2+2=5: How SEO and PPC Work Together to Supercharge Your Auto Shop’s Marketing

Making Magic For Your Business

On average, there are 70,000,000 aftermarket automotive repair and service based searches happening on Google each and every month. That represents roughly 525,000 possible customers, of which THESE customers will personally refer another 100,000 customers.

These drivers are yours to win.

Everyday, drivers are beginning their auto repairs with a digital search. For good reasons, as almost half of all drivers will perform an online search when deciding where to take their vehicle for service — and that’s just the mobile search statistic!

When it comes to appearing online from a search, you have two general options: paid and organic. While they are similar, they also can be very different. Today, we are going to go over the pros and cons of paid vs. organic search; and more importantly, how using both together can supercharge the number of cars in your bays each week.

Organic, aka “Search Engine Optimization”

Targeting organic search is largely regarded as the most successful form of internet marketing that a company can do. For starters, the average searcher will trust organic results over paid results because they believe that organic results are not controlled by advertisers and brands (which is 100% untrue). Additionally, since it isn’t based on click budgets, once you rank well, you’ve essentially positioned yourself for a limitless amount of leads and customers. Your website isn’t going to disappear from the results just because you’ve hit your budget for the day.

On the flip side of that coin, organic search engine optimization can be tough. Depending on your area, the state of your competition, and your shop’s current reputation, it could take up to a year or more to develop strong rankings. While the effort is well worth it since the ROI will continue paying dividends for months and years to come, it can be difficult starting out for a brand new shop in a major metro area to rank well initially. Utilizing a professional agency with experience in improving the ranking for these businesses can help cut that time by half or even more.

Paid, aka “Pay Per Click”

Not to be slept on, paid search ads can be incredibly effective as well. Paid search ads give a shop owner the ability to immediately begin getting clicks that will help you develop and convert potential leads. Set the terms you want to show up for, the budget that you’re comfortable with, the location or demographic parameters you’re interested in targeting, and you’re set. You can directly control where you show up, and more importantly, HOW you show up, and to whom. If you want to target higher-end clients specifically, you have that power. If you want to target people in certain locations, you have that power.

While you do have the power to turn on and off your ads immediately, you’re also at the mercy of your budget. Once your budget has run out, you will no longer be receiving clicks to your ad. Depending on the phrases and demographics you are targeting, how competitive your area is, and other crucial settings that go into a PPC campaign, you may also be massively overpaying for the clicks you are receiving. That is why we always recommend working with a seasoned agency with experience fine-tuning campaigns to make sure as many customers are squeezed out of your budgets as possible.

How they can work together

While both organic and paid both bring their own strengths to the table, the most effective way to take advantage of search engine marketing is to do both. The simple fact of the matter is this: the more places you show up, the more chances you have to capture a click. Additionally, the more places you show up for a single search, the more “search real estate” your business takes up, which means your competitors have less visibility. Since you are only paying per click with paid advertising, just having your business appear in a search result will not result in a charge — so you can have your brand appearing multiple times via both organic and paid listings, taking up valuable real estate from your competitors, all potentially without spending any click budget.

A recent study from Google discovered that when search ads for a keyword were paused, 89% of that traffic was not replaced by organic rankings. This means that it’s largely ineffective to try to “recover” lost clicks by focusing on either organic or paid, and combining them results in considerably more traffic than by just focusing on one or the other individually.

You Can’t Afford to Miss Out

Capturing these searchers at the right moments is critical for the long-term success of any automotive repair shop. After all, if you aren’t capturing them, your competitors are. 73% of all searchers say that they would return to a service center they found through a search for preventative maintenance and future large repairs — so you aren’t just capturing this lead for the day, you’re capturing this lead for life potentially. With the way people are using search engines these days, frankly, an auto repair shop CAN’T afford to not be visible in these places. Contact us today to see what our organic and paid search engine marketing programs can do for you and your shop!