Industry
Automotive marketing, from parts retail to local service
Performance parts, luxury spares, lubricants, trailer dealerships and paintless dent repair, across eight documented engagements.
What is different here
Why automotive does not run like everything else
Automotive splits into two businesses that happen to share a noun, and the mistake is running them the same way. Parts retail is e-commerce with an unusually technical buyer: the search is a part number or a vehicle fitment, the customer frequently knows more about the product than the copywriter does, and vague benefit language actively loses the sale. Feed quality and fitment data matter more than creative. Local vehicle service is the opposite: the search is urgent and generic, the buyer cannot assess quality and picks on proximity, reviews and whether anyone answers. The second thing that makes this vertical distinct is the enthusiast audience, which is genuinely reachable on paid social in a way most product categories are not, because the interest graph is specific and the community is visible. Our TikTok work with a performance parts retailer ran on that, and it is not a channel we would lead with for most e-commerce.
Documented work
8 engagements in this sector
Each links to the full write-up, and each write-up links to the source document its figures came from. The location shown is the one that document states.
Where the leverage is
What we lead with, and why
Questions
Automotive: frequently asked questions
Do you work with parts retailers or with service businesses?
Both, and we run them differently. Parts is e-commerce: feed quality, fitment data and a technical buyer who is not persuaded by benefit copy. Service is local: proximity, reviews and answering the phone. The documented work below covers both, including a parts retailer at 733% ROI and a dent repair business holding cost per conversion at $22 across nine months.
Is TikTok worth it for automotive?
For enthusiast products, sometimes genuinely yes, which is not something we say about TikTok often. Our performance parts engagement recorded 26.7 million video views and 1.58 million clicks on $7,961 of spend over ten months. That is an unusual result and it depended on the creative and the community, not on the platform being magic.
What about dealerships?
We have documented work with a trailer dealership rather than a franchised car dealership, so we would rather point you at that than imply experience we cannot evidence. The mechanics carry over: inventory feeds, local intent and lead handling. The manufacturer co-op rules of a car franchise do not, and we would want to read yours before proposing anything.
Tell us what you are trying to grow.
We reply within 10 minutes during business hours. We will tell you what your leads cost now before proposing anything.