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Automotive compliance testing

Cleaning up an account that was paying to reach the DMV

29%
of ad spend was bleeding on one risky keyword we caught
80+
negative keywords added to stop DMV, government, and competitor clicks
3x
phone-call over-counting we found and fixed in tracking
Astro
fast new site, rebuilt from a slow Framer build

The challenge

Carb Diesel Test runs mobile CARB compliance testing for diesel trucks, a very specific service. But its Google Ads were paying for plenty of searches from people who would never be customers: the DMV, government agencies, competitors, and DIY browsers. The account leaned on broad match, and one risky broad keyword alone was eating 29% of the budget.

What we did

  • Cleaned up the search terms with an 80-plus negative keyword list, cutting DMV, government, competitor, and wrong-intent clicks.
  • Found and fixed the measurement: the account was triple-counting phone calls across four overlapping conversion actions, so no one could trust the numbers.
  • Rebuilt the website from a slow Framer build to a fast Astro and Vercel site, with city pages, local schema, and corrected GA4 and GTM tracking.

Results

The account now spends on people actually looking for diesel compliance testing, not the DMV, and reports numbers you can trust. The new site is fast, properly tracked, and built for local search, the foundation a niche local service needs to grow.