Pay-Per-Click (PPC) ads are one of the most effective types of marketing for law firms in terms of potential speed of ROI and in the logic of how potential clients navigate finding an attorney. Because of that, most attorneys with a large or growing firm make sure to have a robust PPC presence online, whether on social media, search engines, or other places.
With so many attorneys vying for the same potential clients, it can seem like an impossible challenge even if you can avoid all the most common mistakes. That’s why legal conferences like the ones that Brain Trust Legal hosts are ideal for lawyers and law firms looking to raise their PPC game and dominate their competitors. Below are just a few of the important insights that your law firm can learn from BTL conferences and events.
The short answer to that question is “where the potential clients are,” but the truth is that audiences are so splintered in recent years that the likelihood of reaching all of your ideal clients in a single place is very low. However, there are some PPC options that are better than others.
There are many places that provide pay-per-click options in their ads. Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn all have pay-per-click options. On top of that, other frequently visited sites like Quora, Pinterest, and Reddit all have them as well. However, social media platforms are places where people go for interaction and entertainment, they may not be looking for legal help right then. That means the potential clients are not as motivated.
The same is true for YouTube; however, YouTube’s pay-per-click ads are worth considering because of the sheer reach and potential audience size. Also worth considering is Microsoft PPC on their search engine Bing, which is smaller in volume than Google but used for similar purposes. People looking up information on a search engine are more likely to be motivated potential clients than almost anywhere else.
Which finally brings us to Google itself. It is the largest and most-used platform that has an option for PPC ads, which means it has a higher likelihood of reaching your ideal potential clients. However, it is important to remember that even Google only has about a 28% market share for PPC ads, which means that almost three-fourths of the ads out there are in places other than Google. There are many options, and while Google should definitely be one of your choices, it would be a good idea for it to not be your only one.
Any discussion of PPC ad performance should always come with the caveat of “when properly executed.” Many businesses start running PPC ads thinking that they will just start to see the new leads rolling in, but the truth is that the choice of words and phrases you bid on, the design of the ads, the choice of images and words, and even the number and ranking of your reviews can all have an impact on whether an ad performs well. Keep that in mind as you decide if you should be running your own PPC ads or finding a trusted expert to do it for you.
Having said that, the good news is that PPC ads have the potential to start working for your law firm almost immediately. You can set up a PPC campaign, and once it is approved, it will be running in a matter of hours and delivering potential new client leads in the same amount of time. Unlike the long game of SEO or a social media push that takes time to build brand awareness, PPC can start delivering for you immediately… when properly executed, of course.
Choosing keywords for bidding on in your PPC campaigns is a delicate balance of several factors, which is why it is best to have a PPC expert working on your ads. There are three primary factors when considering keywords and phrases that will help you reach new potential clients, each of which will affect which keywords are the best for your firm:
Search Volume is the first threshold that a keyword or phrase needs to meet. In essence, this simply means “is this word or phrase searched enough to make it worthwhile to bid on”? Often, a phrase is so niche or specific that there isn’t a lot of search volume, which means that it doesn’t make sense to spend time and money bidding on it.
In addition to Search Volume, there is Relevancy. There are many words that technically apply to your firm, words like “lawyer” and “injury”, but their relevance to your specific firm may be low. After all, there are dozens of types of lawyers, and your firm likely doesn’t take all those types of cases. The same is true of injuries, because many people with injuries aren’t looking for a lawyer, they may be looking for a sports medicine therapist or even looking up the origin of the adage “adding insult to injury.” If you choose terms that aren’t relevant enough, your ads will pop up on many searches that have no clear need for your legal services.
Lastly, competition is a very important consideration for the keywords you choose. For instance, the phrase “personal injury attorney” might be an ideal phrase to target, but you have to take into account how many others may be bidding on the same phrase and how much of a budget they have to put towards it as well. This can have a huge effect on where and how effectively your budget gets spent. That’s why having a PPC expert to discuss your options is going to get you your best results.
While PPC can be a huge advantage for your law firm in terms of new client leads, it’s clear that there are many intricate and complicated challenges involved in making sure a PPC campaign is properly created, optimized, monitored, and tracked. All those things are important, and many of them fall outside of the skill set of law firm team members.
That’s where the Brain Trust Legal conference and events come in. With industry experts sharing insights from the main stage and fellow law firm owners discussing their strategies and results throughout the event, it’s the ideal place to find out what’s happening in the larger world of PPC. Not to mention the exhibitor floor, where vendors and businesses offer information and solutions to your PPC needs. You can find out about Brain Trust Legal conferences and events here, and the BTL team can be reached from anywhere nationwide at (855)743-1636 to learn more.
