The Modern Firm manages digital advertising exclusively for solo attorneys and small law firms. All campaigns are custom-built, fully managed, and supported by regular reporting. We have over 20 years of experience in legal marketing and work only with small practices, not large firms or other industries.

We know digital advertising for law firms is one of the fastest ways to get in front of the right clients. It's also one of the fastest ways to burn through a budget if you don't know what you're doing. We stay on top of trends, and we listen to our clients to create custom advertising campaigns tailored to their unique practice and their specific needs. 

Our goal isn’t only to get a certain number of leads; we design our clients’ advertising to help them get the right leads that become the best clients for their practice. And we do the heavy lifting, so attorneys can focus on what they do best: serving the people who count on them. 

Google Ads for Lawyers

Google search ads are the primary form of PPC advertising used by law firms, and we often recommend this to firms that want to have immediate marketing results. These are ads that show up at the top and bottom of the search engine results page when someone does a search that meets the advertiser’s criteria, like “Springfield divorce lawyer” or “estate planning attorney near me.” This form of law firm advertising is great because they show up right when someone is actively searching for legal help; these searchers have high intent, which makes them valuable leads. 

Here are the key advantages to PPC Ads on Google: 

  • Top page placement: For searches with commercial intent, search engines display ads first, and those ads often take up most of the screen. For law firms that want to be seen first on the SERP, search ads are often the only way to achieve that.
  • Granular control: PPC offers advertisers tight control over their advertising budget, words and phrases that trigger or block the advertisement, geographic target area, and more. 
  • Fast results: The visibility and traffic that comes from a PPC campaign is almost immediate, which is ideal for firms that want to ramp up business quickly. For firms that don’t earn on contingency, PPC can potentially generate positive cash flow right out of the gate.
  • Data to help optimize campaigns: Search engines like Google and Bing offer PPC advertisers lots of data that can be used to tailor not just the PPC campaign, but a law firm’s overall marketing, including:
    • Important search terms
    • Keywords that convert
    • Impressions and clicks by geography
    • Click-through rates, which help you understand which ad copy resonates most with prospective clients
    • Competitive information

PPC is an outstanding way to quickly attract clients and increase revenue. But it’s not without its challenges. Google’s Ads set-up can be complicated; the platform can push unfamiliar users toward automated set-ups that seem easy on the surface but target overly-broad keywords or irrelevant practice areas. 

As a result, law firms can spend much of their advertising budget on searches that have nothing to do with the firm and don’t yield results. We've seen campaigns burn through budgets on searches like "pro bono lawyer," "law firm jobs," and even "legal statistics." Every one of those clicks costs real money and brings in zero clients.

Effectively targeting your ideal clients requires careful control and monitoring of behind-the-scenes set-up, and knowing how and when to make adjustments. That can take a lot of time you don’t have, but skipping these crucial steps can waste your advertising budget. 

The Modern Firm’s paid advertising professionals know how to make the most of small law firms’ advertising dollars. We create highly-targeted PPC campaigns that deliver a great return on investment, and we manage them completely. All we ask of you is feedback on the leads you receive, so we can continue to fine-tune your campaign to deliver the best results.

Local Services Ads for Attorneys

Local Services Ads, or LSAs, are another tool in your digital advertising toolkit. These are advertisements that connect people searching for a service (like legal representation) with a service provider in their area. 

LSAs feature a photograph along with the firm’s name, “Google Screened badge,” Google review rating, years in business, hours, locality, and other information; they include “Message” and/or “Get Phone Number” buttons, making it easy for searchers to immediately contact the firm. These ads are light on text, but heavy on trust signals, and they’re prominently placed: LSAs appear at the very top of the SERP, even above PPC ads.

With Local Services Ads, law firms pay per lead (a call or message to the firm) rather than per click. The quality of leads tends to be very high; searchers who respond to LSAs are likely to be ready, or nearly ready, to hire an attorney.

While LSAs offer somewhat less control than PPC ads, the fact that you can’t choose keywords, write ad copy or control how often your ads appear also makes the management process simpler. LSAs often work well as a supplement to PPCs, and when both ads appear on the same SERP, it amplifies your firm’s visibility and reinforces the message to searchers that the firm is credible. 

The Modern Firm’s Marketing team can help you decide how best to incorporate LSAs into an advertising strategy that may also include PPC and other options.

LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook Ads for Law Firms

Social media ads are those that appear on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and other social media platforms. Viewers of these ads tend to have a lower level of intent than those who respond to PPC and LSA; they may just be passively browsing rather than actively looking for a law firm. Social media ads may generate fewer leads, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have value. 

People spend a lot of time on social media, and platforms offer the potential for incredibly detailed targeting based on demographics, location, and interests. That helps attorneys get their ads in front of their target clients. And while viewers may not need a law firm today, they might soon. When they do, the law firms whose advertising they’ve seen on social media will feel familiar and trusted. 

Building brand awareness is one of the primary advantages of social media advertising. Advertising on social media allows for creative visual storytelling that’s accessible and engaging; it fosters connection in a way that search ads can’t. Social media ads may be a good option for law firms with practice areas like family law or estate planning, where building trust is especially important.

Social media ads are fairly cost-effective; law firms can often generate meaningful engagement with a relatively modest investment. They’re also good for retargeting and lead-nurturing, helping your firm stay top-of-mind for people who have already visited your website or interacted with your content. 

Social media marketing is rarely the centerpiece of a digital advertising strategy for law firms, but this form of advertising can be an excellent supplement to search ads for small and solo practices. 

Getting Started With Digital Advertising for Law Firms

We manage PPC exclusively for solo attorneys and small law firms. That focus isn't a limitation; it's why we're good at it. We know how to build campaigns that compete in any market without requiring a big-firm budget.

Our clients appreciate not only the results we help them achieve through advertising, but how easy and cost-effective we make it for them. We don’t just tell our clients their campaigns are working; we show them, with regular reporting and frequent e-mail check-ins. If a campaign isn’t having the desired effect after a reasonable time, we make and track adjustments so our clients can get the outcomes they need. 

As the digital advertising landscape for law firms continues to change, especially with the advent of AI, The Modern Firm is keeping current with developments so that we can offer our clients advertising options to help their practices thrive. To learn more, contact us for a proposal.