A PPC Campaign Optimization Guide for Auto Body Shops
You want a shop full of cars, but you keep losing customers to the big corporate collision centers coming into town. To keep up in the fast-paced auto body shop industry, you must adopt the most practical marketing tactics, like PPC campaign optimization, so you can bring more customers through the door without taking time away from your hardworking team. PPC for auto body shops is a paid advertising strategy that places your phone number right in front of a client’s fingertips when they search online for “auto body repair near me.”
With pay-per-click advertising, your family-owned shop can attract more traffic, convert leads, and grow at scale. To create a high-ROI campaign, you must learn how to optimize your ad for ultimate results. Read on to learn everything you need to know about automotive PPC campaign optimization.
What Is PPC Advertising?
Pay-per-click advertising is any paid campaign where the advertiser pays each time a user clicks on the ad. For example, if you create a PPC ad using the Google Ads platform, users may find your campaign while Googling for local auto shops. If they click on your ad to go to your website, you will pay for the click but will hopefully gain a new customer.
PPC advertising allows you to see instant traffic boosts while enhancing SEO efforts. Your auto shop can increase its local brand awareness in a measurable, targeted way. When done well, PPC ads are one of the most cost-effective options for quickly acquiring new leads.
Types of Automotive PPC Campaigns
Your auto shop can create pay-per-click campaigns on numerous platforms with varying advantages, depending on your goals. Below are the most common types of automotive PPC campaigns.
Search Ads
Search ads allow you to pay for your position on popular search engines like Google or Bing. With a PPC search ad, your website will appear in search results like any other listing but with a small tag that says “Ad.” By creating an optimized PPC search campaign, your auto body shop can appear near the top of search results for queries like “best auto shop near me” or “top-rated auto repair in San Francisco.”
The most popular platform for search ads is Google. With Google, you can use geo-targeting features to only reach leads in a certain area or target your audience based on their demographics, such as gender and age.
Display Ads
Display ads target users as they visit various websites. Rather than only surfacing in Google searches, display ads can appear as banners on social media websites, the Google Display Network, and more. You can target users through display ads using keywords that match their demographics or buyer profiles.
Display ads feature visual and textual components with options to make the media interactive. With display PPC campaign optimization, you can reach people as they’re browsing online rather than when they’re searching for auto shops directly. Display ads typically boost brand awareness instead of directly leading to more conversions.
Social Media Advertising
Many major social media platforms offer pay-per-click advertising to help you reach your potential clients as they’re scrolling their feeds. With social media PPC ads, you typically achieve a deeper level of engagement as users can like or comment on the ad, follow your auto shop’s profile, and engage with your brand. You can create social media PPC ads using the following:
· Snapchat
· YouTube
Video Campaigns
If your auto shop wants to invest more time and energy into your marketing strategy, you can develop video PPC ads that stream in video format on YouTube or other popular channels. If you want to create YouTube PPC ads, you’ll need to start a channel, which could be a great opportunity to begin developing content that engages your audience.
How To Optimize Your Auto Body Shop’s PPC Campaign
Now that we’ve covered the different types of PPC ads, let’s move on to PPC campaign optimization. If you want to see a high conversion rate with your PPC ad, you must optimize it correctly. You don’t want to waste money on ads that don’t bring customers through your door, so let’s go over the top ways you can optimize your auto shop’s PPC campaign.
1. Select the Right Local Keywords
Keyword research is pivotal in developing a successful PPC ad. The keywords you select will directly impact who sees your ad. We recommend considering the following factors when researching keywords:
· Traffic: You want keywords with high enough average monthly traffic levels to reach new clients. For example, if the keyword you’re interested in only gets around ten searches per month, it’s likely not worth paying to rank for. Remember that terms with high traffic levels are difficult to rank for, meaning you’ll have to pay more per click.
· Difficulty: Popular keywords are the most difficult and expensive to rank for but can yield the best results, depending on your bid strategy and ad optimization.
· Relevance: You can determine a keyword’s relevancy by searching it on platforms like Google and viewing the results. If the search engine results page aligns with your ad, the term will be relevant to your campaign.
· Local authority: You want to attract local clients, so consider selecting local keywords, like “... near me” or “... in X city.”
Most PPC ad platforms also allow you to define negative keywords for which you do not want your ad to surface.
At BodyShop Marketing, we can help you select the right keywords for highly effective results.
2. Choose Your Budget Wisely
When you create a PPC ad, the platform will require you to set a budget, which restricts how many times your ad will be displayed per day based on the cost of your keywords. The keywords you wish to rank for will have the biggest impact on your budget, as some can cost a few dollars per click while others may reach the $20 range. You want to set a realistic daily budget to reach as many potential leads as possible without spending too much of your marketing funds.
Most platforms offer a recommended daily budget based on your ad type, industry, and selected keywords. We recommend adjusting your spending from there.
3. Create Meaningful Copy
Your PPC ad should convince leads that your auto shop is the best option in town. Your copy must be engaging, concise, and compelling regardless of ad type. We recommend using commanding words that prove your shop’s value.
The call to action (CTA) is often the most important aspect of your ad’s copy. Your call to action should tell users what action to take while capturing their attention. You can test multiple CTAs and copy versions across your PPC ads to see what works best with your target audience.
4. Direct Users to Engaging Landing Pages
After users click on your PPC ad, they will be directed to one of your website pages. This landing page should be thoughtfully crafted to convert leads into paying customers immediately. We recommend optimizing your PPC campaign landing page with easy-to-find contact information, an intuitive contact form, and engaging copy on your auto body shop services.
5. Consider Retargeting Ads or Ad Extensions
Retargeting ads allow you to target users who have interacted with your website in the past. By creating PPC retargeting ads, you can reach an audience that is more likely to convert so that you can enjoy an increased return on ad spend.
Ad extensions can also improve your PPC campaign performance. Ad extensions are additional items you can tack on to your ads, like phone number links or average review scores, to create a more compelling and informative final result. The top ad extensions we recommend for auto body shops include the following:
· Location extensions to show your address
· Seller rating extensions to prove your value
· Call extensions so leads can immediately get in touch
6. Measure Results and Optimize
Once you launch your PPC campaign, you should regularly monitor its performance and optimize accordingly. If your ad doesn’t perform well, you don’t want to continue paying for clicks that aren’t converting. We recommend analyzing the following metrics:
· Conversion rate
· Cost per click (CPC)
· Cost per lead (CPL)
· Cost per acquisition (CPA)
· Return on ad spend (ROAS)
The above metrics can help understand how much your shop has gained versus spent on the campaign. You can view these metrics across your ads to see which performs best so you know the right strategy to use moving forward.
Set Your Shop Up for Long-Term Success With PPC Campaign Support
PPC campaign optimization often takes trial and error, but your business will be unstoppable once you nail your strategy. At BodyShop Marketing, we help independent auto body shops double their monthly sales with leading digital marketing solutions. If you need help with pay-per-click advertising, call BodyShop Marketing today at (855) 667-9648 to see how we can transform your business.
