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Create your omnichannel campaign with Local Inventory Ads

After running a successful year-long pilot, Microsoft Advertising is pleased to bring you Local Inventory Ads (U.S. only). Starting in early June, online retailers who also have a brick-and-mortar presence will be able to take advantage of Local Inventory ads to bridge the gap between their online and physical presences, and to create an omnichannel presence which will not only help drive more volume to their e-commerce sites but also help generate a positive impact on their physical locations.

What is a Local Inventory Ad?

Local Inventory ads are an advertising format for your Microsoft Shopping Campaigns that allow you to showcase your products and local retail store information to nearby shoppers on Bing.com.

Based on the inventory information submitted by the retailer, when a customer is near a retailer’s physical store location and searches for a product carried by the retailer, we show the ad with a In store notification. When the ad is clicked, we can direct the customer to the retailer’s omnichannel store front to find information like the store location, product availability and more, or the customer can be sent to a Bing hosted store front displaying similar information:

Product view of Local Inventory Ads example, with views of Bing search results, customer website results, and Bing-hosted storefront results.
Diagram of the Local Inventory Ad flow.

Local Inventory ads help you surface the right information about your product at the right time to the right user, leading to a more informed click and more foot traffic to your physical location.

How do you set up Local Inventory Ads on Microsoft Advertising?

You can set up Local Inventory Ads in 5 steps:
  1. Provide store location data: Import store location details from your Google My Business account to Microsoft Advertising.
  2. Upload online products information (optional): Upload online products feed through Microsoft Merchant Center. If you are already using Microsoft Shopping Campaigns, this step may not be required.
  3. Submit local products information: Create and submit local products feeds through Microsoft Merchant Center.
  4. Upload inventory information: Upload local products inventory feed through Microsoft Merchant Center.
  5. Enable Microsoft Shopping Campaigns: Check the box in Local Inventory Ads to enable existing Microsoft Shopping Campaigns.

Connect with us

We're always looking for feedback on how we can improve Microsoft Shopping Campaigns to help you do more and work less. We invite you to ping us on Twitter, suggest a feature on the Microsoft Advertising Feature Suggestions Forum, or send us an email with your thoughts.