With the rapidly changing and more competitive marketplace of the legal industry, every attorney looks to the Internet for ways to differentiate their practice and attract clients locally. Traditional advertising still has some merit, but digital strategies are rapidly becoming the go-to for client acquisition. One of the most effective modern marketing partnerships is that between PPC marketing and local search optimization. When utilized correctly, this pair can provide a key to the clearing house for law firms to attract those in search of services in their local area.
PPC advertising is a powerful tool that can catapult your law firm to the top of search results for any specific query, instantly exposing you to potential clients. Unlike organic SEO, which may take weeks, months, or even years to yield results, PPC delivers almost immediate outcomes. For lawyers, the allure of PPC advertising lies in its ability to instantly connect with people actively seeking legal solutions on Google. With PPC ads appearing above and below the organic results, your law firm is strategically positioned to capture the attention of those ready to convert.
Another compelling reason for lawyers to invest in PPC advertising is its flexibility. This strategy allows law firms to target specific practice areas and individual geographic locations, ensuring that the ads reach a demographic that could potentially become clients. Moreover, PPC platforms like Google Ads offer robust tracking and analytical tools, empowering you to measure the effectiveness of your ads and adjust your strategy accordingly.
However, while PPC is immensely valuable by itself, when combined with local search optimization, even greater opportunities and potential are unlocked. When you harness the power of PPC in conjunction with local search efforts, you put your law firm in front of the right people at the right time—people who are not just searching for legal services but for legal services in their area.
Local search optimization all but guarantees that when somebody searches for legal services within a specific geo-location, your law firm is at the top of the results. Local search algorithmic components especially involve
For attorneys, the need for local representation is paramount. Clients often prefer to work with a law firm that is in close proximity to their location. By optimizing your firm’s local search, you can ensure that it is prominently featured in various search results, Google Maps listings, and localized queries, thereby enhancing your visibility and credibility.
Effective Local Search Optimization begins with Google Business Profile Optimization. It’s essential to claim and fully optimize your Google Business Profile (GBP), as it forms a key part of any local search strategy. Law firms that appear in the Google Local Pack, a map and listing above organic results, gain a competitive edge. By optimizing your GBP listing with accurate information and images that reflect your firm’s identity and services, and maintaining updated contact details, you can significantly increase your firm’s visibility.
Keep in mind that local search isn’t restricted to just Google Business Profiles. Localized keywords are needed within your law firm website copy, meta tags, and headers too. Client reviews are another local search consideration. Ensure your clients are reviewing your practice on Google, Yelp, and Avvo. Google will rank businesses with higher reviews and more reviews at the top.
PPC and local search optimization actually overlap each other when creating a marketing strategy to generate more highly targeted leads for law firms. These synergistic strategies, therefore, support each other, giving your firm an integrated approach to be certain that your paid and organic dominance in the local search results space is complete.
It is important to note that since PPC advertising can be done in specific geographic areas, it will ensure that your advertisements reach people in areas where you offer legal services. The geo-targeting can get super specific—down to the city or even neighborhood level. When combining PPC’s ability to hyper-target and local search’s focus on organic search to the point of proximity, you actually develop a stunning combination that focuses on clients within your service area who are actively searching.
For instance, a criminal defense attorney in Phoenix will be able to run PPC ads that target only their audience when they are looking for legal help in the Phoenix vicinity. Meanwhile, local search optimization will ensure that their website appears in organic results when someone uses the search term “Phoenix criminal defense attorney.” This double exposure has a demographically favorable impact.
This is important in the case of the paid ad for the law firm listing appearing in either the Local Pack or organic search results. A firm that appears everywhere definitely gets the trust of clients. This combination will drive dominance on the results page, enhance user trust, and boost click-through rates.
Plus, you can design the PPC ads to focus on what is most valuable about your law firm, like its years in practice or clients’ testimonials—coupled with positive reviews and a strong local search presence—potential clients result in convincing themselves to get in touch with your firm.
Because of that, combining PPC with local search efforts can make marketing more cost-efficient. Whereas most PPC involves paying per click against your budget, these are very qualified leads. They are people who are actively searching for legal services in your area. When you pair this with organic local search visibility, by driving traffic through both paid and organic channels, the overall cost per lead can be driven down.
Besides, local PPC typically has a higher conversion rate. Because these ads are targeted to attract local customers, of course they will have more appeal to the target audience, leading to more queries and consultations being generated. If potential clients see your law firm listed in both paid and organic results, they are more likely to consider your firm as one of the best options available in the area, hence leading to higher conversion rates.
PPC and local search can be powerful tools for law firms, but they also require a level of technical sophistication and ongoing management that most firms seem to lack time and resources for—here is where outsourcing to agencies comes in.
Attorneys trying to run their own PPC and local search efforts frequently find it hard to keep up with Google’s algorithm changes, pull that spend down through the proper levels of optimization, and fine-tune those campaigns ad infinitum. Without the proper tools and experience, managing these strategies can quickly become overwhelming, and mistakes can be costly.
Professional law firm marketing agencies, like FORWARD Lawyer Marketing, have the knowledge and experience to conduct such very effective PPC and local search campaigns. They know the best trends, tools, and best practices to really make your law firm work at its best to realize a return on investment. Leaving the complexities of online advertising with the marketing agency, outsourcing also helps to get back to servicing clients—doing what you do best.
PPC is also an acronym for Pay-Per-Click. PPC advertising is unique because you only pay for the clicks these ad banners produce. When the right legal service keywords are used, geo-location targeting ensures that only potential clients within the range of your service will be shown the ad.
Local search optimization refers to the processes by which law firms try to make their firms appear high up on the search engine results pages associated with a search for legal services in their area. Local search optimization improves the likelihood that a potential client will find your law firm when they search for a lawyer near them—particularly when using Google Maps and Google My Business.
Using PPC and local search strategies together, your law firm will be strategically placed in paid and organic search results. This is a winning combination that provides increased visibility and credibility, abetted by trust, propelling higher conversion since, typically, clients trust the firm that dominates their search results.
Negative keywords can prevent your PPC ads from being triggered by specific search terms. Setting negative keywords like “free legal advice” or “pro bono” helps prevent the ad from being displayed in front of users who are unlikely to become paying clients, thus preventing your budget from being spent inefficiently on qualified leads within paid legal service searches.
Quality Score is, generally, a Google Ads metric that helps you understand the relevance and quality of your PPC ads. More critically, it directly affects your ad ranking and cost per click. Factors that determine a Quality Score consist of CTR, ad relevance to the keyword, and landing page experience. The importance lies in monitoring and optimizing the Quality Score the keyword enjoys as a component of Lawyer PPC campaigns: a higher Quality Score will reduce your CPC and make your visibility wider.
These geographic bid adjustments will allow law firms to alter their bids to accommodate the weak human link. For instance, if a Chicago-based law firm establishes that the majority of high-converting clients arrive from certain neighborhoods, say Lincoln Park or River North, it will then increase bids specifically in those areas. Conversely, they can reduce bids in areas that don’t generate as many conversions. This ensures the firm’s ad spend is being allocated where it’s most effective.
Callout extensions are basically extra lines of text in a PPC advertisement that help further explain the services of your law firm or the value propositions you may offer, for example, “Free Consultation,” “Available 24/7,” or “Over 20 Years of Experience.” They increase the visibility of the ad by taking up more real estate on the search results page, highlighting the firm more. They also relay key information that is likely to improve click-through rates and lift your quality score.
Ad scheduling allows law firms to identify when their PPC ads should run and be seen by their prospects. For example, if the data suggests that most inquiries come between 9 AM and 5 PM on weekdays, then a law firm can just set more of its ads to be shown at such peak hours. Proper ad scheduling optimizes budget allocation and assures that ads are shown at times when prospects are most likely to convert.
Therefore, location targeting in PPC is the practice of the law firm serving up ads to users in certain geographic regions through ad mediations. One of the most important factors in most clients searching for a lawyer is that most clients want this service within their geographical areas. Targeting certain cities, ZIP codes, or neighborhoods by PPC efforts assures that law firms’ ads are being served to a highly relevant audience, which increases the performance of ads and, as a result, the rate of conversions.
This allows law firms to change their bids or even display ads solely on certain devices, such as desktops, tablets, or mobile phones. The reason this works is that user behavior is different on different devices: mobile users are searching to find quick answers, and desktop users are doing deeper research. Law firms have tailored PPC campaigns to work on devices—for example, mobile ads focusing more on click-to-call functionality and desktop ads driving users to complex landing pages.
A/B testing is simply the creation of at least two variations of pay-per-click ads to compare their performance; this could be the ad copy, headline, or landing page copy. With a law firm, A/B testing is part of the essentials based upon ever-evolving PPC strategies to stay on top of the best industry practices for bettering click-through rates, lowering the cost per click, and increasing conversions.
Landing page optimization is the process of driving users to a page that is highly relevant to their query and helps them convert. This includes clear calls to action, short loading time, mobile-friendly design, and relevant content for a superior experience. This not only increases conversion rates but also improves your ad’s Quality Score, which can lower costs and boost ad placements.
The typical use of remarketing in PPC is to target users who have visited a law firm’s website but have failed to do anything, like contact the firm. It allows law firms to keep certain users in the mindset of their services by serving them with targeted ads when they browse other sites or use social media and to convince them to come back and finish that inquiry or consultation request. This can be highly effective in converting leads who may be in the research stage of finding legal representation.
With FORWARD Lawyer Marketing, you’re aligning your brand with a company that understands some of the complexities involved in marketing attorneys. They design and administer custom PPC campaigns by targeting potential clients in your geographic area and focus on optimization for enhanced local searches, which maximizes organic visibility. Their all-inclusive approach guarantees that your firm attracts the right clients at the right time and within budget.
Is your law firm ready to bring in more clients from the locality and get it in front of everyone? FORWARD Lawyer Marketing offers local search and PPC campaign domination for law firms nationwide. Contact FORWARD Lawyer Marketing at (888) 590-9687 and increase your number of leads, elevate the growth of your practice, and boost conversions. With FORWARD Lawyer Marketing, you will improve your online reach, attract more clients, and stay ahead of your competition.
Download Your Copy
