Trust is a big deal in pest control businesses’ success. Homeowners invite you into their personal living space and entrust you with their health, safety and comfort. But how do you build trust before you step through their door?

Whether you’re just starting your pest control business or have a few years of experience, advertisements show how well you take care of your customers. A mix of print and digital ads is the best strategy for reaching a larger audience and balancing costs.

Learn how to create effective pest control ads that build long-term relationships, increase revenue, and grow your brand reputation. Plus, gain inspiration from 10 examples of pest control ads.

What are digital and paper pest control ads?

Digital and traditional advertisements are part of a successful pest control marketing strategy that expands brand awareness and attracts new leads.

Digital ads appear in online content like search results pages, social media, and websites. Traditional paper ads include flyers, direct mail, billboards, and even placements in magazines and newspapers.

Pros and cons of digital pest control advertisements

Digital ads offer a lot of benefits, especially around cost and analyzing performance. These pros include: 

• Affordable promotions: Digital ads are typically more affordable than traditional advertising thanks to options like pay-per-click, where you only pay if someone clicks your ad. The average cost per thousand (CPM) impressions for digital ads is $3 to $10, while print ads start at $22 CPM.
• Targeted advertising: Most digital ad platforms let you target specific demographics, locations, and customer interests so you reach new customers that match your pest control target market.
• Measurable performance: Digital ads let you analyze metrics like conversion and click-through rates (CTRs) in real-time. This gives you valuable insight into whether you should make adjustments such as rewriting your call to action (CTA) or using a different testimonial.
• Scalable campaigns: You can scale your pest control advertising campaign as needed. Many ad platforms also let you set a budget, ensuring that you won’t overspend.

Of course, digital ads aren’t without their challenges. These can include high competition from other pest control services as well as:

• Lower trust: A 2021 Statista report found that social media ranked lowest for consumers’ trust in ads. Carefully craft your social media marketing to maintain a positive brand reputation and inspire trust.
• Potential complexity: Managing digital ad campaigns can require specialized expertise, continuous monitoring, and consistent testing to get the best results.

As you can see, digital ads trade trust and low competition for budget-friendly costs and more control over who sees your ad.

Pros and cons of traditional pest control ads

Traditional ads have been around for decades, and they offer some familiar advantages, like increased trust and longer-lasting messaging.

• Localized ads: You can easily target customers in your service areas with newspaper ads, billboards, and direct mail.
• Trustworthy formats: Many forms of traditional advertising have a higher trust rating compared to digital ads. This could be due to lesser concerns over data privacy and personalization tactics that cause consumers to feel “followed” around the internet by digital ads.
• Tangible messages: Customers can keep paper ads, then refer to them at a later date. This makes a traditional advertising strategy effective, even if customers aren’t ready to buy.

However, just like digital ads, traditional advertisements also come with a few drawbacks. One major con is that you can’t change your ad once it’s sent to the printer — even if there’s a typo.

• Higher costs: There’s no way around it, traditional ads cost more. In 2021, a billboard ad cost anywhere from $13 to $22 CPM, while a direct mail campaign cost $500 to $1,000 CPM.
• Less measurable performance: It’s difficult to track performance of traditional ads, especially when measuring conversion rate and direct impact on your pest control profit margin.

Traditional ads trade decreased targeting precision and high costs for increased trust and the chance for customers to save your ad for later.

How to design effective ads for your pest control business

At its core, building effective advertising campaigns for both digital and traditional platforms involves similar strategies. These include: 

• Researching your target market: Get to know your ideal customer and their pain points, challenges, potential objections, and needs. This information helps you craft ads that resonate with your target audience and encourage them to take action.
• Checking out competitors’ ads: Find out what works for your competitors to uncover opportunities to highlight your business’s competitive advantage.
• Creating compelling copy: Highlight your unique selling points, and the benefits your pest control services offer potential customers, with attention-grabbing headlines and CTAs.
• Emphasizing your expertise: Note any pest control licenses you have and eco-friendly methods you use. Call out specialty types of pest control services you offer, like treating bed bugs and termite infestations.
• Using high-quality graphics: Make sure you use quality, eye-catching graphics to show that your pest control company offers high-quality service.
• Testing seasonal ad campaigns: Target seasonal pest problems with special campaigns that highlight how your pest control business helps homeowners deal with growing pest populations.
• Advertising special offers: Showcase any specials you’re offering as part of your pest control pricing strategy such as free inspections and long-term service discounts.

Of course, certain platforms also have unique strategies for reaching your audience.

Facebook ads

Including Facebook in your digital marketing strategy is highly beneficial. In late 2023, Facebook ads saw an average CTR of 1.23% for home services like pest control and an average cost per click of 95 cents.

To craft effective Facebook ads, check these boxes: 

• Use location targeting: Reach customers in your service area and narrow your audience to homeowners, property managers, and businesses. You can also target “lookalike audiences” that are similar to your current customers.

• Capture leads in the app: Use lead generation ads to invite customers to fill out their information while still in the Facebook app. This removes a potential hurdle that could prevent them from converting.

• Take advantage of retargeting: Retarget anyone who interacted with your ads or website in the past to nudge them toward booking a service.

Don’t forget to optimize your Facebook ads for mobile users by using imagery and copy that stands out on smaller screens.

TikTok ads

Did you know that 23% of consumers use TikTok to check local business reviews? While the platform still appeals mostly to those aged 18 to 29, Pew Research found that 39% of social media users are ages 30 to 49, and 24% of those aged 50 to 64 also enjoy video content on TikTok. 

Increase the chances that your TikTok ads reach homeowners searching for pest control services by using these strategies: 

• Create short-form video content: Keep your videos short — about 15 to 60 seconds — and grab viewers’ attention with storytelling, sounds, music, and special effects.
• Humanize your brand: Feature your technicians and behind-the-scenes content to build trust and relatability. Add humor and personality to make your pest control business more approachable.
• Take advantage of TikTok features: Use hashtags along with audience targeting options to increase the discoverability of your ads. Don’t forget to post non-advertorial content as well to engage your audience and interact with them through comments. 

By focusing on authentic, entertaining, and valuable content in your TikTok ads, you can grab the attention of your target audience and promote your pest control services.

Google ads

A majority of consumers use Google to choose a local business. (Source)

Google search ads are another effective way to increase awareness of your pest control business, and chances are your audience is already there. BrightLocal found that 81% of consumers use Google to evaluate whether a local business is a good fit.

Make sure customers can find your business on Google with these strategies:

• Choose targeted keywords: Focus on relevant keywords like “pest removal” and “bed bug treatment,” and don’t forget to include location-specific keywords to ensure that your ads appear when customers search for local services.

• Use ad extensions: Google ad extensions or assets add valuable information to your advertisements and improve CTR. These include call-outs, where you can highlight discounts and offers, location, business hours, and clickable phone numbers so customers can easily book a service.

• Build custom landing pages: Make sure your ad and landing page messaging is consistent. Create a custom landing page for each ad campaign and mention the specific pest control service or offer in your ad. Similarly, optimize your pest control website to gather leads and grow your business.

• Schedule ads: Set your Google ads to only run during peak hours when your customers are searching. You may need to first collect enough data to pinpoint when your customers are interacting with your ads and website.

Google ads made easy: Get valuable tips in our Google ads for pest control companies guide, including how to set ad bids, target your audience, and find search engine optimization keywords.

Paper ads: direct mail, billboards, and flyers

While paper ads are often simpler to create than digital ads, there are a few unique strategies to help your flyers and direct mail pieces avoid automatic placement in the recycling bin. These include:

• Taking advantage of tangibility: Use high-quality paper stock or unique formats — like oversized postcards, magnets, and calendars — to draw attention.

• Adding a sense of urgency: Encourage customers to take action now by clearly noting any offer expiration dates or emphasizing how your pest control services can solve infestation problems before they get worse.

• Making it easy to take action: Help customers take the first step by including multiple ways to contact you, like a phone number, email, and website address.

For billboards, keep in mind that customers can’t spend as much time with your information. Keep your messages simple by focusing on a single service offering, including your company name, and using large, easy-to-read text.

10 pest control advertising ideas

When in doubt, keep your ads simple and search for inspirational examples like these:

Paper ads

1. Dungeness Pest Control’s mailer

Dungeness puts a friendly face on its service with this direct mail postcard. (Source)

2. Knox Pest Control’s 3D spider billboard

You can’t help but feel the heebie-jeebies looking at this 3D spider. (Source)

3. Rentokil’s “Say goodbye to the annoying buzzz” ad

Rentokil knows why homeowners can’t stand mosquitoes, and it plays off these annoyances in its magazine ad. (Source)

4. Sample postcards from Triadex Services

Customers can save magnets, informative key tags, and even a fly swatter with these custom postcards. (Source)

5. Greenside’s door hangers

Send your door-to-door salespeople and technicians out with a stack of door hangers to advertise your services to neighbors and new neighborhoods. (Source)

Digital ads

6. MVO’s “unwanted guests” LinkedIn ad

This ad uses humor to catch attention and promote MVO’s pest control services. (Source)

7. Tri-State Pest Management’s website coupon

This digital coupon promotes a special offer and creates urgency with a bed bug factoid. (Source)

8. Elite Lawn Care’s PSA TikTok video

Elite Lawn Care offers valuable information for its customers while also highlighting its unique value proposition. (Source)

9. Certified Pest Control’s strong imagery

Sometimes an image is worth a thousand words, and that’s the case for this Facebook ad by Certified Pest Control. (Source)

10. Beeline Pest Control’s attention-grabbing Google ad

Google ad assets, like extra links, a highlighted promotion, and a “Call us” button, help Beeline Pest Control’s ad stand out. (Source)

Partner with GorillaDesk to grow your pest control business

Growing your pest control company requires you to wear a lot of hats. You have to become a digital marketer, a copywriter, an accountant, and a manager — and you’re likely still working in the field, too. 

Pest control management software like GorillaDesk can be an invaluable assistant. Whether you’re just finding your feet or lead a team of old pros, GorillaDesk’s customer relationship management, scheduling, routing, and invoicing features make your life easier. 

Try GorillaDesk for free for 14 days to see how it can support your pest control business growth.