When consumers need legal help, a large chunk of them turn to their favourite search engine, Google.
Consumers are shopping around more and using digital platforms ever more to find a trusted law firm.
When your potential clients search for your services, what's the first thing they see?
Pay-per-click ads.
It's Google's bread and butter and they make a heck of a lot of money from them!
Law firms spend millions annually on Google Ads to be the first in line for important keywords.
To scale Google ads profitably, you need a certain level of know-how and experience - and most solicitors don't have it.
Tire kickers can ruin Google Ads campaigns for law firms, which is why it's so important to work with the right people.
You want to avoid having thousands of people click your ads who have little intention of instructing you to help them.
Getting thousands of clicks from tire kickers is worse than having no clicks at all — at least you're not wasting thousands of dollars on the latter.
Working with a search engine marketing agency that specialises in working with law firms is the best solution.
Table of Contents
1. The importance of Google Ads (PPC) for law firms
2. Projecting results from a legal PPC campaign
3. How to build a successful PPC campaign for your law firm
4. Fill your pipeline with qualified leads using PPC
The demand is there - there are thousands of people searching for your services on search engines like Google.
But so are your competitors.
And like you, many law firms struggle to gain traction with PPC campaigns and either continue with the slow burn strategy. Or drop out of the ad game, rendering it a waste of time and money.
This couldn't be further from the truth.
Done wrong, PPC ads can attract a ton of the wrong traffic. But done right, PPC ads attract people who are ready to hire an attorney now.
Nothing delivers warm (or even hot) leads for lawyers like a properly managed PPC campaign.
For example, using a long-tail keyword targeting Tampa can bring you 840 clicks and 84 conversions per month.
Then in North Charleston, you can get 19 clicks and two conversions per month.
Both have a conversion rate of 10%. But since one is a major city, and the other has a smaller market, the actual numbers are lower, which is expected.
You can also see the cost per conversion is much lower in North Charleston — $92 vs. $473. So your location plays a significant role in your results.
But this doesn't mean they're completely outside of your control. There's a way to get better overall numbers - we'll show you how.
You don't enter a courtroom without doing research and developing a game plan to win. And it should be the same for your pay-per-click campaigns.
Here's how we build a winning PPC game plan for law firms.
Building an ad campaign is simple: find keywords, create ads, and hit publish.
But this alone won't tell you what you need to know to improve campaign performance.
Key insights come from data gathered during the tracking stage.
For example, revealing which keywords perform best, so you can remove the others. No need to keep them if they're not generating money for your firm.
This is why we set up tracking and reporting that unveils:
Keyword research for PPC campaigns is different than an SEO campaign for law firms.
It requires deep market analysis to understand your target clients, competitors, and offer. This is the foundation for building a keyword list.
For example, typing in your legal service and city into Google will reveal competitors. Then you can analyse the keywords they use in their ads for inspiration.
The SERP also offers related searches insights that provide other keyword ideas.
For instance, when you type in "Personal Injury Solicitor London", you'll see this:
So if you're a PI solicitor in London, then you'll add these keywords to your list:
Then the related searches at the bottom of the SERPs reveal additional relevant keywords:
Here's a tip that most agencies don't give away for free - survey your clients to understand how they found your law firm, the services they needed, and the search terms they used.
Use this information to improve your campaign's ad creative, keyword selection, and location targeting.
Now, what converts a lead isn't the ad — it's the landing page it takes them to. Designing one for each market or ad group is key to turning clickers into callers.
It contains all the key sections:
Almost all the elements that make up a proper landing page. The one thing missing is social proof (e.g., Review Solicitor reviews, testimonials).
Tooting your own horn will only convince the few. So if you have online reviews, highlight them on your landing page.
Don't send high-value traffic to pages that aren't setup for leads. You might as well burn the cash you're spending.
Google Ads for lawyers only works when all of the key ingredients are there, and the landing page is one of the most important things.
There's not a lot going on with search engine ads. There are no images — just a few lines of text. It's all up to your copywriting skills to capture attention and persuade action.
The way we achieve this is by matching the intent of the searcher in the ad. Some are looking for an "affordable" attorney (possibly with payment plans), while others desire an attorney with similar cases won.
Your target clients' needs dictate the copy of the ad. For example, those looking for a history of won cases will likely click on a PPC ad that says something like:
"PI Solicitor with a 90% case win rate."
Where do you get the intel to include in your ad copy?
The customer research (e.g., surveys, interviews, reviews) you performed in step two.
All that's left to do now is launch your ad campaign.
Remember, you're tracking the results of your initial campaigns to learn more about keyword selection. Understanding which keywords deliver high-quality leads take time, which is why we run sprints to speed up the elimination process.
When setting up your Google ad campaigns, create separate ad groups that connect to specific landing pages.
These ad groups can target specific locations, legal services, or audiences (e.g., retired elderly vs. business owners).
Now that you have the strategy to improve your PPC ads, you have two options: continue doing it yourself, hoping to eventually improve results.
Or you can work with us to do it for you.
The latter ensures you get the best return for your investment in pay-per-click ads. Because if anyone understands the costly rates of lawyer-related keywords, it's us.
Legal advertising is what we do, so our strategies are specifically designed to drive quality traffic to your law firm.
If you're interested in learning more about our process, book a call with us today.
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