Conduct Competitive Research
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:
- Implement ad extensions to take as much real estate on the SERPs as you can. In essence, ad extensions are simply extra, relevant information that’s shown below your ad copy and let you take up more space on the page and help boost your ad’s rank. Location or affiliate location, call, message, sitelink callout, and review extensions are all excellent options for utilization.
- Distinguish yourself from the crowd. Does your law firm have 24/7 customer service? How about free consultations? Provide a reason why a searcher should go with you over the lawyer next door (or, in this case, next position), such as a unique offering or an excellent, long-standing reputation.
- Create an actionable, engaging call-to-action (CTA) that spurs searchers to act immediately.
Set Up Geo-Targeting
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.
Prioritize Phone Calls
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.
To PPC…and Beyond!
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.