At The Modern Firm, we bring together our technological, marketing and legal industry expertise to create efficient and effective pay-per-click advertising campaigns for small law firms using Google Ads. With straightforward reporting and an increase in phone calls and website leads, our clients see and feel the positive impact on their bottom line.

A Brief Introduction to Pay-Per-Click Advertising

Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising is a form of ad that charges the advertiser only when the ad is clicked by a web user. For search engines like Google, and their Ads platform, this advertising creates the bulk of their revenue. The primary form of PPC advertising that law firms utilize is search ads. Search ads appear at the top and bottom of search results pages when a user performs a search that meets the advertisers criteria. Another common PPC form is called retargeting. These are ads that appear on 3rd party websites after a user has visited the law firm website. Retargeting ads effectively follow a potential client around for a period of time encouraging them to visit the law firm website again. However, due to privacy concerns, the use of retargeting is severely restricted to all but a few areas of law.

The Advantages of PPC

An extremely common question for those engaged in law firm marketing is whether a law firm should do PPC advertising or search engine optimization. The answer to that question mostly comes down to timing and control. Here are the distinct advantages of PPC advertising.

Top Page Placement

For any search that has commercial intent, search engines display ads first. This means that on desktop, and especially mobile devices, ads will consume most if not all of the initial screen space. If a law firm wants to be seen first, advertising is often the only way.

Granular Control Over Everything

With PPC an advertiser can have control over almost anything related to the visibility of the advertisements.

  1. Words and phrases that trigger the advertisement
  2. Words and phrases that block the advertisement (i.e. Pro-bono, free, cheap)
  3. Create specific ads for specific searches and needs
  4. Take visitors to the exact right page on the firm's website
  5. Geographic target area (radius from office, zip codes, region, states, countries)
  6. Adjust campaign and budget based on time of day or day of week
  7. Specify preference for mobile users (who could call instantly) or desktop
  8. Tightly control budget

It is even possible to get creative with automations such as having ads or budgets that change based on external factors like the stock market or the weather.

Fast Results

As soon as a law firm starts a PPC campaign, the visibility and traffic that comes with it, is almost immediate. This is especially helpful for firms that are looking to increase business quickly. For firms that don't earn based on contingency, a PPC campaign can potentially generate a positive cash flow right out of the gate.

Data, Data, and More Data

In order to fully optimize a law firm PPC campaign, search engines, like Google and Bing, offer a tremendous amount of data that isn't available for users that are only looking at organic information. The insights gleaned from this data can then be used to tailor the law firm's overall marketing.

  • Important search terms
  • Keywords that convert
  • Impressions and clicks by geography
  • Click-through rates, telling you which ad copy resonates with your clients more
  • Competitive information
  • Much, much more

How To Get Started With Legal PPC

Google's Ads set up can be complicated for a solo or small law firm that is looking to build their practice through pay-per-click. Mistakes can lead to a tremendous amount of expenditure on searches that have nothing to do with the law firm: bids on competitor's names, practice areas that don't relate to the practice, and spend on words like "pro bono," "jobs," even "statistics." We've seen it all, and every click that is wasted on bad searches are clicks not driving calls to the firm.

In order to target your specific clients, you have to very carefully control the behind-the-scenes set up and watch it frequently. For a principal attorney that is managing their cases and business, skipping over monitoring your campaigns can cost more than the PPC is worth.

Investing in a Pay-per-click professional service is one of those business choices where you tend to make up for far more than you spend into it.

At The Modern Firm, we manage PPC exclusively for solo and small law firms. Because our clients often have modest budgets and resources, we've developed a speciality for crafting highly-targeted campaigns that pack a tremendous punch. Our focus on the details allows a small law firm to compete in any market place.

If you think PPC might be right for your business, we make it easy to understand your options. Whether you are just looking to get your case load higher or have an existing campaign you want reviewed, The Modern Firm expert team can help you discuss what is best for your firm.

Contact Us For A Proposal