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If your law firm is looking for the best ways to reach potential clients and you have not given much attention to law firm digital marketing as of yet, it is really important that you formulate a strategy geared towards giving your particular firm more exposure on Google and other search engines. This is where Google AdWords for lawyers comes into play!
Law firms have the unique opportunity to target potential clients who are actively searching for legal assistance. Google, as the worlds biggest search engine gets, on average gets 5.4 billion searches a day, so it would be very shortsighted not to try and capitalise on this.
This blog post will discuss some of the basics of online advertising for law firms. We will also provide tips for creating effective ads and measuring their performance.
Let’s get started!
What Are the Best Ways a Law Firm Can Advertise on Google?
Law firms can advertise on google in 2 main ways. Either by creating ads, this way has an instant effect, but it means you must pay, form your ad budget, each time someone clicks on your ad. Or by creating a robust SEO strategy. For the purpose of this article, we are going to focus on Paid advertising for law firms and how global ad networks can boost your law firm’s business. If you want to gain more insights about how SEO and organic traffic are also essential for your firm’s success, do our SEO for law firms page.
Law firms can use various ad networks to purchase advertising space for their brand. This advert will be placed in clear view of an individual who is browsing the internet, and if they click on it, it will link to your law firms website or service page. Paid ads, like SEO, work on the principle of targeted keywords (search terms) – this means that when an individual type in a specific search term on Google or another search engine, your law firms ad should show if it is configured correctly to display for that keyword.
All keywords have different bidding values, and when you create your law firms ads, they will be almost like a keywords auction against other law firms who are offering the same services. Being able to purchase targeted keywords is what makes this type of advertisement so valuable – not only do potential clients see the ads, but they are also searching for specific legal services. There are two ways to do this:
Paid Search Ads [ Google AdWords For Lawyers ]
Paid Search has become one of the most popular ways to advertise online because it allows you to find potential clients who are actively looking for legal services. With Google AdWords, law firms can choose from millions of keywords and bid on how much they are willing to pay when their ad is clicked (for example, you may pay $/£3.00 per click or more for a law firm in NYC). Your ad will appear when someone types in terms related to your business and the bid amount is met, making it easy to find new clients looking for legal help.
If your ads are correctly configured, your firm will show up above or to the right of the organic results on Google and other search engines, so they carry more weight than display network ads, which are often seen as less relevant by users.
Display Network Ads
There are many ad display networks out there, but for the purpose of this article, we will refer to the Google Display Network (GDN). The Google Display Network is a network of websites and apps on which you can display advertising banners for your law firm. GDN consists of three different types of places to show your ads, and these include:
–Placements: individual websites and apps that make up the Display Network
–Networks: placements organised by topic, format or audience
–Ad formats: individual ad units that makeup a placement or network
Law firms can choose to display ads on various types of websites, such as news and entertainment outlets. The advantage is that you get the chance to be in front of potential clients at different points in their research process (i.e. when they are searching for services online).
Which is Better, Paid Search or the Display Network?
It depends on your budget and what type of law firm you are running. It s easy to see which one works best for you – so when you are starting out, it is really important to try both to A/B test your online ads strategy! Paid Search tends to be more expensive but can be extremely valuable if your budget is large enough. Display network ads are cheaper and may seem like a more cost-effective idea, but the fact is, they take more time and effort to measure results.
What Keywords Should Law Firms Target?
It goes without saying that this really depends on the legal area your law firm concentrates on. There are two types of keywords to consider: client-specific and service-specific. Client-specific keywords would be those that potential clients use when looking for a lawyer, such as “divorce”, “criminal defence attorney”, or “personal injury attorney.” Search for these types of keywords in Google Keyword Planner to find out how many people search for them each month.
Service-specific keywords are associated with certain legal specialities. Th y include words like “bankruptcy lawyer,” “immigration lawyer”, and “workers compensation attorney.” Using these terms can help you target those looking for a certain type of law.
When choosing your keywords, it’s important to choose some longer tail phrases as well as more generic ones. Longer keywords tend to be more specific and are therefore likely to provide better results. For example, “how can I bring my brother to the UK?” is an example of a long-tail keyword with intent. However, shorter keywords are often searched more frequently, such as “British citizenship application.” With that in mind, it is good to have a few ad campaigns that target a selection of different styles of keywords.
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What are Some Good Tips for Creating Effective Ads?
Make your headlines specific and use the keywords that you’ve chosen in your ad text (within reason). Make sure you also include a call to action on your ad in order to motivate users to click on your ad. Remember, not everyone who sees your ad will be ready to hire a law firm. You’ll need to be creative when coming up with your call to action, but it should always lead the potential client towards conversion (e.g., “Find out how we can help you today”).
How Much Does It Cost to Run Online PPC Ads?
This depends on the keywords that you want to purchase. On average, setting up a campaign with 20-30 highly relevant keywords can start at a minimum of £200 per month. You can also create more advanced campaigns if you have a larger budget because Google lets you set bids by maximum cost per click (Max CPC), conversion rate and other metrics.
The thing about ads is that it is all about gathering as much data as possible about your campaigns at the beginning to see how they perform and which ones will evidently bring you the business you need. So it is quite important to maximise your budget at the start so that you can gather this important data.
How Can I Measure the Success of My Ads?
You should be able to get a good indication of the performance of your ads within the first 2-3 weeks. The more conversions you get (clients signing up for your services), the better your ad is performing. Don’t be discouraged if you don’t get any conversions in the first few days – sometimes, it takes a while for potential clients to see your ad and make the decision to contact you.
Also, depending on the ad strategy you selected when creating your ads in Google Adwords, it may take a while for the algorithm to place your firm amongst others for the keywords it needs to show fo as it will be in “learning mode” for the first few days or the first week.
Once you start to run your ads, make sure that you track conversions using Google Analytics and then monitor them over time to determine how well different ads and keywords perform. In order to do this, you will have to connect it to your Google Adword account, so the data easily transfers.
How Long Should I Run My Ads?
You can run static ads for as little as one day or as long as several weeks. It all depends on your budget and if you are getting enough conversions to justify the cost. Once you find an ad-set that actually does bring you in inquiries, it is good to narrow it down in terms of geographical location and what time it sho8uld be shown during the day; this will ensure that your ad spend is reduced and more optimised, allowing you to capitalise on saving a bit and spending it more slowly down the line.
Finally, What about Landing Pages on my Website? (VERY IMPORTANT)
This is a really important step and should not be overlooked in any way. Having a catchy search or display ad is one thing, but you must make sure that when someone clicks on it and they are led to your website that the landing page they land on is well built, well written, fast loading and says the right info. This is why law firm website design is a really important factor to also consider when you are spending money on running ads. If you do not make sure your website is functional and user friendly, then you run the risk of wasting money on your ad strategy.
User experience is one of the most important things in setting your law firm apart from the rest and actually convincing someone to either fill out a contact form or call you. Moreover, the user experience on your website must match and ideally overpass the impression one would get from your amazing ad.
This means having a fully optimised website that loads fats (very important) has information of value on it, has enough call to action buttons and is enticing for the reader and convinces them to actually contact your firm. For expert advice on how to construct an ideal landing page for a law firm, ask our experts who have been helping numerous law firms achieve this very important goal and capitalise on the conversions they deserve.
Ask our Expert Legal Marketing Team
At Solicitors Marketing, we are a one-stop-shop for law firm marketing solutions based in the United Kingdom. With over five years of experience in the game, we are committed to the legal industry as marketing experts who are here to deliver an outstanding experience to all our clients by providing top-of-the-range digital marketing services that will boost your law firm’s online presence, increase your exposure and bring you more clients.
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