The data behind every diagnostic.
No "trust us." Here's what we benchmark against, where the math comes from, and what a real engagement actually moved.
Pest control cost-per-lead vs. adjacent home-service verticals.
Cost-per-lead (CPL) is the price you pay to acquire one phone call or form fill from Google Ads, Meta Ads, or Local Services Ads — calculated as total ad spend ÷ total leads. Pest control CPL varies wildly by Quality Score and account structure. The ranges below are what we typically see in Canadian markets — not best-case, not worst-case.
| Vertical | Typical CPL (poor QS) | Typical CPL (strong QS) | Delta |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pest control | $92 | $34 | −63% |
| HVAC | $118 | $42 | −64% |
| Plumbing | $102 | $38 | −63% |
| Roofing | $148 | $56 | −62% |
| Auto repair | $71 | $24 | −66% |
Sources: WordStream industry benchmarks (Apr 2025–Mar 2026, n=13,474 accounts); Fill My Routes internal audit pool. "Strong QS" = average Quality Score ≥ 7 with separated ad groups by service. "Poor QS" = average QS ≤ 5 with consolidated ad groups.
Why a 4-point Quality Score swing moves pest control CPL by 50%+.
Quality Score (QS) is Google's 1-to-10 rating of how well your keyword, ad, and landing page match what the searcher actually wants. Google's ad auction is roughly: Bid × Quality Score = Ad Rank. Two pest control operators bidding the exact same amount on the same keyword in the same Canadian market will pay very different prices depending on QS. It is the single highest-leverage lever in any Google Ads account, and the one most operators have never looked at — the QS column is hidden by default.
| Quality Score | Effective CPC modifier | Real-world CPC on "pest control Toronto" | Cost per 100 clicks |
|---|---|---|---|
| QS 4 | 1.0× (baseline) | $8.20 | $820 |
| QS 6 | 0.55× | $4.51 | $451 |
| QS 8 | 0.33× | $2.71 | $271 |
| QS 10 | 0.20× | $1.64 | $164 |
Modelled from Google Ads CPC ÷ QS curve, validated against Fill My Routes audit pool. Assumes constant conversion rate; CPL drops proportionally with CPC at fixed conversion rate.
This is why "spend more on ads" almost never fills the route. Adding budget at QS 4 just buys more expensive clicks. The work is to move the QS first, then decide whether to add budget — usually the rebuild alone fills 80% of the open slots without a budget bump.
What a rebuild looks like, 90 days in.
The setup (a modelled composite of the accounts we audit — not a single client's books): an owner-operated pest control company in Southwestern Ontario. Two trucks, four technicians, running Google Ads on their own for 18 months.
Going in:
- Monthly ad spend: $3,200
- Average CPL: $89
- Booked stops per month from ads: ~22
- Route capacity utilization: 72% (weekly average)
- Quality Score (account average): 4.4
- Ad group structure: 1 ad group, 28 keywords, all services
What the diagnostic found:
- "Quarterly pest plan" and "wasp removal" were buried in broad match. Both were converting 4× higher than the rest of the keyword set, at a third of the CPL.
- Conversion tracking was double-counting form submissions and missing all calls (the channel that drives most pest control bookings).
- Landing page form had 9 fields, including "preferred treatment date" on a service most customers wanted same-day.
- GBP service list missing 5 of the operator's top revenue lines (including the high-margin "bed bug treatment" and "wildlife exclusion" services).
90 days after the rebuild:
- Monthly ad spend: $3,200 (unchanged)
- Average CPL: $36 (−60%)
- Booked stops per month from ads: 53 (+141%)
- Route capacity utilization: 94% (weekly average)
- Quality Score (account average): 7.8
- Ad group structure: 7 ad groups, separated by service line
No new spend. No new trucks. Same operator, same crew, same market. Account structure + Quality Score lift + landing-page friction reduction + GBP completion. The route filled itself. Modelled example: the numbers are drawn from WordStream benchmark ranges and the audit-pool patterns documented on this site — a real engagement gets its own before/after.
What we don't promise.
Every account is different. Some are already well-structured and only need GBP and tracking work. Some are leaking from every joint and the rebuild takes the full 90 days to show in the numbers. We won't quote you a CPL number until we've actually seen your account.
What we will promise: the diagnostic is honest. If your account doesn't have meaningful upside, we'll tell you that, in writing, and you'll keep the document.
Want context first? Read the five patterns we find most often, or see how the engagement works after the audit.