With the risk of sounding quite harsh, we’ll say this: if your firm isn’t investing in any PPC (pay-per-click) marketing, you’re likely losing out on valuable traffic, which means you’re losing business. 

Unlike SEO, which focuses on earning traffic, with PPC you are buying traffic hence the term “paid traffic”. It consists of bidding for visible positions above the organic queries (placing you on top is ideal) on search engine results pages and on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.

Here’s a visual representation of PPC ads on Google for the search “Truck Accident Law Firms in Houston”:  

Out of the 6.9 billion daily searches on Google alone, the businesses that get these sweet spots see the fruits of success. To be more exact, 65% of consumers click on PPC ads. They’re eating more than half of the pie! But wait, we wouldn’t want you to miss out on reaping this and many other benefits. (We’ll explain more in the following chapters.) 

Whether you’re still in the limbo between investing in PPC or seeking more information, possible benefits, and more – then stay with us. You’ve come to the right place! (we’ve included one of our case studies so you can see yourself.)

The Top Benefits of PPC for Law Firms 

Perhaps this is one of the most important aspects – what’s in it for your firm? 

1. PPC can help you create a seamless user journey on all different parts of the sales funnel, from awareness to buying. If you can create one, it could mean a massive ROI for your PPC efforts.
2. Supplies your business goals. Firms might have different objectives, e.g., increase exposure or position you as a thought leader. With PPC, you can nurture any and all of them.  
3. It’s measurable. You’ll have trackable results that will allow for your firm’s success to speak for itself.  
4. It helps firms gain visibility and drive traffic quickly. This is often the most prominent contrast between PPC and SEO for lawyers.
5. You have full control. There’s flexibility to choose the specific target audiences, channels, keywords, bidding budget, etc. The target options available with it are one of the most significant benefits. 
6. Insights and direction for SEO. The data gathered from the campaigns (clicks, conversions, etc.) can add value to your SEO strategy. 
7. Creates a rich marketing data set. Because firms (or the team in charge) can extract the paid campaign’s analytics, you’ll obtain a thorough understanding of the user’s behaviors around your advertised content. 

Factors that determine your advertisement position

The beauty of PPC is that it’s leveling the playing field between big and small firms. To put it in another way, it’s really anyone’s call. But you can call the shots and here’s how: 

Advertisers work with a bidding strategy. They compete for their ads to come out in the first position, based on their selected keyword. Once they place their CPC (cost-per-click) bid,, it’s anyone’s game, really! The biggest offer is a strong factor in determining your position, but it isn’t all that plays into the final results. 

There’s also the quality score where Google evaluates the quality of your ads compared to other advertisers.  This is what Google uses to rate the quality and relevancy of your keywords, landing pages, and overall campaign. Although there are various measurements the click-through rate (CTR) helps measure relevance. It’s the number of clicks that your ad receives divided by the number of times your ad is shown: Clicks ÷ impressions = CTR. 

The two factors then give Google the ad ranking score and based on that, Google’s bidding strategy decides who gets the first position, second, etc. Here’s a visual representation of what we mean: 

Another crucial factor in PPC is: 

• Keyword relevancy: The legal industry has one of the most expensive costs per click due to the high competition. Keywords like “attorney”, “legal services”, and “lawyers” are definitely on the pricier side of PPC.

We recommend using a combination of short and long-tail keywords. The latter is most specific and adds more value. For example, instead of saying “lawyers in California”, an estate planning firm can use something like “Beneficiary designation services in West Hollywood, Los Angeles”.

Curious to see our PPC game in action?

We’ll let our work speak for itself – discover how our PPC experts brought in more business to this firm here. 

The Top PPC Goals for Law Firms

Coming to the table with goals is essential for many reasons, but it primarily gives the marketing team firm direction, purpose, and a vision to uphold. 

Most, if not all, firms are out for a greater ROI. To achieve this, you’ll need to create awareness, continuously share information, updates and show that you are pretty much on top of your game. 

It’s important to think back to this question: What does my firm need from a PPC investment? Do we need more exposure? Increase sales? Obtain more quality leads? Reach new target audiences? It’s all possible if you focus on what desired outcomes you want and need to see. 

To help paint the picture more vividly, the following are some goals you may want to focus on: 

1. Brand awareness: Remember, not all prospects are 100% ready to book a call. They might be trying to learn more about the issue at hand, comparing and contrasting one firm to others. This is why exposure is paramount. One way to boost it is to focus on ads with the sole purpose of bringing in awareness. 
   • For example, potential clients for an estate planning firm might not be in a hurry to book a call. They might take their time comparing one firm with another and look into more information that’ll show them they’ll be in the best hands. 
2. Lead generation: The direct result of having a relevant and engaging landing page to follow your paid ad. 
   • Keep your goal in mind. Do you want to boost traffic? Increase quality leads focused on specific service or location? 
3. Offer promotion: Are you running a limited-time offer? Service discounts? Free audits? Or anything that might stand out to the crowd? Then focusing on an offer is the goal. 
4. Site traffic: Do you have quality content you’d like to share with an audience? Do you want to reel in more visitors to your site? Clients might continuously come back to your website for updates, new information, check on your expertise, etc. 
   • For this, it’s best to keep a website that’s up to date and equipped with additional content. This way, you’re not only keeping your clients in the loop, but you’ll have the possibility of using this as bait to get users to come to your website.
5. Generate revenue (sales): Last but not least, you can track the bottom-line ROI. 

Takeaway 

PPC can bring your firm the growth and bottom-line results you need. However, it’s up for grabs to pretty much any law firm that’s investing and continuously creating and positioning its firm as a thought leader. 

Besides bidding to rank, it’s best to place your bets with the legal PPC experts. Why? Simple: you’ll want to protect your firm (and wallet) from wasting money on marketing efforts that aren’t paying off. 

While we hope to provide some form of guidance, there’s a lot going on behind the closed doors of PPC. If you’d like to remove the headaches of having to do all of this yourself, we’re here to help. We’d love to answer all your questions and, more so, help you formulate a tailored PPC strategy that sets you up for more success.