Job and school searches
Terms like "body shop jobs," "auto body technician salary," "collision repair school" and "apprenticeship" belong on the exclusion list from the start.
For collision and body shops
Auto Body Shop PPC: The Campaign Structure Behind a Busy Repair Schedule
Someone who just hit a deer, got rear-ended at a light or found a long scratch down the door of a new car is not browsing. They are looking for a shop that will give them an estimate, deal with the insurance company and tell them how long the car will be gone. Auto body shop PPC is the work of putting your shop in front of that person at that moment, and keeping it away from people who want a paint supply store, a body shop job or a free video on fixing a dent at home. This page shows how a Google Ads account for a collision shop is organized, one campaign at a time.
- 5campaign groups in a typical shop account, split by what the driver needs
- 2kinds of conversion to count: calls and estimate requests
- $895a month for paid ads management on one platform, ad spend paid separately to Google
- 0contracts or setup fees to start with GetPhound
The building blocks
The Campaigns a Collision Shop Account Usually Needs
Every shop has a different mix of work, so treat this as a starting grid for your Google Ads account. A shop that does most of its work through insurer relationships will weight the estimate campaign differently from one that thrives on walk-in cosmetic jobs.
| Campaign | What the driver is searching | What the campaign is for |
|---|---|---|
| Collision repair near me | "auto body shop near me," "collision repair," "body shop open now," "car accident repair" | The core campaign. Catches people with a damaged car who want a shop now. Gets the highest priority and the tightest geographic targeting. |
| Estimates and insurance | "free estimate body shop," "insurance claim body shop," "collision estimate near me," "do you work with my insurance" | Serves the driver working through a claim. Ads and the landing page explain how estimates, photos and insurance coordination work at your shop. |
| Cosmetic and minor repair | "bumper repair," "scratch repair," "paintless dent repair," "door ding," "wheel and rim repair" | Smaller jobs by people with time to compare. Separate budgets keep small jobs from crowding out larger repair orders. |
| Specialty work | "hail damage repair," "frame straightening," "aluminum body repair," "classic car restoration," "fleet and commercial vehicle repair" | Capabilities you want to be known for. Many shops have one or two specialties that deserve their own ad text and page. |
| Brand and phone | Your shop name, owner name, "your shop reviews," and your own phone number searches | Protects people who already know you, including referrals from insurers and neighbors, from being intercepted by competitors. |
Why the split matters
One Phone, Several Different Customers
Collision work looks like one trade from outside but behaves like several from the front counter. A driver standing next to a crumpled fender has a different urgency from a customer who wants a bumper scuff fixed before a lease return. A person whose car is not drivable needs a tow and a rental; someone with a hail-pocked roof wants a number and a calendar date. Putting all of them in one campaign means the same ad text and the same budget answer every one of them, and the account gradually teaches itself to favor whichever searches are cheapest instead of the repairs that fill your bays.
Two features of the trade deserve plain mention. First, insurance. Many drivers arrive with a claim number and questions about whether you work with their insurer, whether a particular program is required and what they will owe. Rules about a customer's right to choose a repair shop differ by state, and insurer relationships differ by shop, so the ad text and landing page should say only what is true for you. Second, visual proof. Collision repair is judged by paint match and panel fit, so photos of finished work and a simple way to send pictures of the damage tend to matter more here than on most trade pages.
That is what shapes PPC for auto body shops in practice: the account has to sort driveable from not, claim from cash, large repair from small, and local from far, before a single click is bought.
Timing and bidding follow from the same logic. Bids are the amount you are willing to pay for a click, and in plain terms the goal is to pay more for the searches that become repair orders and less, or nothing, for the ones that do not. A shop that answers calls until six in the evening should not buy the same traffic at midnight unless a tracked after-hours estimate form is ready to catch it. Weather and the calendar change demand too: ice and the first snowfall, deer season in the fall, hail after a storm, the rush of fender benders on wet commutes. Budget can be raised for those weeks when the bays have room and lowered when the schedule is full and cars are waiting.
Geography needs the same care. A repair shop is a drop-off location, so drivers will rarely travel far for a bumper repair, though they will cross town for a shop with a good reputation for paint. Location targeting for pay per click campaigns should reflect those real drive times, and it should exclude presence-or-interest settings that show your ads to people who are only curious about your area.
From first call to live ads
How the Account Gets Built
Walk through your jobs
We start with the work you want more of and the work you pass on: which makes and panels you handle, whether you do frame and structural repair, how you handle rentals, towing partners and insurer coordination.
Map the service area
We set the towns and radius where drivers will realistically travel, then adjust at the edges based on where your best customers have come from.
Set up call and form tracking
Calls from ads get a trackable number, estimate forms record their source and your front counter learns a quick way to note which calls became repair orders.
Launch the core campaigns
Collision, estimates, cosmetic work, specialty and brand campaigns go live in Google Ads with a first set of negative keywords, ad text that reflects your actual hours and a landing page for each.
Read the search terms weekly
New search terms are checked, junk is excluded, strong phrases are expanded and ad wording is tested.
Tie it to repair orders
Once calls and forms are logged against real work, budget moves toward the campaigns that produce signed repair orders, not just ringing phones.
Keeping the wrong searches out
Auto Body Shop PPC Negative Keywords: Themes to Block
These go into the account as negative keywords, so your paid ads skip them and the budget stays on drivers who need a repair.
Supplies and parts shopping
"Auto body supplies," "bondo," "primer," "touch-up paint," "OEM bumper cover" and junkyard parts searches come from DIYers and parts buyers.
Do-it-yourself repair
"How to fix a dent," "remove a scratch at home," and video queries bring readers, not customers.
Mechanical and tire work
If you do not do engine, transmission, brake or tire work, exclude those terms or the account will pay to answer them.
Insurance and legal questions
"Total loss value," "claim phone number," "lawyer after a car accident" and similar phrases come from people who need something other than a shop.
Cleaning and detailing
Car wash, interior cleaning and ceramic coating searches only belong if you offer them as a real service line.
Out-of-area and used cars
Dealer inventory, salvage auctions and searches that name cities you do not serve are common drains.
What owners ask
Questions About Google Ads Management for a Collision Shop
How much does auto body shop PPC management cost?
GetPhound charges $895 a month to manage one platform, $1,595 for two and $2,295 for three, with no setup fee and no contract. Ad spend is separate and goes straight to Google or another platform. How much to spend depends on what an average repair order is worth, what share of estimates you close and how many cars your bays can take, and we work through that with you.
Should I advertise to people who are searching for insurance help?
Only if the wording fits your shop. A driver searching "insurance claim body shop" wants help with a process, and an honest page that explains how you handle estimates, photos and paperwork can serve them well. Avoid language that implies relationships or promises you do not have. State rules and insurer programs differ, so the claims in an ad should match what you can actually do.
Is a call or an estimate form more valuable?
For collision work, calls usually carry more urgency because the driver wants an answer today. Forms are valuable for people at night, for those sending photos and for cosmetic jobs they are comparing. Track both, count only the ones that reach a real estimate, and answer forms fast. A slow reply loses the repair order to whoever phones the customer first.
Can I run ads for just one specialty, like hail or aluminum repair?
Yes, and that is often a smart way to begin. A narrow campaign with its own landing page lets you concentrate budget on work that fits your equipment and certifications. The tradeoff is smaller search volume, so some shops pair a specialty campaign with a general collision campaign once they are comfortable.
Do Local Services Ads cover auto body shops?
Google opens Local Services Ads by category and location, and the list changes. Check its current coverage for body shops in your area before planning around it. Where it is not available, regular Google Ads search campaigns are the main paid search option, and Bing and Meta can be added later.
How do I stop paying for people who never become customers?
Review the Google Ads search terms report weekly at first, add negative keywords for job seekers, DIY repairs, parts and unrelated services, and watch which calls turn into estimates. Wasted spend rarely comes from one big mistake. It comes from dozens of small searches nobody looked at.
How should the shop answer calls from the ads?
Pick up fast, ask where the car is and whether it drives, collect the vehicle and insurance details and offer a specific estimate time. If nobody can answer, use after-hours routing or a text-back. Ads that ring an empty counter waste money no matter how well they are built.
Is pay per click better than relying on insurer referrals?
They do different jobs. Insurer programs and repeat customers can fill a schedule but depend on relationships you do not fully control. Paid ads give you a way to reach drivers who choose their own shop and to fill slower weeks. Many owners treat insurer work as a base and use Google Ads to add cash and cosmetic jobs, then review which source yields the better repair orders.
How long before the account is running properly?
Ads can go live within days once tracking and landing pages are ready. The first several weeks are for tuning: which searches bring real estimates, where the service area should end, what hours matter. Be cautious about any promise of a fixed number of repair orders or a specific timeline.
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Want the organic side or the lead side too? See getting more leads, buying leads, lead generation programs, SEO, internet marketing, and best keywords for auto body shop.
Get in Touch
Want your body shop account looked at?
Call 610-825-4363 or email hello@getphound.com and we will walk through how your campaigns are split, which searches are wasting spend and how calls and estimates are counted.