A Brentwood independent has cut almost £5,000 from its monthly digital marketing costs while increasing customer enquiries by up to 25%, prompting the business to recruit additional workshop and front-of-house staff.
Mercury Car Centre, which specialises in Jaguar Land Rover, Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Audi vehicles, says the change has freed up thousands of pounds in working capital every month while generating enough additional demand to require a seventh technician and another front-of-house service advisor.
“We were spending £1,700 a month on SEO across the two websites, another £1,400 on the pay-per-click agency and then around £4,000 directly with Google and Bing,” said founder Neil Hutchinson. “The spend just kept climbing. You get to a point where you think, ‘Where is all this money going?'”
Founded in 1990 by former Mercedes-Benz technician and BMW aftersales manager Neil, Mercury Car Centre has long recognised the importance of being visible online. But managing multiple agencies and websites had made its digital operation increasingly expensive and difficult to oversee.
A conversation with fellow garage owners at a regional Bosch Car Service meeting prompted Neil to look at a different approach, eventually moving the business’s digital lead generation to Garage Services Online (GSO).
The change saw Mercury Car Centre consolidate its online presence into a single bespoke website, while its search marketing was restructured around the types of work the workshop wanted to attract.
The result was a reduction in monthly search advertising from around £4,000 to approximately £1,800, while PPC management costs fell to around £500. Overall, Mercury Car Centre reduced its monthly digital overhead from approximately £7,100 to less than £2,500. At the same time, customer enquiries increased by between 20% and 25%.
“Saving considerable amounts of money is one thing, but getting more enquiries at the same time is the real result,” said Neil. “The onboarding was completely seamless. I kept asking what they needed from me, and they just handled it. They delivered a fast, professional site that simply converts visitors into ramp hours.”
The increase in demand has led the business to recruit a seventh technician, while an additional front-of-house advisor is being brought in to help manage the extra workload and keep the workshop’s ramps moving efficiently.
Mercury Car Centre has traditionally had a strong Jaguar Land Rover customer base, accounting for around 60% to 65% of its workshop volume. Neil had previously operated a separate website dedicated specifically to JLR work for seven years, but decided to bring the business back under the main Mercury Car Centre site.
The move allowed the garage to retain its established JLR presence while creating greater visibility for its wider capabilities.
“We noticed a dramatic increase in German car leads without losing any of our Jaguar Land Rover business,” said Neil. “That was important to us because we didn’t want to make changes that damaged the work we were already getting. We wanted to grow the other side of the business as well.
“A lot of marketing agencies build generic websites for any trade and take your money without understanding our sector. With GSO, they understand the independent motor trade. Their communication is straightforward and you don’t have to spend your time explaining how the workshop works.”
Garage Services Online works exclusively with independent garages, providing website development, SEO, PPC management and other digital lead-generation services.
For further information, visit: https://garage-services-online.co.uk/free-no-obligation-quote/pr/.
