Search for commercial bed bug heat treatment equipment, and PestPro Thermal Systems tends to show up without a “Sponsored” tag next to it. No bid, no ad spend behind the placement — just the result of search engines deciding, on their own, that the page deserves to be there. Some of the vendors around us paid for their spot.
That’s not a boast. It’s an observation worth sitting with if you’re the one signing the purchase order.
Imitation, and what it actually signals
There’s a well-worn line about imitation being the sincerest form of flattery. Usually it’s said lightheartedly. But there’s a more literal, economic version of that idea, and it comes from a Duke University economist named Ryan McDevitt.
Years ago, McDevitt noticed something odd in the Yellow Pages: an unusual number of plumbing companies named things like “AAA Plumbing,” “A-1 Plumbing,” and “AAAA Sewer and Drain.” He spent the better part of two years calling plumbers across Chicago to find out whether the name games said anything about the work behind them.
They did. The firms that stacked their names with A’s to land at the top of an alphabetical listing were, on average, pricier and lower-rated than the firms that didn’t bother.
The same pattern, on Google
McDevitt later asked the same question about a more modern version of the same move — paying for the top spot instead of earning it — and published the results in the Journal of Political Economy. The gap he found was stark: paid-placement plumbers averaged more than 13 times the Better Business Bureau complaints of plumbers who didn’t advertise, and their Yelp ratings landed nearly a full star lower.
The standard economic theory says advertising should signal confidence — a company sure of its work can afford to pay for visibility. McDevitt’s data tells a different story. Often, it’s the companies with something to make up for that spend the most trying to get in front of you first.
What that means when you’re buying equipment, not a plumbing visit
We’re not plumbers, and heat treatment equipment isn’t a same-day emergency call. But the underlying logic isn’t really about plumbing — it’s about what earns attention versus what buys it.
When a pest control company, hotel group, senior living facility, or procurement office searches for commercial bed bug heat treatment equipment, what comes up organically has usually earned that placement over years — real customers, real reviews, a track record search engines can verify independently. What comes up as a paid placement bought that same square inch of the page today, regardless of how long the company has been around or how the last job actually went.
That doesn’t make every paid listing a red flag. Plenty of good companies advertise. But it’s a data point worth weighing alongside the others when you’re vetting who builds the equipment that’s going to run in your buildings.
What we’d suggest looking at instead
If you’re comparing bed bug heat treatment equipment vendors, a few things tend to tell you more than an ad ever will:
- How long they’ve actually been building equipment — not just marketing it. PestPro has been manufacturing commercial electric heat treatment systems in Fort Collins, Colorado since 2012.
- What existing customers say unprompted, in reviews rather than testimonials curated for a homepage.
- Whether the specs hold up to scrutiny — steel gauge cabinets vs plastic, BTU output, certifications — and whether the company will answer a technical question over the phone vs chatbots and email.
- How the company shows up when you’re not the one searching for them — in case studies and results that outlast any single ad campaign.
We’d rather earn a search result than buy one. If you want to see how our equipment holds up to that kind of scrutiny, our buyer’s guide walks through exactly what to check, and our page on how heat treatment actually works is a good place to start if you’re new to the category. Or just call us at 970-443-8119 and ask us anything you’d ask before writing the PO.
Sources: Ryan C. McDevitt, “‘A’ Business by Any Other Name: Firm Name Choice as a Signal of Firm Quality,” Journal of Political Economy, 2014. Further listening: Freakonomics Radio, Episode 522, “Is Google Getting Worse?”