About Redline & Corey
Time in the bay before any of the Google Ads work.
Not a master tech, and I won't pretend to be. But enough time under hoods to know which jobs you actually want in the bay and which callers you want off the phone quick. So when I build and write your ads, I already know the work instead of guessing at it.
Call or text. We'll audit what you've got and tell you straight, even if we don't work together.
Built for shops
Built the way a shop owner would build a marketing agency.
These three aren't features. They're the first things any shop owner who's been burned by an agency would insist on.
- No 12-month lock-in contract
- You own the Google Ads account
- Same Google Ads manager, every week
Real shop, real numbers
CPR 4 Your Car: from $10K a month to turning work away every week.
$10K → $28K+
Monthly revenue for a North Canton, Ohio shop running on word of mouth alone when I started. Climbed month over month until the bays hit the owner's solo capacity. He's looking to hire a tech now.
When I write ad copy for "brake repair," I'm not Googling to learn what the job is. I've done it.
Started at about $10K a month, mostly word of mouth. Phone barely ringing. Bays sitting empty half the week. I ran the first ads with a small budget and a lot to prove.
Month one stabilized things, pushing past $15K. Real money back in. The win came in the months after: answering every call, weekly ad tuning, cutting keywords that didn't pull, doubling down on the ones that did. $20K, then $25K, then $28K, then the ceiling. The ceiling was the owner. He's looking to hire a tech now.
That's the real arc. Month one is the foundation. The months after are where the work compounds. Years one and two are where the business actually changes shape.
Who I work with
Independents deserve better than corporate scraps.
The big agencies chase chains. That's where the retainers are bigger and the work is more templated. Independents get what's left:
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Rotating managers.
A different person on your account every few months. None of them remember last quarter.
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Canned campaigns.
Pulled from a template the agency uses for chains. Same playbook whether you're in Memphis or Maine.
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Predatory contracts.
12-month minimums, auto-renewal, account in the agency's name.
That's why I only work with independent, single-location shops. You're the ones actually running the industry, and you've been getting served last by the people who claim to help you. I keep the roster small and take one shop per service area, so the account gets the work it deserves and your competitor down the road can't buy me out from under you.
Continuity
The same person on your account every week.
At most agencies, the person who pitches you isn't the person who ends up in the account. By month three, you're being passed between junior account managers who've never set foot in a shop. The shop that got the pitch meeting isn't the shop that gets the work.
Redline keeps the roster small on purpose so the same hands stay on your account every week. The person you signed with is the one tuning your keywords on Tuesday morning.
If the ads are running and your phone's ringing, I'll leave you alone. No status meetings to feel important about.
Principles
How I think about shop marketing.
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1. The right calls, not more calls.
More phone ringing doesn't help if the calls are tire kickers and DIYers. The goal is bread-and-butter jobs (brakes, diagnostics, suspension, maintenance) and the specific types of work your shop actually wants more of.
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2. Month to month. Ad account in your name.
The Google Ads account, call history, and GBP listing live in your name. Leave any time and keep them all. The dedicated tracking number is portable on request.
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3. Shops, not chains.
Independent, single-location shops only. The big agencies chase chains. I chase the opposite.
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4. Every customer is three jobs, not just one.
The ad gets them in the door. Review, Return, Refer is what they turn into after that. Shops that stack jobs run all three. Shops that don't are stuck paying for the same customer twice.
Week by week
What working together looks like, week by week.
- 1
Week 0
The kickoff call
Sixty minutes on video. We walk through what's running, what's not, and what you actually want more of. I leave with everything I need to build.
- 2
First 7 days
Foundation built
Google Ads account built in your name. Landing pages for the services we agreed on. Call routing and recording on your phone. GBP audit and first pass of fixes.
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First 30 days
Campaigns live
Campaigns go live. First calls come in. I'm listening to every recorded call, reading transcripts, cutting keywords that aren't pulling their weight, tuning the copy.
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Ongoing
Ongoing work
Weekly GBP work. Continuous ad tuning. Monthly check-in call if you want one. Skippable if you don't. A one-page map-pack ranking report each month.
Straight talk
Before you sign with anyone, ask these.
Five questions that tell you what a marketing company is actually trying to build with you. Ask every vendor you talk to, RPM included. If the answers get squishy, you have your answer.
- Whose name is the Google Ads account in? If you ever switched providers, would it stay with you?
- Whose name is the phone number on the ads in? Can you take it with you if you leave?
- Is the ad spend a separate line item, or bundled into the management fee?
- Is it the same person on your account every week, or do you talk to whoever's available?
- If you ever left, what happens to the account, the call history, and the tracking number?
Here's my own answer to the last one: the Google Ads account, the call history, and the GBP listing are in your name from day one. The dedicated tracking number is mine, but it's portable on request: you set up the destination, I port it out. Nothing holds you hostage. And I won't claim a win I didn't earn. If a longtime customer or a Facebook post brought them in, that wasn't the ads, and I'll tell you so. I measure what the ads actually did.
That cuts both ways. Nine times out of ten when something isn't working, it's not the ads: it's pricing, phone handling, or quoting. I won't blame the ads to cover for that. Pricing is the hardest one. I've underquoted jobs because I couldn't make my mouth say the real number, and most shop owners I talk to are doing the same thing on every RO without realizing how much it adds up to.
I've done sales and worked with shop owners on those exact problems. If you want to get into it, I'm happy to. Not a course, not a coaching package, just part of how RPM works.
If you bust your butt wrenching all day, your shop can't grow. You have a stressful job, not a consistent reliable business.
If you do nothing, six months from today, your phone rings the same as it does now. No growth. That's the path you're already on. Hiring techs and service writers, customers coming back, and the kind of business worth selling, passing down, or at least just taking the Saturday off from. That's why you started this.
Call or text. We'll audit what you've got and tell you straight, even if we don't work together.