TikTok today partnered with Fluency to enable digital advertising agencies and automotive brands to deploy, manage, and optimize automotive advertisements directly through the platform's Digital Advertising Operating System. The integration addresses persistent operational challenges in automotive advertising by automating campaign execution across TikTok alongside other major advertising platforms, eliminating the manual processes that typically slow agencies' ability to test new channels or quickly launch campaigns for clients managing hundreds of dealership locations simultaneously.

According to the announcement, the partnership makes TikTok Automotive Ads available through Fluency's centralized platform, which currently powers over $3 billion in annual media spend and more than 250,000 monthly campaigns. The integration enables agencies already using Fluency to extend automotive campaigns to TikTok without duplicating work - bringing inventory-based advertising and model-focused campaigns into the same workflow that manages their Google, Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, Basis, and The Trade Desk executions.

"Buying a vehicle has become a cultural, community-driven experience where people turn to TikTok to discover new vehicles and features, learn from real experiences, and build confidence in complex decisions," states Brian Torpey, Director of Product Strategy and Operations for Automotive at TikTok. The platform has been building infrastructure alongside automotive partners to make TikTok more accessible to dealerships, agencies, and automotive sellers looking to engage with the community of high-intent automotive shoppers.

Automotive advertising represents one of the most operationally complex categories in digital marketing. Lengthy buyer journeys and constantly changing inventory alongside local dealer offers require highly personalized marketing and consistent consumer engagement across multiple digital touchpoints. Ad agencies traditionally manage a separate interface for each advertising platform they run paid campaigns on - manually uploading and resizing creative assets, managing budgets, setting audience parameters, maintaining brand consistency, and pulling reporting and campaign insights.

The manual workflow burden creates significant operational strain. Agencies seek to increase account manager portfolios from 35 to 64 clients - an 83% increase - without expanding teams, according to Fluency's 2025 Agency AdOps Benchmark Report released in September 2025. That study found 64% of ad strategists now manage campaigns across multiple channels rather than specializing in single platforms, with 80% of strategists managing three or more platforms simultaneously. Teams spend an average of 46 hours monthly - over 25% of their time - making campaign changes for individual clients.

Platform fragmentation forces teams to navigate unique rules and analytics across walled gardens like Google and Amazon while managing different ad formats through demand-side platforms for open web inventory. This workload becomes especially challenging when agencies manage hundreds of client accounts at once, each with distinct inventory feeds, local market conditions, and promotional calendars that change weekly or even daily.

Fluency's Digital Advertising Operating System unifies and automates manual ad execution processes across all platforms, enabling agencies and brands to scale multichannel campaigns. The system integrates directly with advertisers' creative and data feeds, enabling automated campaign setup that adds TikTok to channel mixes without requiring separate manual configuration. Agencies can test creative, refine targeting, and update messaging without manually recreating assets for each platform, achieving faster campaign launches and reduced operational overhead.

TikTok Automotive Ads are supported via a beta program currently open to qualified automotive agencies and advertisers. Full availability and additional TikTok ad types will launch on Fluency in the coming months. The beta program structure follows patterns established across TikTok's advertising platform development, where the platform introduced Smart+ automation in October 2024 through closed beta testing before expanding access to broader advertiser populations.

Ad agencies and brands will be able to manage both Automotive Ads for Inventory - which target individual vehicle identification numbers - and Automotive Ads for Models - covering model ranges, trim levels, and offers - on TikTok from Fluency's centralized platform. This dual-format approach mirrors the structure automotive advertisers already use across other digital channels, where campaigns split between specific available vehicles at dealership locations and broader model awareness campaigns that drive consideration across regional markets.

TikTok campaigns will run in sync with other platforms through Fluency's unified operating system. Agencies can view and optimize clients' advertising programs with a holistic perspective rather than working across siloed platforms. The system enables advertisers to manage entire execution workflows, including managing specials and campaigns in bulk, budgeting and pacing automatically to hit defined account key performance indicators, customizing and optimizing campaigns in real time as inventory and market conditions change, and using artificial intelligence to streamline campaign reporting and creative generation.

"Automotive ads on TikTok are a powerful way for agencies and brands to connect with consumers and extend the car-buying journey to the digital channels they already frequent," said Andy MacLeay, VP of Engagement and Channels at Fluency. Automotive brands have expressed eagerness to explore TikTok, but integrating it into broader paid campaigns has been slow and inefficient with current manual processes. The integration makes it seamless for agencies and brands to test and scale on TikTok alongside their other advertising channels.

The technical implementation builds on Fluency's 25-year history working with automotive brands. Fluency's founding team created an in-house advertising technology solution for their first company Dealer.com to address the fragmented systems and technologies in digital advertising. That early solution laid the foundation for Fluency's current Digital Advertising Operating System, which now serves brands with more than 50,000 locations across the system's user base supporting more than 250,000 monthly campaigns.

TikTok's positioning as a vehicle discovery platform reflects changing consumer behavior in automotive research. The platform has implemented multiple features throughout 2024 and 2025 targeting automotive audiences, including Search Ads Campaign launched in September 2024 that enables keyword-based advertising on the platform's search results page. According to TikTok's internal data from June 2024, 57% of users utilize the platform's search functionality, with 23% initiating a search within 30 seconds of opening the app.

However, search quality challenges have emerged across TikTok's advertising products. User complaints documented across Reddit communities reveal systematic issues with the platform's search functionality, where results often display only a handful of relevant videos before degrading into unrelated content. The disconnect between TikTok's search ambitions and actual user experience has raised concerns about advertiser confidence, particularly as TikTok representatives rolled out financial perks and strategic incentives in October 2024 to drive adoption of search advertising while simultaneously dealing with fundamental quality issues.

The Fluency integration addresses these concerns by enabling agencies to test TikTok performance alongside established channels without committing extensive resources to platform-specific workflows. Agencies can allocate small portions of automotive budgets to TikTok campaigns, evaluate performance against other channels using unified reporting, and scale investment based on documented results rather than platform claims. This risk mitigation approach has become increasingly important as automation reshapes advertising operations across the industry.

TikTok upgraded its Smart+ automation system in January 2026 with creative automation, ad preview tools, and efficiency features addressing advertiser complaints about automated campaign control. Those upgrades arrived as automation became the dominant paradigm across digital advertising platforms, with Google marking its 25-year transformation from manual campaigns to AI-powered optimization, Amazon launching its Ads Agent for natural language campaign management, and Meta's Advantage+ suite driving performance improvements throughout 2025.

The automotive advertising category represents substantial opportunity for TikTok as the platform diversifies revenue beyond brand advertising and direct-response e-commerce. Automotive purchases involve consideration periods measured in weeks or months, with consumers researching vehicle features, comparing models, reading reviews, and evaluating financing options across multiple information sources before visiting dealerships. TikTok's video format enables automotive brands to demonstrate vehicle features, showcase real-world usage scenarios, and address common purchase objections through creator content and branded advertisements that traditional display advertising struggles to deliver effectively.

The partnership with Fluency provides TikTok with direct access to automotive advertising budgets flowing through established agency workflows. Rather than requiring agencies to build TikTok-specific processes, negotiate separate platform relationships, or train staff on new interface requirements, the Fluency integration positions TikTok as an incremental channel addition within existing campaign structures. This distribution strategy reduces friction for TikTok's market entry while enabling agencies to evaluate the platform's automotive advertising effectiveness without operational disruption.

Automotive campaigns managed through Fluency will support TikTok's specialized creative formats including Product Cards and Multi-link Carousels designed specifically for inventory and model advertising. Product Cards enable advertisers to showcase multiple vehicle features and specifications within single advertisement units, providing consumers with detailed information without requiring them to leave TikTok's interface. Multi-link Carousels allow advertisers to present multiple vehicle models or inventory options within scrollable formats, addressing the browsing behavior common in automotive research where consumers compare alternatives before narrowing consideration sets.

The technical architecture connecting Fluency to TikTok's advertising infrastructure involves direct application programming interface integrations that enable automated campaign creation, bid management, creative deployment, and performance reporting without manual data transfer between systems. Fluency maintains similar integrations with Google, Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, and programmatic platforms, creating a unified data model that standardizes campaign structures, audience definitions, and performance metrics across platforms with different native specifications and reporting frameworks.

Agencies using Fluency for automotive advertising can now launch TikTok campaigns with virtually no manual effort or overhead cost because the system integrates directly with advertisers' creative and data feeds. The automated campaign setup means adding TikTok to channel mix requires minimal incremental work beyond defining budget allocation and campaign parameters. Creative assets and product feeds already configured for other platforms automatically adapt to TikTok's specifications through Fluency's transformation layer, which handles technical requirements like aspect ratios, file formats, and metadata structures specific to each advertising platform.

Scale represents the core value proposition for agencies managing automotive campaigns across hundreds of client accounts. Instead of spending hours on manual processes configuring campaigns, uploading creative, and adjusting budgets across multiple platform interfaces, teams can focus on account strategy and growth while managing more client accounts simultaneously. The operational efficiency improvements enable advertiser growth by shifting time allocation from execution tasks to strategic activities like market analysis, competitive positioning, and creative strategy development that drive superior campaign performance and client retention.

Fluency enables advertisers to optimize performance and portfolio growth through capabilities that manage entire execution workflows automatically. The system handles managing specials and campaigns in bulk - enabling agencies to update hundreds of campaigns simultaneously when manufacturer incentives change or seasonal promotions launch. Budgeting and pacing automatically adjust to hit defined account key performance indicators, preventing overspend while maximizing exposure during high-intent periods. Customization and optimization occur in real time as inventory and market conditions change, with the system detecting inventory depletions or competitive pressure and adjusting bids accordingly without manual intervention.

The artificial intelligence integration streamlines campaign reporting and creative generation. Rather than manually compiling performance data from multiple platforms, agencies receive unified reporting that aggregates metrics across channels, identifies trends, and highlights optimization opportunities. Creative generation capabilities utilize AI to produce advertisement variations, test messaging alternatives, and refresh creative assets without requiring design resources for every iteration. The result improves performance while enabling advertiser growth by removing bottlenecks that traditionally limited agency capacity.

The partnership expands on patterns emerging across advertising platform consolidation and automation initiativesthroughout 2025. Amazon announced unified Campaign Manager platform consolidation in November 2025, introducing AI agents for automated campaign management across its advertising ecosystem. Google marked its 25-year anniversary in October 2025 by emphasizing transformation from manual optimization to AI-powered automation serving over one million active advertisers globally. The competitive pressure driving these developments reflects recognition that operational efficiency determines market position as advertising budgets fragment across expanding platform portfolios.

TikTok's automotive advertising initiative competes against established automotive advertising channels where Google, Meta, and Amazon have built substantial automotive advertiser relationships over years of platform development. Google's search advertising captures high-intent consumers actively researching vehicle purchases, while Meta's social advertising enables demographic and interest-based targeting for awareness campaigns. Amazon's retail media network has expanded into automotive parts and accessories advertising, though new vehicle sales remain outside its core competency. TikTok's video-first format and younger demographic skew create differentiation opportunities, particularly for electric vehicle manufacturers and automotive brands targeting first-time vehicle buyers.

The integration arrives as TikTok faces measurement and attribution challenges documented by mobile measurement partners. Research from Kochava announced in September 2025 found that marketing mix modeling revealed TikTok campaigns generated an average of 35% higher incremental impact compared to last-touch attribution reporting, analyzing major Android and iOS applications across North America during the first quarter of 2025. The measurement methodology debates have intensified as platforms implement privacy-preserving frameworks that complicate traditional attribution approaches, with TikTok's unique video platform characteristics contributing to measurement challenges where user engagement patterns differ substantially from other digital advertising platforms.

Kochava launched its Partner Certification Program on December 15, 2025, establishing formal recognition for advertising platforms that meet specific requirements around integration quality, traffic health, and technical collaboration. The program designated TikTok among six companies - alongside Meta, Google Ads, Snapchat, Liftoff, and YouAppi - as certified partners within Kochava's integrations marketplace. TikTok enabled real-time iOS conversion tracking through Kochava partnership launched October 21, 2025, addressing delays associated with SKAdNetwork attribution by allowing app marketers to access near real-time, granular conversion data for iOS campaigns.

The broader context for TikTok's automotive advertising expansion involves the platform's efforts to demonstrate advertising effectiveness and reliability to major brand advertisers who have historically allocated budgets primarily to established channels. The Fluency partnership provides TikTok with credibility through association with an advertising technology platform that already manages billions in annual media spend for established automotive advertisers. Rather than requiring advertisers to evaluate TikTok independently, the integration enables comparative testing where TikTok performance benchmarks directly against Google, Meta, and other channels within unified reporting frameworks that agencies trust for budget allocation decisions.

Fluency's positioning as a "Digital Advertising Operating System" reflects the emerging category of platforms that abstract away individual channel complexity to provide unified campaign management across fragmented advertising ecosystems. This approach contrasts with demand-side platforms that focus primarily on programmatic buying or platform-specific tools that optimize performance within single walled gardens. The operating system framing emphasizes comprehensive workflow automation spanning campaign planning, creative production, media buying, performance optimization, and financial reconciliation across all advertising channels through single interface rather than requiring agencies to manage parallel processes for each platform.

The company ranked #1,278 on the Inc 5000 in 2025, marking its third consecutive year on the list. With a founding team that has worked in online advertising since 1998, Fluency maintains certified partnerships with many major advertising publishers. The company was named a finalist for Technology Innovation in the 2024 Amazon Ads Partner Awards, demonstrating recognition from major advertising platforms for its technical capabilities and market impact. The automotive vertical represents core focus area for Fluency, with the platform's founding closely tied to automotive advertising challenges encountered at Dealer.com where the original technology foundation was developed.

Timeline

Summary

Who: TikTok partnered with Fluency, a digital advertising operating system company serving automotive agencies and brands, with Brian Torpey (Director of Product Strategy and Operations for Automotive at TikTok) and Andy MacLeay (VP of Engagement and Channels at Fluency) representing the partnership. The integration targets digital advertising agencies and automotive brands managing campaigns across multiple platforms through Fluency's system, which currently powers over $3 billion in annual media spend and more than 250,000 monthly campaigns for brands with 50,000+ locations.

What: The partnership enables agencies and brands to deploy, manage, and optimize TikTok Automotive Ads - including Automotive Ads for Inventory (individual VINs) and Automotive Ads for Models (model ranges, trims, and offers) - directly through Fluency's Digital Advertising Operating System alongside campaigns running on Google, Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, Basis, and The Trade Desk. The integration automates campaign execution, creative deployment, budget management, and performance optimization across platforms, eliminating manual processes that typically require 46 hours monthly per client according to Fluency's September 2025 benchmark research. TikTok Automotive Ads support specialized formats including Product Cards and Multi-link Carousels designed for inventory and model advertising, with full availability and additional ad types launching in coming months following current beta program.

When: TikTok announced the partnership on January 27, 2026, with TikTok Automotive Ads currently supported through beta program open to qualified automotive agencies and advertisers. The announcement follows TikTok's October 2024 Smart+ automation launch, September 2024 Search Ads Campaign introduction, and January 2026 Smart+ upgrades addressing advertiser control concerns. Full availability and additional TikTok ad types will launch on Fluency in coming months as the platform expands automotive advertising capabilities beyond beta program participants.

Where: The integration operates through Fluency's centralized Digital Advertising Operating System, which agencies and brands access to manage multichannel campaigns across TikTok, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, Basis, The Trade Desk, and open web inventory through unified interface. The system integrates directly with TikTok's advertising infrastructure via application programming interfaces enabling automated campaign creation, bid management, creative deployment, and performance reporting. Automotive campaigns managed through the platform serve TikTok's global user base, with agencies using Fluency to coordinate local dealer advertising across hundreds of client accounts and thousands of dealership locations simultaneously.

Why: The partnership addresses persistent operational challenges in automotive advertising where lengthy buyer journeys and constantly changing inventory require highly personalized marketing across multiple digital touchpoints, creating workload that agencies struggle to execute manually when managing hundreds of client accounts simultaneously. Fluency's September 2025 benchmark study found agencies seek to increase portfolios from 35 to 64 clients (83% increase) without expanding teams, with 64% of strategists managing multiple channels and teams spending 46 hours monthly on manual campaign changes per client. The integration enables agencies to test and scale TikTok alongside established channels without duplicating work or committing extensive resources to platform-specific workflows, reducing friction for TikTok's market entry while providing agencies unified reporting for budget allocation decisions across fragmented advertising ecosystem.

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