10 Ways To Improve Your Law Firm PPC Campaign

Pay-per-click advertising is a complex science. Often, firms decide to boost their traffic through paid advertising channels and soon find themselves in over their heads. Even the best-trained experts need to continuously study paid advertising channels and learn new ways to improve performance. Here are some tips from some of the most knowledgeable PPC experts on advertising for law firms to help you improve your firm’s performance on PPC platforms. 

Improving Your Law Firms PPC Campaigns 

1. Include “Negative Keywords” in Your Campaigns

Just as there are words and terms that you can specify in your campaigns, you can also choose words that you want to omit. Negative keywords tell your ad platform to avoid placing ads on result pages that show up when users search those particular phrases. For example, services that your firm doesn’t provide should be on a negative keyword list. For PPC advertising for law firms, avoidance of keywords not relevant to your firm will help ensure your ads get to the right people.

2. Understand How the “Iceberg Effect” Relates to PPC Advertising for Law Firms

This concept refers to miscellaneous search terms below the surface being tacked onto keywords that we think are working properly in our ad campaigns. That’s a problem because it leads to an unhealthy search-to-keyword ratio and also results in a lack of control over many of your terms. You can avoid this by being aware of how it happens, and also using tactics like single keyword ad groups (SKAG) that aim for a 1:1 ratio of search terms to keywords. This allows for more control over the entire ad group. The SKAG format allows advertisers to get super granular and isolate one variable at a time, which means they have more control over their entire PPC account. 

3. Keep Close Tabs on Conversions

Do you know which keywords, audiences, or placements are actually leading to action? It’s important to track specific components of each campaign so that you can properly attribute PPC to your lead generation efforts. We suggest using Google’s Valuetrack Parameters to automatically track data within URLs. Hidden form fields can reveal things that happen during a conversion event, like which landing page URL they came from, where the visitor is located, or what keyword they typed in. You can also tie those fields back to CRM so that you can tie the lead activity to revenue.

4. Gauge Visitors’ Intent When Developing CTAs

PPC visitors come to your landing page with various goals. Often, those that come to your ad via display are a little “cooler”, while visitors that come from search tend to be “warmer”. Think of this intent as a temperature scale that goes from cool to warm depending on visitor origin. Knowing where visitors come from can be very helpful in aligning calls to action with their intent. For example, people at the cooler end of the scale will be more receptive to downloading a checklist or white paper, while those at the warmer end will be more open to consultation requests. 

5. Analyze Micro-conversions to Find Bottlenecks

The more granular you can get with your PPC campaigns, the better. A smart strategy for PPC advertising for law firms is to break down your larger conversion goals into smaller conversion activities. There are some metrics that you can review within each campaign to help you understand what needs to be improved. For example, look at: 

1. Time on site
2. Scroll depth
3. Form field completion
4. Button click 

These metrics will tell you how long each visitor remained on your site, how far they scrolled, if they abandoned your form, engaged with your CTAs, and overall will help you understand how to improve PPC advertising for law firms. Having this information will show you where your campaign is falling flat. Then you can alleviate issues whether they are in your targeting, your landing page design, etc. 

6. Leverage AI

You can leverage AI to ensure you’re getting the most out of your campaigns. Generative AI can help you create a keyword list, create ads, or build audiences. Check out this past post to learn how.

7. Optimize Your Landing Pages

There are a number of ways you can take your landing pages to the next level.

Personalization has been proven to improve conversion rates. Personalize the messaging on your landing pages based on your buyer personas and what they’d be interested in seeing. You should also ensure your landing pages are high-speed and optimized for mobile so they perform at their best. And don’t forget to A/B test elements over time!

8. Assess Your Budget Throughout the Process

Before starting your PPC campaign, you should assess your law firm’s budget and figure out how much you’d like to spend on this campaign. Remember: campaigns can get expensive without proper optimization. To keep costs as low as possible while still obtaining results, try the following: 

• Choose a more specific radius to target, such as a city versus an entire state.
• Schedule ads to run only during business hours for your potential clients. 
• Use an exact phrase, and broad match modifier keyword match types to limit irrelevant clicks on your advertising. 
• Review your search terms regularly to see what people actually seek and click on. This can help build a negative keyword list as well. 
• Upload negative keyword lists that contain terms like “free” or other phrases you’re not interested in being found for.

9. Use Ad Groups

Ad groups are those that contain one or more ads with similar targets. If you have a few ads that share one or more keywords, you can group them together. Just remember to always have all ads in a group share at least one root keyword. And you don’t want to try and reorganize groups after your ads have already started- this can lead to the wiping of data.

10. Leverage Google Audience Builder

Google Analytics 4’s new audience builder makes the creation of audiences a lot easier. Just start by linking your Google Ads and Google Analytics 4 accounts. This allows for a better understanding of your audience’s cycle and better remarketing.

Takeaway: 

There are many things you can do to improve PPC advertising for law firms. These are a few of our favorite tips that are likely to have a positive impact on your campaigns. Better paid advertising performance will lead to a boost in traffic and an increase in qualified leads. For more guidance in navigating the world of PPC, contact us today for a free consultation. We can help with all aspects of PPC advertising for law firms, including developing a strategy, choosing the right platforms and targets, and measuring and optimizing performance.

This post has been edited and republished from Feb. 8, 2022