The Goals
Improve Online Visibility And User Experience
Increase Volume Of Pest Control Customers
We receive a high daily volume of calls, so it’s very important that the calls we received are for pest control, not be for services we do not provide, like local animal shelters for dogs and cats. One of the biggest differences we’ve seen working with LE Digital marketing is the volume of phone calls as well as the quality of the leads we received. They even provide recordings of our calls so we can use the recordings for quality control purposes and confirm if a lead became a customer and where each actual customer first called us.
The Results
71% Lower Cost Per Lead
336% More Leads Than Predicted
A pest control company in Northern Virginia wanted to improve their online presence and increase their pest control leads and customers. When describing why they decided to work with us, they said, “LE Digital Marketing was the company chosen by our marketing team. One of the leaders was familiar with LE Digital Marketing and recommended them. It was a great move indeed.”
We stress the importance of under promising and over delivering when it comes to the results we predict. This pest control client was no exception. Below are the company’s results from June – October 2018.
Leads Generated
This pest control company received over 4X the amount of leads they expected from our digital marketing efforts. Even with a reduced budget in September and October, the volume of leads far exceeded the original predictions. The chart below shows the actual results compared to the projected baseline (shown below as 100%).
Leads Expected vs Leads Actual
Conversion Rate
LE Digital Marketing achieved an average lead rate (conversion rate) of 24% from search traffic for the pest control business. This is 142% more than the predicted minimum and more than 4X the industry average of 3.37% for home service industry searches.
Avg. Cost Per Lead
The average cost-per-lead (new phone call or website form submission) from the pay-per-click Google Search campaigns was 71% less than expected for each new lead. This does not even include organic (free) search traffic leads, which would reduce the overall cost-per-lead by even more. The chart below shows the actual results compared to the projected baseline (shown below as 100%).
Avg. Cost Per Lead from PPC Search Expected vs Leads Actual
New Customers and Return On Investment
With an average close rate (new customer acquisition rate) of 65%, this pest control client gained about 3X as many new customers with profits higher than the originally projected 200% ROI.
Our Approach
Pest control is a service most people only think about when they are actively experiencing a pest problem. They are usually not thinking about a deal that was promoted on TV or the radio a month or two ago. Pest control is an in-the-moment type of subject. Some people will have a go-to local provider, however many people do not. Of the people who conduct a Google searches for services, 90% do not have any brand in mind prior to their search. That is why every day so many people turn to search engines on their phone to find a local pest control provider.
We decided to focus the effort and marketing investment on online search, instead of social media, because potential customers are already in the act of shopping for a local exterminator or pest control company. Ads on social media are based on impulse and brand awareness, not an immediate need service need like pest control. In other words, the shoppers on search engines are almost 90% of the way through their buyer journey, and are now ready to make a purchase decision. In order to get the most efficient use of our client’s marketing budget, we wanted to make sure their brand showed-up when potential customers were already ready to hire a pest control provider.
1. Run Our Proprietary Profit Prediction Report
We started by completing our proprietary profit prediction report we call MOA (Market Opportunity Analysis). For all the services this pest control company wanted to advertise, we shared what we expected them to received each month of the year in terms of the amount of leads, amount of new client acquisitions, average cost-per-acquisition, total revenue, and even total profit.
2. Design A Website That Generates Leads
Before driving potential customers to their website, we wanted to make sure those website visitors take the main action desired: contacting the pest control business to request service. In order to do that, we designed a new mobile responsive website with clear calls-to-action (CTA’s), enticing and informative content, and a user-friendly layout.
3. Create Ads That Drive Traffic To The Site
Next, we developed highly targeted search marketing campaigns focused on the most relevant and profitable terms people type into the search bar on Google. We developed ads that were highly correlated to their search and took them to the exact page on the website they were looking for.
4. Improve SEO For Free Lead Generation
Then we invested in the long term lead generation growth by completing various on-page and off-page search engine optimization (SEO) strategies. This enables the pest control company’s website to show in the organic (or free) results on Google and Bing.
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