends with Billboard for a young, diverse, music engaged audience in its zone, in a culture context, at a cost per thousand that suits a franchise or used store budget, with sponsored content and event tie ins available. It reaches a buyer under thirty five that news sites miss.

The honest objection is that music content carries no vehicle intent, the zone audience outside major metros is modest, and the effect reads mostly through branded search over weeks. Creative has to fit the culture; a corporate spot does not.

For the broader case for this kind of channel, Automotive Media Buying Services covers it without repeating what is here.

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Billboard fits used and entry level franchise stores with a young buyer, stores in music heavy metros, and dealer groups adding young reach. It fits less well for luxury stores and for stores that need direct response. National sellers can run it nationally.

Billboard is bought through buying platforms and media partners rather than a self serve console, and LeadLocate reaches it for your dealership that way. Ask for it from the Advertising Networks page in the CRM and our team arranges the placement for your store, through a buying partner or an order placed in your dealership's name, with the geography set to the market you sell in. If your dealership or your agency already holds a seat on a platform that carries Billboard, we can work through that instead. Either way the campaign is planned from the same Leads Manager selections as every other channel you run with us, and it reports into the same place.

A Billboard sourced lead reaches the CRM as a click from a placement or sponsored content to a vehicle page or a LeadLocate lead page, a branded search, or a direct inquiry, attributed directly for the clicks and over weeks for the rest. Young buyers expect a text back, which the CRM sends automatically.

Whichever way the shopper arrives, the record is the same. The lead carries its source, the campaign, and the answers to the pre screening questions you set in Leads Manager, and it goes to the salesperson or the rotation you chose in lead distribution. The first response can be automatic: a text, an email, a task on the calendar or a call from the BDC. If your store works leads in another CRM, turn on Instant Push and the lead is forwarded there by ADF the moment it arrives, at no change in price. What no channel can do is decide who submits the form. Some shoppers arrive with a VIN and a trade, some with a monthly budget and a rough idea, and both are real; what to expect from car sales leads covers that plainly.

The point of running Billboard through LeadLocate is not Billboard. It is that Billboard becomes one more line in a system that already holds everything else. Leads Manager is where the campaigns are planned, whatever the channel: the zone, the campaign type, the questions a shopper answers, the creative. The CRM is where the leads land, are distributed, are worked by text, email, call and voicemail drop, and are reported on in the activity, company and management reports. A store that adds Billboard does not add a login, a report or a vendor to chase; it adds a source. The same is true of the dozens of other channels on the advertising channels page, which is the list the CRM itself shows a dealership under Advertising Networks.

That matters more than it sounds. Most stores do not fail at advertising because a channel was wrong; they fail because the leads from the third and fourth channels never got worked, since nobody was watching that inbox. One inbox, one set of distribution rules and one follow up process is what makes a fourth channel worth adding at all, and the same reporting is what lets a manager see, in one place, which channel is earning its budget this month and which one is not.

For an agency, Billboard is a young culture placement with event tie ins for a dealership client with a young buyer, and connecting the store's LeadLocate CRM shows the clicks and the branded search lift the flight produced.

Agencies are how most stores buy Billboard, and LeadLocate treats the agency as part of the store's team. An agency user can manage the campaigns in Leads Manager, hold the platform accounts in its own name and connect them, pull the same reporting the dealership sees, and use the webXintel Ads Network as a lead source for clients that want results before they want a media plan. What the agency gains is the piece it typically lacks: the CRM, the distribution rules, the texting and calling, the follow up processes, all of it visible so the agency can show the store what happened after the click. Agencies that bring dealerships onto the platform can enroll in the referral program. See automotive-advertising-agency-alternativeL for how the agency side works.

Geography is the first setting on every LeadLocate campaign, and it is yours. Draw the zone you sell in with the zone editor in Leads Manager, a radius, a list of counties or a state, and Billboard placements are bought for that zone and nothing outside it. Brokers who sell to the whole country set the whole country; a group draws one zone per rooftop and the reporting comes back the same way, so a regional manager can see which store's market answered. Financing audiences stay inside fair lending rules on every channel: Leads Manager keeps them from being narrowed by age, gender, income, marital status, household size, education, language or ZIP, with locked controls, so a store is protected without thinking about it. Everything else, the vehicles, the message, the radius, is open.

The setup cost of Billboard, in your time, is a click. The Advertising Networks page in the CRM lists it beside every other channel; Request Connection opens a support request our team works, usually the same day. Stores that are new to LeadLocate choose a plan on the pricing page, month to month with no long term contract, and start with the webXintel Ads Network the same week. Media bought through a Billboard account in your name is billed by Billboard directly to you. Your existing CRM, if you have one, keeps receiving leads through Instant Push by ADF, and the price does not change for that.

From there it is a conversation, not a contract. Our team confirms the zone and the selections, says plainly what Billboard is likely to do for a store of your size, and agrees a review date. If the reporting shows Billboard earning its budget, it stays; if it does not, it is switched off from the same page, the store keeps every lead and record it produced, and the budget moves to a channel that did better in the same report.

Who reads Billboard?

Young, diverse music fans following charts and news, plus the music industry, reading nationally with concentration in the entertainment capitals.

Can a store tie in with a local concert?

Sponsored content and event sponsorships are available through the advertising operation, and a store near a festival or a venue can use them. Our team confirms what is available.

How is the campaign measured?

By clicks from placements and sponsored content to vehicle pages and the lead page, branded search lift in the zone during the flight and direct inquiries, reported in the CRM.

Can my dealership buy Billboard directly?

Yes, through LeadLocate. Billboard is sold through buying platforms and media partners, so you request it from the Advertising Networks page in the CRM and our team arranges the placement in your dealership's name. If your agency already has a seat on a platform that carries Billboard, we work through that.

Can Billboard leads go into the CRM we already use?

Yes. Instant Push forwards every lead to your existing CRM by ADF as it arrives, source and campaign included, and the subscription price does not change for it.

What does LeadLocate charge for Billboard?

The platform is a month to month subscription with no long term contract, priced on the pricing page, and every plan includes the webXintel Ads Network. The media itself is billed for the placement our team arranges, in your dealership's name. We never tie the price to a result.

Draw the market you sell in, request Billboard from the Advertising Networks page, and watch the leads land in the same CRM as everything else. No long term contract.

Prefer to talk right now? Call or text 844-376-2274.

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