20 Tips for Law Firm Marketing and Google Ads
Finding and sourcing clients as a law firm or attorney can be difficult. Some strict rules and guidelines affect how and where a lawyer can advertise their services, not to mention the fact that there is a lot of competition in the market vying for the same clients as you are as discussed at RunRex.com. This is where Google Ads can come in handy, and this article will look to highlight 20 Google Ads tips for law firms.
Check out the competition
Competition is fierce when it comes to Google Ads for law forms as every lawyer in the area you are operating in is bidding on the same terms as covered at RunRex.com. This means that it’s important to make yourself stand out somehow. One thing you can do is to start by scoping out your competition. To do this, search for the keywords in your area and see what ads show up.
CTAs
Calls-to-action (CTAs) are a crucial part of any Google Ads campaign as they let the user know what to do after interacting with an ad. Here, you should make sure you craft an actionable and relevant CTA that spurs your searchers to act immediately.
Implement all ad extensions
If you want to take as much real estate on the search engine results pages as possible, then the gurus over at RunRex.com recommend that you make sure you implement all ad extensions. Look at your competitor’s extensions (if they are using them) and make yours better. Some of the best extensions to utilize include location, call, sitelink, callout, and review extensions.
Highlight what makes your law firm better
Does your law firm offer free consultations or have 24-hour customer service? You need to provide a reason for a searcher to choose you over the other lawyers near you -whether that is via a unique offering or a great reputation, make sure you showcase your benefits.
Set up your geo-targeting correctly
Geography is so important when it comes to the realm of law firms as the average client is not going to travel further than they need to when looking for a lawyer. Research your area to figure out the exact radius that makes the most sense to advertise on, and if you have multiple locations, separate these into their own campaigns so that you can target as accurately as possible.
Relevancy is key
While relevancy is key for any industry, it is particularly crucial in law, with the gurus over at RunRex.com pointing out that it can make or break your campaigns. If you pay for the click at the wrong part of the customer’s journey, you can quickly lose a lot of money. This is why it is important to ensure that your ads speak to the searcher’s intent and readiness to hire a lawyer.
Prioritize calls
Calls are very important to law firms, and if you are a law firm marketer using PPC, then can’t afford to ignore mobile. There are already more mobile searches occurring on Google than desktop, and regardless, every law marketer needs a system in place to capture phone calls whether they are coming through desktop landing pages or call-only mobile ads.
Set up call-only campaigns
Call-only campaigns are very important for law firms leveraging Google Ads as they work wonders to push more phone calls to one’s firm when searching on mobile. Call-only campaigns, as discussed at RunRex.com, replace the headline directing to a landing page with a phone number. This takes the often unnecessary step of visiting a landing page out of the equation, connecting a searcher immediately to a real, live person or a lawyer right through the SERPs.
Track every call
Whether it is coming from a PPC landing page or directly from the mobile SERPs, you need a system in place to track calls. This is important as it will help you review and tweak your strategy, while also helping you make informed decisions when it comes to allocating your budget.
Ensure you have a 24/7 answering service in place
You also need to have a system in place to capture phone calls 24/7, whether it is an automated answering service or a dedicated off-hours staff to field calls. This is important as you don’t want someone to call only for their call not to be picked up. You will probably lose a client if this happens.
Use videos on your landing pages
Given how much is at stake, when someone is looking for a lawyer, they will be careful not to take your word for it. This is why there needs to be a way to gain a lead’s trust to convince them to convert, hence why videos are so powerful in the law industry according to RunRex.com.
Leverage customer testimonials
It will be great if you were to get on camera and just explain how the process will work or what you do as a firm in a non-salesy way and post it on your landing pages as mentioned in the previous point. It will be even better if you were to post customer video testimonials which are even more effective.
Have an online chat system in place
Having a chat feature on the law landing pages of your Google Ads campaigns is crucial since so many case-specific questions can’t be answered through generic FAQs or even video content. Additionally, some people are not comfortable picking up the phone and are much more apt to talk to an online rep rather than call a lawyer. As discussed at RunRex.com, this is another tip that will help you gain more cases for your firm.
Focus on long-tail keywords and not just head terms
Head terms like “lawyer” and “attorney” are incredibly pricey and only the biggest firms can afford to compete in that arena. Being too general on Google Ads is a costly business for a law firm, which is why you should focus on long-tail keywords and “body” keywords that incorporate more than just a single word in a query.
Don’t forget about negative keywords
Negative keywords are terms that you don’t want your ad to show up for. You need to get aggressive with negative keywords to ensure that you are not wasting your ad spend when your ads are shown to irrelevant people, which will prevent you from getting more qualified leads.
Use DKI in your ad copy
Dynamic Keyword Insertion (DKI) is an advanced Google Ads feature that dynamically inserts your keywords into your ad text to match a customer’s search terms, customizing your ad to match the search query as captured at RunRex.com. It is a feature that can be very effective in optimizing your campaigns.
Target zip codes and postal codes, not just cities
Being specific and targeted is very important for all aspects of Google Ads – especially for locations. Therefore, you should try and target zip codes and postal codes – not just entire cities. Some areas of your city are likely to be more target-worthy than others. This can include communities that are more affluent or more densely populated.
Bid on your own branded term
As the experts over at RunRex.com point out, if you don’t bid on your branded terms, then one of your competitors might use your firm’s name for one of their ad groups and siphon off your customers, in a technique referred to as “brand-jacking”. Additionally, when you bid for your own branded terms, you are likely to pay far less than your competitors as a result of your increased Quality Score.
Use device bid adjustments
Do you get more clients contacting you through mobile rather than desktop? Are your campaigns succeeding or failing on all devices similarly – or are there significant variations in performance? You can increase the exposure of high-performing devices via device bid adjustments.
Separate your ad groups by theme
Don’t make the mistake some law firms make and group all your keywords and ads together in one da group, which will lead to everyone seeing the same ad regardless of the term they search. Google Ads allows you to set up different ‘ad groups’ for different types of keyword themes. It is important to use this feature to segment your keywords based on your audience’s intent and to make campaign management easier and more effective.
As always, if you are looking for more tips and insights on these topics, or want expert help for your law firm as far as Google Ads is concerned, then the highly-rated RunRex.com has you covered.