As of 2023, there are more than 174,000 auto repair shops in the United States. What’s even more staggering is that the top 10% of auto repair shops in the country drive 80% of the market's revenue.

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The average auto repair shop earns about $1.1m in annual revenue, which means that the top 10% of shops are earning substantially more than that!

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If your shop isn’t generating the revenue that you want, it’s time to start looking at what the big guys are doing so you can do it too.

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But what sets the top shops apart from the rest of the competition?

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Aside from smooth operations and excellent staff, the top auto repair shops have their marketing efforts absolutely dialed for acquiring new customers all the way to retaining customers and having high lifetime value and customer loyalty.

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So what are the industry leaders doing with their marketing to drive so much revenue? 

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Website Foundation

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When it comes to digital marketing for auto repair shops, having a great website at the core of your marketing efforts is a necessity. 

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Think of it like this: you can have the best seo, the best ads, and the best emails, but if your website isn’t strong, all of that other effort will be inefficient and suffer from lots of spillage and lost opportunity.

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A good auto repair website needs to be fast, informative, and most importantly, build trust that your shop is going to get the job done the right way with as little stress as possible.

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Aside from trust building, your website needs to educate your audience about what you can offer them.

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Do you specialize in certain manufactures or specific services? 

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If so, your website needs to educate your customers about your specialties.

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Most importantly, your website needs to make it easy for people to get a quote or schedule their service.

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Search Engine Optimization

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Because auto repair shop marketing is localized around a specific service that people are searching for (ex. Oil change near me, body shop nashville, TN, car wraps in Salt Lake City, UT), search engine optimization can have a major long-term impact on your custom acquisition.

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With SEO, you can start ranking at the top of search results so when people are actively looking for a service that your shop offers, you can be the first choice for them.

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A big factor with SEO is collecting Google reviews on your Google Business Profile so make sure you are collecting reviews from your customers. In fact, about 90% of people read reviews before making a purchase so reviews will help with acquiring customers also.

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Google Ads

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SEO is a long term play that takes a lot of time to truly see big results from. To expedite earning business from search, Google Ads can work incredibly well to drive low-funnel traffic to your website to get calls and/or bookings.

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Similar to SEO, Google Ads are search based and move your auto repair shop to the top of Google based on specific keywords that you bid on. Unlike SEO, Google ads do require an ad budget to rank and keep up so factor that into your service costs to make sure you’re profitable.

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One thing that’s nice about doing SEO and Google Ads simultaneously is you can use a lot of the same keyword research so you aren’t doubling the efforts needed to be successful.

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Facebook and Instagram Ads

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Unlike Google that’s search based, Facebook and Instagram (Meta) ads are based on interests and machine learning based on user interactions.

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One thing to keep in mind is Meta ads are typically best used for wants instead of needs. Think of it like this: If you need an oil change in your car, you’re not going to find a local shop on Meta, you’re going to look on Google or Maps (also Google).

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With that being said, customization shops like wraps, detailers, lift kits, etc… can work well based on Meta thanks to interests and interactions.

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Meta can also work well for preventative maintenance offers and retargeting so your shop stays top of mind when people need your services.

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Email and SMS

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An often overlooked and under utilized strategy that the big guys do well with is email and sms marketing.

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This is something that should be used very strategically around customer frequency to improve your customer lifetime value (LTV).

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Email and sms can help a ton with regular maintenance such as oil changes, service intervals, details, etc… For example, if you do an oil change for a customer, they are eventually going to need another one. 

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Instead of hoping they come back to shop for their next oil change, send them an email and a text (with consent of course!) and remind them to come back. You can even offer them a special deal to encourage them to come back as well.

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The nice thing about email and sms is that once you have a larger list of past customers, it’s much more affordable than ads because there isn’t any ad spend to send emails and email marketing platforms are very affordable.

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For the bottom 90% of auto repair shops that are struggling to get to the next level, focusing on these core pillars and building around this proven growth system can be the difference between growing and staying stagnant.

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Need some help with your auto repair shop marketing? Click here to schedule your free consultation and strategy session with our team.

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