Pay-per-click (PPC) ads are a great way for attorneys to immediately start getting leads. With that said, it’s important to set up your ads correctly to maximize your ad spend.
Our PPC for lawyers guide will help you set up a successful Google Ads campaign. For more help, contact LawRank today.
What is PPC for Lawyers?
Pay-per-click (PPC) refers to online advertising that charges you each time a potential client clicks on your ad. Businesses pay for each click – no clicks mean no charge for your ad.
While many different platforms offer pay-per-click advertising, Google Ads is undoubtedly the most popular among law firms. After all, 93% of all online searches happen on Google.
When you initiate a lawyer pay-per-click campaign, you place ads that target search interests. The intent is to channel potential clients through the marketing funnel by engaging them online and driving them to your website.
PPC for lawyers is the key to finding the right potential new clients at the right time – just when they’re looking for you.
Why Should Attorneys Do a Google Ads Campaign?
On Google, PPC ads show up at the very top of search engine results pages (SERPs).
That means that a properly designed Google ad will put you right at the top of a SERP when a potential client searches for one of your keywords – above the local 3-pack and any organic results.
Another key reason to use Google Ads, and why they’re so effective, is that they capture user intent the moment they need a lawyer.
Most people only think about hiring a lawyer when they need one. And when they need one, most turn to Google to find a lawyer.
With PPC advertising, you put yourself among the first attorneys a potential new client sees when they begin their attorney search.
This means that you get your brand out there and capture the user’s attention from the start. And, since it’s a pay-per-click ad, there’s no cost to you unless that user clicks through to visit your website (or landing page, which we’ll discuss later).
The bottom line is that a properly designed PPC for lawyers campaign will benefit a law firm.
Using PPC Ads to Appear Multiple Times in the SERPs
A PPC campaign gives you the opportunity to appear on the first page multiple times. This repetition gives you a huge advantage over your competitors.
Google’s first page consists four primary components:
- Sponsored results: Local Service Ads and/or Google Ads
- Local pack: Local results based on the user’s location
- Organic listing: Unpaid listings based upon the search
- Rich features: A visual layer or multiple layers, such as snippets, based on what Google thinks is relevant content
- Google knowledge panels: Content on the right side of the page that offers snippets of information.
You can appear up to four times on the first page by taking advantage PPC ads:
- Local Service Ads
- Pay-Per-Click Ads
- Local Pack
- Organic Results
How Much Does PPC for Law Firms Cost?
The actual cost of your law firm’s PPC campaign depends upon a variety of factors, including:
- Practice area
- For example, personal injury is the most expensive
- Location
- Larger cities will oftentimes require a higher budget
- Specific keywords
- Keywords like “car accident lawyer” are some of the most expensive keywords you can bid on
- Quality Score
- An ad with a higher quality score will result in a lower cost-per-click
Some keywords cost more per click than other words.
For example, the keyword “lawyer” is a highly competitive keyword that can average more than $54 per click.
Here are some other keyword examples and their average value:
The high cost of law firm keywords illustrates the competitive environment for legal searches online.
How Can I Make the Most of My Law Firm’s PPC Budget?
Here are a few ways to reduce your costs, get the most mileage out of your budget, and still have your ads show up when it matters most:
- Use phrase-match keywords to really tailor the focus of your campaign and limit the number of clicks from people who aren’t interested in finding a lawyer
- Schedule your ad to run when your target audience is most likely to see it
- Limit your ad’s reach to a very specific geographic area
- Consider limiting the scope of your ad’s reach by demographic information like age, income level, or marital status
- Pro-Tip: This may be more helpful for criminal defense and family law attorneys
- Do keyword research and be confident that you’re choosing the best phrases and terms to drive traffic to your site at the right price point for you
- Check the search terms your ads show up for and add negative keywords if you see that irrelevant terms result in your showing
- Send users to a great landing page that lines up perfectly with the ad they clicked on.
Now, here’s what you need to know to accomplish what we’ve just discussed.
How to Start a PPC Campaign For Your Law Firm
So, you’ve decided that you want to start running PPC ads to supplement your law firm SEO campaign. Great!
Here’s a step-by-step guide to help you get your Google Ads up, running, and optimized:
1. Create a New Campaign & Choose a Goal
Create and sign into your Google Adwords account.
Open your campaign dashboard and click on the “+ New Campaign” button.
Once you’ve begun the process of starting a new campaign, you’ll have to choose a goal. This is where you indicate the purpose behind your law firm’s PPC campaign.
Options include expanding your brand awareness, ramping up website traffic, or increasing sales or leads. Most law firm PPC campaigns are designed to increase legitimate leads or sales.
“Sales” and “leads” are the best bets for law firms trying to get potential clients to reach out for help.
2. Decide What Type of PPC Campaign You Want
There are different ways your Google Ads can show up on websites.
Choose “Search” so that your Google Ad shows up on SERPs when users enter relevant keywords. Other options include image or video ads that appear on websites, Google, and their different brands.
Once you’ve selected how you want your ads to appear, you’ll have to tell Google how you want people directed to you.
You can have people who click on your ad sent directly to your website and/or connected to your office with a phone call.
Pro Tip: Your Google Ads campaign will default to “display” mode. This means that, unless you physically uncheck a box and decline to participate, your ads will show up outside of SERPs – and your budget will reflect that if anyone clicks through.
To really harness the power of your law firm’s PPC campaign and maximize your budget, it’s smart to opt out of the Display Network reach.
3. Customize Your Campaign
Google Ads will run continuously 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, by default. However, you have the ability to control when your ad runs, and for how long.
Google lets you see when people are seeing your PPC ads.
From your dashboard, you can see that your ads get the most traction during your typical work hours (and shortly before and after) when potential clients are most active online.
Let’s say you notice there’s a sizable increase in viewers on Tuesday after work hours (relative to other days after work).
In addition to scheduling your ad to run from 8:30 to 5:30, it might also be smart to have your ad active for a few extra hours on Tuesdays.
If you notice a bump on Saturday mornings when clients might be active online, it would make sense to activate your ad then, too.
Why would you want to have your PPC ads run during specific times if running them all the time won’t cost you anything? It’s simple: you want to get your ad in front of the right people at the right time.
Find out when clients are searching for lawyers or legal advice, and do your best to get your ad in front of them. It might not necessarily impact how much you spend, but it can be helpful in molding your overall campaign and reach.
4. Tailor The Geographic Area of Your PPC Campaign
Again, you want to get your ad in front of the right people. You want people clicking on your ad to be genuinely interested in finding an attorney for help with a legal problem.
For most practicing attorneys, this means that you’ll want to reach people who are typically in a certain geographic area. As you design your PPC campaign, you can tell Google what kind of audience you want to see your ad.
First, start by narrowing the scope of your ad to individuals in your desired geographic area. You can set the limit to a specific city or set a more specific search radius.
For instance, if you have a personal injury law firm in Denver, CO, you could tell Google that you only want your PPC ad to show up for users within a 5-mile radius of your law firm’s office. Alternatively, you can have the search radius coordinated with the information on your GMB profile.
Then, dictate whether you want your ad to show up for people who are regularly within your identified location, people who show interest in your identified location, or both. Chances are, you’ll want to limit your ad reach to people who are in your defined geographic parameters on a regular basis.
You don’t need to appear on SERPs for people who are thinking about moving to Denver or conducting legal research about the area without intent to hire a lawyer.
You can also exclude certain geographic areas from your search. This might be relevant if you practice in a city like New York – but only concentrate on certain boroughs.
Do you serve clients who speak languages other than English? Consider adding those languages to your Google ad campaign.
You’ll increase your reach to people with browsers set to deliver results in languages other than English.
5. Sculpt Your Audience
You can further optimize your PPC campaign by telling Google who you want to target in your specific geographic area.
Do you typically provide legal services to women more than men? Are your clients typically high school graduates, or do they tend to have degrees from institutions of higher education?
Does your firm do more work with married clients with children, or are they single and on their own?
Do your clients usually work for large companies or mom-and-pop operations?
You can filter your audience based on these – and other – variables.
Alternatively, you can create a customized audience in Google Analytics based on how people have interacted with your firm’s website in the past.
You’re clearly on their mind (or, at the least, you’re on their radar) – so use a targeted PPC ad to really drive home the idea that you’re the best solution for their problem.
6. Set Up a Budget and Bidding Strategy
With a PPC campaign, you set a budget, so you’re ultimately in charge of how much you spend. In your dashboard, you’ll tell Google how much you want to spend on average each day.
How can you know how much money your firm should set aside for a Google Ads campaign? You might worry that you won’t be competitive if you don’t budget enough or that you’ll burn through cash if you set the ceiling too low.
Think about the average cost per click for your targeted keywords. Let’s say that you run a personal injury law firm in NYC. You want to run a PPC ad to increase the number of leads you get from crash victims.
By doing keyword research using a tool like SEMRush, and you’ll find that the CPC (“cost per click”) in NYC for the keyword “car accident lawyer” is $158.02. It’s a high-volume keyword – so the cost (and competition) will be high.
Use this figure in calculating your budget. Say you want to get 3 clicks a day from prospective clients. That means you’d have to have an average daily budget of at least $475.
It doesn’t mean that you will definitely spend $475 every day – it simply means that Google will multiply your daily budget by the number of days in a given month and calculate your monthly ad spend.
Your budget might exceed this amount on some days and be lower (or even nothing) on other days.
Your ad will run throughout the month up until your monthly spend has been exhausted.
What if you’re a small firm that can’t set aside that much cash for a PPC campaign? Check out other competitive keywords that might get you similar results.
If we filter the keywords for a ranking NYC personal injury law firm, we’ll see that, after “car accident lawyer,” the terms “car wreck lawyer,” “car accident lawyer NYC,” “New York car accident lawyer,” and “car accident attorney new york city” have decent search volumes, and the CPC is much lower.
Consider targeting these phrases and excluding searches (with negative keywords) for the exact phrase “car accident lawyer” to keep costs low.
Now, setting a budget is not enough. You’ll need to tell Google how to apply that budget to the auction process.
Do you want your budget to be applied to:
- Maximize the number of conversions your ad gets you
- Get you clicks and increase traffic to your website
- Optimize your impression share – which means getting your ad to appear more often than your competitors’.
Impression Share (IS) can help personal injury lawyers because, oftentimes, the good lead goes to the law firm that gets the phone call first. By using Impression Share, you can bid to be the first ad.
IMPORTANT: Using IS in PI can get very expensive. Use it cautiously and keep a close eye on your campaign.
As you grow more comfortable with Google Ads, you can opt to do manual bidding – and increase the number of options available to you for the auction process.
7. Choose Your Keywords and Create Ad Groups
The next step will be to indicate which keywords you want your PPC campaign to target. Remember, you want to keep your campaign narrowly tailored – and the keywords you choose will have a huge impact on how successful your project will be.
So, create different ad groups and keep your topics separate. If you’re a PI firm, put your wrongful death keywords in a distinct group from your accident phrases.
Google gives you the opportunity to plug in a competitor’s URL and identify relevant keywords for your type of ad.
Alternatively, you can enter your primary keyword – the type of traffic you really want to capture – and see related phrases and search items.
Let’s say you also want to target families who have lost a loved one in a fatal accident. You can create another ad group for “wrongful death” keywords.
You’ll also notice that you have the ability to refine your ad by telling Google how it should use your keywords.
Phrase Match: Putting quotation marks around your keyword or phrase will indicate that you want to appear in ads when that phrase is part of a user’s inquiry. Let’s say someone searches for “best wrongful death attorney nyc.”
In the ad group above, you’ll notice that we’ve indicated that we want to appear in searches that contain the phrase “wrongful death attorney nyc.” So, the connected ad should be part of the auction process and, if all goes well, appear at the top of the SERP.
Exact Match: You can be even more restrictive and tell Google that you only want to appear when users enter very specific terms or phrases – with no extraneous text. In the ad group above, you’ll see that wrongful death lawyer new york city is in brackets.
This means that the ad will only appear when that exact phrase is entered (unless, of course, another keyword makes the ad relevant).
While a spelling error can impact keyword search results, Google allows for search variants, such as plural or misspelled keywords. Search engines are pretty good at determining searcher intent and meaning.
Broad Match: Any keywords not manipulated will fall under the category of “broad match.” Any searches that are even tangentially related to your ad might cause it to show up.
This means that there’s a high potential for clicks from people who aren’t necessarily on the hunt for legal representation – and money not well spent as part of your PPC campaign.
You can also tell Google when you don’t want your ad to appear. How? By using negative keywords. Let’s say you only practice in the five boroughs of New York City and parts of the state in close proximity to Manhattan.
You don’t handle cases in upstate New York or even far out in Westchester County. You’d rather not show up in generic searches for “new york wrongful death lawyer.”
Make a keyword negative by putting a “-” at the front. It’s that simple. You’ll tell Google, “Hey, I’m not interested in having my ad show up when people are searching for this.”
Be careful with negative keywords. In the above example – which is used to illustrate what a negative keyword looks like – you’ll see that the phrase match for “New York wrongful death lawyer” is negative.
This means that if someone tacks on a more specific geographic indicator at the end of that phrase – like Manhattan, Brooklyn, or Queens – your ad won’t appear.
The bottom line? Take the time to carefully consider your keywords and determine when you really want – and don’t want – your ad to appear after a user conducts a search.
8. Using the Google Ads Keyword Planner Tool
If you aren’t certain which keywords to focus on, you can use Google Ads Keyword Planner to help you understand:
- Which keywords you should target based on average monthly searches, and
- Approximate cost per click of each keyword
The Google Keyword Planner tool allows you to do keyword research by entering your target keyword and choosing your location. This data is invaluable as it comes directly from Google.
You can also use your website in the Keywod Planner Tool and Google will give you a list of keywords that it thinks are relevant to your site.
Pro Tip: Select “Use only this page” and insert the link to the exact page you send users to. Google will then give you a list of keywords specifically relevant to that page.
9. Create Your Ads
Finally, it’s time to create your ads!
Best practices involve creating at least three different variations of the same ad for each ad group.
This will involve:
- Providing the URL where users will be directed when they click on your ad
- Creating headlines (max 30 characters)
- Devising descriptions (max 90 characters)
If you’ve opted to add extensions, they’ll show up on your ad preview, too. Consider adding in extensions – like your phone number, links to a free consultation, or other helpful info – to boost your clickthrough rate by 15%.
As you build your ad, Google will rate it. If your ad score isn’t great, you can use Google’s guide for assessing the quality of your keywords, the strength of your ad text, and other metrics that could help you increase ad quality and performance.
If you’re really stuck, you can always check out what top-performing ads for your desired keyword(s) look like using Google’s Ad Preview and Diagnostic tool.
Enter a keyword and you’ll see which ads Google thinks are most relevant and helpful to the search. Then, keep that in mind as you build your Google Ad campaign.
PRO TIP: Check to see what copy your competitors are using. If they’ve been doing AdWords for a while, it’s safe to assume that the copy they use is working. Don’t be afraid to look in different markets for the same practice area you’re targeting with your campaign for inspiration.
10. Create Dedicated Landing Pages for Your Law Firm PPC Campaign
We strongly recommend that you create dedicated landing pages per campaign.
So, rather than having your Google ad direct users to your firm’s homepage or car accident page, you funnel them directly to a landing page that lines up perfectly with the ad.
We call this the “blue socks” strategy. If you Google “blue socks”, you will see Google Ads for blue socks.
If you click on the ad, you want to go to a page about blue socks. Not socks, not red socks, not pantyhose.
The same idea apples to your PPC for lawyers landing pages. Users want the landing page to be an extension of the ad that they clicked on. If not, they will be confused, and that confusion will work against you.
When you create a landing page for a PPC campaign, you don’t have to worry about search engine optimization. It’s not meant to rank. So, you don’t have to worry about length or incorporating keywords that might not be super-relevant to the PPC campaign.
Instead, you can focus on really selling your brand and legal services to the person who was attracted to your firm because of your paid ad.
You can set typical SEO practices aside and highlight:
- How long you’ve been in business
- How many years of experience you and your attorneys have (individually and/or collectively)
- How much money you’ve recovered in other types of similar cases
- Specific case results, when applicable
- Board certification or other specializations
- Honors, awards, and accolades that set you apart from your competitors.
Your PPC landing page can be hyper-focused on selling the benefits of your service and designed to convert your paid clicks into real-life clients.
Be sure to include several calls to action throughout the page and make sure that it’s easy for the user to connect with you about their problem.
As you can see, there are four ways to contact this Clearwater personal injury law firm on their PPC car accident landing page – and that’s just at the very top. It’s designed to drive potential clients right to their door.
11. Submit Your Ad and Track Performance
Once you’re satisfied with your Google Ad, submit it for approval. Once it’s live, you can track its performance on your Google Ads dashboard.
Several metrics aid in tracking and measuring the success of your campaign.
A few examples of these metrics are:
- Impressions: The number of times an ad appeared in search results.
- Clicks: The number of times someone clicked on the ad.
- Click-through rate (CTR): The number of clicks divided by the number of impressions; one of the most important metrics for measuring the success of your campaign.
- Average cost per click (CPC): The average cost per click based upon the number of clicks received.
- Conversion rate: Persons who clicked on your ad and resulted in new clients.
Knowing how well your ad performed will help you move forward with other marketing efforts.
Additional PPC campaigns are possible to build once you understand the process.
Pro Tips to Successful PPC For Law Firms and Attorneys
Want to make your Google Ads campaign a success? The following PPC tips will help you get the most out of your marketing efforts and set you up to get the ROI you deserve.
PPC Tip #1: Follow the Rules
Google only allows one text ad per website to appear in search results. Establishing several accounts to improve search results violates Google policy. Open one account and manage it well.
Adhering to the rules of Google advertising is a must. Businesses cannot fool this tech giant.
PPC Tip #2: Focus on Conversions
Never take your eyes off the ultimate prize of conversion.
Marketing to a potential client in the decision-making process of their legal journey is how a PPC campaign can help you.
Maintaining one account is just one example of why following Google’s rules matters. A possible violation may prevent you from ever conducting a PPC campaign again —causing you to lose valuable placement and potential clients.
PPC Tip #3: Optimize Your Website
All digital marketing roads lead to a law firm’s website. Maintaining a website with relevant, engaging, and educational content is critical for obtaining clients. An outdated website can drive consumers to the competition.
However, a beautiful website is useless if clients in need of your legal services can’t find it. As with PPC campaigns, a website must contain keywords that relate to the searcher’s intent. Other components of website success when it comes to searches are links and content.
There are three important components of a law firm website: click-through rate, bounce rate, and time spent on site.
Google Analytics provides an inside look at how users interact with your site. The data provides detailed information regarding the metrics listed above and more. This important source of information should currently exist on your website.
Review your website for its mobile experience, bad links, and page speed. Update important data such as staff bios, contact information, and relevant images.
Ensuring that your website is user-friendly requires a commitment to regular site maintenance and fresh content, including strategic keywords.
PPC campaigns and the click-through rate of your ad are successful if they drive consumers to the information they want. If the PPC campaign fails to produce the results you desire, it may require revisiting your website design.
When a PPC campaign works hand-in-hand with your website, it is a winning combination.
PPC Tip #4: Be Available to Meet With Prospective Clients Within 48 Hours (24 hours is ideal)
Someone clicked on your ad because they have a legal problem and think that you might be able to provide the help they need. You’ve paid for their click – so it’s important to convert that click into a paying client.
You can increase the odds of this happening by:
- Responding to calls/inquiries promptly, and
- Making it a priority to meet with the person within 48 hours of when they first contact your law firm.
Show them that you really do put your clients first and can jump into action to help them resolve their legal dilemma.
You might just convert a lead into a client – and increase the odds of word-of-mouth referrals that can be a great organic supplement to all of your paid advertising efforts.
How to Plan a Law Firm PPC Campaign
As with any marketing plan, you must develop a roadmap. Without one, you can waste valuable time and money.
Set terms like PPC and SEO aside and focus on the following:
- Marketing goals: List your firm’s current and future goals.
- Analyze the competition: Identify a few key competitors and note what they do well.
- SWOT statement: Write your firm’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in one sentence.
- Budget: Decide how much you are willing to spend on a PPC campaign with a starting amount and an amount for maintaining the campaign.
- Schedule: Consider how long you want your law firm PPC campaign to run, allowing for flexibility.
- Management and roles: You and your team know the firm best. Decide who leads and who supports.
Building and implementing PPC marketing for attorneys requires dedicated time and attention. Half-hearted marketing attempts at law firm advertising end up wasting money and yielding no results.
Clients who need legal help want to find you. A PPC campaign helps not only you but also those who face criminal charges, who have suffered a personal injury, or who have experienced a wrongful death.
Trusting clients will find you through organic search is risky due to the high-pressure competition for consumer attention. If you are unsure how your competition ranks, perform your own Google search.
The top 10 results may help you identify the key areas your law firm needs to improve to rank higher on your next search.
Complement Your SEO Campaign With PPC Marketing for Lawyers
The LawRank team works with you to determine how to optimize a PPC campaign for your firm. We are not pushy but rather curious, informative, and dedicated.
We want to design an online marketing plan that includes PPC services for lawyers and other important types of law firm SEO marketing.
Our focus is legal marketing, allowing us to concentrate on marketing efforts that result in new clients for your firm.
Our ideal client has tried at least one law marketing firm. They bring with them an understanding of SEO and local SEO costs and the impact strong SEO has on your firm.
With offices in California and New York, we help law firms in both states and throughout the United States. Our experience speaks for itself in our online portfolio.
From PPC campaigns to website design, LawRank can help take your firm to the next level.
Contact us today to learn more about PPC management for lawyers and how our SEO company for lawyers can help you rank higher and reach further online. We are available 24/7 and ready to start work on a successful PPC campaign for your law firm.
