Pest Control Marketing That Actually Works

Marketing Your Specialty Services: Termites, Bed Bugs, Wildlife

Most pest control companies treat termites, bed bugs, and wildlife like afterthoughts on their website. One paragraph each, buried under a generic services page. Then they wonder why the calls don't come in. In Episode 21, Adam Bennett, Elisabeth Pallante, and CMO Chad Treadway break down why specialty services need their own marketing playbook. These services often pay far more per job than recurring pest control, but most operators spend almost nothing marketing them on purpose. What you'll learn: * Why termite, bed bug, and wildlife customers search differently and need different content * The 8 to 10 termite pages every pest control site should have * Why the WDIR (wood-destroying insect report) market needs its own approach for real estate agents * How emotional copy and phone-first design win more bed bug jobs * Why speed to lead matters more for bed bugs than almost any other service * How state licensing shapes what you can and can't market in wildlife services * Seasonal timing for squirrel, bat, and rodent campaigns * Why putting price ranges on wildlife pages saves your phone team hours of dead-end calls * How to track each specialty as its own profit center Three key takeaways: 1. Specialty services need their own dedicated marketing. A buried subpage won't cut it. 2. Match your marketing to each service's customer mindset. Termites need education, bed bugs need reassurance, wildlife needs speed. 3. Track each specialty as its own profit center. The economics are different from your recurring pest control work. This episode is for pest control owners and marketing managers who do termite, bed bug, or wildlife work and want those services to pull their weight in the revenue mix. Get your free pest control marketing audit at marketingthatactuallyworks.ai [http://marketingthatactuallyworks.ai]. While you're there, download the 20-point Pest Control Marketing Checklist we use with every client. About the show: Marketing That Actually Works is a 15-minute weekly podcast for pest control operators who want real growth, not empty promises. Adam Bennett and Elisabeth Pallante from Cube Creative Design share practical, tactical marketing strategies you can use between service calls. New episodes drop every Tuesday. Hosts: Adam Bennett, CEO, and Elisabeth Pallante, Content Operations Manager, Cube Creative Design Guest: Chad Treadway, CMO, Cube Creative Design Coming next Tuesday: Episode 22 with Emily Porter on website speed and performance.

Website Speed and Performance — Why It Matters for Leads

Is your website fast enough to keep the leads you're paying for? If your site takes more than three seconds to load, nearly half your visitors are leaving before they see your phone number. That's not a tech problem. That's a lead problem. In this episode, Adam Bennett and Elisabeth Pallante sit down with Cube Creative web project specialist Emily Porter to break down website speed and performance for pest control companies. Emily walks through exactly how to test your site speed using free tools, what the scores mean, and which fixes make the biggest difference. The conversation covers the three biggest speed killers Emily sees on nearly every pest control site audit: oversized images that balloon page weight to 15 times what it should be, plugin bloat from 30 or 40 plugins when most sites only need 10 to 15, and cheap shared hosting that puts a hard ceiling on how fast your site can load no matter what else you optimize. Adam and Elisabeth connect the technical side to real business impact. Companies spending thousands per month on Google Ads are losing a huge percentage of that traffic to slow load times, and operators never see the loss because there's no missed call for a visitor who bounced in two seconds. Elisabeth breaks down the revenue math: 1,000 monthly visitors, 40 percent bouncing from speed, and $4,000 in potential revenue walking out the door. Emily gives operators a clear action plan: test your site at pagespeed.web.dev [http://pagespeed.web.dev], check your mobile score, and hand the report to your developer. She provides four specific questions to ask your web developer this week and explains when optimization isn't enough and a rebuild makes more financial sense. Three key takeaways: 1. A slow website is costing you leads right now. More than three seconds to load and nearly half your visitors are gone before they see anything. 2. You can test your own site speed in under 60 seconds with free tools, and the fixes are usually straightforward. 3. The three biggest speed killers are oversized images, too many plugins, and cheap hosting. Fixing even one can cut your load time in half. Download the free Website Speed Checklist at marketingthatactuallyworks.ai [http://marketingthatactuallyworks.ai]. It walks you through everything covered in this episode, step by step. Next week: Marketing Your Specialty Services, Termites, Bed Bugs, and Wildlife, with Chad Treadway.

Video Marketing for Pest Control Companies

Video converts better than any other content type across every platform pest control companies use. And right now, most of your local competitors have no video presence at all. That's a first-mover advantage—but it won't last forever. In this episode, social media manager Hannah Kilpatrick breaks down the four video types every pest control company needs and how to film them without a production budget. The four types and what each one does: Company Overview Video. This is your homepage video—60 to 90 seconds. The owner or a key team member on camera answering the question every new visitor is asking: who are you and why should I call you? This is the highest-leverage single video you can have. Build it first. Service Explainer Videos. One per major service: termite treatment, bed bug heat treatment, rodent exclusion. Two minutes max. Show the process, explain what's happening, and tell the customer what to expect. These reduce pre-call anxiety and post-service complaints. Customer Testimonial Videos. Real customers on camera—30 to 60 seconds. Just ask two questions: What was the problem before you called us? What was your experience like? Video testimonials are harder to dismiss than written reviews. Short-Form Field Content. Before-and-afters, educational tips, behind-the-scenes moments. Your ongoing weekly presence on Instagram and Facebook. We also cover the practical stuff—how to film without looking terrible: Your phone is the camera. An iPhone or recent Android shoots 4K video. The one upgrade worth making: a $20 tripod. Shaky footage is the most common reason DIY video looks bad. Lighting: Face a window. Light on your face, not behind you. Filming with a window at your back creates a silhouette effect. Sound: People tolerate average video quality but won't tolerate bad audio. For longer videos, a $25 lapel mic is worth it. What to say: Write three bullet points on a sticky note and tape it above the camera. Talk through them naturally. Film 4-5 takes, keep the best one. Then we cover repurposing—how to get maximum mileage from one video: Host on YouTube, embed on your website. Pull 30-60 second clips for Instagram and Facebook. Use thumbnails with play buttons in email. One video shoot can produce 4-6 pieces of content if you're intentional about it. Realistic cadence: Film one batch per month. Two to three videos in a single afternoon gives you 24-36 videos per year—more than enough to build a strong library. Download our free Video Script Template Pack at marketingthatactuallyworks.ai [http://marketingthatactuallyworks.ai]—pre-written outlines for all four video types so you're not staring at a blank page.

Tracking Marketing ROI: The Numbers Every Owner Must Know

Episode Summary If you can't tell which marketing channel produced your last ten customers, you're not managing your marketing — you're guessing at it. Most pest control operators are. They keep channels running because cutting anything feels risky, and they can't double down on what's working because they don't know what that is. This episode fixes that. Adam Bennett, Elisabeth Pallante, and Cube Creative CMO Chad Treadway walk through the three metrics that matter — cost per lead, cost per acquisition, and customer lifetime value — and explain why comparing channels by cost per click leads to bad decisions. They also walk through a practical four-step tracking system any operator can build, starting with one question on every incoming call. ---------------------------------------- Three Key Takeaways 1. Most operators are flying blind on marketing spend — the fix starts with asking "how did you hear about us?" on every call and tagging lead sources in your job software 1. The three numbers that drive every marketing decision are cost per lead, cost per acquisition, and customer lifetime value — cost per lead is only the starting point 1. Evaluate channels by cost per acquisition, not cost per click — a channel that looks expensive per lead may be your best channel once you factor in close rate and lifetime value ---------------------------------------- What We Cover * Why the majority of pest control companies have no lead source tracking in place * The client story: nearly canceled Google Ads that was generating 70% of new customers * The one-question phone fix and lead source tagging in job software * Cost per lead defined and benchmarked for pest control * Why the $10 lead vs. $30 lead comparison proves cost per lead is misleading * Cost per acquisition for one-time vs. recurring services * Customer lifetime value on a quarterly pest control plan * How to rank channels by cost per acquisition: referrals, organic SEO, Google Ads, Facebook, door-to-door * Why organic SEO has the best long-term cost per acquisition — and why it takes 6-12 months * Quarterly channel reviews vs. annual reviews * Four-step tracking system: call tracking, lead source tagging, monthly spreadsheet, one quarterly decision * The free Marketing ROI Tracking Spreadsheet at marketingthatactuallyworks.ai [http://marketingthatactuallyworks.ai] ---------------------------------------- Download the free Marketing ROI Tracking Spreadsheet at marketingthatactuallyworks.ai [http://marketingthatactuallyworks.ai]. Also available: the free pest control marketing audit and the 20-point Pest Control Marketing Checklist.

Instagram Reels and Stories for Pest Control

Instagram Reels are getting 5-10x more reach than photos right now—and pest control companies are perfectly positioned to take advantage. In this episode, social media manager Hannah Kilpatrick breaks down exactly what's working on Instagram for pest control operators in 2026. Here's why this matters: when you post a photo, Instagram shows it mainly to your existing followers. When you post a reel, the algorithm pushes it to people who've never heard of you. A pest control company with 300 followers can post a reel and get 2,000-5,000 views. That same company posts a photo and gets 50-100. The math is clear. We cover the five content types that perform best for pest control: Before-and-after treatments. Film the infestation, film the treatment, show the result. 30 seconds. This is your highest-performing category and it's almost unique to pest control. Quick educational tips. Answer questions customers actually ask—why ants invade in spring, how to identify termites, what attracts pests. Under 60 seconds. These get shared, which means free reach. Behind-the-scenes content. A day in the truck, what your techs carry, what an inspection looks like. Customers are curious about what they're paying for. Seasonal and timely content. Termite swarms in your area? Post about it that day. Local specificity beats generic pest content every time. Myth busting. Take common misconceptions about pest control—DIY treatments that don't work, home remedies people swear by—and debunk them in 45 seconds. We also tackle the practical stuff: how long reels should be (30-60 seconds), how to film them (just use the Instagram app), and how often to post (two per week is plenty). For operators who are camera-shy, we cover three approaches to creating content without being on screen. Then we get into Instagram Stories—which serve a completely different purpose. Reels find new people. Stories maintain relationships with people who already follow you. Think of it as reach versus retention. We cover what to post in stories (polls, questions, behind-the-scenes moments, direct CTAs with links) and how much time it should take (five minutes, tops). Key stats from this episode: * Reels get 5-10x more views than static posts * 30-60 seconds is the sweet spot for pest control reels * Two reels per week is enough for real growth * Post between 7-9 AM or 6-8 PM local time for best reach * Three to five stories per week keeps your account active Download our free Instagram Reels Idea Checklist at marketingthatactuallyworks.ai [http://marketingthatactuallyworks.ai]—30 reel ideas organized by content type so you never stare at a blank screen wondering what to post.