Car Sales Leads from Gray Media Advertising

Leading local broadcast stations in more than a hundred small and mid sized markets, with digital and streaming from the same team.

Gray Media owns local television stations in more than a hundred markets, most of them small and mid sized, and in a large share of those markets its station is the leading news station by a wide margin, the one the town watches. It sells advertising through its local station teams by market, station, daypart and audience, with the stations' digital sites and apps and streaming campaigns alongside, and a digital marketing services arm for local advertisers.

For a dealership in a Gray market, that is the local television buy, and in a small market it is often the only broadcast buy that matters: the evening news, the morning show, high school and college sports, on the station everyone watches, plus the station's app and a streaming extension. The local news audience in a small market is a large share of the vehicle buying households.

A store spends with Gray because in a small or mid sized market its station is usually the leading local news buy, reaching a large share of buying households every evening, with digital and streaming from the same team. In those markets the station's credibility is the town's.

The honest objection is that broadcast audiences skew older and shrink yearly, that attribution reads through tracked numbers and branded search over weeks, and that the digital services arm overlaps with what a store runs elsewhere. Outside Gray's markets there is nothing to buy.

For the broader case for this kind of channel, Connected TV Advertising for Car Dealerships covers it without repeating what is here.

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Gray fits franchise and used stores in its small and mid sized markets, truck stores that want local news and sports, and dealer groups covering several Gray markets. It fits less well for stores that need click level attribution and for stores without video creative.

Getting onto Gray Media is a commercial step before it is a technical one: their team, a minimum, a creative review. That is exactly the kind of work a store does not want to run itself, and it is what our team does when you request Gray Media from the Advertising Networks page in the CRM. We open the conversation in your dealership's name, agree the placement, and then manage it from Leads Manager like every other channel, with the results reported back into the CRM. If your dealership or agency already has a relationship with Gray Media, say so in the request and we start there. Meanwhile the webXintel Ads Network, which is included, carries on producing leads, so nothing waits on the partner timeline.

A Gray sourced lead reaches the CRM as a call to the tracked number in the spot, a branded search, or a direct inquiry on a LeadLocate lead page, in the days after the impression, attributed by zone and week, with broadcast calls logged and transcribed. In small markets the phone is the main response.

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.

A dealership that runs six channels through six vendors gets six reports, six invoices and six opinions about where the leads came from. Running Gray Media through LeadLocate means it is planned in Leads Manager beside the others, its leads arrive in the same inbox with the same distribution rules, its follow up runs through the same texting, calling and email tools, and its results show up in the same reporting modules. Add a channel and the work does not grow; the picture does. The full set of channels a store can ask for is on the advertising channels page, and it matches the list inside the CRM.

The tools behind that inbox are the ones a store already uses on its other leads: automated first contact by text or email, calls placed from the CRM with the recording transcribed onto the record, voicemail drop for the ones who do not answer, drip processes for the ones who are months away, appointments on the shared calendar, and desking when the shopper arrives. A lead from Gray Media gets all of it, because the CRM does not care where a lead came from once it is in.

For an agency buying broadcast in small and mid sized markets for dealership clients, Gray's station is usually the buy, and connecting each store's LeadLocate CRM gives the client the calls, searches and inquiries by week that broadcast never reported.

If an agency runs Gray Media for your store today, nothing about that has to change. The agency connects the account it already manages, or requests the placement through us, and the leads flow into your LeadLocate CRM where your salespeople work them and your managers can see the follow up. The agency sees the same reports you do. For the agency, the appeal is practical: one platform for every channel and every client instead of twenty consoles, a real CRM behind the campaigns without having to build or license one, and a lead flow from the webXintel Ads Network it can offer any dealership on day one. The referral program in the CRM pays agencies for stores they bring. More on the arrangement at dealership-campaign-management-softwareL.

Nobody drives across three states for a sedan, so the market Gray Media is bought in is the market you draw. Leads Manager's zone editor takes a radius, counties or a state and hands it to every channel you run, including this one, and the reporting comes back by that zone so you can see which part of your area actually answers, which is often not the part a store expected. Groups run separate zones per rooftop; brokers and national sellers open the map up. On financing campaigns the audience is not narrowed by protected characteristics, because fair lending rules do not allow it and the controls in Leads Manager are locked accordingly. Geography and vehicle targeting stay fully in your hands.

The setup cost of Gray Media, 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 Gray Media account in your name is billed by Gray Media 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 Gray Media is likely to do for a store of your size, and agrees a review date. If the reporting shows Gray Media 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.

Which markets does Gray cover?

More than a hundred, mostly small and mid sized, where its station is often the leading local news station. Our team confirms the station and its rates in the store's market when the placement is requested.

Should a store buy Gray's digital services?

Only for what nobody else runs for the store; they overlap with what LeadLocate and an agency provide. The broadcast and station digital inventory is the reason to buy here.

How is the campaign measured?

By calls to the tracked number in the spot, logged and transcribed in the CRM, branded search lift in the zone and inquiries on the lead page, reported by week.

Does my dealership need its own relationship with Gray Media?

Not to start. Request Gray Media from the Advertising Networks page in the CRM and our team opens the conversation with Gray Media for your store. If you or your agency already have a relationship there, tell us in the request and we work inside it.

Can Gray Media leads go into the CRM we already use?

Yes. Instant Push forwards every lead to your existing CRM by ADF the moment it arrives, with its source attached, and the price of the subscription is unchanged.

What does LeadLocate charge for Gray Media?

The platform subscription, month to month and priced on the pricing page, includes the webXintel Ads Network. A Gray Media placement carries whatever commitment Gray Media sets, billed for your dealership; we do not mark it up and we never tie our price to results.

Request Gray Media from inside the CRM and our team sets it up, usually the same day. Not on LeadLocate yet? Pick a plan, month to month, and start with the included webXintel Ads Network this week.

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

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