How do I know if Google Ads is tracking my calls?

Open the conversions section of the account and look for a conversion action for calls from ads, calls from the website, or both. If none exists, the account cannot tell you whether the ads rang the phone. Then compare the counted calls with what the counter remembers for the same week. A big gap in either direction means the setup needs fixing. Counted calls are tracked conversions, not closed jobs, so keep that line clear when you read the month.

Should my ads run when the shop is closed?

Usually not, for a shop that wants calls. A driver who calls at night and reaches voicemail often calls another shop in the morning, or forgets. Set the ad schedule to the hours a person answers, with a little room at the start and end of the day. If the shop wants form requests after hours, that is a separate choice with a separate page. Do not pay for calls the phone cannot take.

What negative keywords should an auto repair shop use?

Start with the words that show up in the search terms report and never become work. Common ones are how to, DIY, diagram, part numbers, free, jobs, salary, and school. Add the services the bays do not do, such as body or glass if the shop turns that work away. Do not block a word just because it looks odd. Block it because people who searched it did not call or did not need repair work you sell.

Is a low call count always an ads problem?

No. A shop in a small town may have only a few people searching for repair in a given week, and no setting creates more of them. A listing with wrong hours or a missing profile also sends drivers somewhere else before they ever see an ad. Check the listing, the phone, and the search volume before blaming the campaign. If the bays are already booked out, a quiet ad account may be the right speed for this month.

Why are my auto repair shop Google Ads not getting calls

Q: Why are my auto repair shop Google Ads not getting calls?

Most of the time the calls are not being counted, the ads run when nobody answers, or the targeting reaches the wrong people. A page that hides the phone and search terms full of DIY and parts shoppers come next. Start by checking whether the account records calls at all. If it does and the number is still low, open the search terms report and the location setting before you change the budget. Spending more on the same leak buys more of the same quiet phone.

Your auto repair shop Google Ads are usually not getting calls because the calls are not being counted, the ads run when nobody can answer, the location setting reaches drivers who will never come in, the search terms belong to DIY and parts shoppers, or the click lands on a page that hides the phone. Check them in that order. We do not guarantee a call count, a ranking, or a revenue number.

The calls are happening but nobody is counting them

The most common reason an auto repair shop thinks its Google Ads are not getting calls is that the account was never set up to count them. Without a conversion action for calls, the account can show clicks and spend but not rings. The owner sees money going out and nothing coming back on the report, even when the phone did ring.

Look for two things. A call asset on the ads, so the number appears on the ad itself. And a call conversion that counts calls from the ad and, if the site uses one, calls from the website after a click. Then compare that count with what the counter remembers for the same week. The guide to cost per call for an auto repair shop explains the one number that comes out of this: spend divided by calls a person answered.

The ads run when nobody can answer

Ads that run while the phone goes to voicemail spend money on calls the shop cannot take. A driver with a warning light on the dash does not leave a message and wait. They call the next shop on the list. The ad did its job, and the call still did not happen in any way that matters.

Set the ad schedule to the hours a person actually picks up, not the hours on the door if those are different. Then check lunch, the first hour of the morning, and Saturdays. If the phone is not covered at those times, either cover it or take the ads off for those hours. The article on how to get more calls for an auto repair shop covers the person who answers in more detail.

The location setting reaches drivers who will never come in

A wide location setting shows the ads to people who are not near the bays. Google Ads can target people who are in or regularly in an area, or people who have shown interest in it. The second option can include someone two states away who searched the town name once. Those clicks cost money and rarely turn into a car in the bay.

Choose presence in the area for a repair shop, and draw the radius around how far customers really drive to you. A tow-in shop and a quick oil change shop do not have the same radius. If most customers live on one side of town, the targeting can say so.

The search terms belong to DIY and parts shoppers

The search terms report shows the actual words people typed before they clicked, and it often explains a quiet phone in a few minutes. Broad keywords can match someone looking for a repair video, a part number, a free estimate tool, or a mechanic job. None of them were going to call a shop to book work.

Read the report every week while the account is new. Add the words that never become work as negative keywords: how to, DIY, diagram, part numbers, jobs, and the services the bays do not do. Keep the keywords close to what a driver says on the phone: brake repair, check engine light, AC repair, and the name of the town.

The click lands on a page that hides the phone

An ad can win the click and still lose the call if the page buries the number. A driver on a phone should see the shop's phone number and the work it does on the first screen, without scrolling past a slideshow or a paragraph about the shop's history. A form alone asks a stressed driver to wait for a reply they do not want to wait for.

Send the ad to a page that matches the search. A brake search lands on a page that says brakes and shows the number. The Auto Shop Marketers home page shows the kind of first screen that asks for the call. The same number should appear on the page, the ad, and the Google listing.

The town has fewer searches than the budget

Sometimes the ads are fine and there are simply not many people searching for repair near the shop this week. A small town has a smaller pool of searches, and no bid or budget change creates more drivers with a broken car. The account may show keywords with low search volume or spend that stops short of the daily budget.

In that case the work is to catch every search that does happen. Keep the listing correct, answer every call, and keep the keywords close to the work. What a shop pays in a thinner market is covered in what Google Ads cost for an auto repair shop. If the shop also does not show up on the map, fix that first with the steps in why an auto repair shop is not showing up on Google Maps. We do not guarantee a call count, a ranking, or a revenue number.

What to check this week

Confirm the account counts calls from the ads and from the website.
Set the ad schedule to the hours a person answers the phone.
Change the location setting to people in the area, with a radius customers really drive.
Read the search terms report and add negative keywords for DIY, parts, and jobs.
Send each ad to a page with the phone number and the work on the first screen.