PPC Campaigns for Lawyers: Attracting Targeted Leads Through Paid Ads
The advertising landscape has significantly changed in the past few years. As attorneys wonder how to market law firms digitally, they might also ask if using traditional channels like print ads to gain clients is still worth it.
The 2023 Profile of the Legal Profession by the American Bar Association showed that 89% of law firms — almost nine out of 10 — maintain their presence online via social media platforms. In another survey by the ABA, 87% of law firms reported maintaining a website for their solo, mid-sized, or large practice. That said, simply having a website does not automatically translate to more clients or revenue. In today’s competitive digital landscape, running pay-per-click campaigns or PPC for lawyers is one way to achieve such objectives.
With that in mind, this article serves as a beginner's guide to PPC. It aims to enlighten legal professionals who need help figuring out how or where to start their paid ad campaign.
What Is Law Firm PPC?
PPC, a form of digital marketing and advertising, is an approach that involves targeting audiences through keywords or phrases on search engines, mainly Google and Bing. It drives greater and more relevant traffic to websites. Essentially, using the right attorney pay-per-click marketing strategies can lead the right customers to your door, so to speak — even before they actually visit your office.
Exploring PPC for Attorneys Further
Before diving deeper into PPC for attorneys, it is important to establish its place within a holistic marketing plan. Lawyers may consider omnichannel marketing, also known as multi-channel marketing, to get the most out of PPC.
Think of it as the marketing version of not putting your eggs in one basket. Omnichannel marketing identifies and integrates every possible touchpoint with the client's interests in mind. Research by Gartner indicates that prospects who receive engagement through at least two unique channels, including the ones listed below, are more likely to become customers:
Website visits.
Email.
Mobile apps.
SMS or text message.
Social media pages.
Ad clicks.
PPC, alongside search engine optimization and search engine marketing, is a way of bringing in ad clicks and website visits.
Is PPC Different from SEO and SEM?
PPC is different, although closely related, to SEO and SEM. However, the lines between these strategies can be blurry. In fact, SEM was previously viewed as an umbrella term that encompassed both SEO and PPC.
Between SEO and SEM, PPC may be more similar to the latter. In a nutshell, both are paid strategies for advertising a website on search engine platforms. But while SEM is confined to search engines, PPC can be utilized in marketing campaigns beyond them. It can work well on social media platforms since ads can take the form of an image or a video.
Meanwhile, SEO is an organic strategy for driving traffic to a website. It uses various techniques to keep a site’s visibility high in the long run. These include publishing high-quality content with relevant keywords (on-page SEO), building links (off-page SEO), and optimizing a website’s performance so it can work better with search engines (technical SEO).
The importance of these strategies in legal marketing is evident. A CallRail report shows that 76% of law firms want to increase their paid search budget. Ideally, firms should pair paid search campaigns with a robust SEO strategy. After all, even if Google or Bing users click on ads, they might hop out of a website if it does not quickly provide the answers they need.
What Terms Should I Know Before Planning a PPC Campaign?
Understanding the following terms is essential to implementing pay-per-click advertising for attorneys:
Search keyword: A word or a group of words targeted in a campaign. Through Google Ads, advertisers can bid on search keywords relevant to their core audience. When a user's search query matches a keyword, the platform’s auction system will decide which ads will rank based on a set of metrics.
Ad copy or text: The text accompanying an ad. Advertisers create ad copies to communicate their message and entice users to click on their ads.
Ad group: Comprises one or more ads that share related keyword targets.
Campaign: Comprises one or more ad groups that share characteristics like budget or geotargets.
Landing page: Where a user ends up or “lands” upon clicking an ad.
Here are some metrics to track throughout a PPC campaign:
Cost-per-click: The price paid every time a search engine user clicks on an ad.
Click-through rate: The number of clicks measured against impressions. This indicates how many people find an ad relevant enough to click on it.
Conversion rate: The number of people who took a desired action (e.g., sending a message) measured against the number of clicks.
Impressions: The number of views an ad gets.
Maximum bid: The maximum offered cost-per-click. The higher the bid, the better the potential placement for an ad.
Quality score: The score that search engines give an ad based on expected CTR, landing page experience, and relevance to a search query.
Ad rank: The ranking that search engines give an ad based on maximum bid and quality score.
How Does PPC Work Exactly?
Basically, law firms bid for their website to be advertised on search engine result pages and other places online. Consider a woman in New York who wishes to file for divorce after discovering her husband’s relations with another person. She pulls out her phone, types “Brooklyn divorce lawyer” into the search bar, and sees several ads for nearby law firms. Then, she clicks the topmost one.
In this case, the ad, which belongs to Law Firm X, previously won the ad auction for the topmost spot. Law Firm X then pays a fee since the woman clicked on the ad. Note that ad auctions are automatically triggered as soon as a user enters keywords related to a service or product. This process determines which law firm gets which ad spot for a specific query, as well as the resulting cost-per-click for each ad.
Going back to our example, imagine that another advertiser — Law Firm Y — has a bigger marketing budget than Law Firm X and puts in a higher bid. This raises Law Firm Y’s chances of winning an auction — but only up to a point since search engines also look at quality scores. Law firms with relevant ads leading to well-designed landing pages have higher chances of getting ad placements and clicks.
What’s the Average Cost of PPC for Lawyers?
As of 2023, the average cost of PPC for attorneys is $9.21 per click. The cost varies per legal category. Ads about family law services cost $7.69 per click, while those related to criminal law have a higher cost-per-click of $12.30.
What Are Common Platforms for Law Firm PPC?
PPC platforms provide various ways to not only create but also manage, track, and adjust lead-generating ads. Google Ads and Bing Ads are two examples of these platforms.
Google Ads for Lawyers
A study by iLawyerMarketing found that 86% of potential clients hop on Google to find an attorney. Formerly known as AdWords, Google Ads is the search engine behemoth’s advertising platform where law firms can bid for different types of ads:
Search ads: Text ads that show up on SERPs.
Display ads: Visual ads that show up on top of Google partner websites.
Video ads: Ads seen before, during, and after videos on YouTube, another Google property.
Because of its extensive reach, however, competition can get tight for law firms advertising on the platform. Bidding for the keyword “lawyer” and other common terms tends to be costly, but professionals offering PPC services for lawyers can help run cost-effective campaigns.
Bing Ads for Lawyers
Google may dominate the search market, but advertising on Bing has unique benefits. For one, Bing is the default search engine for all Microsoft-run devices. This platform provides flexible ad targeting and displays ads on search engines and apps, in addition to Bing. These include Yahoo, MSN, AOL, and Outlook.
Moreover, Bing Ads offers Smart mode, a beginner-friendly campaign launching option that uses Microsoft’s AI technology. Expert mode is also available for those who prefer greater control over their ad settings.
What Are the Benefits of PPC Campaigns for Attorneys?
Understanding the benefits of PPC can help determine if it will complement your law firm’s marketing strategy.
Immediate Results
PPC is particularly helpful if your firm aims to have new clients as soon as possible. PPC trumps SEO in this aspect. If you have just started conducting SEO, you will need to wait at least six months to get new leads from increased organic traffic. This is not a problem with PPC; platforms can publish your ads and deliver results right away.
That said, the short-term nature of PPC campaigns also makes them more challenging to sustain. Depending solely or primarily on paid ads for leads requires continuous investment.
Highly Targeted Advertising
Pay-per-click ads do not randomly appear to everyone who types in the same keyword. This is because when you run a PPC campaign for your law firm, you can set criteria to target individuals based on their:
Age: Age bracket (e.g., 25 to 34 years old).
Interest: Search history (watch history for video ads), apps used, browsing habits.
Location: Geographic area and time zone.
Keep in mind that different platforms have different targeting options. Bing, for example, can show ads to two people simultaneously, even if they are in different time zones. This may be useful for law firms with international clients or multiple offices across the U.S.
One more tip: Be careful about targeting protected characteristics, such as sex, national origin, and religion, lest you inadvertently violate anti-discrimination laws.
Measurable ROI
PPC platforms provide a wealth of data on a campaign’s performance. Various metrics — impressions, CPC, CR, and more — are accessible via Google Analytics and tools like Twilio and HubSpot. These enable law firms to monitor ads and determine their profitability. In the context of PPC, this translates to return on ad spend, which is the net revenue measured against campaign costs.
How Should Law Firms Set Up a PPC Campaign?
Here are some basic steps for getting a PPC campaign up and running. Whatever platform you choose, it is important to set clear goals and keep them in mind throughout the process.
Step 1: Perform Keyword Research
This step involves identifying which keywords have the potential to resonate with your target audience. Keywords directly affect the kind of users who see your ad, so choose them wisely. They also directly affect your ad spend.
A good starting point for keyword research is knowing which ones are used by other law firms. Also called competitor analysis, this can be carried out using various tools, including Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, and WordStream.
Keywords fall into different categories according to their form and purpose. Generic keywords are common, broad words like lawyer. There are also locational (e.g., lawyer in New York) and informational (e.g., what to look for in a lawyer) keywords. Meanwhile, short-tail and long-tail keywords refer to their length and specificity.
Step 2: Craft Compelling Ad Copy
Once you know which keywords to use, it’s time to use them strategically in your ad’s headline and description. Remember that the quality of your ad copy may spell the difference between someone scrolling past it or clicking through to your landing page.
To create effective ad copy, consider the following:
Write in the second person: Use “you” and “your” to sound friendly and personal.
Put yourself in a potential client’s shoes: Use words that address their problems and appeal to their emotional needs.
Make each character count: Google Ads allows 30 characters each for three headlines and 90 characters for two description fields. Include as much information as you can within these limits.
Highlight your unique selling point: Include what makes your firm stand out from the competition, such as awards or years of experience.
Step 3: Optimize Your Landing Page
A well-designed landing page tells readers what to expect from a firm. It uses language that urges them to convert or take a specific action, like clicking the “Call” button or signing up for email newsletters.
A good ad copy can make people click; a good landing page can make them stay.
Outsourcing PPC: Is It Ideal for Lawyers?
All in all, PPC costs may comprise 13% of an average law firm’s annual budget. An in-house PPC campaign seems cost-effective, but limited expertise and staffing challenges can hold it back.
For those without experience, learning the ins and outs of a pay-per-click campaign while keeping a firm running can be difficult. Outsourcing, a possible solution to this dilemma, allows attorneys to spend their energy and time on cases and their clients’ needs.
Even if lawyers already have a campaign in place, they can still benefit from consulting professionals. PPC agencies have the necessary experience and are aided by advanced tools that yield deeper insights for optimizing ad performance.
Boost Your Lead Generation Efforts with Expertise
If you have decided to outsource your law firm’s paid ad campaign, you can check out Expertise Growth Marketing’s personalized plans aimed at improving your visibility to search engine users. The team manages marketing costs, screens leads, and transfers client calls to law firms as well as to other professionals and service providers.
Expertise.com also has a list of other companies offering online marketing solutions to complement and bolster your PPC efforts. Feel free to peruse the linked directories for more information.
FAQs on PPC for Lawyers
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