How to use PPC to connect with potential garage customers
Take a look at how building a PPC campaign can help you to connect with potential customers
Published: 27 January, 2021
Over recent years, we've seen a shift in the aftermarket, where newer, more sophisticated cars are becoming increasingly complex for professionals carrying out repairs. This has meant that garages looking to adapt to these new conditions have been required to invest in the latest equipment to ensure they can keep up with the demand for more intricate jobs.
For many businesses, we've also seen a move away from the traditional static local customer base, with savvy car owners willing to travel further for high quality repair work. So, it's understandable that many garage operators might be looking to capture this growing market, attracting a wider client base that could lead to increased ROI and an opportunity to expand operations.
With this in mind, it may well be the case that you're looking for the best ways to attract a wider audience to your garage. Pay-per-click (PPC) adverts are very well suited for targeting users who are searching for a particular product or service, and they could be the key to a successful marketing campaign. Here, I'm going to share a few tips on using PPC adverts to connect your auto-repair business with new customers.
Read up on PPC before you get started
Before you dive into the world of PPC, it's important to do some research. In a nutshell, pay-per-click ads are those sponsored results that appear on search engine results pages and sometimes in other locations. Text ads are likely to be most suitable for a garage business, which allow you to focus on specific phrases relevant to your business. You place a bid to appear for certain user searches, but don't pay the platform for the ad unless the user clicks through. By choosing the right keywords, they allow you to target the exact audience you're looking for, while allowing you precise control over your budget for bidding. I highly recommend you find a good introductory guide, such as this one from HubSpot, to get up to speed: https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/ppc
Choose where to advertise
There are a few options when it comes to PPC advertising, including Google, Bing, and Facebook ads, though Google Ads is by far the dominant market and where most businesses start their campaigns. The sheer volume of traffic available through Google means that you can find an audience for almost any niche you wish to advertise in and there is the potential for lots of conversions to be won via keywords with high commercial intent. However, it is possible to have success on other platforms, so it may be a case of trying out different options until you find one that proves fruitful.
Brainstorm and refine your keywords
To target the right audience with the right services in your PPC ads, you'll need to carry out in-depth research to identify the keywords you'll be bidding on. It can really help to define what you want out of the campaign from the start, so think about what aftermarket services you want to push and what services are your most popular or provide the greatest ROI. Then, think about what your customers will be likely to search to find those services to create your seed keyword list.
Once you have a list of seed keywords, you can begin to refine them using a tool like Google Ads Keyword Planner or SEMrush, which will give you accurate data on their search volumes, keyword difficulty, and their cost per click. You can also use the 'related keywords' search function these tools offer to see if there are any phrases you've overlooked.
In addition, you can check whether there are any phrases that are considered related but are likely to be a mismatch if your ad shows up for them. These can be a money sink, because if a user clicks through but finds your page is not what they're looking for, they will bounce, and your budget will be wasted. If you identify these phrases, you can add them to your campaign as negative keywords, and your adverts will not appear.
Look at what your competitors are doing
Do you know of any other garages that are having success thanks to their online marketing? Then they might have set up a good PPC campaign that's worth looking closely at to see if there's room to replicate their success or find a gap that they've missed.
There are specialist tools that can help you analyse PPC performance of other webpages — Neil Patel has a good round-up here — https://neilpatel.com/blog/25-sneaky-online-tools/ — but you can also use the keyword planners I mentioned previously to get an insight into what paid search terms your competitors are ranking for.
Set your budget
One of the advantages of PPC advertising is that you can exercise a great deal of control over your budget, allowing you to decide how much you want to bid for each keyword and set a cap on the total amount you want to spend in a week or month. This means that you can set yourself a budget and be sure that you won’t find you've overspent later.
When it comes to setting your limits, it's worth taking a look at Search Engine Journal's PPC budget and bidding guide — www.searchenginejournal.com/ppc-guide/budgets-bidding — to find out exactly how much you should be willing to spend per click.
Write a great PPC advert
Once you've chosen your keywords and decided how much you're bidding, it's time to write a great PPC advert. Now, your space is very limited in one of these ads, and you will only have limited room for headlines, description lines, and your URL. That's why you need to focus on making the copy as succinct but impactful as possible to attract those click throughs.
You'll need to start with the nucleus of your ad, which is the keyword you want it to appear for, but be careful to introduce it naturally in a way that doesn't sound spammy. This should not be that hard if you have chosen a good, relevant phrase to describe what's being advertised. You'll also want to include at least one USP in the advert to make your services stand out from the crowd. Whether this is a free initial estimate, guaranteed turnaround time on repairs, or something else, is up to you.
Finally, you will want to end with a good call to action, which is a phrase that pushes the user to click on your advert. To have the most impact, choose words that promote action like ‘get’ or ‘find out’, value words like ‘free’, ‘save’, or ‘best’, and those that are personal like ‘you’ and ‘your’.
Conclusion
By following my advice here, you should be able to set up a solid PPC campaign to connect your garage with a wider customer base. Remember, if you're not hugely confident in approaching tech-focused activities yourself, you can always get advice from an expert, like a digital marketing firm.
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- Complaints How we deal with them
This is our belief at CCM. While every attempt is made at customer satisfaction inevitably occasionally things go wrong which leads to customer complaints. We encourage customers to give feedback, especially negative to enable us to improve our services. If you are happy, tell others. If not, tell us.
Face to face complaints
These can sometimes be the worst. It puts you on the spot and it is human nature to become defensive. As hard as it is, do not react. What happens in that moment, your emotional brain engages and you react on emotion not on rational thoughts. Stay calm. In a face-to-face situation, body language is a giveaway. How you stand, where you put your arms, your facial expression all tells its own story. You must try and remain in a neutral stance, so that you do not come across as defensive.
You need to listen, but in the right way. The biggest mistake people make is that they listen to respond and do not listen to understand. Of course, you want to defend your team but this is not the moment to do it. Listen to what the customer is complaining about, be empathetic, show some understanding and acknowledge what their complaint is about. Ask them what their ideal resolution would be. Let them know that you have taken on board what has been said, that you will investigate their issue and you will get back to them with your findings.
Written complaints
Some people find it easier to complain in writing, not having the ability to feel comfortable complaining face to face. The absolute first, is to acknowledge the complaint immediately. Again, show empathy and understanding, explain that you will investigate and respond with your findings. Do not let people put you under pressure, explain that you need time to investigate properly as you do not wish to make a rash decision. Do not get off topic, it is so easy to come back with what you have done good and not actually deal with the issue. Stay focussed on the complaint.
Honesty
At CCM, one of our team values is honesty. If you find during your investigations into a complaint, that you have made a mistake or your conduct/service has not been what it should have been, be honest. Own up. Imagine how your customer feels when you own up and admit, “yes, sorry, our service was not up to scratch.” We recently had a complaint from a long-standing customer regarding our poor service and the fact that there was an error on her paperwork. Said customer went on to say how they continuously use us as our service was usually superb but was very disappointed this time.
Following my investigations, I discovered we did make a few errors with her paperwork. I responded with the following: “This is a process that we follow, to ensure that we order all the relevant parts that may be required as to not hold up the job. In this instance, it seems that we invoiced you without deleting said parts from your invoice, which was a mistake on our behalf. I am not making excuses for our team; we have been very busy doing out upmost to keep customers vehicles on the road. It is never our intention to mislead and we strive to carry out good workmanship and service. Please accept our sincere apologies for the upset that this has caused you.”
The email went on with the customer apologising for complaining and admitting that the whole COVID-19 situation had got to her and that she had overreacted. Would her response have been the same if we had got defensive, denied doing any wrong and just pushed the blame back at her?
Bad reviews
It is upsetting when someone tarnishes your reviews with a bad one, but I believe it makes them more credible. Can anyone really get five-star reviews all the time with no negative remarks at all? Anyone who looks at reviews, never just read the bad ones, you will read many. Having the odd bad one makes you human, shows you do and can make mistakes and sometimes your service does slip. How you respond is much more important that the bad review. Would one bad review stop someone using you? Absolutely not. The point is, how you react to someone, causes a reaction. What reaction do you want?
Sometimes people have genuine reasons to complain, be honest if that is the case, do what you can to rectify the situation. That is what people will remember. Firstly, that you acknowledge that you were wrong and secondly, that you did something about it. Sometimes people just need to let off steam. By being empathetic and understanding can be enough for them to rant and walk away. Sometimes people just need to complain because that is their nature. In this case, there is nothing you can do. Just do not invite or encourage them to come back.
One of the most common complaints is about costs. Do not take ownership of someone’s problem. When communicating with customers regarding their vehicle needs, do not use negative words, like “unfortunately, I’m sorry to say, sadly, I’m afraid.” It is not your fault that their vehicle is broken, failed or needs a service. So long that you have communicated to your customer throughout, any issue with costs should be avoided. Most of the time you find that you have done no wrong. It is often a misunderstanding, or someone’s expectations not being met. In all these scenarios, use them as examples to improve. Why were there misunderstandings, why was that person’s expectations not met, what can we do to make sure this does not happen again. Remember, do not be defensive, think about your body language, be empathetic and treat people how you would like to be treated. You will be pleasantly surprised.
What you can do
Have in place and on show a customer care charter detailing that you use OE quality parts, that all repairs and servicing meet or exceed the expected standards of this industry. Explain that staff are continually trained and provide the best possible standards of workmanship. This enables your staff and your customers to know that you are doing everything possible to deliver high quality work and service. Then add what the procedure is when a customer wants to make a complaint.
Have a vision and values. This is imperative as it becomes the guidelines for staff to use when dealing with any issues. Give your Front of House staff autonomy to deal with the little niggles that come in. Positive intent; believe that your staff will look after your best interests, allow them to issue a refund or offer a discount if that is what they believe is the best resolution. Some complaints are very minor and can be dealt with immediately. Make sure everyone is aware of the escalation route, time scale and who to escalate to. Any complaint must be acknowledged immediately, with the intent of following up/investigating in a reasonable amount of time. This must be communicated to the customer. Ask the customer what their ideal resolution is. If the customer finds the proposal unsatisfactory, then is the time to move to mediation or legal settlement. When a complaint has been resolved, follow this up again, depending on the size and nature of the complaint. Overall, effective communication is crucial. Lastly, and crucially, ensure that you act fairly and honestly.
