Yahoo Autos Alternative for Car Dealerships

A big audience reads about cars every day. Your store sells to the people in its own zip codes, so that is where the lead budget belongs.

Yahoo Autos is the automotive section of Yahoo, one of the longest running general audience destinations on the web. It carries car news, reviews, buying guides and research, and it benefits from the enormous daily traffic that moves through Yahoo's home page, news and finance pages. A shopper reading about a new model or a recall on Yahoo is often someone who was not looking for a car when they opened the browser.

For dealers, that reach is usually bought as advertising rather than as leads. Display and native placements across Yahoo properties are sold through Yahoo's advertising business and through agencies, and they put a store's brand or inventory message in front of a broad audience that can be targeted by geography and interest.

Products, packaging and pricing change over time. Confirm current pricing and terms with the vendor directly before you plan a budget around any of it.

Reach is a real asset, and it is measured in impressions. A dealer principal reviewing the month wants to see appointments and units, and the path from an impression on a news page to a customer at the desk is long and hard to trace. That gap is why the search for an alternative usually starts in the accounting office rather than the marketing meeting.

The second reason is layers. When display advertising is bought through an agency, the store often sees a summary report rather than the individual people who responded, and a customer who clicked an ad and then called the store looks, in the CRM, like a walk in. The third reason is fit. A big national audience is a strength for a manufacturer, while a single rooftop sells mostly to people within a short drive.

Dealers moving budget to LeadLocate are trading impressions for leads: named people inside their own zone who asked to be contacted, delivered with the source attached.

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.

Features change on both sides. Confirm anything that will drive your decision with each vendor directly.

The first gain is a local market you define. In Leads Manager you draw your territory in the zone editor and use zip stats and the market scan to see what lives inside it. You choose the campaign type, set the prescreening questions a shopper answers at capture, shape the offer with Custom Offers and preview sample ads with See Samples. Our team builds and runs the campaigns from those selections on the webXintel Ads Network, included with every plan.

The second gain is people instead of impressions. Every lead in your zone is delivered to you and only you, prescreened at capture with the questions you choose, and backed by a replacement review through Quality Control Requests, so a bad lead costs you nothing. Inbound buyer leads arrive as a mix of VIN specific interest and open shoppers describing what they want, and opt in seller leads come from local owners who filled out a vehicle offer request.

The third gain is the full record. The lead, its source, every call with its recording and transcript, every text, MMS, email and voicemail, the appointment and the deal sit on one timeline in one CRM. The monthly review stops being a debate about attribution and becomes a count.

A lead from your own zone deserves a fast, personal answer, and the CRM is built to make that the default. Automated Templates send the first text the moment the lead lands, with the salesperson's name on it. RCS messaging with automatic SMS fallback delivers a branded message with photos where the phone supports it and a plain text everywhere else, and the vehicle button in every composer attaches a unit with photos and price.

The AI writing assistant drafts texts and emails with merge fields filled in, and Jax, the bilingual AI assistant inside the CRM, answers a rep in English or Spanish. Team Chat keeps managers and salespeople in one conversation, In-Store Now flags who is physically on the lot, and the calendar booking link lets a customer pick an appointment time with reminders sent ahead of the visit.

On the phone, click to call through the browser softphone, call recording and transcription, voicemail drop, the IVR and business hours routing cover every call from the first ring to the voicemail. Call Alerts flag transcribed calls where the words you choose come up. The lead response tracking page shows how managers read those numbers.

Readers who do find your store online land on your website, so the same platform that handles zone leads should handle those visitors. Connect your website forms and every request creates a lead in the CRM with the fields mapped, and the first text can fire automatically. The free live chat widget answers questions while the visitor is still on the page.

Visitor analytics inside the CRM show overview, realtime activity, sessions, sources and top pages, so you can see which vehicles and pages draw attention. Lead pages with per page URL settings give each campaign or promotion its own destination, and personal salesperson websites let each rep share a page that belongs to them.

If you want real units on those pages, Inventory Link ingests your feed or imports inventory from your website, and an embeddable inventory widget places your vehicles on any site. The website lead attribution page covers how to credit those leads correctly.

In the first week the account is set up for you, usually the same day. Import your contacts, set your zone, campaign type and prescreening questions in Leads Manager, and connect your website forms. Training is included with every plan through the video library, Live Training and Schedule Training on the top bar.

In the second week, turn on Automated Templates for each lead feed and Follow Up Processes for buyer and seller leads, set up the calendar booking link, and give each source its own custom source feed so the comparison is clean from the first day. Put your used car manager on Manager Lead Copies for the seller feed so every offer request reaches a decision maker.

From the third week, compare what each dollar produced: delivered leads, time to first response, appointments set and shown, and units sold. Keep brand advertising where it serves the store, and move the budget meant to produce leads toward the source that produces them. The marketing attribution page walks through the comparison.

The Inbound plan for buyer leads starts at $799 a month, Marketplace Acquisitions for seller leads starts at $999, and the Buyers and Sellers Hybrid plan runs both from $1,599. Every plan with leads includes the CRM, because the platform is what receives and delivers them, and CRM Only starts at $199 for stores that bring their own lead sources. Every plan is month to month with no long term contract. Current details live on the pricing page.

The activity, company and management reports show what your people did, what each source produced and how the store is trending. Because calls, texts and emails run inside the platform, the numbers are recorded as the work happens.

We cannot guarantee lead counts, close rates or results, and no vendor can, because those depend on your market, your inventory and how quickly your people respond. What LeadLocate gives you is exclusive local supply, a team running the campaigns and a CRM that shows exactly what the budget bought. Call 844-376-2274 and we will map a zone around your store.

Does LeadLocate sell display advertising like Yahoo?

LeadLocate sells exclusive leads with a full CRM. You choose your zone, campaign type and prescreening questions in Leads Manager, and our team builds and runs the campaigns on the webXintel Ads Network, included with every plan. What arrives is named leads, not impressions.

Are the leads exclusive to our store?

Yes. Every lead in your zone is delivered to you and only you, prescreened at capture with the questions you choose, and backed by a replacement review, so a bad lead costs you nothing.

Can we keep some brand advertising running?

Yes. Many stores keep brand advertising where it serves them and move the budget meant to produce leads. Custom source feeds and the reports keep every source separate so the comparison stays clean.

What happens when a website visitor fills out a form?

Connect your website forms and each request creates a lead in the CRM with the fields mapped. The first text can fire automatically, and the lead sits on the same timeline as every other source.

Do we need an inventory feed?

An inventory feed and DMS access are not required. If you have a feed, Inventory Link ingests it, or imports inventory from your website, and your real units appear in texts, emails and pages.

What does it cost?

Inbound buyer lead plans start at $799 a month, Marketplace Acquisitions at $999 and the Buyers and Sellers Hybrid plan at $1,599, each with the CRM included. CRM Only starts at $199. All plans are month to month.

We will map a zone around your store, set your prescreening questions, and show the CRM working real lead flow. Month to month, no long term contract.

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