Ask ten pest control business owners what they spend on marketing, and you'll get ten different answers ranging from "whatever's left over" to "I think my web guy costs us $500 a month." The lack of clear benchmarks in this industry means most companies are either underspending and losing market share or spending without knowing whether it's working.
The National Pest Management Association (NPMA) and PCO Bookkeepers 2025 Pest Control Industry Cost Study provides the most comprehensive benchmarking data the industry has seen. The average pest control company spends 6.6% of revenue on marketing and advertising. But that average hides a massive performance gap. Growth-oriented companies that treat marketing as a strategic investment, not an expense line, routinely allocate 10% to 15% and see returns that justify every dollar.
This post breaks down what pest control companies actually spend at each size tier, how that investment should shift as you grow, and what separates the top performers from everyone else.
Written By: Adam Bennett | April 07, 2026
Adam is the president and founder of Cube Creative Design and specializes in private school marketing. Since starting the business in 2005, he has created individual relationships with clients in Western North Carolina and across the United States. He places great value on the needs, expectations, and goals of the client.
Most marketing advice is written for companies in cities with 100,000 people and a Starbucks on every corner. That's not helpful when you're a pest control operator in a town where everyone knows your truck and the chamber of commerce meets at the diner. Small-town marketing is a different game, and it deserves advice that actually fits.
If you're running a small pest control business in a rural or small-town market, you don't need a $5,000-a-month ad budget to get results. You need the right mix of visibility, relationships, and a few smart digital moves that punch well above their weight. Here's what actually works.
Written By: Chad J. Treadway | April 06, 2026
Chad is a Partner and our Chief Smarketing Officer. He will help you survey your small business needs, educating you on your options before suggesting any solution. Chad is passionate about rural marketing in the United States and North Carolina. He also has several certifications through HubSpot to better assist you with your internet and inbound marketing.
You're running routes, answering the phone between stops, quoting jobs from the truck, and somehow still expected to "do marketing" on top of all that. If you're a pest control business owner with a small team, the idea of adding one more thing to your plate probably sounds about as appealing as a termite swarm in a brand-new build. But here's the thing: AI tools aren't another thing on your plate. They're the thing that takes other things off your plate.
This isn't a post about self-driving robots replacing your technicians. It's about a handful of practical, affordable tools that can give you back hours every week; hours you're currently spending on admin work, follow-up, marketing, and all the stuff that keeps you at your desk instead of in the field (or at home with your family).
Written By: Chad J. Treadway | April 02, 2026
Chad is a Partner and our Chief Smarketing Officer. He will help you survey your small business needs, educating you on your options before suggesting any solution. Chad is passionate about rural marketing in the United States and North Carolina. He also has several certifications through HubSpot to better assist you with your internet and inbound marketing.
It's mid-February, and your calendar is about to shift. In roughly six weeks, the phones will start ringing more. In eight weeks, they'll be ringing nonstop. By April, you'll be turning away work or scrambling to fill routes with technicians who aren't trained yet.
This is the moment when most pest control companies make one of two choices: hire proactively while they still have time to train, or wait until March when desperation sets in. If you operate an 11–30 person team managing growth in a region with any real competition, you've probably lived through both scenarios. One works. One doesn't.
The hiring math in pest control is brutal. A technician hired in April isn't field-ready until early June. By then, peak season is already underway, and you've missed the Q2 surge that accounts for 26.4% of annual revenue. Meanwhile, marketing has been spending aggressively on lead generation since January. If you can't service those leads, your cost-per-acquisition explodes. Your team is burned out. Customers get longer wait times and less attentive service. And your profit margins, already thin at 58% gross margin for most operators, get squeezed further.
This post walks through the science and economics of proactive hiring, what actually attracts Gen Z talent to pest control roles, and how to onboard technicians fast enough to matter. We'll also show you why turnover is bleeding more money than you think, and how to fix it.
Written By: Adam Bennett | March 31, 2026
Adam is the president and founder of Cube Creative Design and specializes in private school marketing. Since starting the business in 2005, he has created individual relationships with clients in Western North Carolina and across the United States. He places great value on the needs, expectations, and goals of the client.
