Microsoft Local Inventory Ads (LIA) allows retailers to promote products that are available in nearby physical stores across Microsoft’s advertising network, by connecting online shoppers with in-store inventory.
Microsoft LIA is currently supported for France only via Lengow.
What is Microsoft Local Inventory Ads?
Local Inventory Ads are product ads shown on Bing Search results, Bing Maps, and the Microsoft Audience Network that highlight products available in a physical store close to the user.
They can display:
- Local product availability
- Local price (if different from the online price)
- Nearest store location
- Up-to-date inventory levels
The main objective of Local Inventory Ads is to help retailers drive in-store traffic and improve local conversions by promoting products that are immediately available. This format is particularly well suited for:
- Retailers with multiple physical stores
- Click & Collect strategies
- Promoting inventory in specific geographic areas or overstocked locations
Prerequisites required by Microsoft
To enable Local Inventory Ads, Microsoft requires the following components:
- A Microsoft Merchant Center (MMC) account: required to manage products and store data. More information here
- A Catalogue feed (in Lengow): this Primary Product feed must be validated and approved before Local Inventory Ads can run.
- A Local Inventory feed (in Lengow): this additional feed provides store-level inventory information.
- A Store feed (in MCC): created in Microsoft Merchant Center, it defines each physical store (address, etc.).
How to publish Microsoft Local Inventory Ads
The steps below outline how to configure Microsoft Local Inventory Ads in Lengow.
For more information, refer to the Microsoft documentation:
- What are Local Inventory Ads?
- Global feed structure: How do I create a feed file?
- Mandatory and recommended attributes: How is the feed file organized?
Step 1: Add a Microsoft Catalogue feed in Lengow
In Lengow, add the primary product catalogue by selecting "Microsoft Advertising" and choosing the "Catalogue feed" universe:
Configure the Microsoft Catalogue feed like a standard advertising channel, very similar to Facebook Dynamic Ads.
Set up this channel in Lengow, copy the URL link of the feed and submit it in your Microsoft Merchant Center, in "Tools" > "Merchant Center" > "Feeds".
Step 2: Add a Microsoft Local Inventory feed in Lengow
In Lengow, add the local ads feed by selecting "Microsoft Advertising" and choosing the "Local Inventory" universe:
Three attributes are mandatory in this feed:
- "store_code": Unique code for the item, must be unique for each store. Every store_code must match a store defined in the Store feed (next step).
- "id": unique ID, must match the corresponding "id" in the Catalogue feed. Every "id" in the Local Inventory feed must exist in the Catalogue feed.
- "quantity": stock quantity of the product.
Recommended attributes: "price" and "availability" (ex: "in stock").
Set up this channel in Lengow, copy the URL link of the feed and submit it in your Microsoft Merchant Center, in "Tools" > "Merchant Center" > "Feeds".
Microsoft recommends setting up at least a daily inventory update frequency, or multiple updates per day for optimal inventory accuracy.
Step 3: Create a Store feed in your Microsoft Merchant Center
The Store feed is created directly in Microsoft Merchant Center (MCC), in "Tools" > "Business locations".
The information necessary for each store includes its Store ID, address, opening hours and time zone.
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