Would radio ads be an appropriate media channel for a car repair shop in a city of 40k people?

The short answer is yes if there is a local station that caters for your catchment area. Thing about the way that you do these radio ads though. If you look at the available data, most reported car breakdowns happen between 8am and 9am on Monday mornings (based on 70,000 reported breakdowns in the UK) while most car accidents happen between 3pm and 9pm on weekdays (with a peak between 6pm and 9pm - this is based on US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration data).

Can you target shows and slots that happen just before or around those times? So breakfast show slots between 7am and 8am on Monday mornings and some drivetime evening slots on weekdays? That might be an effective way to reach a likely audience - along with some spread of ad spend across other times of the day or in relevant programs (think about the majority of your customers - what sort of shows would they listen to and target some of those).

The other thing to consider is trying to offer your services as an on-air personality. There is always merit in approaching stations to spend some money as an advertiser but also offer your services as someone who can talk about general car maintenance tips on some of their shows - so in the runup to winter, maybe you could come on and give some tips on how to Winter-proof your car etc. Or you could just have a general car maintenance segment every week or two. Radio stations have a lot of airtime to fill every day - if you can help them fill it with good content and a good personality, it will pay off. I used to be a radio producer and presenter, so I know how useful it is to have a good person on call for on-air slots about just about anything!

There's a lot of PPC marketing that you could also do at a hyper local, targeted level, but it strikes me that in a smaller geographical area, radio would be a great opportunity.

Happy to talk through in more detail if that would help.

I believe a car is repaired like once per year on average and a customer would be looking for a repair shop only for two weeks in a year.

That means that only 1/26 of the listeners will be "open" to your ad, the rest will just forget it.

I would suggest a more direct way of approaching the customers with an active need. They search for 'car shop' on google - google ads, they may visit car parts stores - affiliate marketing. I would also suggest calling/e-mailing last year's customers to schedule a regular check-up.

No. You will lose money.

If you spend money on effective advertising (and do it right), you'll make a killing and get back ten dollars for every dollar spent. Spend it on ineffective advertising (or do it wrong), however, and you'll quickly hemorrhage all your money and go bankrupt.

If you'd like to discuss your needs and create a plan that makes you a killing, call me.