Particularly in the automotive industry, the combination of dissimilar materials presents manufacturing engineering with major challenges. Notably, the adapted use of plastic and metal opens up further potential for weight savings. Directly and firmly bonding the two materials together fails, however, on account of the chemical and physical dissimilarity of plastic and metal. Since joining of plastics and metals nowadays is based on adhesive bonding, the joint is weak and underlies ageing processes. A promising approach to overcome these problems is a laser based two-step process. In the first process step laser radiation is applied to generate microstructures on the surface of the metallic joining partner. In the subsequent laser joining process, the plastic is molten and interlocked into the microstructures after curing. The mechanical strength of the joint depends strongly on the load direction and can be influenced by the geometry and arrangement of microstructures. These influencing factors are investigated for three different load directions (tensile shear, tensile and peel) by experiments and by structural mechanics simulations.