From Lead to Loyalty: How Nissan Turns the Test Drive into a Sales Power-Tool
Automotive
Digital Performance
Strategically motivate potential car buyers to book a test drive.
Nissan is one of the world's largest automobile manufacturers, headquartered in Japan. The company produces a wide range of vehicles, including compact cars, SUVs, electric vehicles, and commercial vehicles.
Nissan aimed to promote selected vehicle models specifically in Switzerland while generating qualified leads for test drives.
The challenge lay in engaging potential customers across the entire customer journey from building initial awareness for new models to driving concrete test drive requests.
Solutions
In addition to ongoing Search campaigns, a full-funnel approach featuring upper-funnel campaigns was initially tested to build brand presence. Based on performance learnings, the strategy was then optimized to achieve higher efficiency in lead generation.
Following these initial learnings, we concentrated media investments on a high-performing mid- and lower-funnel strategy. Meta Traffic was leveraged as an optimized mid-funnel channel to guide qualified users into the consideration phase and build engagement for specific vehicle models. Meta Lead Ads served as the strongest conversion channel, enabling seamless, in-platform lead capture directly from the campaign itself.
This combination minimized friction in the conversion process and optimized the cost-efficiency per acquired test drive request. The simplified journey and the focus on high-intent audiences led to measurable improvements in both conversion rate and Cost-per-Lead (CPL).
results
By optimizing for Meta Traffic (Mid-Funnel) and Meta Lead Ads (Primary Conversion), Nissan was able to significantly boost its lead generation efficiency.
Focusing on performance channels with reduced upper-funnel support enabled more precise audience targeting and faster conversions into qualified test drive requests.
The system offered maximum control over budget allocation, audience targeting, and creative optimization, with a direct focus on Cost per Lead as the primary KPI.
CPL for initial campaigns (depending on the model)
CPL for the latest campaigns (depending on the model)
