Pest control
Google Ads for UK pest control companies
Wasps in September, rats in November, and a quiet fortnight in between. Ads built around how the work actually arrives.
Most pest control accounts are built as though every enquiry is the same. They are not. A wasp nest today and a twelve-month commercial contract are different buyers, different budgets and different searches, and an account that treats them alike wastes money on both.
I have run one of these for three and a half years. The numbers from it are on the case study, including the ones that are less flattering.
Almost every enquiry arrives by phone, which is why the tracking matters more here than in most trades. If you are counting form fills you are looking at a fraction of the picture.
What's different about pest control in the UK
The season is the strategy
Wasps peak late summer into September. Rats and mice move indoors as it cools, through autumn and winter. Ants come in early summer, moths in the warm months, fleas after a warm spell, squirrels into lofts in autumn. Bed bugs run all year with no season at all. Budget that ignores this overspends in August and goes quiet in January.
No termites, no fire ants, no raccoons
Most of what is written about pest control marketing is American and about pests that do not exist here. It is a reasonable test of whether something was written for you.
BPCA membership is a real trust signal
BPCA, the Property Care Association and RSPH qualifications mean something to a UK buyer, particularly a commercial one. They belong in the ad copy and on the landing page, not buried on an about page.
The regulations are ours, not theirs
CRRU stewardship on professional-use rodenticides, and the Wildlife and Countryside Act on protected species. A commercial buyer will ask. Answering it well on the page removes a call you would otherwise have to have.
Four different people are paying
Householders, landlords and letting agents, facilities managers, and local authorities. They search differently, they convert differently, and the contract work is worth far more over a year than the callout that gets all the attention.
Where the leads actually come from
Google Search
The core of it. Specific problems — wasp nest removal, rat control — cost less per click than "pest control" and the searcher already knows what they need.
Local Services Ads
Live in the UK for pest control, and priced per lead rather than per click. Verification here means DBS and insurance checks, which is not what the US guides describe.
Google Business Profile
The map pack does a great deal of the local work and costs nothing. Worth getting right before spending more on ads.
Microsoft Ads
Cheap clicks and an audience that skews older and more commercial. Genuinely worth it for facilities and property management work. Almost everyone ignores it.
Retargeting
Modest here. Emergency work does not have a research window. It earns its place on the contract and commercial side, not on callouts.
What pest control clicks cost in the UK
Real numbers, pulled September 2026 and dated so you can see when they go stale.
| Search term | UK searches per month | Competition | Top-of-page bid |
|---|---|---|---|
| pest control | 22,200 | 75 | £2.03 – £6.90 |
| pest control near me | 18,100 | 79 | £1.76 – £6.79 |
| bed bug treatment | 8,100 | 100 | £1.16 – £7.74 |
| wasp nest removal | 6,600 | 84 | £1.37 – £5.18 |
| pest control services | 2,900 | 30 | £2.46 – £10.37 |
| wasp nest removal near me | 2,400 | 86 | £1.36 – £5.28 |
| pest control services near me | 1,900 | 32 | £1.89 – £8.40 |
| pest control and bed bugs | 1,600 | 97 | £2.35 – £13.82 |
| pest control for rats | 1,600 | 85 | £1.21 – £5.90 |
| rodent control | 1,300 | 57 | £1.45 – £6.10 |
| rat pest control near me | 1,300 | 89 | £1.34 – £6.51 |
| pest control near me for wasps | 1,300 | 87 | £1.52 – £5.73 |
| pest control for mice | 1,300 | 93 | £1.66 – £7.62 |
| ant infestation | 1,300 | 57 | £0.80 – £4.06 |
| bed bug exterminator | 1,000 | 92 | £1.95 – £11.52 |
| mice pest control near me | 1,000 | 84 | £1.52 – £7.75 |
| rat exterminator | 1,000 | 84 | £1.31 – £6.61 |
| mice exterminator | 1,000 | 86 | £1.63 – £10.24 |
| wasp removal near me | 1,000 | 87 | £1.40 – £5.26 |
| wasp pest control | 1,000 | 88 | £1.61 – £5.74 |
| bed bug infestation | 1,000 | 62 | £1.15 – £5.34 |
These are close-variant clusters, so the volumes cannot be added together — Keyword Planner reports one shared figure across many phrasings of the same search. Bids are what Google reports for the top of the page, not what you will pay.
Source: Google Keyword Planner, United Kingdom, Google Search. Accurate as of September 2026.
What running it involves
- Campaigns split by intent: emergency callout, contract and commercial
- Seasonal budget planning, set before the season turns
- Call tracking, so phone enquiries are attributed to the keyword
- Lead quality marked back, so bidding learns from real jobs
- Search term review and negatives, weekly in season
- Ad copy built on BPCA membership, response time and coverage
- Local Services Ads set up and managed alongside Search
- Monthly review in plain English, with the cost per booked job
The channel detail sits on Google Ads management and lead tracking.
Proof, with the caveats
40% cheaper leads, and 85% of the calls became paid work
Three and a half years of Google Ads for a Birmingham pest control business. Fewer wasted enquiries, and most calls turned into paid jobs.
Questions I get asked
What should a UK pest control company expect to pay per lead?
It varies more by what you sell than by where you are. Emergency callout terms cost more per click than contract and commercial ones, and convert faster. The number worth watching is not cost per lead but cost per booked job, which needs call tracking to see at all.
Does Google Ads work in the winter for pest control?
Yes, but for different work. Rodent activity moves indoors as it cools, and commercial contracts and preventative treatments do not follow the callout curve at all. The mistake is running the same summer campaigns at the same budgets and concluding the channel stopped working.
Should I use Local Services Ads instead of Google Ads?
Alongside, not instead. LSAs are priced per lead and sit above the search results, which is a strong position, but the volume is capped by what Google sends you. Search gives you control over which jobs you go after. Most accounts want both.
Do I need call tracking?
For pest control, yes, more than almost any other trade. The phone is most of the volume. Without it you can see how many enquiries arrived but not which keyword produced them, and you end up optimising on form fills that are a minority of the work.
I already have an SEO agency. Is this a duplicate?
No, and it is worth comparing them honestly on the same four measures: traffic volume, traffic quality, lead quality and revenue. I have run that comparison monthly on a pest control account for years. Ads won on all four, every month, which will not be true everywhere.
How quickly can it start producing calls?
Faster than most people expect. On the account in the case study the first call came in twenty minutes after the campaigns went live, and the job was done and paid for that afternoon. That is my personal record rather than a normal week.
Tell me what's going on.
What you're running now, and what you want to fix. I'll tell you straight whether I can help — and if pest control is not a fit for me I'll say so.
Thanks, I've got it.
I'll get back to you as soon as possible. If it looks like a fit, I'll suggest a short introductory call. If I can't help you, I'll tell you.