Google Ads for window tint shops
Google Ads for window tint shops: book cars, not house windows.
Tint searches are cheap and plentiful, and plenty of them are about homes, eyebrows or tint laws. We keep auto tint on its own budget, filter out the rest, and report cost per booked tint job.
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Why tint needs its own campaign
Tint is usually the highest-volume, lowest-ticket service a film shop sells. Agency estimates put tint clicks at $2 to $6 and tint leads at $20 to $60, against $5 to $12 per click and $40 to $100 per lead for PPF (Detailers Movement, agency estimates). Put both in one campaign and automated bidding chases the cheaper tint leads, because they’re easier to get. Your PPF budget quietly turns into tint.
There’s a second reason to track tint on its own. For many shops it’s the first job a customer books, and a good tint job is how that customer comes back for PPF or coating. So tint gets its own line in the report, and repeat customers are noted when your CRM makes that possible.
Tint searches are also some of the noisiest in the category. “Tint” covers home windows, office film, eyebrows, lip color, house paint and tint laws.
Campaign structure
| Ad group | Example searches | Where it lands | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Auto tint core | window tint near me · car window tinting · tint shop [city] | Tint page with shades and prices by vehicle | The base of the budget. |
| Ceramic & IR film | ceramic tint near me · ceramic window tint cost · ir window tint | Film comparison section | Higher ticket. Worth its own ad copy. |
| Windshield & sun strip | windshield tint · clear windshield film · sun strip tint | Windshield section with your state’s rules | Only where legal and offered. |
| Front windows | tint front two windows · match factory tint | Price table | Small jobs, quick to book. |
| New car & model | tesla model 3 tint · new truck window tint | Vehicle page or tint page | Good for shops near large dealerships. |
| Removal (if offered) | tint removal near me · old tint removal | Removal section | Leads into a re-tint. |
Residential and commercial film, if you sell it, runs as a separate campaign with its own budget and page. If you also sell PPF and coating, cross-campaign negatives keep the three lines apart.
Keyword themes by intent
- Ready to book. “window tint near me”, “tint shop [city]”, “ceramic tint near me”, “window tint appointment”.
- Price research. “how much to tint a car”, “ceramic tint price”, “tint windshield cost”. Send them to a page with prices by vehicle type.
- Film research. “ceramic vs carbon tint”, “best tint for heat”. Some buyers here; lower bids and a clear comparison on the page.
- Law and shade research. “legal tint in [state]”, “5 vs 20 tint”. Mostly excluded, or a small test if your site answers it well.
Match types follow the same rule as our PPF campaigns: exact and phrase first (Google’s match types), broad only once booked jobs flow back into the account.
Negative keywords for tint campaigns
- home
- house
- residential
- office
- privacy film
- frosted
- eyebrow
- lash
- hair
- lip tint
- sunscreen
- moisturizer
- paint tint
- sherwin williams
- law
- ticket
- tint meter
- spray
- kit
- precut
- film roll
- jobs
- glasses
Home and commercial terms are “review first”: if you sell flat glass, they belong in their own campaign rather than on the negative list. The full CSV marks every keyword like that. Get it in our PPF Google Ads guide.
Landing page checklist for tint
- Film lines explained: carbon, ceramic and IR, with heat rejection figures from the manufacturer’s spec sheet.
- A shade chart with real photos of cars you’ve tinted at each percentage.
- Your state’s legal limits in plain words, with a link to the official source.
- Prices by vehicle type: coupe, sedan, SUV, truck. Windshield and sun strip as add-ons.
- Warranty terms in your own words.
- Online booking, or a form that asks for the vehicle and film choice. Make it easy to pick a time.
- How long the job takes and when windows can be rolled down.
- Tap-to-call, text, hours, address and Google reviews.
How we measure: from click to booked job
- Every call and form is a conversion in Google Ads. Calls count only past a minimum length, so wrong numbers and robocalls don’t inflate the numbers.
- The quote form stores the Google click ID (GCLID) in a hidden field, so each inquiry can be matched to the click that produced it.
- Your team marks each tint inquiry once a week: quoted, booked, sold, lost or unknown. A shared Google Sheet works. So does a CRM export.
- Booked and sold jobs go back into Google Ads through offline conversion imports or enhanced conversions for leads, so bidding learns from jobs, not form fills.
- The weekly report shows cost per booked install for each package and service line, next to what’s still unknown.
Tint books fast, often by phone or an online booking tool, so we track booking completions too. Your team marks show-ups and sold jobs. Cost per booked tint job is the number that matters, because cheap leads that don’t show up aren’t cheap. See the sample report.
Budget and pricing
For a shop that also sells PPF or coating, tint is usually one line inside the total budget rather than the whole budget. Tint-only shops can join the pilot too; it needs $3,000 a month in ad spend, and the teardown will tell you honestly whether your market and calendar can absorb that. Estimate your numbers in the budget calculator (it has a tint preset).
Founding Shop Pilot
$1,500/month management for the first 90 days, for the first three US shops. Ad spend from $3,000/month, paid directly to Google in your own account. One shop per metro. We agree a target number of qualified inquiries in writing before launch; if we miss it by day 60, month 3 management is free. After the pilot, it’s month to month at $2,000 to $2,500/month for Google Search.
Questions about window tint campaigns
We do both auto and residential tint. Can you run both?
Yes, as separate campaigns with separate budgets and landing pages. Home film buyers search differently and decide on a different timeline. Negatives keep them out of the auto campaign and route them to their own.
Should we show prices in our tint ads?
Often, yes. A “from $” price in the ad can filter out people hunting for the cheapest job. We test an ad with the price against one without and keep what books more jobs.
How do you handle tint-law searches?
Most get excluded. If your site has a clear page on your state’s limits, we may bid on a few of those searches at a low bid, because someone asking what’s legal is sometimes ready to book. It’s a test, not a default.
Can you run ads for windshield tint?
Yes, where your state allows it and you sell it. Windshield film gets its own ad group and ad copy, because buyers ask different questions about clarity, heat and legality.
Do you work with tint-only shops?
Yes, if the numbers work. The pilot needs $3,000/month in ad spend. The free teardown includes an honest view of whether your market and calendar can use that much tint demand.
Free teardown
See what your Google presence looks like to a buyer.
Send your website. Within 1 business day you’ll get a personal, written teardown with annotated screenshots, in your inbox.
- 1How your shop shows up for searches like “ppf near me”, “ceramic coating [your city]” and “window tint near me”
- 2What your ads are buying, if you run any: search terms, wasted spend, tracking gaps
- 3Where your quote form loses people on a phone
- 4Three fixes, ranked by impact. Plus an honest answer on whether the pilot fits your shop
Start by email. No meeting required.
Request your free teardown
Takes about a minute. Four fields.