AutoScout24

How AutoScout24 Discovered Brand Lift Through Performance Campaigns on TikTok

Objectives

Quantifying TikTok's impact on brand and incremental conversions

As the largest pan-European online automotive marketplace, AutoScout24 recognized that sustained growth depends on more than app installs alone. To increase its share of the app market and influence user preferences, AutoScout24 wanted a way to measure the impact of its performance campaigns on branding.

While always-on performance campaigns were already delivering strong results on TikTok, AutoScout24 sought a deeper understanding of TikTok's contribution to branding. As a data-driven company, they also needed clear evidence to justify further investment in online advertising.

This led to a core objective to quantify the impact of their performance campaigns using a Unified Lift Study, a measurement approach that combines both a Brand and Conversion Lift Study to capture brand impact and incremental conversions.

Solutions

Measuring brand and conversion lift with a Unified Lift Study

To ensure measurable value across the funnel, the AutoScout24 team worked with TikTok for Business to implement a Unified Lift Study (ULS). The team chose not to introduce dedicated branding activations, maintaining all App Install campaigns, using In-Feed Ads and Spark Ads as the primary formats.

As a well-known brand in Germany, AutoScout24 faced natural limitations in generating further awareness lift. This insight shifted the measurement focus toward mid and lower funnel signals, where incremental impact could be observed more clearly and attributed more confidently.

On the creative front, AutoScout24 followed TikTok best practices, with native brand integration appearing early in each video or carousel. A range of creative formats was tested, including interview-style content, editorial storytelling, and catalog carousels highlighting cars and offers available within the app. This approach enabled AutoScout24 to test multiple hypotheses while maintaining relevance, authenticity, and performance on the platform.

Results

Clear incremental impact on performance and brand metrics

Despite optimizing only for App Install audiences, the campaign delivered positive brand lift results, demonstrating that performance-led activity could also contribute to brand impact.

AutoScout24's campaign delivered strong incremental results with app installs increasing by 18.35%, and in-app search activity increased by 5.26%, indicating stronger downstream engagement. Ad recall increased by 7.8%, confirming that performance led activity also contributed positively to brand impact.

Together, these results validated TikTok as an effective platform for driving both measurable performance outcomes and meaningful brand signals for AutoScout24 in Germany, reinforcing TikTok's role as a growth driver in a competitive app category.

To find out more about TikTok solutions including the Unified Lift Study, reach out to our team here.