How to Get More Car Detailing Customers

Car detailing business is hard. The seasonal aspects, along with the intensive labor (not to mention dealing with those disgusting stains, odors, and pet hair) make it a very challenging business.

Yet, there is one challenge many detailers have that makes the business X times harder – getting customers.

With this post, I aim to solve that problem for you, the same way you solve problems for car owners.

Keep making cars look awesome while I help you grow with car detailing SEO. And the best of all, it doesn’t even take that long to get results.

Car detailing is pretty uncompetitive in terms of SEO. I managed to get detailing customers pretty quickly when helping clients, and today I will show you exactly how you can do so for your own detailing business!

How to Get Started With Marketing for Detailers

Before you spend a dollar on internet marketing, it’s crucial you get familiar with the different types of marketing out there, pros and cons of them all, and the budgeting required. Ideally, you want to build your own inbound channels instead of just relying on outbound outreach or buy leads.

What does an “inbound channel” mean?

Simply put, when a lead comes to you (f.e., through a website), it is consider an “inbound lead”. An outbound lead is the lead you reach out to first (f.e., via knocking doors).

What is the best inbound marketing channel to focus on for detailers?

Google.

I know, sounds biased. I mean, I have the word “SEO” in my business and domain name. However, let me show you WHY I am so biased.

When I say “Google,” like you likely already know, I mean showing up for different phrases people use to find detailing companies in their local area.

Think of searches like “car detailers near me” or “mobile car detailers (your city)”. Highly specific phrases that are hard and competitive.

How do you get in front of these people? And, better yet, why would you even care about showing up in front of them?

Why Search Engine Marketing Works for Detailers

We’re going to use a random example of a mobile car detailing company based in Fort Lauderdale, FL.

Check this image below:

Let’s say that you’re ranking #1 for the term “car detailing Fort Lauderdale” with BOTH a website and a Google Business Profile. They would receive roughly 20% of all clicks each, and that would amount to 40% altogether. (Verify this claim here)

On the screenshot above (which was taken inside Mangools, a prominent SEO market research tool), we can see that around 540 people search for this term every month (just under the “Search” column name).

So, you’re the #1 company for this search term. This would equate to around 216 visits to your website per month. When you add all of the searches from the similar keywords you can see in the picture, that’s around 2,600 monthly searches * 40% = roughly 1,000 visitors to your business every month.

NOTE: It’s HIGHLY unlikely you will rank #1 for all keywords, especially in a very competitive area. HOWEVER, there are usually A LOT more keywords that these tools simply do not display. Mangools is pretty accurate already, but the only way to know real search volume is by verifying your website in Google Search Console and Google Analytics (more about these later). Take my following calculations only as generic information based on different studies, not as a ground rule.

These are not just “any” visits. These are all your potential customers.

How do we know they are your potential customers?

By looking at intent.

You see, Google users have different intents when using the platform. Some are looking for information, others want to research different products or services, and then there are the ones who are ready to buy right away.

Google will then display pages that “match” that intent. If you give a user with informational intent an information-rich article that answers their question in the best possible way, you will be displayed in front of the user on Google (in theory, a lot more variables are at play).

And we can assume, just by looking at the pages Google has already ranked for the keyword “car detailing Fort Lauderdale,” that the people searching this keyword have commercial intent. In other words, they are looking for a solution they are ready to pay for, but they just need to figure out which one of the presented solutions is the best so they can make their call.

So, ranking for a keyword like this will bring you leads that are ready to buy.

The typical conversion rate is 2-5% across most industries, which simply means the percentage out of all traffic that takes the action you want (a call on the phone per se), and I’ll take 5% as a baseline for your calculation since this article will show you how you can make a great website that converts and a great profile.

This means that out of 100 clicks, five people will call you. In your example, out of 1,000 visitors, that’s 50 calls per month for detailing services.

The close rate, which now depends on you, would be 30%. The average CR across all industries is a little lower, at 20%, but let’s assume you are really good at sales (otherwise your business would not be afloat already).

That’s 16-17 sales per month and an additional $1,000-$8,000 in monthly revenue (worst-best case scenario) for your business, or $12,000-$96,000 per year.

We wouldn’t stop at just ranking #1 for car detailing. No, no, no, we’d take a full swing instead, targeting ceramic coating, paint correction, and other keywords. Here’s how ceramic coating demand is in Broward County.

An interesting piece of data is the “CPC” right next to “Search”. It pretty much shows that Google advertisers are paying around $10 just to get a single visit from people searching this keyword.

This means that this traffic makes the advertisers enough money to be able to afford to pay $10 for every click they get from someone searching “ceramic coating near me”. The same is true for other keywords.

With SEO, you’re not paying anything for those clicks, yet you’re reaping the most benefit (no Google ad will ever get as much traffic as the top ranking site, which is also shown in the study I linked above).

How to Get Detailing Customers with SEO

So, this all sounds good. But how do you actually do this? How do you get detailing customers with SEO?

Google Business Profile

Open a profile on Google. It’s free. Make sure to use the “Car detailing service” category. This is crucial.

Verification takes 1-2 weeks; it’s a little bit of a PIA. You’ll likely either need to get a code via mail to the address of your choice (use your business address) or record a video.

Verification with postal mail is easy. You just enter your business address and wait a few days to get the code, which you’ll then enter in your Google Business Profile.

When recording a video, Google wants you to include the following elements:

Street signage where your address is clearly visible
Business signage, proving your company is actually on that same address
Equipment, pickups, vans, and anything else that proves you’re doing car detailing
Your team and the area only accessible by people working at the company
Business documentation with your business name and address visible on them (utility bills should suffice, along with an annual filing)

Now, the trick is to record ALL of this in under ONE MINUTE. I know, it’s a big ask. You basically have to get everything ready and spend a good 20-30 minute chunk of your valuable time recording a video just to get displayed on Google Maps.

But once you get through it, it can be a real goldmine if you do it right.

Once verified, you need to fill out your Google Business Profile completely. You’ll have fields for services, address, phone, description, posts, offers, questions and answers, and more.

Use EVERY single field. Do not give a poor, 50 word description and then blame Google that it does not work.

NOTE: Valeting service shows because my IP is set to Serbia. Users in the US actually see a “Car detailing service” category.

Next, you need to ask anyone you can for a review.

Important: don’t get biased reviews, because it will show. Ideally, ask previous customers, other business owners you might be working with, and so on.

Customers can upload pictures to Google reviews, so make sure that you leverage that for building trust. A review with photos of a freshly detailed car seems much more legit.

Create a Website

Not just any website, but the one that’s optimized for Google. Then add that site to your Google profile.

An SEO-friendly website needs, first of all, a nice homepage which is more of a hub page where you just get people through the door. The homepage will display a short brief of all other pages on your site (services, service areas, about, contact, blog, and others).

Then, you’ll need a page for each of the services you provide (Interior, Waxing, Ceramic, etc.).

Why a page for each?

Because some customers want one, others want the other, and then there are some who need multiple.

But if you just have “Detailing” and that’s it, you may lose out on some customers who are looking for a specific service only.

Plus, this is great for SEO because, as you’ve seen in an image a few paragraphs above, people don’t just look for car detailing, but also for ceramic coating specifically.

Next, for those doing mobile detailing too, a page for each of the service areas. This is the key, most mobile detailers don’t do this.

If you’re in Fort Lauderdale, you can likely serve nearby cities too. So, what you’d need is a page for Fort Lauderdale, Lauderhill, Wilton Manors, and so on. Start with 5-7.

Why this?

Because these pages will rank on Google in each given area. The Fort Lauderdale page will show up in front of Fort Lauderdale Google users, the Lauderhill page in front of Lauderhill Google users and so on.

Google tracks all of our IPs. When you search a “near me” keyword, they’ll know where you’re based and therefore display the most relevant results.

Title these pages: “Mobile Car Detailers Fort Lauderdale”, “Mobile Car Detailers Wilton Manors”, and so on. Just look at how many customers use Google for finding detailers in Fort Lauderdale per month, and then add in 5-6 more cities. The demand is huge, and those calculations I did above would become even more promising.

“Trust” pages are next on our list. About us, Contact us, Our Portfolio (or Gallery), Our Reviews, Our Team pages. FAQs you added to your Google profile could also have their own page. Our Certifications/Licenses (like one from Gyeon, if you have it, f.e.).

Get a nice contact form on the site through Jotform or other tools, like I did on my Contact page (setting it up like I did helps filter out spam).

Add a Privacy Policy that legally protects you when collecting data from customers. Be vary of data privacy laws, like CCPA. Have a CCPA page on your site with an option for users to stop being advertised to. Nobody in your target audience will actually read your policies (when is the last time you read a Privacy Policy page?) but make one anyway.

Note, I am not legal expert and this is not legal advice.

List Your Website on Directories

These may get you a lead or two but they are mostly to show up when people look for your brand online. Facebook page, Yelp, and LinkedIn especially help build trust, but here are others you want too:

Instagram
YouTube
Pinterest
Twitter
YellowPages
Nextdoor
Mapquest
Bing Maps
Apple Maps
Yahoo Maps

These not only help spread your reach but also boost your SEO. Google trusts these third party sites, and when you’re there, you will rank higher.

And that’s it for a great starting point! To get more customers for your car detailing business, there are other channels you can promote your services on.

Google Ads

Google Ads can get you much faster results and more customers than SEO, but it costs a lot. And they’re a bit tricky to learn, too.

But once you pass the initial learning phase (which typically takes 2-4 weeks), you will be well off.

It takes around $100-$200 a day, or even more, to bid on Google and get clicks. It ain’t cheap. It is best to use them as needed while building up your reviews on Maps.

I am currently involved in some Google Ads projects and will provide more tips about what works for mobile detailing soon.

Facebook

Facebook is a bit different, as it has a different audience.

The audience is not looking for anything specific, but rather just to chill and look at memes or funny cat videos.

In other words, you need to take away their attention and put it on you. In detailing and most other service based businesses, this is harder to do, as most people know when they need you, and when not.

Perhaps a unique offer, a discount, or a clever hook to get them to pay attention (for instance: Selling Your Car? Coat Now and Boost Its Value!).

The great thing about Facebook is that it knows people’s interests, so you can narrow down your targeting to only:

People who like car dealership pages
People who follow car brands and their pages
Affluent people who likely have nicer cars and are less likely to lowball you
Travelers
People based in suburbs but having jobs in companies in bigger metros nearby. In other words, commuters who use their cars a lot

Note, I am not a Facebook Ads expert. I do not know the ins and outs of Facebook Ads. So, do not follow my Facebook Ads advice set and stone, but do more research on this topic. If I do more FB projects in the future, I’ll update this and other posts, and add new posts just about Facebook.

Wrapping up

This brings us to the end of my post about how to get more car detailing customers. It’s not as hard.

Start with SEO, it requires less upfront investment than Google Ads, but it takes more time.

If you’re impatient, want more detailing jobs fast, and are comfortable with that upfront investment, use Google Ads.

Have any questions?

Get in touch!

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