Pest control on Google Ads: 4.6× the leads at 42% less each
A pest control company wanted more calls in peak season without paying more for each one. We rebuilt its Google Ads in January 2026 and scaled it month by month.
Illustrative imageThe published figures
Aug to Oct 2026, against Jan to Mar
- Leads a month, up from 287
- 1,316
- Cost per lead, down from $38
- $22
- New-customer leads a month, up from 97
- 381
Peak season: Jul to Sep, against Apr to Jun
- Leads, on 5% less spend
- +44%
- Cost per lead, down from $34
- $23
January to October 2026
- Leads
- 8,890
- Spent on Google Ads
- $249K
From the company’s own Google Ads account, read in November 2026. The client’s name is withheld. A past result is not a forecast: yours will depend on your market, your budget and your offer.
The brief
The company wanted more calls and estimate requests through the busy season, from new customers as well as people who already knew its name, without the cost of each lead climbing as the budget grew.
What ran
A new account, built from scratch in January 2026: a campaign for each pest and season, commercial work on its own, and tracking that counts only calls of 60 seconds or more and free-estimate requests.
- Built a new account in January 2026 that tracks only two things: calls from ads of 60 seconds or more, and free-estimate requests.
- Gave bed bugs, wasps, mosquitoes and wildlife their own campaigns, keywords and ads, opened as each season started.
- Ran commercial work on its own, in a commercial-only search campaign and a commercial Performance Max, with its own budget and message.
- Kept a brand campaign so people searching the company’s name reach it first, at about $10 a lead.
- Kept the keywords tight: 680 active, 98% of them phrase or exact match, with a shared list of 2,692 negative keywords and about 300 more by campaign.
- Targeted the service area by ZIP code, radius and metro, people physically there only, with search partners and the display network off on search.
How it was counted
A lead is a call from an ad that lasted 60 seconds or more, or a free-estimate request. Nothing else in the account is counted as a lead.
New-customer leads leave out the brand campaign, which catches people searching the company’s name. About two thirds of all leads came through it, at about $10 each. New-customer leads cost about $59 each from July to September.
Pest control is seasonal and January to March is the slow season, so a peak-season comparison is shown too: July to September brought 44% more leads than April to June, on 5% less spend.
- The account is still ours. Every week we read the search terms, the bids and the ads, and every change is checked by a person before it goes live.
- Seasonal campaigns open when their season starts and close when it ends, so the budget follows the calls.
- Budgets move only when the client says so, and the monthly report counts the same two things every time: leads, and what each one cost.
Want this for your business?
Tell us your market and your budget. You get a plan and the numbers behind it before you spend anything.