Auto Body & Collision · Local & GBP
Local Service Ads & Google Business Profile
When someone searches 'body shop near me,' the map pack and the reviews under it decide who gets the call — often before your paid ad is even considered. This is the cheapest volume most shops ignore.
What I audit in the first 30 days
Same order every time — each step depends on the one before it.
Profile completeness
Categories, services, hours, photos, service area, Q&A. A half-finished Google Business Profile caps ranking no matter what the ads spend. This is the first thing I fix and the cheapest to move.
Review velocity and response
Not just star rating — how recent, how frequent, and whether the shop replies. A steady drip of fresh reviews with owner responses outranks a stale 4.9. I audit the last 90 days, not the all-time average.
LSA eligibility and lead quality
Google Screened verification status, budget pacing, and — critically — whether junk leads are being disputed. Un-disputed bad LSA leads quietly inflate cost per real job.
The playbook
The levers that consistently move these accounts, roughly in order of impact.
Get Google Screened
LSAs sit above the paid ads, charge per lead, and carry the trust badge. Verification is a one-time slog with an outsized payoff — it's the top of the local surface and most shops never finish it.
A review engine, not review begging
A repeatable ask at car delivery — the moment satisfaction peaks — plus a fast reply to every review, good or bad. Recency and response rate are ranking factors and trust signals at once.
Photos and services that match searches
Real shop, real work, real team — and every service the shop offers listed explicitly so the profile surfaces for 'bumper repair,' 'frame straightening,' 'paint,' not just 'body shop.'
Dispute every junk LSA lead
Wrong service, out of area, spam — Google credits disputed leads, but only if you file them. A weekly dispute habit can cut effective cost per lead by double digits.
One consistent identity everywhere
Name, address, phone identical across the profile, the site, and directories. Inconsistency is a silent ranking drag the map pack punishes and nobody notices.
The benchmarks I hold to
| Benchmark | Typical range |
|---|---|
| LSA cost per lead | $25 – $75 |
| Map-pack share of local clicks | 30 – 45% |
| Reviews / month to hold rank | 8 – 20 |
| Disputable LSA leads | 10 – 20% |
Run this in your shop
If bays are empty while the phone rings, the leak is measurable — and fixable.