8 Car Detailing Advertising Ideas to Promote Your Shop

How Small Business Online Advertising Works

Online advertising is about spending a specified amount of money promoting your business and attracting clients or customers within a particular online platform. It is not the same as spending time to promote your business with free small business marketing tools or strategies. That’s why it’s called paid online advertising in some circles.

Going by the amount of time people spend online through their desktop and mobile devices, many online advertising ideas and strategies have been proven to work for businesses of different sizes. The interesting thing is that car owners in your current operating locations are also part of the people spending a good chunk of time online.

Based on the diversity of platforms on the internet today, this post focuses on specific online advertising ideas compatible with the car detailing  business model. But before we get to that, let’s highlight some of the benefits of online advertising you may experience if you spend money on it.

#1 Run Standard Search Advertising Campaigns

Paid search advertising is the process of running a car detailing advertisement on a specific search engine to attract potential customers at that moment when they are actively searching for your services. Some of the best platforms for small business online advertising include Google, Bing, and Yahoo Search.

The premise is that people searching for specific products or services within a defined location are more likely to convert into actual auto detailing customers.

This form of online advertising will display your car detailing advert when prospects search for a related service. If they click the link on that advert, Google will send them directly to visit a specified page on your website where they will see your service description and contact information.

Like some other people in your niche using specific keywords related to ‘car detailing website design services’ and ‘car detailing business marketing strategy, potential customers often use similar keywords.

According to Google, around 50% of people who search for auto parts and other services on a mobile device call a service provider directly from the search result.

Inside the Google advertising platform, call-only Ads are another option available for local service providers. Instead of getting potential customers from search engines to visit your website, the only call to action is to click a button and initiate a phone call. For car detailing lead generation, this might be the best online advertising model worth exploring today.

Contrary to filling out an online form and waiting for a response from a service provider, this type of online advertising will get you connected directly with potential car detailing customers who searched Google for specific services.

Please note that call-only ads are made to run specifically on mobile devices.

Assuming you have the keyword research skills to make it work, adding call-only Ads to your collection of online advertising ideas will help you attract potential customers from preferred locations. Now, let me ask you – what would you rather prefer – a potential customer-initiated phone call or filling out an online form and waiting for an answer? Pause now and think how this type of online advertisement can help you attract people actively searching for emergency auto detailing services within specific locations.

Google Ad extensions are distinct parts of the standard search advertising campaign that shows extra business information when people search for specific keywords. In some cases, you may decide to run a standard car detailing advertising campaign without the Ad extensions. 

However, using some of these extensions will give you benefits like extra online visibility, better call to action, improved conversion rates, and higher ROI.

Some of the best Google Ads extensions include the following.

• Location extension
• Call extension
• Sitelink extension
• Price extension
• App extension
• Promotion extension
• Message extension
• Callout extension
• Structured snippet extension
• Seller rating extension

Based on the nature of your business model, your task is to select the best option that appeals to you. But in my experience, location, call, and sitelink extensions work best for local service businesses. However, testing different Ad extensions will help you discover the best instead of relying on assumptions.

As the name suggests, this type of online advertising allows users to show local business adverts on Google Maps. 

The benefit of using Google Maps Advertising is to attract potential customers within your preferred locations. When people use some locally relevant search queries, your car detailing adverts can appear on Google Maps. 

Below are some of the local keyword examples that may trigger the automatic display of your advertisement inside Google Maps.

1. Website design company near me
2. Car detailing services near me
3. Mobile car detailing services
4. Cost of car detailing services

Before using Google Maps Ads, you’ll need to do the following tasks. 

Without proper implementation, the Ads will not work.

• Connect your Google Ads account to a verified GMB listing
• Enable Google Ads location extension
• Select and target specific locations (states, cities, counties, districts)
• Find and use specific local search queries
• Set your budget and enter credit card detailing for billing
  

Referral marketing is getting your customers involved in referring their friends, family members, and associates as potential customers for a defined reward. As part of an online advertising strategy, it is a modern way of leveraging word of mouth to increase brand awareness, product sales, and marketing ROI. The main thing is to define an attractive reward or benefit that will motivate your prospects or customers to start referring others.

One of the most interesting benefits of referral marketing is that a small advertising budget can cause a snowball effect in terms of lead generation and customer acquisition.

Imagine three customers referring three other customers, that three referring another three. And the best part is that this type of marketing strategy works even while you are busy serving existing customers or sleeping in your house.

For more insights, you may want to check this  $38,458 referral marketing case study.

Besides static service description pages on your car detailing website, you can leverage blogging in your customer acquisition strategy. Assuming you are a specialist for specific brands of automobiles, you can use your business blog to attract the owners of such cars. 

Even if you are not a specialist, creating brand-specific content tailored to the needs and interests of your target customers is still beneficial.

You will need to have prerequisite skills to select the best keywords with the highest ROI potential or hire an expert with that skillset to make this work. If your blog content pieces are targeted at specific customer segments, you can leverage this auto detailing marketing strategy to differentiate your brand and acquire more customers.

But then, you don’t have to wait endlessly for search engine optimization strategies to start getting the attention of your ideal customers. That’s where your car detailing advertising ideas will come into play. Your task is to explore the best online advertising platforms suitable for promoting this type of content.

#7: Explore Local Content Websites

Some websites are created for people within a particular location, regardless of the niche. These are called local content websites for this specific reason. Exploring local content websites might be your next best option when you want to attract customers who live and work within specified locations. Regarding location type, think about entities like states, cities, counties, or districts.

The two main options you can use to run an auto detailing advertising campaign inside a local content website are sponsored content and display banner Ads.

Sponsored Content: This is a type of location-specific content related to your business, product, service, or industry. The benefit is to get the attention of potential customers in your chosen locations. With sponsored content, you may also want to use an opinion post.

Display Banners Ads: Using digital banner advertising will also get you some exposure within some relevant local content websites. You can link the online banner ads to a specific landing page on your car detailing website with this option.

The following are the types of local sites you should explore for this automobile business marketing strategy.

1. Local business directories
2. Local news publications
3. Special press release website
4. Local travel information websites
5. Specialist travel guide websites
6. Local event websites
7. Car dealership news websites
8. Special trade magazines
   

Facebook is another online destination where car owners spend a good amount of time just like everyone else. Regardless of location, many people generate quality leads, sell products, and close deals on social media platforms with every passing minute. 

Within the US alone, recent statistics from Oberlo showed that millions of adults are spending an average of 31 minutes per day on Facebook.

Omnicore also reported that Facebook has about 1.93 billion daily active users as of February 2022. 

These users include US adults and car-owners with considerable purchasing power. All these stats point to the viability of Facebook Ads for car detailing advertisements.

With standard Facebook adverts, you can start generating leads and customers for your auto detailing business. The most beneficial thing is that you can leverage the deep targeting tools on the platform to attract the prospects most likely to contact or visit your business. Below are some of the best Facebook Ad objectives suitable for auto detailing lead generation.

• Traffic Generation: Send prospects to visit a dedicated landing page on your website.
• Lead Generation: Get the prospects to fill out a form with their contact information.
• Video Views: You can run Facebook video Ads to engage and convert prospects into customers.
• Messages: The only call to action for this Ad format is to have prospects send you a message.

Depending on your skill set level, running A/B tests will help you discover which Ad objective, creatives, and audience segments will convert more than others. Besides conversion rate improvement, Facebook Ads A/B testing is the foundation of running profitable campaigns.

Final Thoughts

Have you ever thought about how to sell detailing services even when you are busy working for some clients? The hard part of the business is that when you are busy serving other clients, you cannot be doing any form of marketing or lead generation at the same time. 

Probably, you must have realized that waiting for referrals or stray customers won’t get you closer to your current revenue goals.

Interestingly, one benefit of online advertising is that you can set up the system to work round the clock, whether you are working for existing clients or sleeping. Assuming you are starting with search engines or social media platforms, you need a functional car detailing website to get going.

With a functional website integrated with the right tools, you can start booking client appointments regardless of where you are when your services are needed.

You also need a defined budget to start taking advantage of the car detailing advertising ideas shared in this post. Depending on your advertisement budget size, daily campaigns are what you need to start generating quality car detailing leads. And that’s how you can improve the consistent inflow of customers from your preferred locations.

At Detailers Roadmap, we specialize in effective auto detailing advertising ideas and services. These include local SEO services to boost you to the top of search engine results and comprehensive web design and development to establish your online presence.

Our team is committed to your success, continually optimizing and refining strategies to ensure you get the best bang for your buck. Contact us at Detailers Roadmap, and let's drive your business forward together.