Did you know that 97% of consumers use the internet to search for local businesses? This means that 97% of your potential clients are looking online for law firms just like yours.
As a lawyer, you know that having great marketing strategies is key to success in the legal industry. You’ve heard about pay-per-click marketing for lawyers and want to learn more about how it can benefit your practice — but where do you start?
Well, look no further! We’ve got the complete guide on PPC for lawyers so you can start building an effective campaign with ease. From understanding what PPC is and how it works to best practices and tips, this guide has everything you need to get started.
What Is PPC?
PPC stands for pay-per-click marketing and is a type of digital advertising that can be incredibly beneficial to lawyers. This is because PPC marketing is cost-effective and allows professionals in the legal world to reach more potential clients and remain competitive in their field.
How does it all work? PPC marketers use predictive analysis, keyword research, and other smart analytical methods to help lawyers get the most out of their ad campaigns. The goal? To quickly reach a vast audience of people who are interested in what you have to offer.
All in all, this type of digital marketing is fast, effective, and can be highly tailored depending on your target audience. This allows legal firms like yours to get a great return on their investment while also building a list of highly-qualified leads.
The Benefits of PPC for Lawyers
By utilizing PPC, lawyers can reach potential clients through targeted Google Ads and display ads. The best part? These types of ads allow you to reach specific people most likely to need legal services.
This means that if your law firm in Houston only caters to DUI clients, you can target people within a 50-mile radius of Houston looking for a “DUI lawyer near me.” Cool, right?
PPC is also a cost-effective way to get immediate qualified leads who could become long-term clients or provide referrals via word-of-mouth advertising. The result is an increase in brand recognition, leads, traffic, and conversions — a winning combination indeed!
Couple all that with the ability to track and measure success in real-time, and PPC is a definite must-have for lawyers who want their business to soar. That’s right, you’re able to measure your metrics in real time. This means that if, after a week, you see your campaign isn’t performing as you’d hoped, you’re able to go in, see what’s affecting it, and make changes accordingly.
All in all, the benefits of PPC abound. However, it’s a great marketing tactic to use if your goals are focused on local brand awareness and attracting highly-qualified leads.
Legal SEO vs. Legal PPC: Which Is Better?
Before we dive into our guide on how to build a successful attorney PPC campaign, let’s talk about the elephant in the room: SEO. You’ve likely heard of SEO before, right? It’s short for search engine optimization and it’s another popular marketing tactic you can use to gain traffic, increase brand awareness, and ultimately attract more leads.
However, is legal SEO better than PPC? Honestly, it depends. They’re both different tactics that require long-term investments to see success. Both also require you have a solid understanding of:
- Your target audience
- High-converting keywords
- How to write compelling, action-oriented copy
- Your own brand’s unique selling point
When it comes down to it, it’s not that one is “better” than the other. PPC marketing allows you to get your message out quicker since ads appear on search engine result pages instantly. On the other hand, SEO can help establish long-term visibility for law firms, making it a better asset for marketing lawyers over time.
In the end, PPC and SEO for lawyers go hand in hand like yin and yang. Both are necessary and effective pieces of any law firm’s digital marketing strategy. However, if you’re only able to invest in one, PPC is the better option for those interested in near-immediate results and leads.
Investing in legal PPC marketing is like turbocharging your conversion rate when compared to SEO. PPC packs a punch in terms of fast results, making it a great choice if you’re trying to quickly reach a more targeted audience. Interested in legal web design? Check out our web design for law firms here.
How to Build a Successful PPC Marketing Campaign
Are you sold on the benefits of legal marketing with PPC? Great! Now, here’s what you need to know about how to create your first successful PPC marketing campaign.
Define Your Campaign Goals
First, before you even enter Google Ads (or whichever PPC platform you’re using), you must understand your marketing goals. Defining your goals helps you map out a journey to success; that way you’ll know when you’ve made it.
And, lucky for you, defining your goals is relatively straightforward. Start by outlining what you want to achieve, then identify what actions are needed. Are they brand-building or performance-based?
From here, determine KPIs that define success and how often they should be monitored. For most lawyers, important KPIs to track as part of PPC marketing include clickthrough rate, calls and inquiries, and finally conversions.
Finally, set yourself achievable targets, as nothing saps enthusiasm like unachievable goals! You can’t expect to go from an empty client list to having 100 warm leads at your doorstep overnight. Instead, focus on what success looks like for you in one month, six months, and a year (and be realistic about what you can get depending on your PPC budget).
Understand Your Target Audience
Ahh, the art of knowing your audience! This is essential to law firm marketing, but it’s also incredibly important when executing a successful PPC campaign. After all, who better to define it than you?
You define your target audience by getting familiar with the various segments that make up your market and learning their backgrounds, behaviors, interests, and communication preferences. The more comprehensive your understanding. the better you’ll be able to create a focused strategy for your campaign.
Depending on who you want to reach, you can define it by their age, gender and location. Furthermore, you can target people who have already interacted with your brand online.
Perform Keyword Research
When it comes to legal PPC campaigns, keyword research is the backbone of your strategy. A good keyword-based strategy allows you to reach your target audience with precise accuracy and significantly improves your chances of success.
So how do you go about conducting keyword research for a legal PPC campaign? Start by brainstorming the keywords related to your services. Think about words that potential clients might use when searching for a legal professional online.
Once you’ve compiled an initial list, start using keyword tools (Google’s is free) to narrow down and find relevant search terms with a good amount of traffic. Finally, organize your keyword list into different groups and relevant ad groups. This will help increase the accuracy of your ad delivery across search engines.
Create Compelling Ad Copy
At this stage of the PPC process, making sure your ad copy is as effective as possible should be your first priority. But how do you write good ad copy that will capture potential clients’ attention and lead them to click?
- Think about the words you choose carefully
- Write authentic copy with a tone of voice that reflects your brand
- Keep it concise yet informative
- Include CTAs that include action words
- Make sure to test out various versions
Put these tips into practice and you’ll find it easy to write good ad copy that will help you get maximum results from your legal PPC campaign.
Optimize Landing Pages
One of the biggest reasons why businesses fail with PPC marketing is that they put all of their time and effort into the ads and forget to optimize their landing pages. You’ll know your landing pages need some love if your clickthrough rate is high but nobody converts once they’re on the landing page.
If that’s the case, it’s time to see why people aren’t converting. Start by ensuring that the message, visuals and copy all align. Then codify some A/B testing:
- Change out headlines
- Add in new CTAs
- Test elements of your design
By taking the time to optimize, you’ll leave behind a perfectly polished page your target audience will love. Always remember to include one CTA per landing page and minimize distractions. The one thing you want people to do when they click on that page is to convert in some way or another.
Get Help With Attorney PPC Marketing
If you’re a lawyer and in need of a boost when it comes to marketing, PPC could be exactly what you need. However, we know that PPC for lawyers can get a little tricky. Don’t worry, though; that’s what we’re here for!
At Sage Marketing Solutions, we specialize in offering PPC for attorneys and other digital marketing solutions that help you attract highly-qualified traffic and increase your leads and conversions. Ready to get started? Get in touch to chat about your law firm’s marketing needs.
