How Law Firms Can Manage Their PPC Campaigns During COVID-19

Covid-19 has triggered a dramatic uptick in online participation and important changes in search and social media behavior.  In the short term, most of us are focused on how the Coronavirus impacts our personal and professional lives, and that is likely to continue for some time.  This creates an important opportunity for law firms to align their PPC (pay-per-click) campaigns with the current environment, and benefit substantially from this new normal.

Some law firms are prospering during this time without manipulating their PPC campaigns, such as employment and trust and estate practices. Firms that practice in other areas, such as immigration law, business law, and real estate law, however, need to manage their law firm’s PPC campaigns to adapt to this new environment.

Here are some tips to help you manage your law firm’s PPC campaigns during this pandemic:

Revise messaging to focus on trending topics: 

Currently, the government is only allowing essential and priority services to remain open. So, if your law firm can modify its campaign messaging to include trending topics, such as social distancing or essential services it should. For example, your firm’s campaign can be optimized for conversions by promoting essential family legal services like child welfare, essential real estate services like landlord-tenant issues or essential health legal services like health insurance claims, etc.  

Don’t forget to change the messaging on your campaign’s landing page to include new features, including online consultations, deviations from normal services or hours of operations, etc.  See: How Law Firms Should Communicate Coronavirus Office Closures.

Shift your budgets to demand niches:

We recommend shifting your law firm’s PPC budget to promote niche services that are in high demand during the global crisis. For example, intellectual property law firms can focus on patent laws or copyright laws connected to science and technology, whereas business law firms can focus on taxation, employment contracts, corporate issues, etc.

Update your ad group’s target keywords:

You should review expensive and under-performing keywords and shut them off if necessary. Now is the time to focus your efforts and money on keywords and keyphrases that are trending. Use Google Keyword Planner and Google’s Coronavirus Search Trends to identify the most promising keywords and search strings related to your in-demand practice areas. Remember, your landing page language must coincide with the keywords you’re targeting in your law firm’s PPC campaigns.

Shift to new channels:

As a result of quarantine, people are consuming more content like news and videos and using more online communication tools than ever before. In fact, Facebook reported a 50% increase in messaging during this period, with voice and video calling more than doubling on Messenger and WhatsApp. The substantial usage increase creates social media PPC opportunities, including paid display ads on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram or YouTube in-video placements.

Takeaway

Law firm PPC campaigns are only effective when you choose the right keywords, select the right channel, and make the most of your budget. By continuously optimizing your PPC campaigns to coincide with search and channel trends, you’ll be able to increase conversions and ROI.

If you need help making the most of your budget to create effective PPC ad campaigns, contact us for a free consultation.