Law firm lead generation: 9 tips for success
When it comes to the sustainable growth of your law firm, lead generation is crucial. Here are nine tips for getting results with pay per click advertising.
There’s no law against wanting to boost revenue and grow as a business. And there are various mechanisms you can use for law firm lead generation.
Before we start…
We are a performance marketing agency that specialises in law firm lead generation – and we can help you get fast, transformative results from pay per click advertising. Take a look at our case studies. And, for once, you be the judge.
“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
1. Be prepared to spend…
When it comes to pay per click advertising, the cost you pay per click varies by industry. Perhaps understandably given the potential revenue at stake, the legal sector attracts the highest cost per click for Google Ads across all industries.
And if you thought the industry average in the link above was high, you should know that some keywords can attract bids north of £500. That means every time someone clicks that ad, your marketing budget is most likely going to be £500 lighter.
So the main point is this: pay per click can be fiercely effective for law firm lead generation. But you must be prepared to spend.
>> Getting results with Google ads for solicitors
>> Google ads for lawyers: a complete guide to success
2. …or spend slightly less
Bidding for keywords on Google Ads is expensive for a reason. You are vying for supremacy in the search results at the exact moment that people are expressing a need for services that you provide.
But Google Ads isn’t the only pay per click route. Law firms can also generate leads through Facebook Ads, Instagram Ads, TikTok, YouTube and more through pay per click advertising – for significantly less than you would expect to spend to appear in the Google Search results.
Yes, these platforms are about demand generation (rather than demand capture as with Google Search). But with the right audience targeting you can still reach people who are likely to be interested in your legal expertise.
>> Facebook advertising for law firms: 7 tips for success
3. Niche down
Instead of advertising your firm generally, hone in on specific areas of practice. 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.
By taking a more nuanced approach to Facebook’s audience targeting tools, you can make sure your ads are served only to people who are likely to be interested in your services
4. Target appropriately
For each campaign, think about the ideal target lead. Your pay per click platform will enable you to target audiences based on a dizzying array of variables – such as age, marital status, job title, income, hobbies and interests, shopping habits and more.
One key question: can you offer services to a nationwide or international audience? If not, then focus your targeting on a set radius of your bricks-and-mortar locations. There’s no point paying to serve your ads to an audience in Maidenhead when your firm depends on in-person meetings in Manchester.
5. Put your faith in the algorithm and find a lookalike audience
Another effective method for law firm lead generation is to feed your chosen pay per click platform your existing first-party customer data. It will then suggest a new target audience based on common audience denominators it has identified in your seed customer data.
6. Part the clouds
Your area of legal expertise is common knowledge to you. That’s not the case for the people who need your services.
Part of what turns potential leads off is uncertainty. Fear. Doubts about being caught out by costs or their own lack of knowledge.
Be more inclusive. Demystify your service. Part the clouds by explaining some process.
7. Think about what happens after the click
Your pay per click ad itself is just the first step in a law firm lead generation process. 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 a consistent customer journey.
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. Again, 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 main aim 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 gets 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. 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: the average value of each new client, the average cost to your firm of acquiring them – and the time you have to put into typical caseloads.
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 law firm lead generation. 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.
But 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 many law firms fail to put the effort in. It’s technical and can often require the input of a developer to install things such as Facebook’s Conversion API.
But as the saying goes: nothing worth doing is easy. Putting in the effort here will give you the insight you need to carefully nurture your prospects and continually optimise your marketing campaigns for ROI.
Let us do it for you
Whatever pay per click platform you choose, when you’re paying for every click, you want to get it right. Day in, day out, we help clients drive revenue from paid media.
From creating your ads and sending them to the right people to setting up comprehensive campaign tracking, we can take care of everything – all with a live custom reporting dashboard showing how our efforts are driving revenue for your business.
Sounds good? Ask for a free proposal. We’ll work up a strategy laying out what you can expect within the first three months of working together. Let’s start driving more effective leads for your law firm.
