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 | Tuesday, 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 | Monday, 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.
Picture this: it is the last week of April, and your inbox is overflowing with field trip permission slips, end-of-year concert logistics, and a dozen things that all feel urgent. In the middle of that chaos, you fire off a quick email to parents about summer dates and call it done. Sound familiar? For many private school administrators, the final weeks of school become a communication sprint focused entirely on logistics, and the messages that actually matter for retention get lost in the shuffle.
Here is the thing about end-of-year parent communication: it is not just about making sure everyone knows when the last day of school is. Research from Harvard's Graduate School of Education, conducted by Kraft and Dougherty, found that frequent, intentional teacher-family communication increased the odds of homework completion by 42% and reduced instances of off-task behavior by 25%. If regular communication during the school year has that kind of impact, imagine what happens when it stops cold on the last day of school. The silence between May and August is when schools lose families they did not even know were on the fence.
Written By: Chad J. Treadway | Monday, 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 in April, and suddenly you're facing board questions about next year's marketing budget. Did your website drive enrollments? Which channels worked? What should you double down on, and what was just noise?
If you're like most private school administrators, you probably didn't track these answers in real time. You've got enrollment numbers, sure. But which marketing efforts actually moved the needle? That's the difference between a marketing report (here's what we did) and a marketing review (here's what worked and why).
This post walks you through how to conduct a meaningful annual marketing review—the kind that turns last year's data into next year's strategy.
Written By: Adam Bennett | Sunday, April 05, 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.