How much does a pest control lead cost in 2026?
Shared leads run $15–60 per lead, exclusive leads $45–150 per lead, and commercial leads from Google Local Services Ads $40–75 per lead. Sources below.
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$149/month per territory. 14-day free trial, no card.Lead prices, with sources
| Lead | Price | Who else gets it | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shared leads | $15–60 per lead | Several firms | BuiltRight Digital (Apr 30, 2026), fetched Nov 7, 2026. Sells: marketing. |
| Angi | $25–50 per lead | Several firms | LeadTruffle 2026, via Pavado (not Angi's own price list), fetched Nov 7, 2026. Sells: CRM builds and lead generation. |
| Google Local Services Ads, commercial lead | $40–75 per lead | Calls: only you. A “Get competitive quotes” message goes to four firms at once, and each one pays. | Blue Grid Media, Mar 21, 2026, fetched Nov 7, 2026. Sells: marketing software. Who gets it: WebFX (Feb 23, 2026), fetched Nov 7, 2026. Sells: marketing. |
| Exclusive pay-per-lead | $45–150 per lead | Only you | ResultCalls 2026; BuiltRight Digital (Apr 30, 2026), fetched Nov 7, 2026. Sells: pay-per-call leads (ResultCalls), marketing (BuiltRight). |
Prices as published. Every source above sells marketing or leads itself. Bars show each range on one scale from zero.
An agency that runs your ads for you: $1,500–3,000/month (BuiltRight Digital (Apr 30, 2026), fetched Nov 7, 2026).
What does one new customer cost?
Divide the lead price by the share of leads that become customers. A shared lead costs less because the seller sends it to several firms, so you race to call first. For homeowner leads, 10–15% of shared ones become customers, against 30–50% of exclusive ones and about 50% from Local Services Ads.
| Price ÷ share that become customers | One new customer | |
|---|---|---|
| Local Services Ads | $25–60 per lead ÷ about 50% | $50 to $120 |
| Exclusive leads | $45–150 per lead ÷ 30–50% | $90 to $500 |
| Shared leads | $20–60 per lead ÷ 10–15% | $133 to $600 |
| pestcite | $149/month. No close rate yet. | $149 if the list wins you one account a month |
Our math. Each price is divided by the close rate the same source gives for it: ResultCalls 2026, fetched Nov 7, 2026. Sells: pay-per-call leads. These are homeowner leads. Commercial Local Services Ads leads cost more (table above), and no source here gives their close rate. pestcite has no close rate for records yet: the free trial (14 days, no card) is how you find out.
What is a commercial account worth?
A restaurant on a preventive pest contract pays $100–300/month.
That's $1,200 to $3,600 a year from one account. Source: The Restaurant Owner's Guide, a restaurant cash-advance site's blog, May 16, 2026, fetched Nov 7, 2026. Sells: restaurant cash advances.
Is a health inspection record a lead?
No. A lead is a person asking for service. A pestcite record is a business or building near you that a city health inspector wrote up, or a business that got a new food or child-care license. Nobody on the list asked you to call.
| A bought lead | A pestcite record | |
|---|---|---|
| Who starts it | The customer asks for service. | A city inspector writes up a place, or the city issues a license. |
| Who else gets it | Shared: several firms. Exclusive: only you. | Anyone can read public records. Territories are not exclusive. |
| What you get | A name and a phone number. | The place, the address, what the record says and its link. |
| How fresh | The person is asking now. | Records post late, so each Monday list is the newest complete week the city has posted. On Nov 8, 2026 that was Oct 26 – Nov 1, 2026. |
| Your move | Call back fast. | Pick who to contact, and how (below). |
What the records looked like over 4 weeks in Chicago: violation 38 (insects, rodents and animals) at 148 places. 44 were not restaurants, among them 17 grocery stores, 12 children's facilities, 4 schools and 3 hospitals. At 67 the inspector noted pests, and at 18 a missing or incomplete pest-control log. Other write-ups cover things like door gaps, proofing, worn glue boards or animals. Plus 104 new food or child-care licenses.
Chicago: City of Chicago, all ZIP codes, counted by the pestcite engine from city records, Oct 5 – Nov 1, 2026; data as of Nov 8, 2026. Records: Food Inspections, Business Licenses. How we count
In New York City: 751 restaurants with a map location in the city file were cited under codes 04K–04N (rats, mice, roaches, filth flies), and 2,077 privately owned commercial or 4+-unit apartment buildings failed a rat inspection for rat activity. A few cited restaurants have no map location in the city file, so this count and lists by area leave them out. NYC citations are not final; some are dismissed later.
New York City: New York City, five boroughs, counted by the pestcite engine from city records, Oct 5 – Nov 1, 2026; data as of Nov 8, 2026. Records: DOHMH New York City Restaurant Inspection Results, Rodent Inspection, Primary Land Use Tax Lot Output. How we count
Using a record without sounding like an ambulance chaser
- Start with new licenses and non-restaurants. A new license is a place to welcome, with no citation to bring up.
- Open the record before you call. Check the date, the result, the inspector's words and any later clean inspection. Don't say a place has pests unless the record says so.
- Offer help, not blame. A missing log book is paperwork you can fix for them. If you email, CAN-SPAM covers business email too.
More in Is it legal to use these records? and the words we don't use. Not legal advice.
Lists of businesses, and what they cost
A list names businesses, not people asking for service. You make the first contact.
| List | Price | What's in it | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Restaurant Activity Report | from $99/month per trade area | Restaurants before they open: leases signed, ownership changes. No health citations. | Restaurant Activity Report product page, fetched Nov 7, 2026 |
| Food Industry News list | $375/year about $31.25 a month | New and changing Chicagoland food businesses, once a month. No citations. | Food Industry News, fetched Nov 7, 2026 |
| Apify inspection rows | $10 per 1,000 rows | Raw restaurant inspection rows from NYC, Chicago and other cities. You filter and check them. | Apify Store listing, fetched Nov 7, 2026 |
| City open data | Free | The same records pestcite uses, unsorted and unchecked. | Where the data comes from |
| pestcite | $149/month per territory | Insects-and-rodents write-ups near you plus new Chicago licenses, every Monday, sorted and checked: pests noted kept apart from door gaps and log books, the inspector's words, the license holder or owner of record, chains marked, later clean inspections shown. Each with its record link. | Pricing |
What does pestcite cost?
$149/month per territory. Founding firms pay $79/month for 12 months. 14-day free trial, no card. A territory is one area in Chicago or New York City: a circle around your shop (1, 2, 3, 5 or 10 miles) or a set of ZIP codes.
- $149/month is the price of 2 to 3.7 commercial Local Services Ads leads, 1 to 3.3 exclusive leads, or 2.5 to 9.9 shared leads.
- Chicago: our test areas had a median of 7.5 records a week (fewest 1, most 22), about 33 a month. That's about $5 a record.
- New York City: a median of 90.5 records a week (fewest 1, most 152), about 392 a month. That's about $0.38 a record. Citywide, 2,170 of the 2,921 NYC records over 4 weeks were buildings that failed a rat inspection.
- A record is not a lead: nobody on the list asked for service. Win 1 to 2 restaurant contracts and the territory pays for itself.
Which test areas?
Chicago: 3 mi around ZIP 60622, 3 mi around ZIP 60640, 3 mi around ZIP 60617, 3 mi around ZIP 60644.
New York City: 2 mi around ZIP 10027, 2 mi around ZIP 10002, 2 mi around ZIP 11211, 2 mi around ZIP 10456, 3 mi around ZIP 11354, 3 mi around ZIP 10301.
Every complete week each area's list has had. A slow week costs more per record than the median.
Test areas: pestcite engine lists for test territories in Chicago and New York City, every published complete week, Sep 28 – Nov 1, 2026; data as of Nov 8, 2026. Records: Food Inspections, Business Licenses, DOHMH New York City Restaurant Inspection Results, Rodent Inspection. How we count