How to Track the ROI of Your Legal Marketing Efforts

Relatively few fortunate law firms don’t have to worry about paying for marketing. Perhaps they have a niche practice that is in high demand, or such a strong referral network that they have more leads than they can take on as clients. But for the majority of law firms, especially small law ones, marketing their practice is a must to keep new clients coming in the door.

Even if you acknowledge that marketing is necessary, you may approach it with some trepidation. Marketing is an investment, and you want to be sure you see a good return on that investment (ROI). That’s a valid concern. At The Modern Firm, when we ask about a new client’s previous marketing efforts, we sometimes hear, “I tried advertising on a certain platform/with a certain agency, but I just wasn’t seeing results, and I couldn’t tell that it was working, so I stopped.”

Fortunately, with the right tools in place, tracking ROI from marketing efforts is easier than ever. That means you can be more confident about investing in your law firm marketing, because you’ll have the data to confirm that your efforts are paying off—or to tweak them until they do.. 

How Do You Calculate ROI in Marketing for Law Firms?

If you were one of those smart kids who chose a career in law over one in medicine because there was less math involved, we have some bad news…there’s at least a little math involved with calculating your marketing ROI. The good news is it’s not that hard, and it’s well worth it.

The basic formula for tracking the ROI from marketing is:

ROI = (Revenue from marketing minus marketing costs) divided by marketing costs. 

For example, if your monthly marketing costs are $1000, but your practice brought in $11,000 this month due to your marketing, your revenue minus marketing costs is $10,000. Divide that figure by your $1,000 marketing expenditure, and you have an ROI of $10 for every $1 spent on marketing. Not bad!

But, of course, that assumes you know how much of your revenue is attributable to your marketing, as opposed to referrals, visitors somehow tripping over your law firm website, or some other source. Fortunately, there are simple ways to figure that out, too. 

Marketing and ROI: Using the Right Tools

The calculation of your marketing ROI will only be as accurate as the data you have about where your leads are coming from, and whether those leads convert. It can be easier to track the ROI of paid campaigns, like pay-per-click (PPC) and local services ads (LSA), than that of organic marketing like blogging and SEO, observes Paige Silver-Dunn, TMF’s Director of Marketing. It is still possible to track the success of organic efforts, it just involves more analysis and interpretation.

While there’s nothing wrong with asking people who contact your office, “How did you learn about us?” there are more direct ways to learn where your leads are coming from.

Tracking URLs

You can, and should, add tracking parameters to any URL that is part of a digital marketing campaign for your law firm. Urchin Tracking Module (UTM) is the best-known tracking URL system, allowing you to track the campaign source, medium, content, and term. This information can be sent to a Client Relationship Management (CRM) tool to be tracked.

Tracking Phone Numbers

If you are using a phone number for a digital marketing campaign, you should be tracking that, too. Some attorneys are hesitant to use tracking phone numbers, worrying that using multiple numbers  might seem unprofessional or confuse clients. This is rarely a problem in reality, and the insight gained from these numbers can be invaluable.

Customized Webforms

Most CRMs allow you to customize webforms with specific fields so that you can identify where leads came from, and some forms can capture and store tracking URLs. Some custom form builders even enable you to add hidden fields to the form that include your campaign’s tracking parameters. 

CRM with Lead Source Attribution

CRMs like Clio Grow and Lawmatics can record the source of a lead, such as a Google ad; the stage the lead is in, such as “consultation booked” or “retained;” and even the value of a case. The best CRMs integrate with call tracking, webforms, and email.

Google Analytics 

Google Analytics tracks all visitor behavior on a law firm website. It allows users to set up “conversion events” like contact form submissions, and shows where those conversions are coming from–like organic search, Google Ads, or referrals. The good news is, Google Analytics gives you a wealth of information—and it’s free, not to mention highly customizable. 

The bad news is that it gives you that information in the form of a lot of raw data, which can be hard to interpret. It can tell you how many people filled out a form, but it can’t tell you who those people were, whether they retained your firm, or how much revenue they generated if they did.

How TMF Tracks Leads for Clients

The Modern Firm provides marketing clients with lead-tracking through  WhatConverts, which ties together form submissions, phone calls, and campaigns on one dashboard that lets you see exactly what is driving leads, which positions you to make adjustments, if necessary.

Our team regularly reviews clients’ dashboards and where leads are coming from, meeting with the attorneys as needed to discuss the data. But as Paige points out, “The lawyers and law firms have boots on the ground. If they record which leads become clients, and how much revenue each client brings in, we get a much better picture of which leads are paying off for them, which really allows us to fine-tune their campaigns and maximize their SEO.”

After all, if you get a hundred leads, but none of them become clients who produce revenue for your law firm, your ROI for your legal marketing services is zero.

Common Pitfalls in Tracking ROI in Legal Marketing

1. Failing to Establish the Proper Systems and Processes for Tracking

One of the most common issues The Modern Firm sees with small law firms is not having systems and processes in place for lead tracking. Complete and accurate data is the foundation from which to determine the ROI of your marketing. Without that foundation, it is impossible to know which efforts are paying off, and which are not—which means further marketing spend may be misdirected.

2. Not Setting SMART Goals for Each Campaign

Another common misstep is not setting specific, measurable goals for your marketing efforts. If you have meaningful key performance indicators (KPI’s), you’ll be better able to evaluate whether a campaign is successful. An example of such a goal might be, “Generate 20 quality leads from Google Ads each month.”

3. Misunderstanding the Objective of Each Marketing Channel 

While it’s important to change course with your marketing when necessary, it’s equally important not to give up on marketing efforts before they’ve had a reasonable chance to bear fruit. Some efforts, like organic marketing with SEO, take longer to achieve results than paid ads, but those results are also often longer-lasting. Other channels may not have the sole purpose to generate new leads, like organic social media publishing, which is often used to build awareness and community. 

4. Reporting and Reacting on Data That Does Not Matter 

Another common mistake attorneys make is confusing “vanity metrics” with a true return on investment. Likes, shares, and impressions are nice, but they don’t always translate into quality leads or paying clients for your law firm. It’s more important to focus on metrics that are truly tied to your firm’s revenue, such as cost per lead, conversion rate, and client acquisition cost. 

5. Not Accounting for All Marketing Investments

For a truly accurate evaluation of your ROI for legal marketing services, it’s also important to take into account ALL of your marketing costs. If you only count Google Ad spend or SEO management fees, but ignore the cost of your other resources you’ll falsely inflate your perceived ROI. 

6. Not Reviewing Your Results Regularly and Adjusting Based on the Data

Failing to regularly review and adjust marketing efforts is one of the biggest pitfalls when it comes to marketing and ROI. You need to analyze the results of every campaign you launch, because what once worked well may not perform for you even a few months later. By tracking leads and retaining clients, you can make adjustments to your campaigns that are based on data, not just hope.

The Importance of Having a Reliable Legal Marketing Professional

It’s important to consult with your marketing professional about using a combination of tools to achieve results in the short and long term. Oftentimes our clients that achieve that highest ROI are those that have an integrated marketing mix that allows them to drive revenue immediately while building a bigger machine for long-term sustainability. 

To learn more about how to track the success of your marketing efforts, the tools available to do so, or to get help tracking leads and maximizing your ROI, just reach out.