Let's TalkLet's TalkAn account where an oil change and a transmission rebuild share one budget, and the searches that name a make or a symptom - the ones that fill the bays - go unanswered.
Give us read access to the account. We come back with how your spend splits by service, what DIY, parts and manual searches cost you, which make and symptom searches you miss, whether conversions reflect repair orders, and the three changes worth making first. Recorded walkthrough, no call required.
Four failures we see repeatedly in this vertical, and what each one actually costs.
An oil change, a brake job, a check-engine diagnosis and a transmission rebuild differ enormously in value and in who searches for them. In one campaign at one target, the account buys the cheapest, fastest conversions - usually basic maintenance - and underfunds the diagnostic and major repair work that fills the bays profitably.
Auto repair keywords attract people buying parts, looking up repair manuals, reading what a trouble code means so they can fix it themselves, and looking for mechanic jobs. None will book a repair, all of them click, and broad match finds them easily.
A call asking whether you do oil changes and a call that becomes a large repair order look identical in most accounts. Without repair order values from your shop management system, bidding optimises toward whoever calls most, not toward the searches that produce valuable work.
Drivers search for a specialist for their make, a transmission shop, hybrid service or diesel repair. Generic auto repair campaigns rarely match those searches well, even when the shop has exactly the expertise the driver wants.
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.
A call is a cost; a repair order is the result. We import repair orders and their values from your shop management system, so the account learns which searches fill the bays with valuable work. The call count may fall; the repair value is what we are judged on.
A shop with real expertise in a make, a system or hybrid vehicles should be found by the drivers who need it. We build specialism campaigns and landing pages for that work, which usually convert better and at higher value than generic auto repair ads.
Auto repair keywords attract a huge amount of parts shopping and do-it-yourself research. We build your negative list from what your account actually attracts, weekly at first, because generic lists miss most of it.
Ninety days sorted into services, specialisms, symptoms, DIY and parts traffic.
Separate campaigns and targets for maintenance, diagnostics, major repairs and specialisms.
Makes, systems, vehicle types and warning signs you want to be found for.
Repair orders and values imported so bidding learns what pays.
Ads and landing pages built on transparency and warranty rights.
New customers and repair value by campaign, monthly.
The parts of this that come from having run it in this industry before rather than from running it well in general.
Owners of a particular make often search for a specialist when their warranty ends or the dealer's quote shocks them. Campaigns naming the make - with clear information on your expertise and on warranty rights for newer cars - reach drivers ready to switch.
Searches about a check-engine light, a grinding noise or a warning on the dashboard come from drivers who want to know what is wrong. Campaigns and landing pages for those symptoms, offering a proper diagnosis, reach them before they pick a shop at random.
A repair shop is a storefront with fixed hours and limited bays. Ads that run when nobody can answer or book waste money; ads that push hardest when bays are free fill capacity. The schedule belongs to the shop floor.
Local businesses searching for fleet maintenance want reliability, turnaround, records and account terms. Their value is far higher than a single retail car, so they need separate copy, pages and conversion values.
The closest paid-search engagement we can point at is an auto dealership rather than an independent repair shop - the competitor, not the client type - and we will not present it as a repair case study. It is relevant because it is automotive search in a crowded local market, where targeting mattered more than outbidding: 1.22M clicks at 627% ROAS. The repair-order measurement and specialism campaigns on this page come from how repair shop accounts behave.
Read the full case studyIt depends on your market, competition and services, but the useful question is what a repair order is worth and how many clicks it takes to win one. A smaller budget works best concentrated on your specialisms and your immediate area, judged on repair value rather than cost per click.
Yes. Maintenance, diagnostics, brakes, major repairs and specialisms differ in value and in who searches. Separate campaigns let you fund the valuable work properly instead of letting cheap maintenance clicks take the budget.
Build a negative keyword list from your own search terms - parts, repair manuals, trouble-code look-ups, how-to searches and mechanic jobs - and review it weekly at first. Auto keywords attract enormous amounts of this traffic.
Yes, if the expertise is real. Drivers searching for a specialist for their make are often high-value customers leaving a dealer, and a specialist campaign with a clear landing page converts them better than generic auto repair ads.
Yes, accurately. Explaining that independent servicing does not void a manufacturer warranty when maintenance is done properly and recorded - which is what the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act provides - reassures owners of newer cars. Keep the claim precise and link to a page that explains it.
A repair order with its value, imported from your shop management system. Calls and online bookings are useful signals but poor targets on their own, because a quick question and a large repair look the same until you tell the account which is which.
Usually with care. The AI chatbot can take written enquiries and booking requests around the clock, but pushing hard for calls when nobody can answer wastes money. Schedule ads around your hours and bay availability, and use after-hours ads to collect bookings rather than calls.
Where they are available for auto repair in your area, they can be worth testing. You pay per lead but have less control over job types. Measure them separately from search, and dispute leads that were not genuine.
Yes, timed to your climate. Tyre changeover campaigns before the first cold spell in colder regions, air-conditioning checks before summer, and inspections before holiday travel all meet drivers when the need is on their mind. They also bring in maintenance customers who, with good follow-up, return for bigger work later.
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.