When it comes to advertising online through Google AdWords, the personal injury space is one of the most competitive and expensive. Law firms can easily spend hundreds of thousands of dollars per month on digital ads, as keywords related to law can cost over $50 per click. This high cost is generally justified by the high lifetime value of law firm clients. Online pay-per-click advertising is also one of the most efficient and trackable lead generation sources for law firms. In this blog, we’ll discuss the importance of paid search for law firms — and how your firm can utilize these ads to establish your online presence and get more cases than ever.
Why is paid search (or search engine marketing) so important for law firms?
When someone needs a personal injury lawyer, it is often a timely situation. While traditional advertising (e.g. television ads and billboards) is important for developing brand awareness, in an event where someone needs a lawyer quickly, a potential lead will likely reach out via a Google search. This is where inbound marketing and paid search becomes important — your firm needs to be present when someone reaches out.
Tips for Google AdWords for personal injury lawyers:
Understand your firm’s budget. While pay-per-click advertising for law firms results in high returns, the monthly ad spend is not insignificant. Research the cost per acquisition for cases in your area to better understand what your minimum monthly spend will need to be to stay competitive. You want to ensure that your budget is high enough to get enough clicks to get leads.
Optimize your keywords for searches. Testing and optimizing your keywords will help keep costs down by only targeting qualified leads. To do this, think of what a potential case might search for when needing a lawyer: Injured in car accident, need lawyer from car accident in [city name], etc. Then, use the keywords from these searches. You can also use the Google Keywords Planner to research related keywords so you don’t miss any.
Use long-tail keywords. To qualify leads even further, use long-tail keywords (very specific keyword phrases). These are cheaper than single keywords and are highly targeted.
Focus on your location. Set up location targeting in Google AdWords to make sure your ads are prioritized for people in your area. You can decide the radius for targeting, too — from a few blocks to an entire region. If your firm ranks well for the search term “lawyer + city,” you will land more cases and lower your cost per lead.
Use differentiated copy to stand out from other ads. There are dozens of personal injury lawyers in any given city, and most provide the same services. So, how do you stand out in the crowd? One way is to get creative with the copy.
List your phone number in the ad. Since a large portion of Google searches happen on mobile devices now, use click-to-call and click-to-text ads to increase the number of leads that come from your ads.
Link to relevant pages. Make sure your ads link to a landing page that aligns with the ad copy. For instance, if your ad targets someone injured in a car accident, link to a landing page with resources for someone injured in a car accident, as well as a form and contact information. For added appeal, include a video on your landing page to create a memorable connection with the potential client!
Considering hiring an agency for paid search management. Pay-per-click for law firms can be costly, but the return on the investment can be huge. Because of the competitiveness of the field, consider hiring an agency to manage your law firm’s paid search campaigns. Agencies specializing in paid search can ultimately help keep costs down.
To learn more about what results can come from pay-per-click advertising, read about our results for Rainwater, Holt + Sexton law firm in Arkansas.
