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A Mazda dealership we work with in New Jersey had a problem a lot of dealers will recognize. Its search campaigns were doing their job, but they could only catch shoppers who were already looking. In a competitive local market, the store needed more people to know its name before they started searching. That’s where Microsoft Premium Streaming for dealerships came in.
Microsoft Advertising later featured the results in a customer success story: a 150% increase in direct traffic and a 76% lift in website form submissions year over year, with active users on the site more than doubling.
The goal: more demand without losing lead quality
The store wasn’t looking for vanity reach. It needed three things at once:
- More dealership awareness across its region.
- Incremental website traffic that turned into real customer actions, not bounces.
- A channel that would feed its lower-funnel search campaigns instead of competing with them.
The solution: Microsoft Premium Streaming on the big screen
We launched Microsoft Advertising Premium Streaming, Microsoft’s connected TV product. The dealer’s video ran in brand-safe, high-attention streaming environments, targeted to its local market. The campaigns reached shoppers earlier in the buying journey and pointed them to the dealership’s website.
Over the following months, we scaled the budget as the results came in and broadened the creative. The current campaign runs English and Spanish spots, including a Spanish-language spot aimed at shoppers with credit challenges, so the store can reach more of the buyers in its market.
The results
| Result reported by Microsoft Advertising | Change |
|---|---|
| Direct traffic | +150% |
| Website form submissions, year over year | +76% |
| Active users on the website | More than doubled |
Here’s how I described it for Microsoft’s case study:
“Premium Streaming was the missing piece in [the dealership’s] media mix. It delivered brand-safe reach at the top of the funnel while our search channels converted the demand — a true full-funnel approach that produced a 76% lift in direct form submissions year over year.”
Alex Melen, Co-Founder, SmartSites
Why Microsoft Premium Streaming works for dealerships
The pattern here matches what we’ve seen across our dealers. In what 18 of our car dealers taught us about connected TV, our CTV stores grew direct visits while comparable stores without CTV lost them. And in a separate controlled lift study on a New Jersey Toyota store, Microsoft found viewers who saw the ads made 28% more brand searches.
The common thread is that CTV and search work as a team:
- CTV creates the demand. Shoppers see your store on their TV and start looking for you by name.
- Search catches it. Your branded and model search campaigns are there when they do.
- Your website closes it. Direct visits and form submissions are where the results show up, so that’s what we measure.
If you want to see what Microsoft Premium Streaming could do for your dealership, talk to your SmartSites strategist or contact us.
About the data
- Source: Microsoft Advertising customer success story, SmartSites, April 2026. Figures are as reported by Microsoft Advertising.
- Campaign: Microsoft Premium Streaming (connected TV) for one Mazda dealership in New Jersey. The dealership is not named.
- Note: results reflect one dealership’s campaign and won’t be the same for every store or market.
“Shoutout to Ben Stewart, works his tail off for our dealership driving results that are second to none.”
Alec MetroCertified AutoBrokers Inc
