TikTok might've gained fame for its dance trends and recipe hacks, but it’s grown into a powerful intent driver for car buyers. If your agency manages Tier 2 and/or Tier 3 car dealerships, take note: new data from Escalent and TikTok shows that a whopping 60-70 million TikTok users (39% of all TikTok users) are actively in-market for a vehicle purchase.
Most importantly, these buyers aren't using TikTok to merely gain awareness about what's on the market or for sale near them. TikTok plays a critical role throughout the entire auto-buying journey, from initial discovery to final vehicle selection.
For ad agencies managing dealership clients, this represents a massive opportunity to capture incremental buyer demand that simply doesn’t exist anywhere else. Plus, with Fluency's automation-powered system, you can easily bring in TikTok Automotive Ads to reach high-intent shoppers without a ton of operational lift.
In this post, we'll explore how TikTok primes the search funnel and motivates buyers to visit local dealerships. You’ll also learn how to launch and manage TikTok campaigns alongside your other major channels with minimal effort or overhead.
TikTok's evolution from entertainment to driving meaningful purchase intent
If your ad agency is trying to reach car buyers, now is the time to take a good, hard look at TikTok. TikTok reaches 189 million monthly active users in the U.S. (one in two Americans!), and the latest research shows that 39% of TikTok’s monthly users are actively in-market for a vehicle.
However, what really sticks out about TikTok’s car-buying audience is that 55% of TikTok users don’t use Meta. That means you could be missing out on key buyers if you're primarily running ads on Facebook or Instagram.
The data indicates that TikTok’s userbase isn’t just casual teenage scrollers, either. In fact, 75% of in-market shoppers on the platform are 25 or older, and the average TikTok user spends more than 100 minutes per day on the app.
Honestly, this data is great news for agencies looking to expand their auto clients’ paid media strategies—and not just for top-of-funnel awareness. Let’s take a look at why.
How TikTok influences every stage of the car buyer's journey
At the 2026 National Automotive Dealer Association (NADA) Show Expo, TikTok released some exciting (and surprising) data about how the platform actively drives intent and influences purchase decisions for users shopping for cars. Here’s how TikTok plays a role at every critical point in the automotive purchase funnel:
75% of shoppers discover vehicles on TikTok
It all starts with the scroll. Early in their buying journey, TikTok users are encountering new models in their feed, learning about features, and getting exposed to brands they hadn't considered before. In fact, 75% of car buyers cite TikTok for helping them learn about different makes and models.
80% of shoppers turn to TikTok for vehicle research
Once a vehicle catches their attention, 80% of car buyers said they use TikTok for further research. What does this look like, exactly? These buyers watch honest reviews from real car owners, read comments, and research specific vehicle features—all within the app.
38% of car buyers use TikTok to compare vehicles side-by-side
As shoppers narrow in on their car of choice, 38% of shoppers use TikTok to compare different makes and models. This depth of research makes it clear that these TikTok users aren’t casually browsing: they’re actively looking for the right car to buy.
More than half of TikTok shoppers (51%) say the platform influenced their car purchase
Looking to prove TikTok’s impact on conversion to your dealer clients? Tell them that 51% of TikTok shoppers say the app directly influenced their final vehicle choice.
There’s also the harder-to-quantify “good vibes” that TikTok gives car buyers. We know that building confidence is crucial for car buyers and actively plays a role in their decision-making process.
Consider, then, that 80% of shoppers say TikTok makes them feel more informed about their purchase, and 79% say it helped them identify the right vehicle. Perhaps even more surprising is that 82% of TikTok shoppers said “dealership ads on the platform are helpful,” according to data from Escalent.
Suffice to say, with so many TikTok shoppers citing the app as a positive influence in their car-buying journey, it’s a must-have for your dealer clients’ paid media strategies.
TikTok Ads and the buyer’s journey: what TikTok car shoppers do after seeing an automotive ad
So, what happens after car shoppers see a dealership ad on TikTok? According to the data shared at the NADA Show in 2026, car buyers take the following steps:
- 41% read test drive reviews: They're looking for real-world experiences from other drivers, wanting to hear from people who actually drove the car they’re interested in.
- 40% explore current dealership promotions: They want to know what local deals are available and how they can save money on their purchase.
- 39% read dealership tips and advice: They want detailed guidance on financing, features, and the buying process.
- 38% search for local dealerships: This is the sign they’re moving from consideration to action, looking for nearby dealerships where they can see the car in-person.
All of these intent-oriented behaviors make it clear that TikTok primes shoppers to take the next step in their car-buying journey.
But let’s remember buyers aren’t researching in isolation. The data indicates that TikTok sparks curiosity for car buyers, which they may follow up on through other channels. By bringing TikTok into your dealer clients’ overall paid media strategy, you’re building intent-focused momentum that ripples out across your multichannel strategies.
For instance, let’s say a user watches some user-generated content (UGC) videos about different mid-size SUVs and then gets served a local dealership ad on TikTok. From there, they might search for car reviews or nearby availability on Google, browse used cars on Facebook, or visit a local dealership's website directly.
Automate your TikTok Automotive Ads strategy
Despite its influence as a channel, many advertisers have been slow to adopt TikTok simply because it’s operationally challenging. Automation has changed all that, giving advertisers a powerful competitive advantage against competitors who are still bogged down in manual management.
Automation-powered systems like Fluency take the complexity out of TikTok automotive advertising, making it easy to launch campaigns for your Tier 2 and Tier 3 dealer clients. Here's what makes using Fluency a powerful engine for your TikTok Automotive Ads strategy:
- Automated campaign launches using live dealership inventory data: Connect your client’s inventory data into Fluency, set up custom campaign strategies, and let Fluency’s automated advertising workflows handle the rest. Using dealership inventory data means every ad uses the latest vehicle information and on-lot availability, ensuring each one stays current (even if there are thousands of ads live).
- AI precision with human-led strategic oversight: TikTok's AI, Smart+, can automatically match shoppers with the specific vehicles they’re looking for. This means your inventory-specific ads can reach the right people at the right time, freeing your team from complex audience-building work. Fluency is set up with the latest version of TikTok’s Smart+ API, which gives you more control over targeting users by their interests, behaviors, specific hashtags, or other signals.
- Scale high-intent automotive ads without manual builds: No videos? No problem. Even though TikTok is a video-heavy platform, Fluency lets you launch Multi-Link Carousel Ads using product images directly from each dealer’s inventory feed. This means that TikTok shoppers are seeing accurate VIN images for on-the-lot-now models. Using a system like Fluency automates the creation of Multi-Link Carousel Ads, saving both your Ad Strategists and creative teams a ton of manual work. Plus, because this TikTok ad format is "multi-link," each card sends the viewer to the specific VDP (Vehicle Detail Page) for that exact VIN.
- Localize dealership campaigns for each location, at scale: If your agency manages campaigns for dozens (or hundreds!) of dealership locations, Fluency's Blueprints makes it easy to manage localized ad strategies at scale. You can automatically sync unique attributes—such as each dealership’s phone number, address, and limited-time promotions—directly into standardized campaign frameworks. Blueprints also enables you to run A/B tests at scale. This allows you to launch, customize, and optimize multichannel campaigns up to 90% faster without the risk of manual errors.
Simply put, Fluency eliminates the complexity of bringing TikTok into the fold of your wider multichannel advertising strategies. Running all your major ad channel campaigns through Fluency’s Digital Advertising Operating System (DAOS) means you can lift and shift your existing strategies, targeting parameters, and brand requirements across every channel simultaneously. No duplicative workflows, no error-prone manual campaign builds.
FAQs: Frequently asked questions about TikTok’s automotive ads
How can I use automation to scale TikTok Automotive Ads for car dealerships?
Fluency’s AdOps automation tools provide the specialized infrastructure ad agencies need to scale high-intent TikTok automotive campaigns across dozens or hundreds of dealership locations simultaneously.
By transforming each dealer’s unique, real-time inventory data into a standardized ad campaign framework, Fluency Blueprints automate the complex task of launching and maintaining localized ads for every dealer in your portfolio. For example, using tagged data like [account.city] or [account.phone] makes it possible to automatically insert the right dealership-specific attributes into TikTok campaign frameworks or ad sets.
What makes TikTok different from other ad platforms for automotive campaigns?
TikTok’s automotive ads stand out because of their unique ability to piggyback on entertaining UGC content with intent-driven behavior. While traditional channels are excellent for search and audience retargeting, TikTok’s speciality is generating emotional connections that influence buying decisions earlier in the funnel. Its powerful, proprietary algorithm excels at serving highly relevant content to users, making it easier for car buyers to discover vehicles they might not have considered.
Can TikTok Automotive Ads help motivate buyers to visit local dealerships?
Yes. The latest data shared at NADA 2026 shows that, after seeing dealership ads on TikTok, 38% of shoppers search for local dealerships. Many also research current specials (40%) or look for test drive reviews (41%). This data suggests that TikTok primes buyers by helping fuel buyer intent that translates into website visits, phone calls, and foot traffic.
It’s time to bring TikTok into your multichannel automotive strategy
With 60-70 million in-market shoppers, high user engagement, and proven intent signals, TikTok is where car buyers are researching car options and making decisions about what to buy. It’s playing an increasingly valuable role in shaping how shoppers learn about vehicles, brands, and dealerships, from early awareness all the way to driving their next car off the lot.
But as any agency with Tier 2 or Tier 3 dealership clients knows, scaling paid media strategies for dealerships requires more than just a high volume of inventory feeds and creative assets. Every ad needs to be localized with contextual relevance for buyers. Car buyers want accurate information about both vehicle features and nearby vehicles during their decision-making process; generic brand ads aren’t going to cut it.
That’s where Fluency comes in. Fluency's Digital Advertising Operating System (DAOS) is built specifically for agencies that need automation, scale, and control for building and managing localized campaigns across every major ad channel—including TikTok.
Our TikTok partnership makes it simple for your teams to test, scale, and optimize TikTok automotive campaigns alongside existing channels like Google Ads, Meta Ads, or programmatic DSPs. Best of all, Fluency’s automated workflow capabilities mean your teams bring in TikTok without adding operational complexity into the mix.
The data is clear: TikTok is on its way to being a must-have channel for automotive advertisers. And with Fluency, it’s easier than ever to make it a core part of your agency’s multichannel strategies.
