LEROY MERLIN SPAIN
From Good to Game-Changing: How Tiktok Smart+ Campaigns Unlocked 60% Higher ROAS
The Objective
The Challenge: Scaling ROAS and Reducing Costs with Advanced Catalogue Solutions
Leroy Merlin Spain, one of the biggest global home retailers, is a savvy advertiser with strong data connections and a full-funnel TikTok strategy. They’ve been running performance campaigns for some time, leveraging Value-Based Optimization (VBO) and closely measuring ROAS to drive real business impact. This ongoing full-funnel approach has enabled them to gather the right signals to continuously improve and scale performance.
To build on this momentum, Leroy Merlin Spain partnered with TikTok and their local media agency Kinesso to run a controlled comparison between their existing manual campaigns and TikTok’s Smart+ Catalogue Solution.
This test was timed to coincide with the kickstart of the summer season and focused on their home cooling solutions, especially the 'fans' product campaign, which is a key seasonal category.
The Solution
Using Smart+ Catalogue to Automate and Optimize Performance
To determine whether TikTok’s AI-powered solution could genuinely enhance performance while simplifying campaign management, Leroy Merlin Spain ran a direct head-to-head test at the start of the summer season.
On one hand was their established manual campaign setup. On the other, TikTok’s Smart+ Catalogue: a new advanced solution that automatically pulls product images, descriptions, and creative assets directly from Leroy Merlin’s existing catalogue feed.
Unlike traditional setups requiring multiple campaigns and creatives, Smart+ runs as a single, automated campaign that dynamically chooses and combines product info and creative elements to generate thousands of ad variations. TikTok’s algorithm then learns in real time which combinations perform best, serving the most relevant ads to each user.
This streamlined, personalized approach simplifies campaign management and makes it easier to scale, ideal for a retailer like Leroy Merlin with a wide product range but limited creative resources. Paired with Value-Based Optimization (VBO), Smart+ ensures spend is directed toward high-value conversions aligned with Leroy Merlin’s full-funnel goals and ROAS targets.
The Results
Higher ROAS, Lower CPA, and More Conversions
Leroy Merlin Spain's test with Smart+ Catalogue revealed impressive improvements across key performance indicators:
The campaign drove a 60% higher ROAS compared to their manual efforts, along with a significant 30% reduction in cost per acquisition (CPA). This showed that Smart+ doesn’t just simplify campaign management, but it also delivers real, measurable business impact.
Beyond ROAS and CPA, the Smart+ campaign also saw a 10% increase in conversion rate and a 4x boost in click-through rate (CTR). The higher CTR, highlights how automated personalization grabs users’ attention early in the funnel, leading to more and better-quality conversions downstream.
These results were validated not only through TikTok Ads Manager, but also independently via Leroy Merlin’s third-party measurement tools, confirming the effectiveness of automation, in key metrics such as conversion rate, ROAS, CPA and cost per session.
Following this successful test, Leroy Merlin Spain fully transitioned from manual campaigns to Smart+, continuing to see steady improvements and ultimately proving that Smart+ is a scalable, sustainable solution for long-term growth and maximized ROAS.
Beyond Smart+: Measuring TikTok’s True Incrementality
In addition to the strong performance delivered by Smart+, Leroy Merlin partnered with Annalect to conduct an independent Marketing Mix Modeling (MMM) study. The aim of this project was to better understand TikTok’s role within Leroy Merlin’s overall media strategy, isolating its incremental contribution to sales, ROI, and efficiency compared to other channels in the mix.
By analysing the combined effect of Leroy Merlin’s investments across the full media ecosystem, this MMM study provides a clear, data-driven view of how TikTok contributes to business growth. Beyond performance metrics within TikTok Ads Manager, the analysis reveals how campaigns translate into measurable sales impact and how efficiently TikTok drives results versus other media investments.
Key insights from the MMM:
With an increase of more than 80% in investment on the platform compared to 2024, Leroy Merlin was able to achieve the following stand-out results:
30% growth in in-store contribution
108% increase in e-commerce sales
16% improvement in TikTok ROAS, demonstrating greater media efficiency
By combining catalogue-driven creative automation with value-based bidding, Leroy Merlin turned a solid TikTok strategy into a game-changing growth engine.