Google Ads for Pest Control Companies: A Setup Guide for Owners

Google Ads for pest control works when each campaign covers one service, shows only in the towns you serve, and sends every click to a page about exactly what the person searched for. Track calls and forms so you know which campaigns book jobs, then keep testing. Most of the wasted ad money I see breaks one of those rules.

Where Google Ads fit for a pest control company

Search “pest control near me” on your phone. You’ll usually see Local Services Ads at the top, then a few sponsored search ads, then the map pack. Regular websites come after all of that.

This guide covers the search ads you pay for by the click. Local Services Ads, which charge per lead, are now moving into Google Ads too, and I cover that near the end.

Google Ads for pest control companies make the most sense when you need calls now, like in a new territory or when you want more termite work. They stop the day you stop paying, though, so think of them as one piece of your pest control advertising, running alongside pest control SEO and a strong Google Business Profile.

They’re also easy to get wrong. In a WordStream analysis of more than 15,000 Google Ads accounts, nearly 29% recorded zero conversions over 90 days, according to Search Engine Land. In pest control accounts, the usual causes I see are targeting and landing pages, and both can be fixed.

How to structure Google Ads for pest control

Build your account the way a good pest control website is built. A site has a page for each service with city pages under it. Your ad account should have a campaign for each service, with ad groups for your cities inside it.

For most companies that means separate campaigns for:

• General pest control
• Termite inspection and treatment
• Mosquito control, turned up in season
• Rodent control
• Bed bug treatment
• Wildlife removal, if you offer it

Separate campaigns give each service its own budget, so a busy week in general pest can’t eat your termite money. You also get ads, landing pages and cost per lead for one service at a time. Put everything in one campaign and you lose all of that.

Spend first on the services that pay best. Brent Agee, who runs AXN Growth Partners, told me termite is the best way to fund your marketing. In his example, $10,000 of termite advertising in a month can bring in $50,000 or $60,000 that month, while the same spend on pest control puts far less on the bottom line up front. His family’s company once advertised only termite and had the salesperson add pest control to every contract. My conversation with Brent has the rest.

Start with Search campaigns

Search campaigns are where I’d start any pest control company, because the person searching wants help right now. Performance Max spreads your budget across all of Google’s channels. It can work for bigger budgets, but it’s harder to see what you’re paying for, and Google pushes it because it’s automated and tends to spend more. AI Max for Search lets Google match your ads to searches beyond your keywords and pick the landing page. I’d wait for clean conversion data before handing Google that much control.

Target the towns your trucks actually reach

Location settings are cheap to fix and expensive to get wrong. I’ve reviewed pest control campaigns set to show across the entire United States for a company that worked in one or two states. Usually a white-label agency or a virtual assistant built the campaign and missed that setting.

Target the cities, counties or zip codes you serve, and exclude the ones you don’t. A radius around your office often takes in a state line or a part of town you’d rather not drive to.

Then open the location options. By default, Google also shows your ads to people who have only shown interest in your area. Switch it to people who are in or regularly in your locations.

Set your ad schedule to the hours somebody answers the phone. A paid call that rolls to voicemail is the worst money in the account, because that homeowner just calls the next company.

Keywords and negative keywords

Match types

Exact match shows your ad for that search and close variations of it. Phrase match shows it when the search includes the meaning of your phrase. Broad match lets Google decide what counts as related, and that’s where budgets disappear.

This is the starting point I like for each service campaign:

• Exact match for the core terms, like [pest control], [exterminator], [pest control company], [termite treatment] and [rodent control]. Your location targeting already keeps them in your area.
• Phrase match for service plus city, like “pest control Columbus”, “Columbus exterminator” and “termite inspection in Columbus”.
• Phrase match for “near me” searches, like “pest control near me” and “termite treatment near me”. I wrote more about how “near me” searches work on the organic side.

Broad match gets more useful as searches get longer and more conversational, but I’d only test it once your negative list and tracking are solid.

Negative keywords

Negative keywords keep your ads off searches that will never turn into a customer. WordStream’s data also showed that accounts using them saw conversion rates up to three times higher.

Start your list with these groups:

• DIY and product searches, like diy, how to, spray, bait, trap, home depot and amazon
• Job seekers, like jobs, hiring, salary, license and training
• Services you don’t offer, like wildlife or bed bug if you don’t do them, commercial if you only do homes, or 24 hour if you don’t run nights
• Price shoppers, if they aren’t your customer, like cheap and affordable

Your search terms report shows the actual searches you paid for. Read it every week for the first month or two, and turn every junk search into another negative keyword.

Ads and landing pages that match the search

Write the ad around the search

Your first headline should repeat what the person typed, city included. Someone searching “termite treatment Columbus” should see “Termite Treatment in Columbus”. Use the second headline for your offer and the third to tell them what to do. Headlines like “Termites in Columbus?”, “Same-Day Treatment” and “Free Quote” cover the problem, the place and the offer between them, and each one fits Google’s 30-character limit.

Use the descriptions to build trust with your years in business, review count and license. Responsive search ads test combinations of your headlines and descriptions, so give Google real options and swap in seasonal ones.

Add assets, which is what Google now calls extensions. Use a call asset with a tracked number, a location asset tied to your Google Business Profile, and sitelinks to your main service pages.

If you still run call-only ads, plan the switch. Google stopped letting advertisers create them in February 2026 and is phasing them out by February 2027, per Search Engine Land. Google wants you on a responsive search ad with a call asset instead.

Send the click to a page about that search

Landing pages are the other half of the waste I see. The ad says termites, and the click lands on a homepage about general pest control.

A termite search should land on a termite page, ideally one that names the city. Put your phone number and a short form near the top, repeat the offer from your ad, and make sure it loads fast on a phone. Real photos of your technicians and a few reviews help it convert. I cover the rest of what a page like that needs in digital marketing for pest control.

Mat Rogers of Lizard Marketing told me that after his team moved clients’ ad landing pages onto each client’s own domain, along with some other work, conversion costs dropped and quality scores went up. Mat explains why in his episode.

Your own site is usually the best home for these pages. When it can’t be fixed quickly, we sometimes build a separate site with landing pages made for the ads. If your site is what’s holding you back, that’s what our website design work is for.

Tracking, bidding and budget

Track calls, forms and booked jobs

If you can’t see which campaign produced which call, you’re guessing. At a minimum, set up:

• Conversion tracking in Google Ads for form submissions and calls from your ads
• Call tracking on your website with a tool like CallRail, with a different number for each campaign
• Links between Google Ads, Google Analytics 4 and Search Console

Then check which calls turned into customers. Cost per booked job, by service, tells you where the money should go. Clicks don’t.

Bidding and budget

Google’s automated bidding, like Maximize conversions or a target cost per acquisition, learns from your conversion data. Count every hang-up as a lead and it gets very good at finding more hang-ups. Set a minimum call length and get tracking right before you lean on automation.

For budget, work backward from what a customer is worth and how many new jobs your team can take on. A termite job or a recurring plan can justify a higher cost per lead than a one-time ant treatment. Raise budgets heading into your busy season and pull them back in winter.

Put part of the budget on Bing

Microsoft Advertising, which used to be Bing Ads, reaches searchers Google doesn’t. Its audience leans older and more toward desktop, which describes plenty of homeowners, and fewer pest control companies bid there. You can import your Google campaigns in a few clicks and give it a small share of the budget.

What I see when I open a pest control ad account

I usually find some mix of three problems. Targeting is too loose, either too much map or keywords that pull in DIY shoppers and job seekers. Landing pages are horrible or have nothing to do with the search. And nobody has touched the campaigns in months.

That last one is the most common. Most agencies build the campaigns, turn them on and move on. Search terms shift, competitors change their bids, you add a town to your routes, and the account runs exactly the way it did on day one.

One account I audited was running a long list of different ads, and every one of them sent people to the same landing page. What we’ve found is that people much prefer a page built for what they searched, and those pages convert at a much higher rate. So every ad group should have its own targeted page.

When we run Google Ads, we track the leads, test ads and keywords, adjust as the data comes in and keep part of the budget on Bing. Our clients pay Google directly from an ad account in their own name, so the account and its history stay with them. Whoever runs your ads, insist on that. Our Google Ads management page explains how we work.

Local Services Ads now run inside Google Ads

Local Services Ads are the pay-per-lead ads at the very top of the page. You pay for valid calls, messages and bookings, not clicks. In August 2026, Google began moving them into Google Ads as Performance Max campaigns built for pay-per-lead goals, starting with a small group of US advertisers, according to Search Engine Journal.

Despite the name, these campaigns are still keywordless and still show only on Search and Maps. A few things do change.

• The standalone Local Services Ads dashboard goes away, and leads land in Lead Manager inside Google Ads.
• Weekly budgets become average daily budgets, and manual bidding is gone.
• One target cost per acquisition covers the whole campaign instead of one per service category.
• Your business name, address and hours sync from your Google Business Profile, and a big name or address change can trigger a 24 to 48 hour verification review that pauses the campaign.
• BBB callouts are no longer supported, and historical performance reports don’t carry over.

Google gives admins 14 days’ notice, so download your performance reports when it arrives. Afterward, check your budget, categories, locations, schedule and the phone number leads go to, and give it up to two weeks to settle.

The basics haven’t changed. Pick only the business categories you want leads for, keep Google reviews coming and answer every lead fast. Most owners can run Local Services Ads themselves, and the main ongoing job is marking your leads. I cover this shift alongside other pest control marketing trends for 2027.

Questions pest control owners ask

How much should a pest control company spend on Google Ads?

Enough to get real data on the services you care about, and no more than your team can handle. For a benchmark across all industries, not just pest control, WordStream’s 2025 report put the average cost per lead at $70.11, up from $66.69 in 2024, per Search Engine Land.

How long does it take for Google Ads to work?

Ads can run as soon as they’re approved, so calls can start quickly. Treat the first month or two as a learning period, then judge the account on cost per booked job.

Should I run Google Ads or Local Services Ads?

Both, if you can afford it. Local Services Ads charge per lead and are simple to run yourself. Search ads take more work, but you control the keywords, the ads and the landing page. If you’re just starting, Local Services Ads are the easier first step.

Can I run Google Ads for my pest control company myself?

Yes. Setup takes the most work, and after that the account needs someone checking it every week. If you hire help, keep the ad account in your name. If you’d like an expert to look over the account you have now, a paid consulting hour covers ads too, or book a discovery call if you want us to run it.