USA TODAY Network for Car Sales Leads

USA Today nationally plus more than two hundred local news sites, with the LocaliQ local marketing platform, sold by market.

Gannett publishes USA Today and more than two hundred local daily newspapers and their sites across the country, together the USA TODAY Network, and it sells advertising across them by market, section and audience through its advertising operation, directly and programmatically. LocaliQ is its local marketing platform, which sells search, social, display and streaming campaigns to local businesses alongside the newspaper inventory, with reporting built for a local advertiser.

For a dealership in a market with a Gannett paper, the local site is often the largest local news audience in town, and the network's reach extends to USA Today nationally. LocaliQ overlaps with what LeadLocate and a store's agency already do, so a store should decide who runs what; the newspaper inventory itself is the reason to be here, the local news reader in the zone beside coverage of the town.

A store spends with the USA TODAY Network for the local news audience in its market, often the largest local reader base in town, beside local coverage, with USA Today for national reach and geography targeting to keep the spend in the zone. It is the modern form of the newspaper buy every dealership once made.

The honest objection is that local newspaper audiences have declined and skew older, that display beside news competes with the news, and that LocaliQ's services duplicate what a store may already run elsewhere, so a store should buy the inventory and not pay twice for management. The effect reads mostly through branded search over weeks.

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

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The USA TODAY Network fits franchise and used stores in markets with a Gannett paper, stores selling to older local readers, and dealer groups covering several Gannett markets. It fits less well for markets without a Gannett paper and for stores that already run their digital elsewhere and only want the newspaper inventory, which it also sells. National sellers can run USA Today nationally.

USA TODAY Network sells its inventory through buying platforms and media partners, so the way in is through one of them, and that is exactly what LeadLocate arranges on request. From the Advertising Networks page in the CRM, ask for USA TODAY Network, and our team arranges the placement in your store's name, sets the geography to the area you actually sell in, and manages it from the same Leads Manager selections that drive your other campaigns. Stores or agencies that already buy through a platform carrying USA TODAY Network keep that seat, and we work within it. One account covers . Reporting comes back into the CRM beside every other channel, so the question of whether USA TODAY Network earned its budget is answered in the same place as the rest.

A USA TODAY Network sourced lead reaches the CRM as a click from a placement to a vehicle page or a LeadLocate lead page, a branded search, a call, or a direct inquiry, attributed directly for the clicks and over weeks for the rest. Older newspaper readers often call, which the CRM logs and transcribes.

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 USA TODAY Network through LeadLocate is not USA TODAY Network. It is that USA TODAY Network 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 USA TODAY Network 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, the USA TODAY Network's local sites are the newspaper buy in many markets, with LocaliQ as either a partner or a competitor depending on what the agency runs itself, and connecting the store's LeadLocate CRM keeps the newspaper leads in the same report as everything else.

If an agency runs USA TODAY Network 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.

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 USA TODAY Network 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.

Two steps. First, if your dealership is not on the platform, pick a plan on the pricing page; every plan is month to month with no long term contract, and every plan includes the webXintel Ads Network. Second, from Leads Manager inside the CRM, open Advertising Networks and request USA TODAY Network. Our team handles the setup, usually the same day, and the campaign is planned from your zone and your selections. Spend on an account you own is billed to you by USA TODAY Network; there is no markup on it from us. If the store's process lives in another CRM, Instant Push forwards each lead there by ADF.

Expect a short conversation before anything runs: which vehicles, which zone, which questions a shopper should answer, what a fair trial of USA TODAY Network looks like in your market and when to review it. Then the campaign runs and the reporting does the talking. A channel that earns its place stays; one that does not is turned off from the same page, and the store keeps the leads, the records and the history either way.

Does Gannett have a paper in my market?

It publishes more than two hundred local dailies across the country. Our team confirms the paper and its site in the store's market when the placement is requested.

Should a store use LocaliQ?

Only for what nobody else is running for the store. LocaliQ's search, social and streaming services overlap with what LeadLocate and an agency provide, so decide who runs each channel before buying to avoid paying twice.

How is the campaign measured?

By clicks from placements to vehicle pages and the lead page, branded search lift in the zone during the flight, calls logged and transcribed in the CRM and direct inquiries.

Can my dealership buy USA TODAY Network directly?

Yes, through LeadLocate. USA TODAY Network 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 USA TODAY Network, we work through that.

Can USA TODAY Network 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 USA TODAY Network?

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.

One more channel, no new login, no new report. Ask for USA TODAY Network 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.

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