An automotive service business in Edmonton was already paying for Google Ads when we took over. The budget was draining away. Broad match keywords and poor campaign structure were to blame. We rebuilt the campaigns into tight service-specific ad groups and built thorough negative keyword lists from search term analysis. Phone calls and form submissions got proper conversion tracking, and budget monitoring checks spend every 30 minutes. Return on ad spend (ROAS) hit 825%.
The Challenge
This business was already running Google Ads when we took over, which is sometimes harder than starting from scratch. Old accounts carry their own structure and momentum. They come with a client used to seeing certain metrics, even when those metrics don't reflect real business results.
The problems were classic. Broad match keywords spent most of the budget on searches that had nothing to do with the shop. One campaign targeting "mechanic" paid for clicks on "mechanic jobs," "mechanic schools," and "mechanic tool sets" searches. There was no negative keyword strategy. The campaign structure was flat. One or two campaigns held large ad groups that mixed different service types. In a setup like that, you cannot control budgets or tailor ad copy to each service.
Conversion tracking was partly set up. Form submissions were counted, but phone calls, the main way automotive service customers contact a shop, were not. The business had no real picture. It could not tell which campaigns brought in actual customers and which were generating clicks that went nowhere.
Edmonton's automotive service market is competitive, and multiple shops bid on the same keywords. Google Ads costs reflect it. When you pay for irrelevant clicks here, auction prices go up and you get nothing for it. You end up subsidizing your competitors' cheaper cost-per-click.
Our Approach
We rebuilt the account structure from scratch. Oil changes, brake service, transmission work, and general repair each got a dedicated campaign with tightly themed ad groups. We could control each budget independently. With that control, more budget went into high-margin services and less into commodity services where margins are thin.
Negative keyword work was extensive. We pulled the existing account's search term reports, which showed hundreds of irrelevant queries that had been using up budget. We built themed lists. The themes were employment-related terms, educational queries, DIY searches, competitor names, and areas outside the service region. Lists sit at the campaign or account level as appropriate, and we review search terms weekly for new irrelevant queries.
Everything else rested on conversion tracking. We set up call tracking with dynamic number insertion, which swaps in a tracking number for ad visitors. When someone calls from an ad, the call is credited to the specific campaign and keyword that triggered it. Forms got proper event firing. Both conversion types were imported into Google Ads, so its bidding algorithms had accurate data to optimize against.
We added budget monitoring that checks spend every 30 minutes. In a competitive market where demand swings with the seasons, daily budgets can run out by mid-morning at peak. Then the ads go dark for the rest of the day. We get an alert when spend paces ahead of target, with time to adjust before the budget runs out. This monitoring prevented multiple potential overspend situations. Those came in seasonal peaks like the stretch before winter, when everyone needs winter tires and vehicle inspections.
Every ad group got new copy. Each ad carried specific service messaging, pricing where appropriate, and a call to action suited to the service type. We used ad extensions systematically. They included location and call extensions, structured snippets listing services, and sitelinks to specific service pages.
We also aligned the organic search engine optimization (SEO) strategy with the paid campaigns. We optimized the website's service pages to match our ad landing pages, which improved Quality Scores and lowered cost-per-click. Take a "brake repair Edmonton" ad. Someone clicks and lands on a brake repair page with relevant content, pricing context, and a clear call to action. That page converts dramatically better than a generic services page. The SEO work got these pages ranking organically too, so paid and organic visibility covered the same high-value searches.
Results From the Rebuilt Account
An 825% ROAS means each dollar spent on Google Ads brought in $8.25 in tracked revenue. The figure is conservative. It counts only directly tracked revenue. Walk-ins who saw an ad but didn't click are left out. Callers who dialled the shop's number from memory instead of the tracking number are missing from the figure too.
The rebuild also gave the business new control. When brake service demand spiked before winter, we could raise that campaign's budget without affecting other service lines. During an oil change promotion, we could push that campaign without overspending across the account.
The 30-minute monitoring caught overspend risk on 12 separate occasions in the first year, usually during seasonal demand spikes. Competitors raised their spend too, and click costs rose. Each catch kept peak-hour ads live. In automotive service, dark ads at peak hours lead directly to missed phone calls and lost revenue.
Paid and organic visibility together created a compounding advantage. Once SEO improved organic rankings for service keywords, the same searches showed the business in both ads and organic results. Showing up twice raises click-through rates and builds credibility. The organic rankings also act as a safety net that keeps the phone ringing when ad budgets are tight.
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