By Callum Davies, Marketing Director at Pyramid Car Care and Driven Marketing Agency – automotive marketing.
Ever wondered if you should be advertising? Whether to use Facebook or Google Ads? How to get started or how much to spend?
We’ve analysed a sample of 2,000 enquiries for car detailing services, from real detailing businesses across the UK and Ireland and we’ve put together a list of the top marketing channels to help you grow your business.
- Paid Social: 35%
- Paid Search: 28%
- Organic Search: 19%
- Direct: 7%
- Offline Sources: 4%
- Organic Social: 3%
- Referrals: 2%
- Other campaigns: 1%
Paid social came in 1st – as the largest single source of leads, generating 35% of the total and 10X as many leads as organic social.
The top 3 marketing channels combined delivered a whopping 82% of car detailing enquiries. Whether you’re starting up or looking to scale-up your detailing business – these 3 channels are where you should get started!
Paid Social: Largest Source of Leads
Paid Social emerged as the biggest single source of leads, 2 years in a row, generating 35% of the total.
This demonstrates the power of social media advertising platforms in 2023 – particularly Facebook Ads. It also highlights how social media platforms have become pay-to-play tools for detailing businesses i.e. if you’re not paying for ads, you’re missing out on a huge chunk of the pie.
The keys to success for social media advertising include:
- Clear goals
- Understanding your audience
- Visuals that show what you do instantly
- Ad text that talks directly to your customers
- High converting landing pages
- Accurate tracking
Paid Search: Success With Every Click
Paid Search is the second biggest marketing channel for car detailing businesses in 2023, up 1 place from 2022. In our sample Google Ads accounted for 100% of Paid Search enquiries but there are alternatives including Microsoft Ads.
When you look at Paid and Organic search as one, this channel delivered nearly half of all leads – making search marketing the fastest way to accelerate your growth.
Keys to successful Google Advertising for car detailers include:
- Choosing the right strategy
- A realistic ad budget
- Matching keywords with your services and customers
- Clear and relevant ad text
- Closely monitoring performance
Our sister company Driven Marketing Agency, is proudly supporting detailers across the UK with setting up and managing Google Ads for Success.
Organic Search: The Long-Term Investment
Organic Search contributed to 19% of enquiries but unlike Paid Social and Paid Search, organic search is not an ad platform which means you don’t pay-per-click and your website can continue getting traffic long after the SEO work is done.
Key to success in organic search is through Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) which requires:
- A fast loading website
- Great User Experience (UX)
- Quality authoritative content
- Excellent online reputation
- Local, national and trade directory listings
- Backlinks from local, relevant and authoritative website
The downside of SEO is that it’s one of the most complicated channels of the top 3 and it can take years to master!
Balancing the Marketing Mix
While Paid Social, Paid Search, and Organic Search are the heavy hitters, it’s important not to neglect other channels. Direct, Offline Sources, Organic Social, Referrals, and Other Campaigns may contribute less to the total but they play a crucial role in the overall marketing mix. For instance, Referrals, though only accounting for 2% of enquiries, often lead to high-quality leads due to the trust factor involved.
Conclusion
In 2023, detailing businesses need to leverage various marketing channels to reach their target audience. For car detailing businesses in the UK and Ireland, Paid Social, Paid Search, and Organic Search have proven to be the most effective channels delivering over 80% of enquiries. However, a balanced marketing mix that includes all channels will ensure that businesses can reach potential customers at different stages of the buying journey and through different touchpoints.
Since Pyramid Car Care began in 2016 we’ve helped detailers across the UK, Ireland, Europe and US developing and implementing marketing plans and strategies that help them generate more leads and bookings.
