Google Ads for solicitors can be phenomenally effective. But you have to get them right – and the stakes are high.
There’s no law against wanting to boost revenue for your solicitors firm. And Google Ads for solicitors are a great way to go about it.
But with some of the highest cost per click rates of any sector, making mistakes with your pay per click campaign can be costly.
So let’s make sure that doesn’t happen.
You be the judge…
Solicitors are not blessed with spare time. So while it’s possible to get transformative returns through Google Ads, you will most likely require external support. The budgets involved are large, and it takes time, tenacity and experience to optimise your campaigns for ROI and consistent performance. We are pay per click experts and can deliver on the metric that matters: revenue growth. Ask us for a free proposal. We may even be able to cover your ad spend.
“Adbetter handled everything from creative strategy to a full funnel media buying plan across Facebook & Google Ads. They were able to design & build a full digital marketing campaign including all ads, copy & landing pages that has been delivering a consistent stream of new customers at a significantly cheaper cost than in previous testing.”
– Aqib Hassan, CCO, CPIC | Gwadar Click
What they are and why they’re good
When it comes to generating new leads for your firm, hands down pay per click advertising via Google Ads would be our first recommendation.
Here’s why.
- It’s accountable. As the name suggests, with pay per click you only pay when someone clicks your ad.
- Reach people at the point of need. With Google ads you can get your firm in front of people at the precise moment they are searching for services that you provide.
- It generates qualified leads. Why would someone click your ad unless they were at least partially interested in your services?
- You build proprietary data. With pay per click you build your own first party data – nurturing your own relationship with every lead. Much better than the antiquated days of buying the same database of ‘leads’ that your competitors are targeting.
- It’s easy to control your spend. With pay per click it’s easy to control your ad spend. Expect options to automate daily, weekly, monthly or maximum budgets per campaign. You can hit the pause button at any time. And every penny is accounted for in the performance data.
A word of warning: be prepared to spend
Advertising in Google’s search results pages works by bidding on keywords. The cost of keywords – measured in cost per click (CPC) – differs across industries based on supply and demand.
Given the lucrative nature of winning a new client for your firm, CPCs for keywords related to legal practice are some of the highest around. A single click could cost north of £800.
Now, with the right strategy it’s possible to drive tens of thousands of pounds of revenue for your firm. But you must be prepared to spend.
Google Ads for solicitors: 9 tips for success
The cost of keywords in the legal field makes it so important to ensure your ads are set up correctly and optimised to drive ROI.
1. Know your numbers
The legal sector typically has a long sales cycle. It’s likely that your leads will need time to convert. This makes it essential to know where your margins are as a firm. It’s crucial to be on top metrics such as the average value of each new client, the average cost to your firm of acquiring them and the average amount time you have to put into typical caseloads.
2. Niche down
With Google Ads for solicitors firms, it’s best to be as specific as you can when promoting your firm. So instead of ads that position you in a general sense as a legal expert, niche down and create separate ads for the different areas of practice you specialise in. By taking a nuanced approach, you can make sure your ads are served only to people who are likely to be interested in your services
3. Target the right keywords
Your keyword strategy can make or break your ad campaign. Avoid bidding on general terms – such as “solicitor” or “lawyer”. They may have high search volumes, but they also suggest low purchase intent. Instead, try to think of keywords that signal the person running their search is ready to talk to a solicitor right now.
Examples might be:
“best lawyer near me”
“bankruptcy lawyer in Bristol”
“employment lawyer in Cardiff”
By making your target keywords more precise, you can reduce your cost per click while screening out low intent searches from people who are unlikely to be interested in becoming your next customer.
You can experiment with keyword ideas for free with the Google keyword planner, which will give you estimates for your keywords’ search volume and average cost per click.
4. Specify keyword types
By specifying keyword types, you signal to Google when your ads should appear – and when they shouldn’t. That’s because Google lets you define how tightly it looks to match your keywords.
For example, you can tell Google to serve your ad for your exact keywords, keywords that are loosely related to yours or something in between.
- Broad match: Your ad will be displayed for all keywords that are similar to the ones you specified. This is the default setting.
- Phrase match: Your ads are shown in search queries that contain the exact phrase or a close variation.
- Exact match: Your ads will only be served when someone searches your exact keywords, with no additional words.
There’s no right or wrong answer here. It all depends on the keywords you have chosen and the search volumes your keywords attract. Exact match allows you to be highly targeted. Whereas broad match can enhance your search exposure – although potentially serves your ad to people with less interest in your services.
It’s a balancing act. Experiment. Be led by your data.
Embrace negative keywords
Just as you can define keywords that you want your ad to be shown for, you can define keywords that block your ad from being shown.
Why would you want to do this? Let’s say you have an ad based on the keyword “lawyers in Glasgow”. You’ll want to make sure people searching for “number of lawyers in Glasgow” are excluded from seeing your ad. This search suggests a more research-focused, journalistic intent, rather than someone in need of your services.
Specifying “number of” as a negative keyword reduces the chances of you paying for a click that won’t create new business. Think carefully about other words you can exclude to weed out the searchers with low intent.
5. Target the right people
It’s not just keywords that matter. Think about how you can target people in a way that aligns with the legal services that you provide. For instance if you offer services related to employment law, you might target people who work in HR. If you offer services in construction law, you might target people within that sector.
A good way to get started is to allow Google to create a lookalike audience. Feed it your first-party customer data and it will identify a new audience to target that shares attributes with your existing customers.
6. Be clear. Be concise. Be compelling.
Remember your reader. This isn’t about you. It’s about reassuring your reader that you can help them – and you have mere milliseconds to grab their attention. Clarity of language is everything.
7. Think about the onward click
Your pay per click ad itself is just the first step of your Google Ads. In most cases your ad will drive traffic to a landing page – and you should have a unique landing page for each of your pay per click campaigns. Both for ease of tracking lead activity and to provide consistent customer journeys from the ad through to your website.
Here’s a rapid run through of best practice.
- Design and copywriting. Your landing page should feel like a continuation of your ad. Optimise for mobile and make sure the messaging that matters most is visible above the fold.
- Create a closed journey. Single-mindedness is a strength when it comes to landing pages. Limit navigation options and stay focused on one clear call to action.
- Utilise social proof and trust signals. Customer testimonials are a great way to build credibility and establish trust in your company. Try to source reviews from a verifiable platform such as Trustpilot or Google Reviews. If applicable, utilise trust signals such as industry accreditations, qualifications or awards.
- Gather data. The primary function of a landing page is to gather information on your lead. Create a form that allows you to start the marketing conversation.
- Remember your GDPR obligations. For your forms that means having a tick box that forces people to actively opt in to your comms, the name of the business that will be contacting them and the method that they will be contacted by. Include a link to your privacy policy too.
8. Consider local services ads for lawyers
Before diving in to Google Ads, ask yourself where your customers are. Do you serve clients all over the world or just in your local area? There’s no point serving your ad to people in Devon if you only want to do business in Dundee.
Another way to capture your community is through local services ads. These work slightly differently to regular lead generation ads. Firstly you only pay when a potential customer gets in touch through your ad – making them arguably even more accountable than standard search placements. Secondly your ad will be displayed with a new ‘Google Guaranteed’ badge that can signal to your potential new customers that your service is authentic and reliable.
More info here.
9. Get the right tracking in place
The most important part of any pay per click campaign is the performance data it gives you. It’s no different with Google Ads. Take the time to interpret your data and it will reveal the strategies that are giving you the most success with potential leads. Then you can double down on the strategies that are getting results and ditch the stuff that isn’t working – economising your ad spend and increasing your ad performance.
Solicit some proper expertise
For the best results – and transformative return on ad spend – you need to go beyond what’s happening within the native pay per click environment. You must have visibility into all onward points in your sales journey, from the first click to the moment your lead makes an appointment with you.
And that’s where we come in. We have the technology. We have the expertise. And we know how to drive transformative revenue for your solicitors firm through Google Ads. Ask us for a free proposal and we will lay out the difference we could make within three months of working together.
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