How to Create an Effective Attorney Facebook Advertising Strategy

Preliminary Planning

Before you dive right in, there are a few steps you should take to build a foundation for long-term success. First and most importantly, you need to understand what your audience looks like. Consider who your ideal clients (or followers) are, and various demographics such as their income, where they work, and how they spend free time. You’ll also want to think carefully about what legal challenges they might be facing and what they’re looking for in an attorney. If you’ve previously created client personas, you have a great starting point. (To create an ideal client profile more easily, check out this free guide.)

Next, think beyond those traits and consider how your audience fits into an overall client journey. Which steps are they likely to take as they realize they have a problem, research potential solutions, become aware of your firm, and ultimately choose an attorney? Remember that people typically fall into one of three phases: Awareness, Consideration, and Decision. You will need to tweak your messaging and calls to action according to each phase if you want to be successful. 

Think about how your attorney Facebook advertising strategy will differ based on the various audience segments you researched, and their placement in the client’s journey. For example, for those in the awareness phase, you may try to reach them with content that helps them understand their legal challenge. Once a prospect is ready to convert, you might offer free consultations or invite them to educational events. 

Finally, you’ll need to take the important step of installing a Facebook pixel. This is what makes it possible to track activity and conversions. It’s essentially a string of tracking dots that you take from Facebook and embed in your website. This pixel tracks what visitors do when they come to your site, and allows you to tweak your strategy based on real user behavior. You can find step-by-step instructions for installing this code here. 

7 Attorney Facebook Advertising Strategies

Now that you have a strong foundation created, let’s look at some of the different strategies for attorney Facebook advertising. 

1. Focus on Content Marketing

If you are targeting warm leads, it might be tempting to deliver them salesy messaging. However, the better approach is to entice prospects with content that is actually helpful. Look for ways to provide useful content, such as case studies or articles that address real legal challenges. Keep content short, interesting, and valuable. To adopt this strategy, you first need to create compelling content. Then, share content on Facebook and ask your team members to do the same. You can also boost posts so that they get more attention. 

2. Leverage Free Offers

Does your law firms have a valuable asset you offer for free or at little cost? Perhaps you offer a free consultation or free phone call with a lawyer to those that are interested in your services. Consider leveraging this in your advertising strategy. Focus on targeting your ideal client’s pain points and then offering your free offer as a solution.

3. Use a Lead Magnet to Fill Your Own Database

Hopefully, as you continue marketing efforts on Facebook, you’ll build up a great following. However, these people aren’t really “your” contacts. If Facebook made certain changes, you could lose access to these individuals. It’s important to get first-party data that your firm owns and can use in various marketing strategies. A lead magnet such as a free e-book or research report can entice people to provide contact information, building your list. You can use Facebook lead ads to execute this tactic. Using this channel, people enter their email addresses directly into Facebook in exchange for the content item you advertised. Then you can add that email to your own internal systems for other marketing. 

4. Try Video Ads

Whether you’ve been doing attorney Facebook advertising for a while, or are just starting out, it’s a good idea to experiment with video ads and see what kind of traction they get. People love video, and short-form video platforms like TikTok get more popular every day. They also tend to have a low effective cost per click vs. other advertising formats. Videos don’t need to be highly polished, they just need to capture attention and show your personality. 

5. Combine Facebook and Google Ads

Some people see paid advertising platforms as a one-or-the-other thing, but they don’t need to be. In many cases, Facebook ads and Google ads can complement each other well. Using both of these options at the same time depends on your strategy and goals. For example, if you are targeting people with an urgent legal need, you may want to run some Google ads using the keywords you researched. People are more likely to find these by doing a quick Google search in their time of need. Then you can place nurturing content on Facebook to help guide their decision. 

6. Use Facebook Mobile Ads

By far, the majority of Facebook’s advertising revenue comes from mobile. Almost everyone checks their Facebook on a tablet or phone, and if your advertising sends them to a website that isn’t optimized for mobile, you’re wasting your money. It’s essential that before you invest in mobile advertising on Facebook, you have your website (or at least the related landing pages) optimized for mobile so users have a good experience and are less likely to bounce from your page. 

7. Run a Retargeting Campaign

You can retarget those who have already viewed your ads in the past but have not converted. This is a great strategy for moving much warmer prospects through the buyer’s journey more efficiently. 

Takeaway: 

These are all tactics worth trying, but keep in mind that knowing your audience is the real foundation of any attorney Facebook advertising strategy that actually works. Having a real understanding of who might be looking for your firm, and keywords and messaging to reach them, are the building blocks of any successful Facebook advertising strategy. Need some assistance in setting up compelling campaigns? Let our paid advertising team help you. Contact us to get started on building a winning advertising strategy like we have for many law firms and legal companies.