Most shop owners ask the wrong question. It's not "what's the right budget." It's "what does a booked job cost me, and is that less than the job is worth."
Get that right and the budget answers itself.
Start with a number you can afford to lose
For a single-location shop, a common starting point is $1,000 to $1,500 a month in ad spend. That's enough data to see what works without betting the business.
Some shops start at $40 a day and scale from there. That's fine. The point is to start, measure, and grow what works.
The only math that matters
Say a booked collision job is worth $2,000 to you. If Google Ads books you that job for $150 in ad spend, you'd do that trade all day.
- Track cost per booked job, not cost per click.
- Compare it to what a job is worth to you.
- Scale spend up while the math stays good. Pull back when it doesn't.
One of our Tampa shops, AE Collision, booked nine jobs and about $40K in extra revenue in month one. The budget wasn't huge, the targeting and follow-up were tight.
When to spend more
Spend more when every extra dollar still books jobs at a profit. That's the whole rule.
If you don't know your cost per booked job yet, that's the first thing to fix, before you touch the budget.
Want this handled for you? We run Google Ads for collision and auto body shops. Booked jobs in 45 days, guaranteed, or you don't pay. See how it works →
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For a body shop, this is the single highest-leverage thing you can fix online. Most shops leave half of it blank.
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A 20-minute call. We'll show you where your next repair orders are hiding and what it takes to book them. If we're a fit, you'll know. If not, you keep the plan either way.
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