A law firm gained 39 web enquiries and 33 phone calls from Google Ads (Formerly Adwords)
The legal sector is the most competitive industry advertising on Google, joint with the insurance and banking industries. Law-related keywords are consistently the most expensive in terms of cost-per-click (CPC). This is because the supply outweighs the demand.
When a business advertises on Google, they are competing to appear in one of a few ad placements and they fill up fast, driving the price up. Extreme competition is further compounded by regulations specific to the legal sector, jurisdictional barriers and the large number of searchable keywords that relate to law firms. As a consequence, many pay-per-click (PPC) marketing experts struggle to get good to outstanding results for law firms.
A non-legal sector expert previously wasted thousands of pounds on Google Ads
Upon taking over management of the account, I immediately noticed that a campaign had been running for several years and incurred thousands of pounds worth of invoices from Google. I was advised that a non-legal sector marketer had set this up but had failed to introduce any system of measuring the number of enquiries resulting from the ad campaign. It was impossible to know if the ads were leading to new enquiries but it was believed that they were not. Further to this disappointing revelation, the ad creator targeted the entire United Kingdom, meaning the ad was being shown to people in two legal jurisdictions in which the firm did not offer services.
As Northern Ireland is the smallest of the three jurisdictions, the vast majority of people clicking on Google Ads were unable to instruct the firm and their clicks burned through the budget at an alarming rate. This highlights the importance of only trusting a legal sector specialist with your marketing budget.
The Results
In around five months I was confident that I had discovered the winning formula for this firm. During a period of one month, there were 39 conversions from ads on the firm’s website. A conversion is triggered by contact form submissions, phone calls and email enquiries that originated from the site. In addition, there were 33 phone calls from people that called directly from the ad rather than visiting the website. The total ad spend was £402.31.
| Name | Clicks | Web Enquiries | Calls From Ad | Cost-Per-Click | Cost-Per-Enquiry | Total Spent |
| Dynamic | 174 | 22 | 9 | £1.26 | £9.96 | £183.14 |
| RTAs | 103 | 17 | 24 | £1.78 | £10.77 | £219.17 |
The average clickthrough rate (CTR) and conversion rate (CVR) on the law firm Google Ads are just shy of 3% and 6.9%, respectively. According to a Liverpool-based analytics agency, UK legal sector Google Ad CVR is just 2%.
This campaign had a CTR of 4.8% and 5.82% and a CVR of 12.64% and 16.5%. The results remained consistent during subsequent months. These results placed the campaign in the top 5% of all law firm Google Ad campaigns.
The law firm was now in a position where we could pause, lower or raise the budget and have a reasonable expectation of how that would impact new enquiries. It could be compared to having a tap from which new enquiries flow that can be turned on and off at the law firm’s leisure.
How I did it:
I specialise in Google Ads for law firms
As a legal sector marketing expert and Google Ads specialist, I was uniquely positioned to transform this law firm’s Google Ad account into a new business-winning machine. I immediately paused the wasteful and budget-burning ad and created three new campaigns consisting of a display network ad and two search network ads. The ads were served only to people that indicated a need for legal services and who were in a position to instruct the law firm.
The best results on Google Ads come from measuring the results and making small but consistent improvements. I have spent hundreds of thousands of pounds for law firms on Google Ads over many years and any newly created campaigns enjoy the benefit of that experience. New campaigns come preset with my sector knowledge of what works in terms of keywords, targeting parameters, bidding, ad copy and more.
Measuring Results
It’s essential that accurate measurement of results takes place on an ongoing basis throughout the lifecycle of the advertising campaign. This is how a digital marketer makes improvements and strives toward more profitable results.
I used GA4 and Google Ads’ built-in analytics tools to measure metrics such as the number of clicks, impressions and conversions. There are more than 200 metrics on Google Analytics alone.
Keyword Research
Most law firm Google Ad accounts struggle with targeting the right keywords and key phrases. They too often include keywords that would be used by a solicitor as opposed to the language used by their clients. Thorough research and data lead action solves this problem.
I looked at the services that the firm provides and conducted research into the popular keyphrases associated with online searches for those services in the location they are offered. I used several tools, including Google Keyword Planner, Google Trends and The Hoth, to measure the average number of monthly searches of keywords. I also analysed competitor law firm’s content, including their Google Ads if they had any. Finally, I consulted my own database of keywords and their results. I compiled this database over the years from data obtained from many law firm ad accounts.
Google Ad Creation
I used my sector knowledge to create compelling and clickable headlines and content. There were dozens of variations that Google’s algorithm would display to potential clients. I monitored these on an ongoing basis and removed the poor-performing variants so as to allow better-performing variants to appear more.
Google Seller Rating
On top of Google Ads services, I provided a social proof service to this law firm. This resulted in enough positive online reviews to grant the Google Ad account access to Seller Ratings. Seller Ratings are a free automated Google Ad extension that attaches the star ratings of a business in their Google Ads. The ratings are gathered from several reputable sources and aggregated on a scale of 1 to 5. In addition to the star count, the rating includes the number of reviews the business has received. There are tough milestones to meet to be eligible for seller ratings.
If you advertise on Google Ads, seller ratings are very valuable. The stars that appear within your ad are an eye-catching yellow and make ads stand out against competing ads. To qualify for Google seller ratings, a law firm needs to have 100 total verified reviews from any trusted source, from the country in which they wish to target your Google Ads, with a minimum rating of 3.5 stars, collected over the last 12 months.
Speak with a legal marketing consultant about Google Ads for solicitors and law firms
If you would like to speak to a colleague or me about Google Ads for your law firm, we offer a free initial exploratory consultation. Contact us to book yours. Or, if you would like to know more about these services, visit Digital Ads for Law Firms.
