When Should Law Firms Invest in Pay-Per-Click Advertising?

 

The market for legal services is increasingly competitive. With more firms looking to establish an online presence, digital marketing services for law firms have become indispensable.

One popular option is pay-per-click (PPC) advertising – but how can you determine if and when to allocate resources toward this promotional route?

What is Pay-Per-Click Advertising?

In simple terms, PPC campaigns involve bidding on keywords. You pay the search engine a small fee every time someone clicks on your ad after searching for one of your chosen terms.

So you only incur costs when generating direct traffic and leads, rather than paying upfront for impressions.

Platforms like Google Ads facilitate this model by auctioning ad space and charging businesses based on cost-per-click (CPC) bids.

The higher you bid for a keyword, the more likely your ads are to be prominently displayed.

But you’re not obligated to continue running ineffective promotions hemorrhaging your budget.

What Are the Benefits for Law Firms?

Legal teams can utilize PPC to:

● Attract Clients Looking for Specific Services - Bidding on niche keywords like “medical malpractice attorneys [City]” allows you to put your firm in front of users already searching for those solutions. So your ad budget is spent capturing qualified leads rather than spraying and praying.

● Expand Brand Awareness Regionally or Nationwide - Location-based keywords help users find you regardless of proximity, enabling smaller firms to increase visibility across wider areas with targeted PPC.

● Generate Calls and Form Submissions - Campaigns focused on specific actions rather than just driving site traffic have higher conversion value. You can tailor ads to prompt calls to your office or submissions via intake forms.

● Supplement Other Marketing Efforts - PPC provides instant, measurable results that complement ongoing organic SEO and content marketing growth strategies requiring more time to mature.

● Scale Up or Down Strategically - Launching and pausing PPC campaigns, adjusting budgets, and testing new keywords allows agility based on evolving business needs month-to-month.

What Factors Should You Consider?

While PPC comes with advantages, blindly rushing in without properly assessing and planning for the commitment involved may undermine your goals. Let’s explore a few key considerations.

Budget

What existing marketing expenses do you have, and what can you afford to additionally allocate towards a new PPC campaign after factoring in advisor fees and other costs?

Can you scale that budget up over time if the campaign succeeds? Under-funding PPC investments often leads to lackluster returns, while overspending strains resources quickly.

Target Audience

Get very specific in defining your ideal client avatar. Geography, age, income level, profession, search behavior – the more details here, the better.

Accurately targeting prospects with the highest chance of converting makes more effective use of limited advertising funds. Casting too wide a net leads to non-qualified clicks.

Campaign Goals

What specific, measurable outcomes do you want? Is brand awareness your priority, or lead generation? Calls or form submissions?

Establish KPIs tracking progress towards goals. “Get more clients” is vague; “capture 50 qualified leads requesting consultations per month” sets a clear benchmark to optimize towards.

Available Analytical Expertise

PPC success hinges largely on continually monitoring keyword performance and making data-based optimizations.

If no one on your team has these analytical skills or available bandwidth, outsource to an experienced PPC management agency from the start. Trying to DIY without expertise guarantees squandered budgets.

Launching a Pilot Campaign

Rather than diving headfirst into PPC with your whole marketing budget, first launch a small-scale pilot campaign focused only on your strongest niche or service offering.

Limit initial monthly spending, closely track engagement and conversion metrics, and be prepared to pause or tweak efforts not delivering expected outcomes.

Use this experimental phase to:

● Identify Winning Keywords - Find which highly-targeted phrases actually drive clicks and conversions based on searcher intent data. Then concentrate spending there.

● Refine Targeting Parameters - Gauge whether location, device, language, operating hours or other filters help isolate your best-fit audience. Casting too wide or too narrow a net both carry downsides.

● Set Realistic Budget Expectations - Observe actual campaign performance to estimate the advertising investment truly needed to attract your desired traffic and conversion volumes. Quash assumptions.

● Audit Ad Copy - Try multiple versions of ad copy and headlines while keeping landing pages consistent. Let data reveal which message resonances and cross-platform synergies lift engagement higher.

Scaling Upwards Over Time

Once you complete an initial testing cycle, analyze what worked best then start gradually scaling upwards. But maintain rigorous analysis, performance benchmarking, and budget oversight each step while ramping up.

● Expand Keyword Footprint - Add new, complementary search phrases with similar customer intent to your existing winning set to widen exposure. But closely monitor as their performance may differ.

● Increase Spending - Slowly ratchet up daily maximum spend limits on campaigns with consistently positive ROI. But assign specific individual budgets to major keyword clusters as sub-campaigns for better optimization control.

● Lengthen Campaign Duration - Run re-optimized efforts longer to confirm solid returns over an expanded time frame and through varied buyer journeys before further scaling. Prematurely taking the training wheels off may lead to a crash.

● Widen Targeting - Carefully opencampaign targeting to reach more potential markets. But use additional filters to keep precision high around your ideal client profile while preventing generic clicks.

Optimizing an Established Campaign

Once comfortably scaled, avoid complacency. The most successful firms constantly refine and evolve established PPC efforts. Continually optimize towards efficiency using key performance indicators like:

● Click-Through-Rate - Clicks ÷ Impressions

● Average Cost-Per-Click

● Conversion Rate - Goal Completions ÷ Clicks

● Cost Per Acquisition

When NOT to Use Pay-Per-Click

While this guide focuses on recommending scenarios for PPC success, knowing when NOT to deploy it is equally important. Avoid pay-per-click advertising when:

● Overall marketing budget is too limited at the moment.

● No team bandwidth exists for daily management and optimization.

● Current website lacks enough informative content to engage visitors.

● You lack clear unique selling propositions versus competitors.

● No processes are in place to track conversions and ROI.

Essentially, if foundational elements of effective digital marketing are missing first, pouring budget into PPC too early risks draining funds without returns.