PPC for auto repair shops
A large share of the people clicking on car repair searches are holding a socket set. Paid search in this trade is mostly the discipline of not paying for them.
A large share of clicks come from people doing the repair themselves
No other local trade has such a well-developed do-it-yourself culture attached to its search terms. Symptom searches, part names, engine codes and repair costs are all shared between the customer who wants a shop and the customer who wants a video, and the platform cannot tell them apart. An account that has not excluded that language deliberately will spend a substantial part of its budget on people who were never going to book anything, and it will look like the trade is expensive.
The second problem is job value. A shop that advertises car repair as a single idea bids the same for an oil change and a transmission. The searches worth money are specific — a make plus a repair, a diagnostic for a particular code, a service with a known ticket — and they need to be separated so that the cheap frequent work does not consume the budget meant for the work that pays the rent.
- 1stNegatives first — how to, DIY, parts, forum, video, salary, junkyard, as patterns
- MakeCampaigns for the makes you specialize in, bid above the generic terms
- TicketCheap frequent services kept away from the budget for the profitable work
- CallCall tracking to the repair order, not to the phone call
From our audit playbook. Client results on the case studies page.
How we run Google Ads for auto repair shops
DIY language excluded before launch
Forum names, video language, part numbers, how-to phrasing and price-check queries filtered as patterns rather than one keyword at a time. This is the largest single efficiency available in the category and it is almost always done reactively, after several months of paying for it.
Campaigns for the makes you specialize in
Make-plus-repair searches carry high intent and comparatively little competition outside the dealership, and they attract drivers looking specifically for an independent alternative. Each deserves its own campaign, its own landing page and a bid that reflects a customer who may come back for years.
Service ticket used to set the bid
Oil changes, brakes, diagnostics, transmissions and engine work have wildly different values and completion rates. Running them together means the account learns to buy the cheapest conversion, which in this trade is the work with the thinnest margin.
Measured to the repair order
Calls tracked and matched to the work that was written up, so cost per booked repair can be calculated by campaign. Without it, a shop is optimizing toward phone volume, and phone volume in auto repair includes a great many price checks that were never going to arrive.
Ads for the breakdown; rankings for the relationship
A car that will not start produces a search that will be resolved within hours, and paid search captures it at a cost you can check against repair orders written. The economics of a shop, though, are built on customers who return for eight years, and those arrive through symptom pages, make pages and reviews that cost nothing once written. Run both, keep the paid side on high-ticket and make-specific terms, and judge everything on cost per new customer retained.
SEO for auto repair shops, explained the same way Or read the plain SEO vs PPC comparison
Auto repair PPC, answered plainly
Why does auto repair advertising feel so expensive?
Usually because a large share of the traffic is do-it-yourself research, and the account is being judged on all clicks rather than on the ones capable of becoming work. Excluding that language properly often halves the apparent cost of a booked repair without changing a single bid.
Should we advertise for oil changes?
Only as a deliberate customer acquisition decision, in its own campaign, with a number attached to what an oil change customer is worth over the following two years. Left in a general campaign it will absorb the budget, because it converts most cheaply of anything in the trade.
Do make-specific campaigns work?
They are usually the best performing part of the account. A driver searching their make plus repair is looking for an alternative to the dealership, the intent is high and the competition is thinner than on generic terms. It works best when there is a real page about that make behind the ad.
Is it worth bidding on the dealership names?
Occasionally, and carefully. Those clicks can be expensive and the intent is often already settled. In most accounts the money does more work on make-plus-repair and symptom searches within a tight radius than on competitor terms.
How should we measure this?
Cost per repair order, by campaign, with calls matched to work written up. Phone calls alone overstate performance in this trade because a meaningful share of them are price checks that were never going to become jobs.
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