Google Ads for Pest Control
Google ads can start generating leads immediately, but it costs money and you need to know what you are doing
Google ads is a great way to boost your pest control company’s revenue
Google Ads for Pest Control
SEM Advertising Options for Pest Control Owners
Can I Make Money Advertising with Google Ads?
The short answer is, maybe! Google Ads is a game that requires lots of patience, time, and money to bring success in pest control. You will need to understand very clearly the costs of generating a lead and a sale and determine if you’ll have a positive ROI for the money that you will spend to receive that sale.
How Does Google Ads Really Work?
Let’s break the process down into some relatively simple steps to first understand how you can get into the game with Google Ads and grow your business in your local market.
Step 1:
Google Ads is a math game, and to be good at it you must understand your GOOGLE math. For this example, we will use some basic assumptions to illustrate how Google Ads may or may not work for you in your market.
How much money do you make from your average customer? How many different types of customers do you have, and do you know the average sales value of each? For example:
- An annual recurring pest control maintenance plan?
- An average “one-shot” customer?
- Rodent treatment and exclusion?
- Termite inspection?
- Seasonal mosquito treatments?
- Pigeon control?
- Solar panel protection?
- Bed Bug treatments?
Step 2:
Devise separate campaigns that will have individual metrics to determine what a single campaign ROI must be. You want to break things down to evaluate the cost of the lead and the cost of the sale and divide that by the total cost of the campaign to ultimately determine if you have a profitable ROI or a loss.
For example’s sake, let’s use a traditional GPC annual maintenance plan campaign in your local area and what it might look like. We will use these numbers to create an example model.
- Annual GPC maintenance plan = $500 annual
- Average Google click (CPC) for this campaign = $10.00
- Google Ads Spend Budget = $1500 monthly
- Leads captured by 150 clicks = 15 (10%)
- Conversion rate of leads = 50%
- Sales for the month = 7.5
- 7.5 sales at $500 = $3750.00
- ROI = 3750/1500 = 250%
With this campaign we call the results trading a dime for a quarter. In this case, each dime invested netted a Google return of about a quarter. There are many other things to consider, for example, the total sales will come over time dependent upon how you bill your new customers, the average customer lifetime value for a pest control company is about 3 years, how well you retain customers, etc.
Now let’s talk about how you would actually have to set up Google Ads campaigns and what it takes to be successful using Google Ads to generate—not clicks, not leads—but brand-new customers.
Setting up Google Ads involves a few things that you will need to understand:
1. Campaigns
a. Select your type
i. Use search
b. Name your campaign
c. Set your daily budget
d. Select a bid strategy
e. Set up your ad groups (very important step)
i. Keywords go into individual ad groups
ii. Determine your match type
iii. Set up negative keywords (eliminate unnecessary click costs)
f. Create ads
i. Responsive search ads
g. Use ad extensions
h. Have a powerful landing page!
Let’s Talk Local Pest Control Google Ads Strategy
Define the town or city that you want to run a campaign in. We will generally have two separate campaigns for a single geographic location. So, let’s just say that you want to run ads in Dallas, TX. How might you take this single Dallas campaign and break it into two separate campaigns? One for exact match keywords and another for phrase match keywords. This will ensure that we get the best clicks from people looking for exactly what we want them to be looking for. Next is to target our ad groups for target pests and for keyword matches and ads. So, let’s have a simple and basic look at how we might do a campaign for ants in Dallas, TX.
Campaign = Dallas Pest_Phrase
Ad Group = Ant, Black_Phrase
Keywords =
- Black ant control
- Black ants in my house
- Large black ants
- Black house ant
- Large black ants in house
- Black ant
- Black ant infestation
- Black ants control
- Black ants
- Black ants in my kitchen
Ad = Responsive Search Ad
- Headline 1 = We Get Rid of Black Ants
- Headline 2 = Exterminate Ants at the Colony
- Description = Our Pest Control Company is #1 in Dallas. Kid & Pet-Friendly Treatments.
What you just viewed is a very simplistic example of where you would start with a Dallas Pest campaign for phrase match keywords that breaks down into very detailed ad groups, keywords, and ads. This is what will spread your click costs around resulting in an overall lower cost-per-click than trying to focus only on the most expensive keywords around “Pest Control” and “Exterminator.”
In a typical campaign, like demonstrated above, you may have 50 or more individual ad groups with 10-20 keywords setup for each and 2-3 responsive ads.
Now that you have had your crash course in Google Ads for pest control, it is typical to want to have a discussion on IF this is a realistic advertising strategy for your business. Remember, we are here to help and not to confuse you. If you want to have a free chat, with no obligation, go ahead and click the button below to schedule right now.
To get a more detailed description of Google Ads for pest control, we have a FREE guide that you can download by clicking on the button below.
Google Local Services Ads for Pest Control
Google’s Local Service Ads are a great supplement to Google Ads and great for organic search for Pest Control Companies.
When a prospective customer enters a local pest control search query (such as the one below), they may see several trusted pest control companies in their area positioned right above the traditional paid search ads; these new ads show a green guaranteed checkmark, business number, hours, ratings, and reviews. They record all calls and offer you the opportunity to appeal fake calls and non leads for a refund on the cost.
Google’s Local Service Ads will display on desktop, tablet, and mobile searches, as shown below; they’ll also have reach beyond traditional search ads.
Local Service Ads will be featured in the Google Assistant’s response to relevant voice search queries. The Google Assistant will even inquire about the prospect’s job type and location to ensure a quality match for the advertiser.
Local Service Ads cost more per click than traditional Google Ads, however the conversion rates are much higher. We have seen about 30-40% conversions and higher consistently on all contacts. No need for 10 clicks to create a single lead. Almost all of the leads coming in from Google Local Service Ads are legitimate and ready to buy. If not, you can generally appeal the costs.
To get started you will go to Google Local Services Ads to set up a new account. If you have a Google Ads account, they will be tied together. You must go through some steps and verifications to be approved before your ads can start running. Once you get that done, you will manage a dashboard daily to receive and book service calls. (See shots below)
The Power of Google Ads for Pest Control
Before you start investing in Google ads, make sure you read this free guide. We break it all down so you know how to effectively set up campaigns that will help you start making money.
