As you may be well aware, advertising your legal practice nowadays needs to go beyond yellow pages and bus bench ads. It has to incorporate digital marketing strategies geared toward your target audience — one of the most important of which is an effective PPC campaign. However, that certainly comes with its own set of challenges. Law-related keywords tend to skew on the more expensive side, competition is undoubtedly fierce, and reaching qualified individuals can be a bit of a gamble. That said, there are some marketing tips that can help you get the most return out of your paid search efforts:
First and foremost, it’s crucial to get a sense of the competitive landscape — and stand out amongst it. This process includes searching keywords in your area to see what ads appear. There are a few items to put into play:
This tip is probably in most PPC 101 materials, but you’d be surprised how many law firms still target regions irrelevant to them. Geography is crucial as the average client will not travel any further than they need to. When every click costs you, it’s essential to make each one accommodate any searcher.
So, dig into the area to determine the exact radius that makes the most sense to advertise to. If you have multiple locations, consider running various campaigns so you can target as accurately as possible.
For law firm marketers using PPC, mobile should not be ignored. There are already more mobile searches on Google than there are on desktop. Regardless, every law firm marketer needs a system in place to capture phone calls, whether it be via desktop landing pages or call-only mobile ads. Here’s how you can drive more phone calls to your law office through paid search:
Call-only campaigns: These replace the headline directing users to a landing page with a phone number, taking the oft-unnecessary step of visiting a landing page out of the equation altogether — connecting a searcher to a real, live representative or lawyer directly through the SERPs. While potential clients have a wide range of urgency, consider this a streamlined handshake for those with more pressing matters — if someone’s in a hospital bed after a horrific accident, a mobile phone could also be the only medium of finding representation.
Call extensions: Including a phone number somewhere in your ad text may lead to disapproval, so it’s best to use a call extension to get your phone number out there on the SERPs.
Tracking: Whether calls are coming in from a landing page or directly from the mobile SERPs, it’s imperative to have a system in place to track calls. This is critical in analyzing and tweaking your strategy as necessary. Tracking could lead to more informed decisions regarding budget allocation; say you notice your secondary location receives lots of calls in hours you didn’t anticipate and decide to bolster your mobile bids for that specific window.
While the above points are essential to keep in mind as you move forward with your paid search campaign, they’re just the beginning as far as effective campaign management goes! Speaking of which, we invite you to download our whitepaper: Top 3 PPC Mistakes for Legal.
For more information about our full suite of digital marketing offerings, including PPC and SEO services, reach out to our team today.
About the Author:
Spencer Coulton is a Content Editor at 1SEO. When not writing, he can be found strumming his guitar, attempting to brew the perfect cup of coffee, or biking around Philadelphia — sometimes all at once.
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