The Website Mistake That Wastes Thousands in Ad Spend

The number one mistake Raphael sees across pest control companies is website structure, and it has nothing to do with design. Companies will create a website with different pages for different services, which sounds right. But then they only have one generic contact form on a separate contact page.

Here's the problem. Someone clicks your ad for termite control, reads your termite page, then has to navigate to a generic contact page to reach out. You get the lead, but you have no idea what service they actually want. Maybe they clicked the termite ad but they're actually contacting you about rats because they noticed you also handle that. From a tracking perspective, you're completely blind.

As Raphael explained, "You don't know what service type they're after, which ones are doing well. They perhaps came in through a termite keyword but instead they decided to contact regarding rats because they noticed that they also had a rat problem. These things don't make it easy to basically succeed in Google ads."

The fix is simple but most companies miss it. You need a contact form for each service type with tracking inserted for that specific service. That way you can actually see what service types are performing, what your cost per lead is for each service, and optimize based on real data instead of guessing.

This seems obvious when Raphael explains it, but I see this mistake constantly. Companies spend thousands on ads without being able to track which services are actually converting. You can't optimize what you can't measure.

The Account Structure That Works Across Markets

After working with Rentokil across the US, Europe, South America, and even Asia, Raphael developed a standard account structure that consistently performs. This isn't some theoretical framework. This is battle-tested across different markets, different budgets, and different brand sizes.

The structure starts with a brand campaign to protect your brand name. A lot of people don't want to pay for brand clicks, but if you're not ranking number one organically, you need to run brand ads. Competitors could be bidding on your brand and stealing customers without you knowing it. Raphael sees this all the time with Rentokil because they're such a big name.

Next, you have a generic Performance Max campaign that goes to the main homepage and covers all service areas. A lot of people hate Performance Max because they feel like they don't have control, but Raphael's found it works extremely well in pest control. The key is keeping it generic and not trying to make it service-specific, which tends to result in higher cost per acquisition.

Then you split campaigns by service type. This is critical. Don't just throw all your service keywords into one campaign. Have a generic pest control campaign, then separate campaigns for termites, rats, mosquitoes, whatever services you're pushing. That way you can optimize within each service campaign and actually know what's working.

Raphael also runs display campaigns to show image ads on websites related to pest control. The performance varies by market (display crushes it in Asia but search performs better in Europe), but having it in the mix gives you more coverage.

Within each service campaign, Raphael splits keywords by funnel stage: upper funnel (how to get rid of rats), mid funnel (what's needed to get rid of rats), and lower funnel (rat control services). You don't know what will convert until you test it, so you want coverage across intent levels, especially if you have the budget.

The genius of this structure is it forces proper tracking and optimization. You immediately know which services are performing, which funnel stages convert, and where to shift budget.

Why First Month Budget Needs to Be Expendable

One of the biggest questions Raphael gets from prospects is "how much should I spend?" His answer surprises people. The first month budget needs to be money you're comfortable spending without expecting results.

That sounds crazy until you understand what the first month actually is. It's testing. You're figuring out which keywords work, which locations convert, which devices perform better, what time of day gets leads. You're spreading budget across all these variables to collect data.

As Raphael put it, "First month generally is for testing what works, what doesn't work, where would you get more leads from, where can we push the budget, test different campaigns, different keywords. So it's basically enough budget that you wouldn't spend where you're not expecting results."

If you need immediate ROI from every dollar, you're going to micromanage and make too many changes too fast. You won't give anything time to work. The companies that succeed are the ones that commit to testing properly in month one, then use that data to optimize aggressively in months two and three.

Raphael recommends at least $2,000 to $3,000 per month to run the full account structure. If you have a smaller budget, he'll ask which top two or three services you want to focus on rather than trying to spread too thin across six different services.

The Optimization Schedule That Actually Produces Results

During the first week, Raphael is in the account almost daily because things are all over the place. Certain keywords eat budget quickly and need to be paused immediately so other keywords get a chance. The budget needs to spread out across ad groups, keywords, locations, and devices.

After that first week, he shifts to weekly optimizations. He's checking where budget is going. If mobile is spending more but bringing fewer leads at higher cost than desktop, he lowers mobile bids. If certain cities are wasting budget, he makes bid adjustments. If certain keywords are converting, he looks for similar search terms to add.

The key is not making too many changes once you get past the initial week. Raphael emphasized this multiple times. Some people make hundreds of changes every couple days, then wonder why nothing's working. You need to give optimizations time to take effect before making the next change.

What happens if you never optimize? You could be way overspending for the leads you get. You're showing up for irrelevant searches. You're not showing up in front of the people you actually want to reach. Unless you want to make the most of your budget, you won't get optimal results.

The metrics Raphael focuses on are simple: where is money being wasted, and what's the cost per acquisition for the leads you're getting. He's not obsessing over quality scores or ad strength. If the CTR is above 5%, he doesn't care much about the ad itself. He's focused on keywords, regions, devices, and search terms for new opportunities.

The Performance Max Strategy That Actually Works

Performance Max gets a lot of hate in the Google Ads community because you can't control much. But Raphael's found it works extremely well for pest control with the right approach.

First, never go more than 20% of budget on Performance Max. It's a supplement, not your main strategy.

Second, keep it generic and send it to your main website, not service-specific pages. Raphael's noticed that service-specific Performance Max campaigns tend to result in higher cost per acquisition. The generic approach converts better.

Third, use the one optimization lever you have: location exclusions. You can't exclude cities within regular campaign locations, but you can in Performance Max. If Austin is eating a third of your Texas budget without bringing leads, exclude Austin and let the budget flow to other cities. This single tactic has brought down cost per lead and increased lead volume across Raphael's accounts.

For ad assets, Raphael uses the same copy from the brand campaign plus generic pest control images. He doesn't add videos because they haven't found it necessary. Leads aren't coming through YouTube anyway for pest control.

The beauty of this approach is it's simple and it works. Performance Max isn't some magic bullet, but it's a solid piece of the overall structure when you understand its role.

Why Buyer Intent Beats Everything for Pest Control

When it comes to ad platforms, Raphael is laser-focused on buyer intent. He wants to show up for people actively searching for pest control solutions right now. If he can dominate local service ads, the map pack, search ads, and organic results all at once, he's doing it.

He doesn't run much YouTube pre-roll because pest control is a solution people want immediately, not something they're thinking about while watching videos. The exception is remarketing to people who already visited the site. If someone was already shopping for pest control and then sees you again, they're more likely to click.

Facebook ads are decent because they're cheaper and good for branding and remarketing. But Raphael's core philosophy is simple: "I want my ads, if I'm putting money in, I want to get money back. That's the goal."

For pest control and home services, this means bottom-of-funnel keywords. People searching "pest control near me" or "get rid of termites" are ready to buy. That's where the ROI lives.

Raphael will run upper and mid-funnel keywords if there's budget to play with and the client wants to explore more opportunities. But if you're on a tight budget, focus exclusively on high-intent keywords. You'll waste less money and the testing period will be more predictable.

His favorite platform is Local Service Ads. If your business qualifies, you should absolutely be running them because the ROI is immediate and you get your money back from Google for unqualified calls. They're Google-guaranteed local services and they work.

For businesses just starting with ads, Raphael's advice is incredibly simple: run ads for your service and your location. "Pest control Miami. Exterminator Miami. Just run ads just for that and see if you get a return." Use phrase or exact match, not broad, and you'll figure out quickly whether it's working.

The Testing Period Truth Nobody Tells You

Something Raphael made crystal clear is that the first month is not about getting leads. It's about collecting data. You're running upper, mid, and lower funnel keywords to see what converts. You're tracking which cities bring leads. You're watching device performance. You're monitoring time of day patterns.

Some leads will come in the first week, usually. But you're not optimizing for volume yet. You're spreading budget around to learn.

After that first month, you start shifting. You lower bids on mobile if desktop converts better. You exclude cities wasting budget. You pause keywords that aren't performing. You add similar search terms for keywords that are converting.

The companies that fail are the ones that expect immediate results and make too many changes too fast. They see one day of low performance and panic. They change bids, swap ad copy, pause campaigns, all without giving anything time to work.

The companies that succeed understand this is a process. They commit proper budget for month one, they let the data accumulate, and they make smart adjustments based on what the data actually shows.

Raphael's been running ads for Rentokil across the entire world. He's seen every market, every budget level, every competitive landscape. The one constant is that testing properly in month one sets up success for months two, three, and beyond.

The International Insights That Changed Everything

Working with Rentokil across the US, Europe, South America, and Asia taught Raphael something fascinating: high-intent keywords don't translate the same way across languages and markets.

In the US, "termite control" is a high-intent search. Someone typing that is ready to buy. But if you translate "termite control" directly into Portuguese and use that keyword in Brazil, it might not work well at all. Maybe "how to get rid of termites" performs way better because that's how people actually search in that language.

Different markets also favor different campaign types. In Asia, display campaigns crushed it with cost per lead around $2 to $3, which shocked Raphael's team. They didn't believe the leads were real at first, but they were. In Europe, search campaigns perform better than display.

For copy, Raphael doesn't translate it himself. The internal teams handle that, or he uses tools like DeepL which are quite accurate. But the keywords require market-specific research because direct translation doesn't work.

His favorite markets to work with are Portugal, France, the US, and Australia because they're more predictable. The account structure works exactly as expected and results are consistent. Asia was more complicated but taught valuable lessons about testing different campaign types.

The core lesson is that the fundamental account structure (brand, Performance Max, service campaigns, display) works globally, but the execution details need to adapt to how each market actually searches and converts.

What to Do Before Spending a Single Dollar

Before Raphael will even work with a client, he gives them specific website improvements to make. If they have that contact form problem where everything funnels to one generic page, they need to fix it first. He wants each service to have its own contact form with proper tracking.

Why? Because he wants to bring results as soon as possible. That makes his agency look good and it helps the client. But if the website structure is broken, no amount of ad optimization will overcome it.

For pest control companies doing ads themselves or considering hiring an agency, Raphael's first recommendation is to audit your website structure. Can you track conversions by service type? Do you know if termite ads are bringing termite leads or if people are clicking termite ads but contacting you about something else?

Second, make sure your fundamentals are solid. Have a proper negative keyword list so you're not showing up for irrelevant searches. Set up bid adjustments by location so you're not wasting money in areas that don't convert. Split your campaigns properly instead of throwing everything into one bucket.

Third, use proper tracking. If you're tracking form fills, set up Google Tag Manager with a thank you page that has a different URL for each service type. It's not complicated. You just need a code on your website and you tell Google that URL change is a conversion.

The companies that succeed are the ones that get these basics right before trying to scale. The companies that fail are the ones that throw money at ads hoping something sticks without doing the foundational work.

My Main Takeaway

1. The biggest mistake pest control companies make with Google Ads has nothing to do with ad copy or bidding strategy. It's website structure. If you only have one generic contact form and you can't track which service types are converting, you're flying blind. You might be spending thousands on termite ads while all your actual conversions are coming from mosquito keywords, and you'd never know it. Every service type needs its own contact form with tracking set up so you can see what's actually working. You can't optimize what you can't measure, and most companies are wasting massive amounts of ad spend because they have no visibility into which services are performing. Fix your website structure before you spend another dollar on ads, or you're just throwing money away while your competitors who can actually track their data optimize circles around you.

   
   

2. The first month budget needs to be money you're comfortable spending without expecting immediate ROI because month one is pure testing. You're running upper, mid, and lower funnel keywords to see what converts. You're tracking which cities bring leads and which waste budget. You're monitoring whether mobile or desktop performs better. You're watching time of day patterns. You need at least $2,000 to $3,000 per month to run the full account structure properly, and if you have less budget, focus on your top two or three services instead of spreading too thin. The companies that fail are the ones expecting immediate results who make hundreds of changes every couple days without giving anything time to work. The companies that succeed commit proper testing budget for month one, let the data accumulate, then make smart adjustments based on what the data shows. After that first week of daily monitoring, shift to weekly optimizations and stop micromanaging.

   
   

3. Raphael's standard account structure works across every market because it forces proper tracking and covers all bases. Start with a brand campaign to protect your brand from competitors bidding on your name. Run a generic Performance Max campaign (no more than 20% of budget) that goes to your homepage. Split service campaigns by actual service type, not one giant campaign with all keywords mixed together. Add display campaigns for additional coverage. Within each service campaign, include upper funnel (how to get rid of X), mid funnel (what's needed to get rid of X), and lower funnel (X control services) keywords so you can test across intent levels. This structure has driven over $60 million in sales across the US, Europe, South America, and Asia. It works regardless of brand size because it's built on fundamentals that Google rewards: proper tracking, logical organization, and the ability to optimize at a granular level.

   
   

4. Performance Max campaigns work extremely well for pest control if you use them correctly, despite all the hate they get in the ads community. Never exceed 20% of total budget on Performance Max. Keep it generic and send traffic to your main homepage, not service-specific pages, because service-specific Performance Max tends to result in higher cost per acquisition. Use the same ad copy from your brand campaign plus generic pest control images, and don't bother with video because leads aren't coming through YouTube anyway. The one optimization lever you have is location exclusions, and it's powerful. If a city is eating budget without bringing leads, exclude it and let the budget flow to converting cities. This single tactic has consistently brought down cost per lead and increased lead volume across Raphael's accounts. Performance Max isn't magic, but it's a solid supplement to your core search campaigns when you understand its role and limitations.

   
   

5. For pest control specifically, focus almost entirely on buyer intent keywords and platforms because pest control is a solution people need immediately, not something they're casually thinking about. If you can dominate local service ads, the map pack, search ads, and organic results for "pest control near me" and service-specific terms, do it. Don't waste money on YouTube pre-roll or broad Facebook campaigns unless it's for remarketing to people who already visited your site. Raphael's philosophy is simple: if you're putting money in, you want money back, and that means targeting people actively searching for your service right now. Upper and mid-funnel keywords are fine if you have budget to explore opportunities, but if you're on a tight budget, stick exclusively to high-intent searches. Local Service Ads should be your first priority if you qualify because you get immediate ROI and Google refunds you for unqualified calls. For businesses just starting, run simple campaigns for your service plus location using phrase or exact match, see what happens, and scale from there.

You can find Raphael Sterk at pestadsagency.com (that's "pests" plural), where he's launching a free downloadable ebook this month with tips and tools for improving Google Ads performance for pest control companies. You can also connect with him on LinkedIn. Raphael's also a published author who wrote "Digital Marketing Careers 101" to help people break into the industry without spending years in university. His approach is practical, data-driven, and focused on fundamentals that actually produce results rather than chasing the latest shiny tactics.