Guides · Marketing

How do I know if my auto repair marketing is working?

You pay for ads, a website and social posts, and you have no idea which one works. Here's how it played out at our sample shop, the way a mechanic works a car: concern, cause, correction, verification.

1

The concern

Nate paid for Google Ads, a website, Facebook posts and a postcard mailer. When a slow week hit, he couldn't say which one had stopped working.

Nolavi table of auto repair customers by marketing source showing cost, customers and sales for each
Every customer, with where they came from.
2

The cause

Nolavi tagged every new customer with where they came from: the ad, Google Maps, the website, a referral or the mailer. The mailer cost $900 a month and brought in 2 customers.

Bar chart of cost per new customer for an auto repair shop showing a postcard mailer costing 450 dollars per customer
The mailer was the most expensive way to get a customer.
3

The correction

We cut the mailer and put the money into Google Maps reviews and the brake page on the website, the two sources bringing in the best customers.

4

The verification

New customers went from 38 to 47 a month with $400 less spend. Every source now has a number next to it on Nolavi's dashboard.

Auto repair marketing results after cutting the mailer: lower spend and more new customers
Less money, more customers.

Example shop. Nate's Auto Repair is Nolavi's sample shop with made up numbers. The steps are exactly how Nolavi works on a real shop's data.

Questions

Quick answers.

What's the best way to track auto repair marketing?

Ask where each customer came from, match it to the repair order, and add up the money by source every month. Nolavi does all three for you.

Is Google Maps worth it for a repair shop?

Usually yes. Reviews and Maps calls are some of the lowest cost customers a shop gets.

Keep reading

See it on a sample shop.

Open the demo and find this kind of problem yourself in a minute. Or book your 14 day free trial: it starts with a quick call, and we set it all up and fit it to your shop.

Try the demo on a sample shop