Legal paid search contains some of the highest click prices in advertising, because a single case can be worth a great deal. That makes it unforgiving: waste compounds quickly, and the difference between a profitable account and a ruinous one is usually what happens after the click rather than the bidding.
Intake is the whole return
An expensive click that reaches a voicemail is money burned. People with a legal problem call several firms and retain whoever answers and reassures them first. Before increasing budget, measure time to first contact, how calls are handled out of hours, and what proportion are never returned. In most firms that is the binding constraint, not visibility.
Where the waste is
Geography wider than the firm practises in, broad match drifting onto research and job-seeker queries, and ads pointing at a general page rather than the practice area searched. Each is visible in a search terms report within a week and each is routinely left running for months at very high cost per click.
Conduct rules apply to every ad
Advertisements are communications about a lawyer's services: they must not be false or misleading, the responsible firm must be identified, and claims about results, specialisation and comparisons are restricted, with several states requiring qualifying language. The firm carries the obligation, not the agency, so the firm's own review is the control that matters.
Fee structure and case value
A percentage of spend on a large legal account produces a substantial fee for the same work a smaller account gets for less. Ask for the fee in absolute terms at your intended spend, who touches the account weekly, and what changed last month. Track cost per signed matter rather than cost per lead, because in this category the gap between the two is enormous.
Questions people ask about law firm ppc agency
Why are legal clicks so expensive?
Case values are high and many firms bid for the same small pool of searches. That makes precision and intake far more important than budget size.
Should a firm bid on competitor names?
It is common and its treatment varies by state bar and by platform policy. Take advice before doing it, since it touches both advertising rules and trademark questions.
What should a legal PPC account be measured on?
Cost per signed matter, not per lead or per click. The conversion from enquiry to retained client varies so much that lead counts mislead.