What Are the Pros and Cons of PPC Advertising?

Is PPC advertising suitable for your pest control services? To answer that question, let’s weigh the pros and cons.

Pros

Pest control companies focus on a local service area. After all, people look within their city or township for a professional exterminator. That being the case, there are some strong advantages to PPC for building your clientele…

Cost-effectiveness

If done well, PPC is very cost-effective.

You only pay when a visitor comes to your page. Plus, you get to decide exactly how much you're willing to spend.

That makes it easy to determine (and stick to) a marketing budget.

Customization

You can adjust your pest control campaign and keywords along the way, constantly optimizing them for better performance.

If a campaign isn’t working the way you expect it to, you can course-correct on the spot.

Targeting

You can target your audience of homeowners and commercial businesses based on things like language, geographical location, and even device type.

That makes it really easy to go after the job type or price point you want to go after—whether they are located in a large metropolitan area or in a specific neighborhood.

Speed

PPC ad campaigns yield almost immediate results, making them much faster than organic campaigns.

Cons

As strong as the advantages are, PPC ads aren’t for every pest control company. There are a couple of cons you should be mindful of.

Technical skills

PPC is more technical than other forms of advertising. While this guide is enough to get you headed in the right direction, it’s hardly everything you’ll need to know to run successful PPC campaigns.

If you want to get the most out of PPC ads for your services, you’ll need to do one of two things:

• Become a PPC expert, yourself. That means pouring over multiple PPC guides, learning how to run campaigns, doing your own keyword research, and keeping up with changes as Google adjusts how PPC ads perform.
• Hire an expert to handle PPC for you. This option is far more efficient but comes at a cost. If you’re not prepared to budget for both the PPC ads and the professional help needed to make them successful, this may not be a good option for you.

“If you want your PPC campaigns to remain effective, you have no choice but to evolve. In some cases, that evolution will mean thinking about things very differently than before.” – Search Engine Journal

Cost accumulation

If you don't manage and optimize your campaigns constantly, their costs can increase while the conversion rate drops. You could end up paying a lot for not much in return.

In other words, PPC is not a “set it and forget it” strategy. You (or your PPC partner) will need to monitor results and adjustment as needed.

How to Set Up PPC for Your Pest Control Business

Whether you choose to work with a pro or tackle PPC campaigns on your own, it’s helpful to have an overview of the setup process. This is a high-level summary of what it takes to actually set up PPC ads.

1. Research the Competition

Before you design your campaign, you’ll want to do some quick competitive research. If you know what your competitors are doing, that will give you an idea of what currently works.

For example, you’ll learn about keywords you may want to target, Google searches that include PPC ads for other pest control services, and what kind of landing pages those PPC ads are pointing to.

Pay special attention to their ad text and their landing pages.

2. Find the Right Keywords

Keywords are the heart and soul of a PPC campaign.

Use tools like Google Keyword Planner to find out average click-through rates (CTRs), cost-per-click (CPC), and search volume for various keywords. Google Keyword Planner will even show you a difficulty score for each keyword. That will tell you how hard it is to get your ad to show up in organic search results.

3. Focus on a Specific Location and Service

To attract local projects, you’ll need to include your location and specific services in your ads. 

Why? Because a shocking number of people use basic, location-based searches when looking for service providers on Google. Terms like “pest control companies near me” or “bed bug treatment in Los Angeles, CA.”

The better you know your ideal audience, the more specific you can get with location and services.

4. Build Your Ad Account

You’ll need to define your ad campaigns by adding keyword groups. Each campaign will have a total budget, and each ad group will have a list of keywords.

You’ll need ad copy for each ad group. This copy is what will get property owners to click through, so it’s important.

Keep the following in mind:

• Use the target keyword in the headline and body of the ad
• Use action-oriented language
• Use language that differentiates your services from your competitors
• Highlighting the benefits of your pest services
• You should also have a well-designed landing page with a clear call to action (CTA) that further entices visitors to make an appointment.

5. Start Your Campaign

Once you have everything in place, all that’s left to do is actually launch your PPC campaign.

Next Steps

PPC is complex. That’s as true for pest control businesses as it is for any other home services industry. 

A PPC expert can help you create and run your campaign. They’ll research keywords relevant in the pest control world, set up your ad accounts, track your ads, and optimize your content for high conversions.

When you work with a specialist who has handled PPC for pest control companies, you will be drawing from a wealth of knowledge on how to market your expertise successfully. Contact us today for more information about how Market Hardware helps pest control companies launch high-converting PPC ads that pull in more jobs!

Market Hardware is happy to offer Web Marketing consultations — give us a call to learn more! Contact us today if you’re interested and want more information! You can email PCOC@markethardware.com or call (888) 381-6925.