Google Ads for Lawyers: 15 Proven Strategies to Get More High-Value Cases

Is Google Ads for Lawyers?

Technically speaking, Google Ads works for all trades, including legal services. It is a reliable online marketing platform for reaching the target audience in real time. Yes, you can get found when someone needs your services most. In this way, you can enhance both your accessibility and reliability.

For example, someone looking for a personal injury lawyer in your city will find your name with contact details at the top of the search results. The client will immediately call your office for quick help. Your paid ad campaigns will generate multiple leads for your legal services and help you become more popular.

Google Ads Tips for Lawyers

Google Ads is an online marketing platform that requires at least a basic understanding of keywords, ad campaign creation, bidding, and location targeting. If you are new to paid advertising, it’s better to team up with a Google Ads consultant. Legal service is a highly competitive business. Standard keywords, such as personal injury, divorce, and drunk driving, can be expensive.

True that Google Ads is a powerful tool for digital marketing. However, it may take you some time to master the art of targeting potential clients, writing precise ads, and saving money on bids. Running Google Ads can help you reach clients looking for the legal service you offer.

The beauty of Google Ads is that you can achieve success overnight. You won’t have to wait for your ads to rank on search result pages. If you bid on the right keywords, create compelling ads, and convert visitors, you can see results within an hour of making your ads live.

Here are 15 winning tips for Google Ads. If you follow these tips, you will certainly see positive results. They are proven methods of driving quality traffic to legal services.

Google Ads for Lawyers

1. Target High-Intent Legal Keywords

What are high-intent legal keywords?

It is about targeting users in need of the legal services you offer.

For example, take “personal injury”. It is a very broad keyword encompassing all kinds of injuries, including slip-and-fall, workplace mishaps, defective-product claims, and automobile accidents. Conversely, using a “car accident attorney” or “hire a product liability lawyer” will be more targeted.

Someone looking for specific legal services, such as a slip-and-fall accident, is more likely to convert than one looking for a personal injury lawyer. Another advantage of targeting high-intent keywords is that you establish your authority. When you project yourself as an auto accident or wrongful death lawyer, you prove your expertise on the subject.

The objective of using high-intent keywords is to target clients who need your services more than others. It isn’t about clicks but targeted traffic that converts.

2. Create Separate Campaigns for Each Practice Area

How many legal services do you offer?

Most law firms offer a mix of services, including personal injury, criminal defense, family law, business litigation, and employment law.

If you also offer multiple services, create a separate campaign for each service. Clubbing all services in one advertisement would confuse visitors. It may be a futile exercise that will waste both your money and time.

Creating individual pages for different services will provide you better control over keyword selection, budget, and messaging. You can describe your services in clear language and convert potential clients.

It will also help determine which of your legal services are popular and generate maximum revenue. You can allocate budget according to the popularity and performance of your ad campaigns.

3. Use Geographic Targeting Strategically

Which area does your law firm serve?

If you use the city name in keywords, you focus your search on a specific location from which you get maximum business. In this way, you set boundaries for visitors. You want visitors from a specific location and not from distant places. A similar setting can be made in Google Ads.

Setting location reassures searchers that your firm operates in their area. If your firm works in multiple areas, you can use multiple locations in keywords. However, a decision about running paid ads in multiple locations should be made only after reviewing performance.

It isn’t advisable to run ads in locations from where you get zero visitors or low-quality leads.

4. Write Highly Relevant Ad Copy

Why is ad copy important?

It is where you outperform others. High-intent keywords and location settings can place your ads before potential clients, but you also need strong ad copy to attract their attention and compel them to rely on your services.

Avoid:

• Generic messages, such as experienced legal team or contact us today
• Unsupported claims, such as “best attorneys” or “guaranteed results”

Use:

• Specific message, such as schedule a confidential consultation
• Communicate your service, location, advantages, and process clearly

Also, make sure that claims made are truthful and comply with legal advertising requirements. Users will consider strong ad copy as a genuine reason to rely on your legal services.

Family Lawyer Google Ads Consultant Case Study

5. Create Dedicated Landing Pages

Where do you want your visitors to land?

You need to think like a visitor. When a user clicks on an advertisement, they expect more information about the service advertised.

For example, a person looking for “divorce lawyer” clicks on your ad and lands on a page dedicated to family law. The person gets more information on your knowledge and experience in divorce cases. Convinced, the person hires you to represent their case.

Using the homepage as the landing page for all your ads isn’t advisable. The homepage contains information about all your services. Landing targeted visitors on the homepage can distract them from the specific service they need at that time.

Dedicated landing pages are like extensions of your ads. They can do a better job than the homepage.

6. Make Phone Calls a Major Conversion Goal

How to turn a phone call into an important lead?

Someone who takes the time to call your firm may have an urgent need compared to regular website visitors.

Therefore, encourage potential clients to make calls.

For example, adding a click-to-call feature to your mobile landing page will enable visitors to call for a quick telephonic conversation. It will help in times of urgent needs. Also, tracking calls can help determine which campaigns or reasons generate maximum telephonic leads.

A 30-second call from a distressed client can provide a quality lead. It will also strengthen client confidence in your availability. An active phone number with a click-to-call feature on the website will give you an edge over others.

7. Track Qualified Leads Instead of Just Conversions

What is the difference between a conversion and a qualified lead?

A website visit is a conversion, and so is a form submission. However, not every conversion qualifies as a lead. A lead is generated only when visitors take a specific action, such as:

• Telephonic inquiry
• Appointment scheduling
• Successful consultation
• Retained client

Google Ads show what you want to see. For example, if you prioritize tracking for form submissions, you will see only conversions that may not actually convert.

It will connect advertising data to actual business outcomes and help in campaign optimization and client retention. Here, you need to define actions that qualify as leads. It will improve your ROI and keep you a step ahead in the competition.

Google Ads For Lawyers: 15+ Tips Lawyers Can use Google Ads to Generate More Leads

8. Build a Comprehensive Negative Keyword List

What are negative keywords for your legal service website?

Users search for information about a business, product, or service with an intent, such as urgency, information, or education. Since you provide legal services, you don’t need visitors looking for free legal help, jobs, courses, or training.

For example, someone actively looking for “lawyer jobs” won’t need legal representation. Adding negative keywords to your ad campaigns will prevent irrelevant searchers from clicking your ads. It will not only save costs, but also improve targeting.

Look at your search-term report for negative keywords. Also, review the report periodically to discover new irrelevant queries. These exclusions will save your ad campaigns from irrelevant clicks.

9. Qualify Prospects Before the Attorney Invests Time

How do qualifying prospects save time?

A prospect calls your office for a quick telephonic consultation. Before the attorney attends the call, they want to learn more about the prospect. Here, you need an intake system.

What is an intake system?

It is a set of questions that helps attorneys understand situations, such as:

• Type of legal service needed
• Incident details – location, date, and time
• Who is representing the prospect?
• Present stage of the case

These questions can help the attorney determine whether the prospect is a qualified lead. The prospect can answer these questions over the call or on chat.

An effective intake system benefits both the prospect and the attorney. It can save them time.

Estate Planning Lawyer PPC Case Study - Google Ads Consultant

10. Optimize for the Quality of Cases

How to determine the quality of leads?

In legal services, more leads don’t mean more business. You don’t need visitors. You need clients that give repeat business. In the legal profession, it is better to be a legal advisor to a valuable client than to chase daily leads.

Optimizing ad campaigns for quality leads gives recurring business. A recurring client can bring more clients with word-of-mouth marketing. Running campaigns for visitors may result in financial and professional loss.

When optimizing campaigns for leads, choose the one that delivers quality leads. There is no point in answering hundreds of phone calls or email queries that don’t convert. Focus on quality leads rather than visitors.

11. Use Automated Bidding With Reliable Data

What is reliable data for automated bidding?

The automated bidding feature makes Google Ads more beneficial for advertisers. However, the success of automated bidding depends on conversion data.

What is conversion data?

If you mark form submission as a conversion, Google Ads will use it as a valuable conversion and optimize bids for conversions. In this way, you will have more conversions but fewer leads. Here, you need to activate conversion tracking on your website.

What is conversion tracking?

It is a systematic way of tracking leads. The system tracks the user journey from the initial click to final form submission or phone call. It collects data for Google Ads automated bidding.

12. Optimize Landing Pages for Mobile Users

Why optimize landing pages for mobiles?

A person will certainly use their mobile to search for lawyers or legal services at times of need. If your landing pages aren’t optimized for mobiles, you may miss important leads.

Here’s the ideal structure for a mobile-optimized landing page

• Fast loading
• Click-to-call feature
• Simple navigation
• Clutter-free

A person clicks on your ad and lands on the connected page. They find the click-to-call button and immediately press it to start a telephonic conversation. You attend the distressed call and promise quick help.

In an emergency, mobile becomes a reliable tool for quick help.  You can further help potential clients by optimizing your landing page for mobile. They can access your office for help any time.

Injury Lawyers Google ads consultant Case Study

13. Use Remarketing Carefully

Why is remarketing important for lawyers?

A prospect visits your website not to hire you but to check your services and prices. The prospect may use your details to compare your services with others to find the best attorney. It is where you need remarketing.

The objective of remarketing is to stay connected to your website visitors. They should see you as the best option – always available. They might revisit your website to recheck the information. It is an opportunity for you to convert the visitors into clients.

Some visitors may require legal services later or sooner. If you are connected to them, they may consider you as their attorney.

14. Continuously Test and Optimize Campaigns

How to manage your ad campaigns?

Running paid marketing campaigns involves many factors, such as:

• Search intent
• Keyword performance
• Click-through rate
• Conversion rate
• Geographic performance
• Device performance
• Landing page performance

If you don’t test and optimize your ads for important factors, you may experience a sudden drop in conversion numbers and lead quality.

Testing is also required for headlines and ad copy. It will help determine what works for your ads. In this way, you can develop a system to create meaningful ads that perform well on both desktop and mobile searches.

15. Measure Revenue and Case Value

What matters most for your business?

Your objective of running paid advertisements is to get cases. You need clients and not impressions, form submissions, or conversions.

For example, if you spend $1000 on 10 leads and only one lead qualifies, you spent the entire amount for that lead. If the case value is less than $1000, it won’t give you any financial benefit.

It shows that you need to rethink your marketing strategy. The keywords aren’t targeting high-value clients. Also, you’re paying a high amount per lead. You should consider the financial value of cases instead of the number of leads generated.

Hire a Google Ads expert

Final Thoughts

Google Ads can benefit your legal services if you know how to manage paid advertisements. There are many questions to answer before you start running Google Ads.

Fix the following things:

• Budget
• Number of campaigns
• Keywords
• Location
• Services

Testing, optimization, and continuous monitoring are necessary to keep the ads meaningful. For example, you can promote the most popular services for quick gains. Similarly, you can bid on the most affordable keywords to keep things simple. Selecting a location where you can find a large number of clients can also be a game-changer for your services.