Car Sales Leads with Microsoft Advertising

The search traffic Google does not have, at a lower cost per click, with Copilot and native placements included in the same account.

Microsoft Advertising is the account behind search ads on Bing, the AI answers in Copilot, native ads across MSN, Outlook and the Edge browser, and the search partners that use Bing's results, which include Yahoo, AOL and DuckDuckGo. In practice it is a second search engine account, and its most useful feature is that it can import a Google Ads campaign structure and run it against a different slice of the market. That slice is not small. Bing is the default on every Windows machine and inside Edge, its share skews toward older and more affluent users, and DuckDuckGo carries the privacy minded shopper who has switched off Google entirely.

For a dealership the products that matter are search ads on the make, model and payment terms people type, the Audience Network placements that put a native ad in front of someone reading the news on MSN, and increasingly the Copilot placements that appear when a shopper asks an AI assistant which mid size SUV to buy. Gaming placements through Xbox and the Activision titles sit in the same account for stores that want them.

Connecting your own Microsoft Advertising account to the CRM has its own page: Microsoft Advertising CRM Integration. This page is about the channel and the leads.

A store spends on Microsoft because the same searches happen there at a lower price. Automotive clicks on Bing typically cost less than the same terms on Google, because fewer dealers bother to run the account, and the shopper who arrives is the same shopper with the same intent. Importing an already tuned Google campaign takes an afternoon, which makes it the lowest effort expansion in search a dealership can make. The audience skew, older and with more household income, is the audience that buys new vehicles.

The honest objection is volume. Bing and its partners are a fraction of Google's search traffic, so the account will never replace Google and a store that expects it to will be disappointed. It is an addition, not an alternative. The other caution is that an imported campaign still needs its own attention: bids, negative keywords and budgets drift differently on a smaller engine, and an account left to run on autopilot for months quietly wastes money on the broad terms.

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

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Microsoft fits any dealership already running Google search profitably, because it is the same playbook against more of the market for less. It fits franchise stores selling to an older new car buyer, luxury stores, and any dealer in a market with a large corporate workforce, where Windows machines and Edge are the default at the desk. It fits dealer groups that can spread a modest budget across several rooftops with the same imported structure.

It fits less well as a first channel for a store that has never run search, because it is best built from a working Google account, and for stores with very small budgets, where the volume is too thin to read. Brokers selling nationally can run it at national geography; the lower cost per click stretches further there.

Microsoft Advertising sells its placements through its own advertising console, and that console is where our team works. There are two ways to get there. The first is the webXintel Ads Network, included with every LeadLocate plan: you make your selections in Leads Manager, the zone you sell in, the campaign type and the questions a shopper answers before a lead is created, and our team builds and runs the campaigns from those selections. The second is your own Microsoft Advertising account. Ask for it from the Advertising Networks page inside the CRM and our team sets it up, usually the same day, so campaigns run under an account your dealership owns, with the spend on your card and the history in your name. If you or your agency already hold an account, say so in the request and we start from there. Under it sit , which is why one connection is enough. Nothing about the choice is permanent. A store can begin on the managed network and move to its own account later, or keep both running.

A Microsoft lead looks exactly like a Google lead: it comes through a LeadLocate lead page, a vehicle page with a form, a tracked number or a lead form on the ad, and carries the campaign and the search term where available. The shoppers tend to be older and more specific about the vehicle. The record shows the source as Microsoft, which over a quarter lets a store compare cost per lead between the two engines directly.

From that point the lead behaves like every other lead in LeadLocate. It is stamped with the channel and the campaign, it lands with the salesperson or the round robin you set in lead distribution, and the first touch can fire on its own, a text, an email or a task, before anyone opens it. Stores that keep working leads in a different CRM switch on Instant Push, and the lead is forwarded by ADF as it arrives; the price does not change for that. One thing worth saying on every channel page: the shopper decides what to submit. A person with a VIN picked out and a person with a payment in mind are both leads, and what to expect from car sales leads explains why that mix is normal.

The point of running Microsoft Advertising through LeadLocate is not Microsoft Advertising. It is that Microsoft Advertising 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 Microsoft Advertising 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.

Agencies usually skip Microsoft for small clients because managing a second engine did not pay in fees, and that is the opening: an agency that imports its dealership clients' Google campaigns into Microsoft and connects the account to each store's LeadLocate CRM adds a lower cost lead source with almost no incremental work, and the reporting shows the dealer both engines side by side.

Most dealerships hand their advertising to a small local agency that already has their trust, and that agency is who usually ends up managing Microsoft Advertising. LeadLocate is built to sit underneath that relationship rather than compete with it. The agency keeps its accounts and its client, connects those accounts to the store's LeadLocate CRM or buys leads through the webXintel Ads Network, and manages every channel it runs for that store from one Leads Manager with one set of reports. For an agency serving several stores, that replaces a stack of platform logins per client with one system, and it gives the agency something it would otherwise have to build itself: a CRM the dealership actually works its leads in, with the follow up visible. Agencies that refer stores to LeadLocate can also enroll in the referral program inside the CRM. automotive-media-buying-servicesL goes into the agency arrangement in more detail.

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 Microsoft Advertising 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.

Starting is a request, not a project. Inside the CRM, open Leads Manager, then Advertising Networks, find Microsoft Advertising and click Request Connection; our team takes it from there, usually the same day. If you are not on LeadLocate yet, the platform is priced as a monthly subscription with no long term contract, and the plans on the pricing page include the webXintel Ads Network, so a store has leads coming in while Microsoft Advertising is being set up. Media you buy through your own Microsoft Advertising account is billed by Microsoft Advertising to you. A store that already works leads in another CRM keeps doing so; the leads are pushed there by ADF at no change in price.

What happens after the request is worth knowing too. A person from our team confirms the zone, the campaign type and the pre screening questions with you, tells you plainly what Microsoft Advertising does best for a store of your size and market, and sets a review date. Nothing about Microsoft Advertising is a commitment beyond the media itself: if the reporting says it is not earning its budget after a fair trial, it is switched off from the same page it was switched on, and the CRM keeps every lead it produced.

Is Bing traffic worth a dealership's time?

For most stores, yes, because the clicks cost less and the searcher is the same person with the same intent. The volume is a fraction of Google's, so it adds to the total rather than replacing anything. An import of an existing Google campaign is the usual way to start.

What are Copilot ads for a car dealership?

Placements that appear when someone asks Microsoft's AI assistant a shopping question, such as which three row SUV fits a budget. They run from the same Microsoft Advertising account. The volume is small today and the shopper is early in the process, so treat it as reach rather than a lead machine.

Can the Google campaign simply be copied over?

Yes, the account has an import tool for that, and it is the right way to begin. It still needs its own bids, negatives and budget within a few weeks, because the smaller engine behaves differently, and an untouched import wastes money on broad terms.

Do I need my own Microsoft Advertising account to run it through LeadLocate?

No. The webXintel Ads Network is included with every plan and needs no account of yours. If you want campaigns under an account your dealership owns, request the connection from the Advertising Networks page and our team sets it up, or connects the Microsoft Advertising account you or your agency already hold.

Can Microsoft Advertising leads go into the CRM we already use?

Yes. Turn on Instant Push in the CRM settings and every lead is forwarded to your existing CRM by ADF the moment it arrives, with its source attached. The subscription price is the same whether you work leads in LeadLocate or forward them.

What does LeadLocate charge for Microsoft Advertising?

The platform is a monthly subscription, month to month with no long term contract; the plans are on the pricing page and each includes the webXintel Ads Network. Media you buy through your own Microsoft Advertising account is billed by Microsoft Advertising to you, not marked up by us. We do not tie the price to results, because no one can promise what a shopper will do.

Request Microsoft Advertising 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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