Connect Your Own Ad Accounts to the CRM

Some stores already have ad accounts with history, an agency, or a preferred network. Connecting them to Leads Manager keeps the accounts in the store's name and puts the campaign plan in the CRM.

It lets a dealership that already holds advertising accounts connect them to Leads Manager, so campaigns planned in LeadLocate CRM run through the store's own accounts rather than through the managed network, with the accounts, the history and the relationship with the network staying in the store's name. It is the bring your own accounts path, and it exists because not every store wants the same thing from advertising. Some want the media handled entirely for them, which is the webXintel Ads Network. Others already have accounts with years of history, an agency on retainer, a franchise co op arrangement, or a strong preference for one network, and want all of that to keep working while the plan and the leads move into the CRM.

Under both paths sits the same advertising library inside the LeadLocate CRM: provider agnostic, with twenty networks registered against it and one adapter per network. The difference between the paths is only whose credentials a campaign uses. On the managed path, ours. On this one, yours, connected on the Connections screen in Leads Manager, stored encrypted, and used by our team to run the campaign you planned.

A used car superstore has run its own social advertising for three years. The account has history the store does not want to lose and a business manager who knows it. What the store does not have is a way to get the leads into the CRM without an export, or a way for the sales manager to plan a campaign without learning an ad console. The marketing manager opens Leads Manager, goes to Connections, authorizes the store's account, and it appears as connected. The sales manager draws the zone and sets the offers in Leads Manager exactly as he would on the managed path. When the campaign is pushed to the connected account, it is created there as a paused campaign with its ad set, and our team completes it and brings it live from the store's selections.

The leads land in the CRM inbox with their source attached, round robin hands them out, and Automated Templates send the first text. The marketing manager still sees the campaign in the account she has always used; the sales manager sees it in the CRM he has always used; the general manager sees what it produced in Reports beside every other source. Nobody exported a spreadsheet. A solo salesperson with a small account of their own does the same thing at a smaller scale, which the car salesman CRM page covers: connect the account, plan in Leads Manager, work the leads in the same CRM.

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Connections is a screen inside Leads Manager in the desktop CRM. It lists the networks the advertising library knows about, the status of each for your store, and the accounts you have connected. Connecting one is an authorization with the network, after which the store's token is stored encrypted at rest and the network shows as connected. Disconnecting is a click on the same screen, and campaigns already created keep the credentials that created them, so a later disconnect leaves nothing stranded.

Which networks are live, which are being wired up and which are registered but waiting is not something to take on faith. The integrations directory on this site publishes a status per platform, each with the test behind it, derived from the live adapters rather than typed by hand, with a page per network such as Meta Ads and Google Ads. A network your store has not connected yet is available on request; the Connections screen records the demand per platform, and our team puts it in production for your dealership.

The plan is the same on either path. A campaign in Leads Manager is a zone drawn in the zone editor, a set of offers, and the channels the store wants, and the Leads Manager page covers that builder in detail. What changes is ownership of the media relationship. On the bring your own accounts path, the ad account is the store's, the billing relationship with the network is the store's, the account history stays with the store, and any agency or franchise arrangement built around that account keeps working. The CRM becomes the place where the plan is made and the leads are worked, not a replacement for the account.

On the managed path, the webXintel Ads Network, the store makes the same selections and our team handles the media through the managed network, with no account for the store to hold. Many stores use both: the managed network for the zone campaigns that bring in new buyers and sellers, and a connected account for the event or brand campaigns the store has always run itself. Both land in the same inbox with a source attached, and both are measured by the same Reports dashboard, which is the argument for putting either one in the CRM at all.

When a campaign is pushed to a connected account, the library creates the campaign and its ad set in that account, paused. Our team then completes it, the creative, the form, the final checks, and brings it live from the selections the store made in Leads Manager. The store decides the zone, the offers, the channels and whether the campaign starts or stops, in Leads Manager and in conversation with us. Our team runs the media. That division is the same on both paths and is deliberate: a store gets a campaign that follows its plan without a manager learning a new console, and the store's account is never touched by anyone who has not read that plan.

Leads from a connected account come into the CRM the same way every other lead does, as a lead in the inbox with its source attached, brought in by our team as part of running the campaign. From there the CRM does what it does with any lead: round robin or distribution rules assign it, Automated Templates and Follow Up Processes work it, and the communications log records every touch. The store is never asked to reconcile a lead export against its CRM, because there is no export.

It replaces the lead export. A store running its own advertising typically downloads leads from the ad console, or has a third party automation tool move them, and then someone imports them into the CRM, hours or days after the shopper raised a hand, at which point half of them have bought elsewhere. Every step in that chain is a place a lead gets lost and a bill from a different vendor. It also replaces the agency login problem, where the agency holds the account and the store holds its breath, and the reverse, where the store shares its own credentials with whoever is running the campaign this quarter.

With the account connected on the Connections screen, the store's credentials are stored encrypted, every action taken with them is written to an append only audit log, and the store can disconnect any time. Connecting an account is included with the plans that include leads on the pricing page, month to month; there is no per network fee for the connection itself. The media spend on a connected account is the store's own arrangement with that network, exactly as it was before.

A connected ad account is a credential, and a credential deserves to be treated like one. Dealer tokens are encrypted at rest. Every action the library takes with them is written to an append only audit log, so a store can see what was done with its account and when. Campaign objects keep the credentials that created them, so disconnecting an account later does not orphan a campaign that is running. And disconnecting is the store's decision, made on the same screen where the account was connected.

Fair lending applies on this path exactly as on the managed one. A financing campaign is advertising for credit, and the rules forbid narrowing an audience by age, gender, income, marital status, household size, education, language or ZIP. Those controls are locked for a financing campaign in Leads Manager whichever account it runs through, and our team runs it that way. A store connecting its own account does not get a way around that, and should be suspicious of any vendor promising one. There are no guarantees on lead counts or results either; what changes with a connected account is who owns the account, not what a consumer decides to do.

A store on a plan that includes leads opens Leads Manager, goes to Connections, and authorizes the account it wants to connect. Once it shows as connected, campaigns planned in Leads Manager can be pushed to it, and our team completes each one from the store's selections. A network your store has not switched on yet is available on request; the request is recorded and our team puts it in production for your dealership. The help center article shows the screen and the clicks.

Pair it with Leads Manager itself, where the zone and the offers are decided; with Lead Feeds Manager, so the connected account's leads get their own feed and their own Automated Templates; and with the Reports dashboard, where a connected account and the managed network are judged by the same numbers. If you would rather see it before signing up, the pre-recorded live demo shows the CRM in use, and the contact page reaches a person who can look at the accounts your store already holds and tell you what connecting them would change.

Do I have to use the webXintel Ads Network, or can I use my own accounts?

Either. The webXintel Ads Network is the managed path. Connecting your own ad accounts on the Connections screen in Leads Manager is the second path, and the campaign plan, the inbox and the reports are the same on both. Many stores use both.

Who owns the ad account after I connect it?

You do. The account, its history and your billing relationship with the network stay in your store's name. Your token is stored encrypted, every action with it is written to an append only audit log, and you can disconnect on the same screen at any time.

What happens when a campaign is pushed to my account?

It is created in your account as a paused campaign with its ad set. Our team then completes it and brings it live from the selections you made in Leads Manager. You decide the zone, the offers, the channels and whether it starts or stops; our team runs the media.

How do the leads get into the CRM?

As part of running the campaign, our team brings each lead into your CRM inbox with its source attached, where round robin, Automated Templates and Follow Up Processes take over. There is no lead export to download and import.

Which networks can I connect?

The integrations directory on this site publishes a status per network, each with the test behind it. A network your store has not switched on yet is available on request; the Connections screen records the demand and our team puts it in production for your dealership.

Does connecting an account cost extra?

No. It is included with the LeadLocate plans that include leads, month to month, listed on the pricing page. Your media spend on a connected account remains your own arrangement with that network.

Connecting your own ad accounts is included with every LeadLocate plan that includes leads, month to month. See Leads Manager in the demo, or ask us what connecting your accounts would change.

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