Ready to take your auto service marketing to the next level? A combination of SEO and Google Ads can help you attract more leads, phone calls, and walk-in customers for your automotive service business. Each has different strategies and requires specific approaches, but the result is the same: generate more business by attracting high-quality inbound leads.

Do you know how you stack up against the other auto service businesses in your local market? Simply having a business listing in Google Maps doesn’t guarantee business – steps to improve your positioning and strengthen your online presence need to be taken if you want to truly reap the benefits of Google traffic.

Every business requires a different approach when it comes to SEO, dictated by your current positioning within the Google Maps results. There might be low competition in your market, and with a little professional optimization, we can get your listing on top daily quickly. Organic traffic is the goal of every business owner due to the fact there isn’t a per-click cost associated with each person who interacts with the Google My Business profile.

There are costs associated with SEO, but over time as traffic volume increases that “cost” for the traffic is diminished and it can become a very lucrative source of leads. But, proper search engine optimization takes time, so we turn to Google Ads for on-demand traffic and leads.

While the SEO team is handling that part of the auto service marketing effort, a PPC campaign is designed to drive leads instantly. There are several Google Ads formats that we can use to improve the quality of the lead while lowering the cost-per-lead.

We typically find that while most auto service business owners want to focus on SEO because of that perceived “free” traffic, once they see how beneficial Google Ads can be in terms of customer quality and scalability they want to leave them running (and scaling) even when the SEO is delivering top rankings.

The paid and organic combination of Google Ads and SEO can help to grow your auto service business. Here is a little breakdown of the strategies used to help our clients dominate their local market.

Auto Service SEO: Google My Business Optimization

Every auto service search engine optimization campaign begins with your Google My Business profile. It needs to be built-out in a way that satisfies the Google search algorithm while also being a valuable information asset for local customers that come in contact with it while looking for a local auto service business. It’s a balancing act to appease both simultaneously, but our auto service SEO team is experienced and very successful when it comes to pushing our clients to the top of the Google Maps results.

Any time Google detects that a search has local intent, meaning it believes the individual performing the search is seeking a business in the immediate vicinity, they will display local results, complete with the map. Google’s algorithm isn’t public knowledge, but there are some factors it takes into consideration that we focus the auto service SEO campaign around:

• Optimized Google My Business Description: It’s important to make sure the correct keywords are being targeted when optimizing your Google My Business profile. Ranking in the top position is great, but only if the terms you rank for drive quality leads and interest that convert into actual customers. The advantage of working with an experienced auto service marketing agency is that we understand your industry and what search phrases have a high likelihood of converting.

• Auto Service Google Reviews: Google reviews give a very good indication of the type of service your business provides, the level of customer satisfaction you deliver, and how active your business is. All of this information is taken into consideration when Google’s algorithm displays its search results. Our process to attract auto service Google reviews ensures that we collect reviews from the majority of your customers after they leave your business.

There are of course several other factors we spend time on, optimizing accordingly, but these two focus areas make a major impact and can deliver fast results when addressed properly.

Generate Auto Service Leads with Google Local Services Ads

There are several formats of Google Ads available, and each has its unique strengths, dependent entirely on the type of business looking to advertising on its platform. For an auto service business, the Local Services ads are great at generating customers because they tend to attract local customers that have an immediate need and want a solution to their problem right away.

For Local Services ads, you bid per lead, and you pay for each real-time lead delivered to your business. They come to you, all managed through a mobile app, in one of two formats:

Information Request: If a local customer has a question he or she can submit a request, and you can message back-and-forth in the app, with the goal of either getting them to come to your shop for service or transition to a phone call if the situation is a bit more complex and will require a more detailed conversation.

Phone Call: More often than not a local customer that has an immediate car repair need will want to speak on the phone. These are very hot leads, and you should always try to commit to scheduling a service appointment while the customer is on the phone. If you end the call without that appointment locked in it becomes harder to close, as there is no guarantee they will answer your calls. Always try for the appointment commitment while you have these leads on the phone.

Why is the quality of leads generated through Local Services ads so high? It’s quite simple. They are after fast answers – typically a car repair – and if you have the solution they can be converted to a customer and have their car in your auto shop the same day the lead originated.

Our team of auto service Google Ads experts can use bid adjustments to drive more leads during slow times of the day/week while lowering bids when the volume is naturally higher. This type of bid management helps us deliver you a lower overall cost per customer acquisition.

Auto Service PPC Google Ads

Traditional auto service PPC ads can also be very effective, driving interested customers to your website where they can submit requests for information or contact your business through all of the options you have enabled.

It’s important to offer as many ways to contact your business as possible, giving potential customers an option that best suits their preferred method of communication. Some would rather just call a phone call and speak to someone immediately, while others would rather chat online.

The worst thing you can do is limit your communication options. We see many auto service businesses offer two options – a form submit and a phone number. Limited options like this will lower the conversion rates of your pay-per-click traffic, causing your cost-per-lead to skyrocket.

With auto service PPC, you are being charged for each click, regardless of what is done when they land on your website. So, you must implement things like live chat via a Facebook Messanger plugin or a colic-to-call option that gives your mobile traffic a simple option to call without having to leave your website.

All of this can be implemented by our auto service website design team, as directed by our Google Ads team. They already work hand-in-hand to make sure we send your PPC traffic to optimized landing pages that are designed for high conversion rates, while also satisfying Google’s Quality Score metric, which considers relevancy.

The higher the Quality Score, the more impressions your ads receive, and the lower the cost-per-click end up being. Why? Ads that Google deems to be highly relevant are going to provide their users with a better experience, and ultimately, a solution to their problem.

Using Google Ads Data to Benefit Your Auto Service SEO Campaign

We mentioned that a combination of SEO and Goole Ads is the best approach to auto service marketing. This helps us cover all of the organic and paid placements across Google search, attracting local customers with immediate needs for automotive repair close to your business.

The information our auto service PPC team can collect and analyze can also directly benefit the search engine optimization effort. It’s no secret that SEO takes time. It can take several months before there is a noticeable spike in organic traffic for a given keyword that is being targeted.

Testing keywords via PPC allows us to quickly send traffic that originates from that term to your website and discover whether or not it is a profitable keyword worth investing time and money into on the organic side. This eliminates a lot of wasted time as well as money.

We have a very data-driven approach when it comes to auto service marketing. Assumptions are never 100 percent correct, but the numbers never lie. When we know without a doubt that a keyword converts at a high rate on the Google Ads side we know it’s worth ranking for organically. This is how profitable keywords are unearthed, contributing to a positive ROI on the SEO side of our marketing effort.

Final Thoughts

Generating a steady flow of high-quality auto service ads requires a combination of SEO and Google Ads. It’s important to have a strong online presence in both the organic results and paid results – the ensures we capture the attention of local customers actively looking for a local auto service business.

Organic traffic is great, and over time it can help generate calls and walk-ins, but search engine optimization isn’t an overnight process. It takes time to rank on top, so while the SEO groundwork is being laid out, Google Ads can be run to generate instant customers.

Additionally, the data and testing done in the pay-per-click campaigns can be used by our SEO team, helping to identify the highest-converting keywords. These two strategies work together to help position your business as the leading auto service business in your local service area.

To learn more about our auto service SEO and auto service Google Ads campaign management, contact us today. Our team of auto service marketing specialists will answer any questions you have, while also performing a complimentary online audit. We look forward to showing you how we can help your business grow by leveraging Google and its multiple paid and organic traffic opportunities.

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