Marketing for auto body and collision repair shops
A collision customer is shaken, dealing with an insurer, and choosing between shops over several days. They are not looking for the closest option. They are looking for the one that seems least likely to make the next two weeks worse.
The shape of the demand
These are the facts that decide the plan. Change any one of them and the right first move changes with it.
- Ticket size
- High, frequently four figures
- Decision window
- Two to seven days
- Third party in the decision
- The insurer, often steering
- What gets checked
- Reviews first, photos second, price rarely
- Search pattern
- Brand plus service, and "near me" with real comparison
Priorities, in order
- 01
Reviews carry more weight here than anywhere else
The customer is choosing on trust with an insurer in the background. Review count, recency and owner responses move both the ranking and the decision. A shop with forty recent reviews beats a shop with a better website and nine.
- 02
Photograph the work
Before and after galleries do the job that copy cannot. They also give the Google Business Profile something to post, which is a ranking signal most shops leave idle.
- 03
Name the insurers and the brands you work with
People search for their insurer and their car make alongside the service. Those pages are specific, low competition, and they match how the decision is actually made.
- 04
Separate the services that pay from the ones that do not
A shop that does collision, detailing, paint correction and glass should not run one campaign. The break-even for a full respray and a headlight restoration are not remotely the same number.
Mistakes we see repeatedly in this category
- One page called "Services" covering collision, paint, glass and detailing, ranking for none of them.
- Running ads for low-margin add-on services at the same cost per click as the high-ticket work.
- Never asking for reviews, in the one category where reviews decide the sale.
- A gallery of stock photos instead of the shop's own work.
What we would run for a business like this
Local SEO
Get into the three-result map pack for the searches that happen near your shop.
Website design and build
A site that loads fast, says what you do, and puts the phone number where a driver can hit it.
Google Ads management
Paid search where the maths is done in front of you before a dollar is spent.
AI voice and chat agents
The calls that arrive at 11pm get answered, qualified and logged.
Auto body & collision: what owners ask
Insurers send us most of our work. Is search still worth it?
The direct-to-consumer share is where the margin is, because there is no steering and no negotiated rate. Search is how you reach it. Shops relying entirely on insurer referral have no control over volume when the referrals slow.
How many reviews do we need?
More than the shops ranking above you, and recent. Absolute count matters less than the gap and the freshness. A steady handful every month beats forty collected in one push two years ago.
Roadside assistance & towing
Emergency search, decided in under a minute, almost entirely on a phone.
Tire sales & service
Two sharp peaks a year, and a demand curve you can see coming months ahead.
Renovation & contracting
Long consideration, high ticket, and the portfolio does most of the selling.
Find out where you actually rank
A free audit checks your map position from every corner of your service area, your site’s technical health, and what your three closest competitors are doing differently. No obligation, and you keep the report either way.
Usually back within two business days.