Attorneys and small- to mid-size law firms rely on a steady stream of warm leads. You can grow your client base through word-of-mouth advertising, but the bulk of potential clients are using web searches to locate legal services in their area. For many people, their search begins with a legal question or curiosity about a certain legal topic—they may not even have an immediate need for an attorney. However, as they click through the search results pages, the content of a website may inspire them to contact the attorney for more customized legal advice. By investing in pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, you can increase your chances of yielding a high return on your investment, resulting in more promising and sustainable leads. Here are a few tips for designing, implementing, and measuring a successful PPC campaign.
Understanding How PPC Advertising Works
There are several services to help you launch a PPC campaign, the most popular of which is Google Ads. After making an account, Google will provide you with specific instructions, such as setting a goal (i.e., driving more people to your website, receiving more client calls, etc.), choosing a targeted location, crafting a message about your legal services, stating your budget, and putting the PPC advertisement into action. However, PPC is not a one-and-done activity; you’ll need to consistently monitor the PPC campaign’s progress to determine its effectiveness. Google Ads provides several easy-to-use tools and metrics to analyze the effectiveness of your campaign. You can use this information to tweak the campaign to boost its reach and success.
Getting the Most Out of PPC Advertising
If this is your first time launching a PPC campaign, it’s natural to feel slightly overwhelmed and even intimidated by this process. Let’s take a look at some simple tips to maximize the effectiveness of your PPC marketing campaign.
Craft Compelling Content
It’s helpful to focus on the goal of your PPC campaign—driving more visitors to your website and getting them to call you or book an appointment using online tools. With this goal in mind, write ad copy that gets the user’s attention. Set yourself apart from other firms offering similar legal services in your area. What makes you different? What can your clients receive that other attorneys cannot provide? For instance, you may wish to focus on your compassionate approach or your genuine concern for each client’s well-being. Additionally, be sure to display contact buttons in prominent places, making it easy for people to contact you right then and there.
Use Keywords as Strategically as Possible
Like any search engine, PPC engines review and score your ad based on relevance, trustworthiness, and usefulness to searchers. Putting yourself in the position of a potential client can help you understand what keywords they would use to find legal services or information. You can use these keywords in the headline and body of your PPC content, signaling to the PPC engine and to searchers that you can address their questions with helpful, relevant information. Google Ads offers a keyword planner to help you research and locate new keywords that could boost the performance of your PPC campaign.
Pay Attention to Location
By limiting the PPC campaign to a specific location, you can appeal more directly to potential clients in your community. You’ll also save your firm some money—why advertise to people across the country when you practice personal injury law in a small corner of your state? Once the campaign goes live, the PPC algorithm will use these location parameters to display your ad to searchers within a specific radius.
Consider Using Ad Extensions to Maximize Click-Through Rate
The more prominently your ad displays your contact information, the more likely viewers will be to get in touch. In advertising, time is extremely valuable, and users want to find answers as quickly as possible. Google Ad extensions, such as call buttons and links to various pages of your website, tend to increase a PPC ad’s click-through rate (CTR) in a measurable way. Put yourself in the searcher’s position—they perform a quick search, click on an ad, decide they want to learn more about the legal topic, and contact the firm, all within a matter of seconds. Make sure your contact information is front and center to support and streamline this process.
Using Metrics to Improve Effectiveness
As your PPC campaign goes live, it’s important to monitor the ad’s effectiveness. Make it a habit to check in on the metrics and performance analytics to determine whether your campaign is having the intended effect. Remember, many firms find they have to make several tweaks to their ads to achieve their goals. Monitoring critical metrics like the quality score, CTR, conversion rate, and cost per conversion can give you the feedback you need to maximize the effectiveness of your campaign.
If you’re interested in learning more about launching a successful PPC campaign to market your law firm, call LegalRev today at (800) 893-2590.
