The Trade Desk Advertising for Car Sales Leads

The largest independent buying platform, reaching nearly every publisher, streaming service, audio network and screen from one console.

The Trade Desk is the largest independent demand side platform, the console agencies and large advertisers use to buy display, online video, connected television, streaming audio and digital outdoor across nearly every publisher, exchange and streaming service that sells programmatically, including Netflix, Disney, NBCUniversal and the television makers' platforms, with its own identity framework, audience marketplace and measurement. It sells to agencies and to large advertisers directly, with minimums and a platform fee, and it is built for scale.

For a dealership the platform matters through an agency or a group that runs it: one console reaching most of the destinations on this site, with one frequency cap across all of them and one report. A single store reaches the same destinations through partners and self serve tools; a group with a real programmatic budget gets the console, and the connected TV reach in particular is the broadest available anywhere.

Connecting your own The Trade Desk account to the CRM has its own page: The Trade Desk Integration for Car Dealers. This page is about the channel and the leads.

A store spends through The Trade Desk when it or its agency runs programmatic at a scale that justifies the console, for the broadest connected TV, audio and open web reach available from one plan, with independent measurement and no publisher ownership steering the buy. For a group it is the alternative to Google's platform.

The honest objection is that it is an enterprise platform with minimums, fees and a learning curve suited to agencies and groups, that a single store gets its reach through partners, and that programmatic reads through branded search over weeks. Access is through an agency seat or a direct contract, which our team arranges.

For the broader case for this kind of channel, Programmatic Display Advertising for Dealers covers it without repeating what is here.

Leave your number and a lead specialist calls you back to answer your questions about pricing, coverage, and setup. Mon - Sat, 9:00 AM - 6:00 PM Pacific.

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

Protected by reCAPTCHA. Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

The Trade Desk fits dealer groups with programmatic budgets and the agencies that buy for them, and franchise stores whose agency already holds a seat. It fits less well for a single store, which reaches the same destinations through partners. National sellers with scale can run it nationally.

The Trade Desk 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 The Trade Desk 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. 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 Trade Desk bought lead reaches the CRM as a click from a display or video placement to a LeadLocate lead page or a vehicle page, a branded search during a connected TV or audio flight, or a direct inquiry, attributed directly for the clicks and over weeks for the rest, with the campaign and channel on the record.

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.

Every channel LeadLocate runs shares one workflow. Campaigns are set up in Leads Manager from a zone, a campaign type and a set of pre screening questions. Leads arrive in one inbox, route by one set of distribution rules, and are worked with the CRM's own texting, calling, call transcription, email and voicemail drop. Reporting is one place, with activity, company and management views. The Trade Desk slots into that as a source, nothing more, and that is the reason a store can afford to try it: the cost of adding a channel is the media, not another system. The advertising channels page lists every channel the CRM can run this way.

It also means a channel can be judged fairly. When every lead carries its source and every call, text and appointment is logged against it, the management report can show cost per lead and cost per appointment by channel over a quarter, which is the only honest way to compare a search campaign with a streaming flight or a mailing. A store that keeps its channels in separate systems never gets that comparison, and usually keeps paying for the one with the loudest sales rep.

For an agency, The Trade Desk is the independent console for dealership group clients, and connecting each store's LeadLocate CRM pairs the platform's cross channel report with the leads each rooftop received.

If an agency runs The Trade Desk 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 automotive-media-buying-servicesL.

A dealership is a local business, so every channel LeadLocate runs is planned around a zone: a radius around the store, a set of counties, or a whole state for a group. The zone editor in Leads Manager is where that is drawn, and it applies to The Trade Desk the same way it applies to search or social. Auto brokers and stores that ship nationally can widen the zone to the country; a Toyota store in one city has no reason to pay for shoppers in another, and does not. Groups give each rooftop its own zone so two stores in the same group never bid against each other for the same household. One rule worth knowing before you plan a financing campaign: campaigns that mention financing run under fair lending rules, which do not allow narrowing an audience by age, gender, income, marital status, household size, education, language or ZIP, and Leads Manager locks those controls. Vehicle and geography targeting is unaffected.

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

What can The Trade Desk buy that a store cannot buy itself?

Programmatic inventory across nearly every publisher, exchange and streaming service from one console with one frequency cap, including many streaming services that sell to single stores only through such platforms.

Can a single dealership get a Trade Desk seat?

Seats carry minimums and fees suited to agencies and groups. A single store reaches the same destinations through a partner's seat, which our team arranges on request.

How is the campaign measured?

By clicks from placements to the lead page and vehicle pages, branded search lift during connected TV and audio flights, direct inquiries and the platform's cross channel report, in the CRM by week.

Do I need my own The Trade Desk 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 The Trade Desk account you or your agency already hold.

Can The Trade Desk 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 The Trade Desk?

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 The Trade Desk account is billed by The Trade Desk 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.

One more channel, no new login, no new report. Ask for The Trade Desk inside the CRM or talk to a lead specialist about which channels fit your store first.

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

Protected by reCAPTCHA. Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.