Proven PPC services for Lawyers

Local Service Ads give law firms a chance to appear above everything else on search engine results pages, including the standard Google Ads, local map pack, and organic results whenever people are searching for a lawyer in your area.

Local ads are a pay-per-lead model rather than a pay-per-click, meaning you only pay if someone directly contacts you. It’s one of the more cost effective PPC advertising platforms than Google Ads, especially if your law firm is targeting a specific location.

Local ads involve a verification process by Google because they will give you a “Google guaranteed” seal of approval, making your firm more trustworthy in the eyes of prospective clients.

In terms of paid ads, law is one of the most competitive industries out there. The words “lawyer” and “attorney” are in the list of the top 10 most expensive relevant keywords in search engines.

Digital marketing agencies have the experience and expertise to create and manage a law firm’s PPC campaigns. They know how to research relevant keywords, write ad copy, and track results.

PPC ads for lawyers is a highly competitive field. With average cost-per-click rates of $6 for the legal industry, a poorly-prepared paid ads campaign can be a colossal waste of money for your law firm.

This is why we recommend hiring dedicated specialists who ensure that none of your law firm’s ad spend is squandered.

Paid ads and SEO are both aiming for the same result – putting your law firm at the top of search engine results.

SEO helps your legal practice rank organically, without any ad spend, but results can take months or even years, so it’s an effective long-term strategy for any ambitious business.

PPC has a much quicker effect than SEO. It bypasses Google’s organic rankings and puts you right at the top of search engine results.

It shouldn’t be a case of choosing one or the other. PPC can be an invaluable means of getting ahead of the competition, but ambitious business owners can’t afford to neglect SEO.

1. Conduct Competitive Research & Differentiate Yourself

We said before how competitive the legal industry is in SEO and keyword bidding, so you need to find other ways to make your law firm unique. You can start by checking out your competition. 

Search keywords in your local area to see what ads appear. 

So what can you do?

• Create relevant calls-to-action that inspire visitors to act immediately.
• Implement all ad extensions to get as many search engine spotlights on your website as possible. Look at the extensions of your competitors (if they’re using them) and make yours better. Location, call, sitelink, callout, and review extensions are all great ones to utilize.
• Emphasize what makes your law firm the best choice. Does your law firm offer free consultations or have 24 hour customer service? You need to give potential clients a good reason to choose your law firm over your rivals across the street. A unique offering or a great reputation, find your strengths and inform your visitors.

An extra tip to bear in mind – don’t go down the rabbit hole when you are analyzing the competition. You can spend countless hours trying to work out how much your rivals are spending and which keywords they’re bidding on. There’s no way to gain access to their account data, although SEO specialists use tools and apps that can estimate these things with a much lower margin of error. A good piece of advice is to look at their PPC ads and make yours better.

2. Make Sure Your Geo-targeting is Set Up Correctly

Okay, so this seems like stating the obvious, but you’d be surprised by how many law firms are targeting the wrong regions.

Research has shown that 46% of Google searches are with local intent, so you need to make sure your law offices are showing up in searches in areas where your practice covers.

Dig into the area to figure out the exact scale that makes the most sense to advertise across (city, county, state, or nationwide).

If you have multiple locations, you should give each of them their own PPC ad campaigns so you can target as accurately as possible.

To set up your location targeting in Google Ads, go to the “Settings” tab, then “Locations,” then select city, region or zip code, or fine tune it further by clicking “Advanced Search,” and target by radius.

With each click costing a fair amount of cash, you don’t want to make the mistake of targeting the wrong location! 

3. Make Your Ads Speak to your target audience

Relevance is vital for any industry, but in law it can make or break your PPC ad campaign. If you pay per click at the wrong stage of the customer’s journey, you will see your advertising budget evaporate fast. 

The process of hiring a lawyer can involve a lot of intensive research for many, but for others the decision can be made almost on the spot.

To take an example, think about a case where you’re suing someone. You’re hopefully not going to grab your phone, jump on Google, make a call, and hire the first firm you see. You’re more likely to shop around before making a choice, doing a little research, comparing prices and lawyer backgrounds and so on. In other cases, like a divorce or other legal matters that have more urgency, lawyers can be hired a lot faster.

So what you need to do is structure your account to ensure your keywords, ads, and landing pages match the searcher’s intent. If they need more nurturing, do it with quality content that gives them a reason to come back to your site, and when they are ready to commit you will have a much better chance of having them choose you over other lawyers in the area.

4. Prioritize Phone Calls 

Calls are crucial. For law firm PPC ad campaigns, mobile can absolutely not be ignored. There are already more mobile searches occurring on Google than there are on laptops & desktops. Desktop or mobile, every law firm needs a system set up to receive phone calls no matter if it comes through desktop landing pages or call-only mobile ads.

What steps can you take to get more phone calls to your law office through PPC advertising?

• Call-only campaigns: These new campaign formats were released in early 2021 and really make a difference in pushing more phone calls to businesses from mobile searches. Call-only campaigns replace the link directing searchers to a landing page with a phone number. This gets straight to a real, live person or lawyer through search engine results, eliminating the need for clicks on your landing page. 

• Call extensions: Call extensions provide one more way of getting your phone number out there in search results, The more ways potential clients have of contacting you, the better.

• Track calls: Regardless of where the call is coming from, you need a system in place to track calls. Tracking each call back to the source is an important way of understanding what is working in your law firm’s ad campaign. With enough information gathered, you can then adjust your strategy and advertising budget accordingly.
• 24/7 answering service: It can be an automated answering service or a dedicated out-of-hours team to take calls. It’s vital to your firm’s reputation that you respond to calls and enquiries promptly, so any system where you don’t respond or take weeks to get back to people will hurt your law practice.

5. Use Videos on Your PPC Landing Pages

In most instances where someone is searching for legal representation, trust is a huge issue. It takes a lot of faith to simply take someone else’s word that they have the solution to a searcher’s legal problems. 

Let’s face it, “Trust me, I’m a lawyer” is not a phrase that fills the general public with confidence. There needs to be a way of earning trust to convince them to convert, which is why videos play such an important role.

A quick video by one of your staff explaining what services your offer and how you can help prospects resolve their legal issues is a great way of adding a human touch and an air of approachability that so many law firms lack.

Customer testimonials are even more important in many ways. Hearing a good review from someone that your target audience can relate to is a surefire way of winning them over.

So don’t be overawed by the idea of producing videos because they can really help to convert the most hesitant of prospects.

6. Online Chat System

Each case is unique in its own way, and while your FAQ’s and videos may be generally informative, most clients will still have unanswered questions.

This is why it’s crucial to have a chat feature on your law firm’s landing page. There are also a lot of people who don’t like interaction on the phone, and prefer to chat online.

Chat systems do mean there can be a lot more clutter and activity on your website, but it is one more method by which people can get in touch with you. The more accessible you are to prospective clients, the more chance you have of them contacting you.

In addition to this, you get a lot of case-specific questions on chat systems, which allows you to showcase your legal expertise to searchers. 

7. Build a Brand Identity and Use Display Ads

Branding is one of those things that’s easy to neglect, especially if you are a busy lawyer attempting to market your firm instead of doing what you entered the legal profession for –  working on client cases.

Yet, in a busy market place, branding can really be the key to standing out in the industry. Unfortunately one of the cheapest and easiest ways to gain brand recognition is vastly underused. Yet recent research indicates that up to 95% of PPC spend is on search. While spending on search makes sense because clicks are cheap, display absolutely shouldn’t be overlooked from a brand standpoint.

Having a well-recognised brand makes it much easier to boost your firm’s online visibility against the competitors.

Commercials utilizing a memorable slogan with an instantly recognisable display are not to be underestimated. 

When targeting the most relevant searchers this can be used to show your ads to people who have already visited your site and are therefore most likely to need a lawyer.

Ad Position — There are several places where an ad can show up on a search engine results page (SERP). Ad position depends on your maximum bid and quality score.

Automatic Bidding — When setting up a PPC campaign, automatic bidding allows you to set a daily budget and let the platform’s AI automatically adjust your maximum bids on individual keywords.

Cost Per Click (CPC) – The average amount the advertiser pays for each click.

Click Through Rate (CTR) – The ratio of ad appearances to times visitors click through to your site.

Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) – The added cost of all the clicks it takes to net one client acquisition.

Conversion Rate (CVR) – The percentage of visitors who take action (sign-up for your email list, submit a contact form, etc.) after clicking your ad.

Manual Bidding – This allows you to set different bid amounts on individual keywords within an ad group.

Maximum CPC Bid – The highest amount you’re willing to pay for a click. This number, along with the quality score, will affect your ad position.

Quality Score (QS) – The score ensures advertisers create content that is relevant and valuable to searchers on Google. This forces advertisers to develop high-quality content and to only bid on relevant keywords.

The best thing for a lawyer to do is to treat Google AdWords like they would any other auction. Whether it’s an Andy Warhol painting or the top spot on Google, you have to work out how much cash you’re ready to splash before you raise your paddle to start bidding.

The idea is straightforward. Know your maximum CPC bid. Establish your target keywords. Look at the current CPC for that keyword. If it’s below your maximum spend, you should make a bid. If it’s higher, keep your hand down.

The biggest question to ask is what your firm’s maximum CPC should be.

Here’s how you can find out:

1. Calculate the average value of the types of case that your chosen keyword is projected to bring in. This is hard to determine, and it requires precise tracking and accurate data. However it’s vital to establishing a budget that’ll allow you to make the most of PPC.
2. Determine the minimum return you want. The average referral fee for a lawyer is about one third and we advise using this as a rule of thumb.
3. Analyze how effectively your website converts visitors into leads (Website Conversion Rate).
4. Measure how well your firm converts leads (Firm Conversion Rate).
5. Take these numbers and run them through this formula: [Average Case Value] / [Required Return] * [Website Conversion Rate] * [Firm Conversion Rate]

1. Instead of thinking about the real average of specific case types, some law firms focus only on what the most common case is worth. When the numbers come back to them it can be a shock, leaving many attorneys choosing not to enter the market because of wrongly compiled  information.
2. Many lawyers don’t quite grasp how many cases they need in order to work out the average. They charge in expecting that they need 15 but the advertising coffers are empty by the time they reach 30. Unfortunately some of them conclude that PPC is a terrible waste of money and get out of the market.
3. They don’t do their due diligence when calculating on the front end, try PPC half-heartedly, and end up deciding that it’s all a wasted effort. To be fair, in some cases, these law firms have a point. There are a number of saturated and overpriced markets in the U.S. where pretty much nobody is making any money off PPC.

PPC advertising is not a fire and forget strategy. It is an ongoing process requiring constant optimization. As a digital marketing agency, we know the amount of work and attention to detail needed to make PPC ad campaigns a success, which is why we encourage law firms to hire a specialist to manage their PPC services.

As a law firm or attorney, your clients hire you because you offer them expertise in areas where they are inexperienced and underequipped. 

It’s the same with PPC. Hiring an agency offers the following benefits:

• An experienced and dedicated team. You don’t have to spend time and effort learning and developing marketing skills. When you outsource to specialists, you remain focused on your clients and we make sure you never have to worry about creating campaigns and worrying that you might not be hitting your target market.
• Access to relevant and necessary tools. Successful PPC campaigns utilize a range of marketing tools. As a legal PPC agency we already have access to such resources. There is also a saving for you in ancillary costs associated with buying software. We also know how to use these resources to ensure the best outcomes.
• Optimized marketing spend. As a reputable digital marketing agency we bring a blend of experience and expertise, making sure your ad campaigns are optimized for the highest ROI. We will know how best to leverage data and analytics to enhance your KPIs and improve your bottom line.
• Detailed reporting. Digital marketing agencies such as Pronto have access to third-party tools that enable us to use extensive conversion tracking to keep your law firm competitive. They also provide a comprehensive overview of customer engagement. This ensures you remain relevant and competitive within your industry and local area.
• Scalability. Working with a PPC agency is useful if you need assistance in other aspects of your digital marketing strategy. Perhaps you need additional content marketing, or you want to refresh your website. When you work with an agency such as Pronto, you have all sorts of digital marketing services available that can speed up the growth of your law firm than if you were trying to do it yourself.

These days it’s nearly impossible for small law firms in big metropolitan areas to rank organically for competitive service keywords. 

Ads put your law firm above the top organic search results, making it the first one that prospective clients see when they are searching for legal services.