CARSOME

The objective

Achieving strong conversion results for lead generation campaigns

Even more traditional businesses, such as used car dealerships, are turning to TikTok to expand their reach and ramp up sales.

One such company is the CARSOME Group, Southeast Asia's largest integrated car e-commerce platform. With operations in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore and the Philippines, CARSOME aims to digitize the region's used car industry by reshaping and elevating the car transation and ownership experience. Founded in 2015, CARSOME wants to bring the traditional used car dealership model to the digital age, leveraging digital technologies to provide a convenient and transparent experience for car buyers and sellers.

CARSOME wanted to increase the conversion rate (CVR) of its lead-generation campaigns, leveraging TikTok to collect quality leads through instant forms.

The solution

Setting smart targeting parameters to expand reach and increase conversion

To achieve this objective, CARSOME primarily employed in-feed ads with Smart Targeting. In-feed ads receive high in-app engagement, such as likes and comments, since they appear just like any other short-form video users can discover on their “For You” page.

The campaign ran in Malaysia for over a week, from September 12 to September 20, 2023. For this campaign, CARSOME built and linked instant forms on their in-feed ads to collect leads. CARSOME used Smart Targeting—an intelligent feature on TikTok Ads Managers that helps you find users most likely to complete your campaign objectives—for their in-feed ads to reach users most likely to fill out these forms.

Smart Targeting is not automatic and will only launch based on an advertiser’s exact targeting criteria. In CARSOME’s case, these are TikTok users with interest, purchase intention, search history, and video and creator interactions related to used cars, automobiles, and car dealerships.

Based on ad performance, Smart Targeting can then be expanded based on Smart Audience, and Smart Interests and Behaviour. When enabled, Smart Audience can expand your initial targeting settings to improve ad performance, especially when the system finds that there are users outside your selected targeting audience who are more likely to convert or complete your campaign objectives.

Despite its targeting expansions, Smart Targeting will not affect other targeting variables you have selected, such as age, gender, or location. And since it already finds and targets users most likely to convert, Smart Targeting improves ad performance, reduces the cost per action (CPA), and minimizes ad fatigue.

To measure relative lift, we also used a split-test tool on this campaign, which allows different variables to be tested between a control group and a test group, with Smart Targeting enabled.

The results

Securing more quality leads with Smart Targeting

With Smart Audience, CARSOME expanded its reach beyond its initially defined targeting parameters, helping improve ad performance and efficiency. By targeting users likely to convert, CARSOME successfully fulfilled its campaign objective of driving new leads through TikTok.

CARSOME achieved a 41% higher CVR at 18% lower CPA by the end of the test period, all while securing 22.5% more leads. TikTok users exposed to CARSOME’s in-feed ads, targeted using the Smart Audience feature, significantly outperformed the control group.

Like CARSOME, you can also leverage different solutions on TikTok Ads Manager to target key audiences critical to your business success so that you can advertise more effectively and efficiently. Sign up here today to get started.