Toyota
Toyota makes Automotive Ads the engine of success for its lead gen - drastically decreasing its CPA.
Reducing cost per configuration with TikTok’s Automotive Ads
Toyota Germany (@toyota_de) is not only part of one of the world's best-known car manufacturers, but also one of the pioneers in successful lead generation on TikTok. Now, the goal was to optimize performance further - reducing the cost per action (CPA) for vehicle configurations and making lead generation even more efficient.
Goal
In the highly competitive automotive market, finding cost-effective ways to generate high-quality leads is essential - whether for test drives, vehicle configurations, or actual car sales.
To meet this challenge, Toyota Germany partnered with TikTok and its integrated media and creative agency T&Pm and become the first automotive advertiser in Europe to test TikTok’s new Automotive Ads. The goal: drive down CPA for vehicle configurations and expanding their customer reach.
Strategy
Toyota Germany executed two parallel campaigns to evaluate the impact of TikTok’s new ad category.
Automotive Ads: Toyota leveraged In-Feed Ads to integrate seamlessly into TikTok users’ For You Feed, complemented by Carousel Ads sourced directly from their product catalogue.
Always-on conversion campaigns: Running alongside, Toyota Germany continued its regular conversion campaigns optimising towards completed car configurators as a comparative measure.
Each campaign featured a streamlined catalogue of three car models, with T&Pm producing one native creative per model allowing for a fair and data-informed evaluation.
Automotive Ads are part of TikTok’s Lead Generation solution - a flexible, performance-driven ad format designed to engage TikTok’s highly active audience and convert interest into action. With a clear Call-to-Action (CTA), users were seamlessly guided to the model’s landing page, to complete a car configuration.
Results
Backed by precise performance tracking via TikTok Pixel, Toyota observed remarkable cost efficiency advancements:
A 38% reduction in CPA compared to their standard lead gen approach (click-through attribution).
The Corolla model in particular saw a significant 65% decrease in CPA, while the C-HR and Aygo X models achieved savings of 31% and 50% respectively.
By integrating automotive-specific ad formats with a highly engaged audience, Toyota successfully enhanced its lead generation strategy - proving that TikTok Automotive Ads drive real results.
It's been quite a journey with TikTok, starting our channel in 2022 with a focus on brand building. TikTok has proven that they can tackle the full sales funnel and are indeed a driver in our performance approach, resulting in up to 65% lower CPAs with inventory ads, leading to a higher conversion baseline for Toyota Germany.