Pete's Pest Patrol crushed July on Instagram.
July 2026 monthly recap — views, reach, follower growth, top-performing content, and what it means for the August plan.
The July Scorecard
A new record month — and this time the growth is on a real base, not a near-zero one. The account leaned hard into reels (11 of them), and reach expanded well beyond the existing audience.
How Views Built Through the Month
Cumulative views tracked well ahead of June for the entire month, then accelerated in the final ten days as the reel volume compounded — roughly 2.5× June's pace by month end.
Top Content: the batting-cage reel
Adam's "Give Pete's Pest a Call" reel out-performed every other piece of content in July. It's the proven formula: Adam on camera, a memorable local hook, and a bold call-to-action stamped on screen.
Pest a Call
Instagram credited the on-screen text for the performance. Every reel should keep working with the sound off — bold captions are now a standing rule.
What the Numbers Mean
The growth is now on a real base. June's headline percentages were inflated by a near-zero May. July's +143% is measured against a genuine 4K month, so it reflects real momentum rather than a low-baseline optical effect.
Reels are the engine. The account shipped 11 reels (up from 3) and pushed non-follower reach to 71% of all views. That's the algorithm actively serving the content to new audiences across Athens — exactly what a local service business wants.
One reel did a lot of the work. The batting-cage reel alone pulled 3.7K views — more than a third of the month's total — and converted 4 new followers. When a format hits like that, the play is to repeat it, not move on.
One watch-out: feed posts dropped to a single post in July. Reels drive reach, but a couple of feed posts a month keep the profile looking active and searchable when a new viewer taps through to decide whether to follow or call.
Recommendations for August
The August plan holds the posting rhythm while keeping the feed engaging. These five moves protect the momentum and turn more of that reach into followers and calls.
Mix humor with the educational posts
Blend lighter, funnier content in with the how-to and pest-education posts so the feed stays entertaining, not just informative. To anchor it, we'll launch a once-weekly recurring series — a familiar, repeatable format followers can look forward to each week — to build the habit of coming back.
Add a follow prompt to convert reach into followers
71% of viewers are non-followers, but only 34 followed. End each reel with a one-line reason to follow ("Follow for weekly Athens pest tips") and pin a comment with the free inspection offer and (706) 967-3833.
Reuse the winning format
Adam on camera + bold on-screen CTA was the top performer two months running. Keep that structure as the default template for high-priority reels.
Bring back one feed post a week
July ran almost entirely on reels. A weekly feed post — a review, a job photo, a team moment — gives new visitors a reason to trust and follow when they land on the profile.
Cross-pollinate with the Pest Report newsletter
Starting this month, each edition of the weekly newsletter (Pete's Pest Report) will feature that week's top-performing Instagram post — putting the best content in front of the email audience and pulling those subscribers back to the profile to follow and engage. That email audience also seeds each new post's first-hour reach.
Pete's Pest Report
The month at a glance
Across four weekly sends we reached about 7,100 delivered inboxes. Opens held in a solid range, but the real story is clicks — people are seeing the emails, they're just not being given a strong enough reason to act. That's the biggest opportunity heading into next month.
Opens are respectable for a weekly list, but 15 clicks out of 1,000+ opens tells us the emails are informative — not persuasive. That's the fixable part, and it's where we'll focus.
Campaign by campaign
| Campaign | Sent | Delivered | Open | Click | CTOR | Bounce | Unsub |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Week of July 12Sun, Jul 12 · 5:00 pm | 1,826 | 1,806 | 13.4% 242 |
0.22% 4 |
1.65% | 1.1% | 0.89% |
| Week of July 19Sun, Jul 19 · 2:00 pm | 1,794 | 1,788 | 10.6% 189 |
0.17% 3 |
1.59% | 0.33% | 0.73% |
| Week of July 26 Top sendSun, Jul 26 · 2:00 pm | 1,780 | 1,774 | 22.5% 400 |
0.28% 5 |
1.25% | 0.34% | 1.1% |
| Week of August 2Sat, Aug 1 · 5:00 pm | 1,761 | 1,757 | 13.2% 232 |
0.17% 3 |
1.29% | 0.23% | 0.68% |
| 4 sends | 7,161 | 7,125 | 14.9% | 0.21% | 1.41% | 0.51% | 0.86% |
CTOR (click-to-open rate) = of the people who opened, how many clicked. It's the cleanest read on whether the content earns action, since it ignores everyone who never opened.
Open rate, send by send
Reading the numbers right
One thing worth flagging before we draw conclusions: each campaign has had a different amount of time to collect opens. Mailchimp shows every send's stats through August 6, so the July 12 email has had 25 days to accumulate opens, while the August 2 email has had only 5.
That actually makes July 26 more impressive, not less — it hit 22.5% in just 11 days, while the July 12 send only reached 13.4% with more than double the time. And the August 2 send is already at 13.2% after less than a week, so it will likely climb. The takeaway: most opens land in the first few days, and July 26 genuinely outperformed the rest.
This is only month two of emailing this list, so it's still self-selecting: people are deciding whether weekly pest updates are for them. A little churn right now is completely expected — it's the list settling into its regulars, and it actually leaves Pete with a more engaged audience over time. We'll keep an eye on it, but it's not a concern.
What's working & where to push
What's working
- July 26 was a standout. 400 opens / 22.5% — nearly double the other sends. Whatever the subject line and timing did that week, we want to repeat it.
- Deliverability is healthy. After a higher first send (1.1%), bounces settled to 0.2–0.3% — well under the 2% danger line. The emails are landing in inboxes.
- The list is a real asset. ~1,800 local contacts is a genuinely valuable channel for a service business — it just needs sharper calls to action.
- The habit is forming. A dependable weekly report trains the audience to expect Pete in their inbox — exactly the foundation we build clicks on top of.
Where to push
- Clicks are the opportunity. 15 clicks across four sends — people are opening, they're just not being handed one clear thing to tap yet. That's exactly what the next section tackles.
- Send timing drifted. Sun 5pm, Sun 2pm, Sun 2pm, then Sat 5pm. Locking one consistent slot makes weeks comparable and trains the audience.
- Keep feeding the list. It dipped slightly this month as it settles — steady new sign-up sources will turn net growth positive again.
Two easy ways to earn more clicks
The fastest way to grow clicks is to give readers something worth tapping. Two additions we can roll into the weekly report right away:
Add a "Follow Pete" ask
Drop clear Facebook and Instagram follow buttons into every send. It gives openers an easy, low-commitment thing to tap — and it quietly grows Pete's social audience at the same time, so the email keeps working as a follower engine even when someone isn't ready to book yet.
Payoff: more clicks now, a bigger social following over time, and a second channel to reach the same customers.
Launch a referral → "Request a quote"
Add a simple referral offer with one bold button: refer a neighbor, they get a deal, Pete gets a new customer. Point that button straight to a Request a Quote form so a single click turns into a real lead — not just a page view.
Payoff: gives the email a genuine reason to click, rewards happy customers, and turns the list into a steady source of new quote requests.
The plan for next month
Five moves, in priority order. The first two are where the money is.
Give every email one clear job
Add a single, obvious button to each send — "Book a treatment," "Get a free quote," or "Refer a neighbor" — instead of general news. One strong CTA beats five scattered links, and it targets that 1.4% click-to-open rate directly.
Reverse-engineer July 26
That send more than doubled the others. We'll pull the exact subject line and preview text, figure out what clicked with the audience, and A/B test subject lines weekly to keep pushing opens up.
Lock one consistent send time
Pick a single slot (recommend Sunday afternoon, our best performer) and hold it. Consistency trains the audience and lets us compare week over week cleanly.
Keep feeding the list
Add steady sign-up sources — a website capture form, a QR code on trucks and invoices, and a post-service subscribe-and-review ask — so the list grows faster than it naturally settles.
Track clicks as the headline metric
Because Apple hides real opens, we'll report clicks and CTOR as the primary KPIs going forward, with a first goal of getting click-to-open above 3%.