Local inventory ads allow you to advertise products that are available in nearby stores when a customer searches for items.
After you have uploaded inventory information in your Microsoft Merchant Center account, you can configure your Microsoft shopping campaigns to display ads for your in-store products.
Here's an overview of the process for configuring a Microsoft Shopping campaign to include local inventory ads:
- If you haven’t already done so, set up and add your Microsoft Merchant Center store to Search Ads 360 that you use to advertise your online products.
- Set up local product feeds in the Microsoft Merchant Center account that is linked to your Search Ads 360 account.
- In Search Ads 360, enable local inventory ads when you create a Microsoft Shopping campaign.
- (Optional) In Search Ads 360, filter your campaign to include only products sold online, locally, or both. Or, subdivide product groups by channel and channel exclusivity to set different bids for in-store and online product ads.
Learn more about the channel and channel exclusivity attributes, which help you subdivide your inventory to specify whether your campaign promotes online products, local products, or both.
Create product groups centered on your online or local products
You can set different bids for products sold online, in stores, or through both channels when you subdivide your product group tree by channel and channel exclusivity, in addition to other attributes such as brand and category.
- Channel segments products by online or local availability and indicates the type of ad that is displayed. Note that an online ad may include different information than an ad for an in-store product.
- Channel exclusivity segments products by availability in one of the channels or both.
You can also use the channel and channel exclusivity attributes to report on the performance of products advertised in a Shopping campaign. Learn more about reporting on the performance of Shopping campaigns.
Advertise in-store products
- Sign in to your new Search Ads 360.
- Navigate to a Microsoft Advertising client account.
- In the page menu on the left, click Campaigns.
- Navigate to the Shopping campaign you want to edit and click on the campaign setting icon
next to the campaign name.
- On the “Shopping campaign settings” page, click on the Local products menu to expand it.
- Select the Turn on ads for products sold in local stores checkbox.
- (Optional) Create a custom filter to display ads for in-store products:
- Expand Inventory filter menu and select Filter: Advertise only products that match all of your requirements.
- Click Select product attribute drop-down and then click Channel.
- In the “Value” menu, select Local stores.
- Click Save.
- (Optional) Include products that are available only in a single channel.
- Click AND to add an additional filter.
- Click Select product attribute drop-down and then click Channel Exclusivity.
- In the “Value” menu, select Single-channel.
- Click Save.
- Set other Shopping campaign settings.
- Click Save.
Which type of ad is displayed
Adding the channel or channel exclusivity attribute to a product group can affect the type of ad that is displayed when a product is included in multiple groups. When a product is in more than one ad group in a single campaign, Microsoft Advertising uses the bid from the product group with the highest bid to determine which type of ad is shown.
Learn more about product group precedence and setting bids.
For example, a Shopping campaign is configured to display ads for local and online products. It includes 2 product groups. Product group A displays ads for in-store products and has a max CPC of $0.05 USD. Product group B displays online ads for a max CPC of $0.10 USD.
| Channel Exclusivity | Channel (Type of ad) | Bid (Max CPC) |
| --- (not set) | Local | 0.05 |
| --- (not set) | Online | 0.10 |
A pair of red boots is included in both groups because they are advertised online and in-store.
When a nearby customer searches for red boots, the online ad is displayed because of the higher bid.