Case study · Commercial fleet repair
A commercial truck and fleet repair shop that needed calls from fleet managers, not map taps.
A small budget, big national competitors, and default reporting that counted map direction taps as leads. We cleaned up what was being measured, then narrowed the ads to the buyers who actually call.
The situation
The numbers looked great. The phone did not agree.
Commercial fleet repair has a narrow buyer: a fleet manager or owner operator with a truck off the road and money leaking every hour it sits. The searches that buyer uses overlap with drivers looking for roadside help, used trucks, or a national chain.
On top of that, Google was counting map direction requests and button taps as conversions. On paper that made leads look like they cost a few dollars. In reality it hid which searches produced a conversation and which did not.
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The numbers
What Google counted vs. what actually rang.
Conversions in 12 months, two ways to count
October 2025 to September 2026, same account, same spend.
Phone calls per month
Steady every month on a budget of about $630.
What we changed
Count the right thing, then cut the wrong buyers.
Fixed what counts as a lead
We stopped reporting map taps and page engagements as conversions, so the reports and the bidding both work from real phone calls and forms.
Cut the wrong buyers
More than 300 negative keywords keep out roadside tire calls, used parts, for sale and salvage searches, so the budget goes to repair intent.
Aimed at how fleet managers search
Ads show to people physically in the service area, on the devices they call from, with copy written for commercial buyers.
Kept it lean on purpose
A modest monthly budget, spent where it produces calls, instead of spreading it across channels that look busy and do not ring the phone.
Want calls from real buyers?
We will show you which searches to cut and where your budget should go.
Where the money went
Twelve months, honestly counted.
| 12 months | Google's default count | Real phone calls |
|---|---|---|
| Ad spend | $7,537 | $7,537 |
| Conversions | 1,161 | 366 |
| Cost per conversion | $6.49 | $20.59 |
366 phone calls from search in 12 months on $7,537 in spend. Those are calls, not clicks or map taps. For a shop where one fleet account can mean years of repeat work, that is the number that matters.
Why this matters if you sell to businesses
If your buyer is a business, most of the searches that look like yours are not. Cutting them is worth more than any bid strategy.
And if your reports show leads that cost a few dollars, be suspicious. Google counts a lot of things as conversions by default. We report the calls and forms, and we tell you when a number looks too good to be true.
Client name withheld for confidentiality. Figures pulled from the live Google Ads account on October 1, 2026, covering October 2025 to September 2026. Real phone calls means calls from ads plus tracked website leads. Map direction requests and call button taps are not counted. Photos are representative of the industry, not this client's shop.
Do you know what your Google Ads are actually counting?
Fifteen minutes, no pitch deck. You will get an honest read on your account and what we would change first.