Let's TalkLet's TalkAn auto repair shop lives on car count and trust. Facebook and Instagram can raise both - bringing past customers back on time and showing drivers nearby how you work - without a race to the cheapest oil change.
We review your Meta account, creative and recent leads, and show which campaigns produced booked appointments and repeat visits, and which produced one-time coupon users. If you are not on Meta yet, we look at your customer base and area and tell you where a first campaign would pay.
Four failures we see repeatedly in this vertical, and what each one actually costs.
The default auto repair Facebook ad is a cheap oil change. It brings in drivers who will drive across town for the next coupon and never return for the brake job, and it teaches Meta to find more of them. Car count goes up for a month; the customer base does not.
A shop's most valuable audience is the drivers it has already served, and most shops never reach them between visits. No reminder when service is due, no seasonal check, nothing - so the next oil change happens at whichever place is closer that day, and the relationship quietly ends.
Many drivers expect to be upsold at a repair shop. Ads that say 'honest and reliable' say what every shop says. What persuades is seeing how you work - the inspection photos, the written estimate, nothing done without approval - and almost no shop shows it in an ad.
Many drivers believe they must service a newer car at the dealership to keep the warranty. Under the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act, which the FTC enforces, a manufacturer or dealer cannot void a warranty or deny coverage simply because someone else did the work. Shops that never say so lose those cars by default.
Business outcomes rather than dashboard metrics. None of these is a guaranteed number - where we do guarantee something, it is written into the offer above.
The real deliverables, not a list written to make a proposal look thicker.
Not the general agency pitch. The reasons that only apply to this kind of business.
Bringing back a driver you have already served costs a fraction of finding a new one. We build reminder and seasonal campaigns from your shop records - handled with the permissions the rules require - so oil changes, inspections and seasonal checks come back to your bays rather than drifting to whichever shop is nearest that day.
Every shop says it is honest. We film how you prove it: the technician photographing the worn part, the written estimate, the call for approval before anything is done. A thirty-second clip of that process answers the overcharging fear in a way no slogan can, and it is the ad competitors cannot copy.
A rock-bottom coupon trains Meta to find bargain hunters. We design first-visit offers around starting a relationship - an inspection with the findings explained, a service with photos - and judge campaigns on how many first-time customers return, which is the only number that grows car count for good.
Your shop records, what can be used for marketing and how.
How far your customers actually drive, to set location targeting.
Inspection photos, estimates and approval, in your own bays.
Past customers first, then nearby drivers.
Online booking or a short form, with an instant first reply.
Repair orders and repeat visits sent back to Meta, spend moved to what works.
The parts of this that come from having run it in this industry before rather than from running it well in general.
A timely reminder to a past customer that service is due costs little and converts well, because the relationship already exists. It is the auto repair equivalent of a maintenance plan, and the campaign most shops never run.
Showing the inspection photo, the written estimate and the approval call tells a wary driver exactly what to expect. It turns the industry's biggest objection into the reason to choose your shop.
Owners of newer cars are some of the most valuable customers a shop can win. A short, accurate explainer on their rights under the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act gives them permission to leave the dealer, and gives your team something to share when the question comes up.
Pre-winter checks, tyre changes and summer AC inspections are timely, practical reasons to visit. Seasonal campaigns to nearby drivers and past customers fill bays in the weeks they would otherwise be quiet.
None of our case studies is an auto repair shop. The nearest is a dental network where we ran Meta and Google, standardised what happened after every enquiry and lifted appointment show-rate 44% with automated reminders, at a $19 cost per lead. Appointment reminders to existing customers are the same mechanism that brings drivers back to a repair shop on time.
Read the full case studyYes, especially for bringing past customers back and showing nearby drivers how you work. They work poorly when used to push cheap coupons, which attract drivers who never return. Judge them on appointments and repeat visits, not clicks.
If you have permission to use those details for marketing, yes - and reminder campaigns to past customers are often the best-performing Meta activity a shop can run. Meta matches lists using hashed details. We check how the data was collected before any list is uploaded.
Sparingly, if at all. Deep discounts attract drivers who chase the next coupon and teach Meta to find more of them. A first-visit offer built around an inspection with findings explained, or a service with photos, starts a relationship instead.
Accurately, yes. Under the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act, which the FTC enforces, a manufacturer or dealer cannot void a warranty or deny coverage simply because someone other than the dealer did the work. Advise drivers to keep records and receipts.
As far as your customers actually drive, which your own records will show. A radius that is too wide pays to reach drivers who will never make the trip; too narrow misses commuters who pass by daily.
Your own bays and people: a technician photographing a worn part, the written estimate, the approval call. Process builds trust; stock images of spanners and smiling mechanics do not.
Rarely as the main route. Fleet managers are better reached directly, through local business networks or professional platforms, and fleet accounts are usually won on relationships and reliability. Meta can support familiarity with business owners near the shop, but it should not carry the fleet plan on its own - judge it on consumer appointments instead.
Start with past-customer reminders, which cost little, then a focused local campaign around the shop, measured in appointments and repeat visits. Scale what brings drivers back.
Written for owners weighing this up, whether or not they work with us.
This is one part of a bigger service. Here is the whole of it, and the closest neighbours.
No pitch deck, no discovery call you have to sit through. Tell us the situation and we will tell you whether we can help.