Pay-Per-Click Advertising for Law Firms: Top 10 Mistakes to Avoid

Pay-per-click advertising for law firms can be effective when you choose the right keywords, select the right type of ad, and make the most of your budget. With pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, your ad can appear on search engine results pages or partnering websites, and you’ll only pay when someone takes action and clicks on your ad. Unfortunately, the competitive nature of the field can lead to wasted money if you do not use PPC ads correctly. If you’re considering starting a PPC campaign, read on to learn about common mistakes you should avoid.

1. Not Setting Up Remarketing

Remarketing or retargeting campaigns let you show your law firm’s PPC ads to those who have shown some initial interest in your services by visiting your website. People often leave sites without converting, so remarketing to them is a simple way to to remind them or nudge them to take the next step.

2. Running Never-Ending Campaigns

Remember the old adage, “Nothing good lasts forever”? The same can be said for pay-per click advertising campaigns. It’s easier to generate meaningful traffic if you have a lot of short-term, smaller advertising campaigns. Make sure you refresh your campaign every once in a while to achieve the best results.

3. Using Too Many Keywords in an Ad Group

While it might sound like a good idea to put as many keywords as possible in an ad group, it’s a messy idea in practice. Using too many keywords will actually lower or completely destroy your ad relevancy. To avoid this, use a smaller number of keywords and make sure that all of them are the most relevant to your firm’s messaging.

4. Leaving In Under-Performing Keywords

You should consistently be checking your keywords to figure out which ones perform the best, and which ones don’t achieve the best results. Again, make sure that your keywords directly align with your firm’s practice areas and landing page messaging. You should also make your keywords align with the business goals of your law firm. See: Keyword Research Tools for Law Firms.

5. Leaving Out Images

People are going to be most attracted to the visual aspects of your campaign, rather than just the words on a screen. For this reason, it would be remiss to leave images out of your ad campaign. You want your ads to stand out to customers, and choosing relevant images to your firm is the best way to achieve this.

6. Disregarding Video Remarketing

As previously mentioned, not all first time website visitors convert into qualified leads for your law firm. Another way to recapture a prospect’s attention is through video remarketing. Videos are a highly engaging ad format that can increase conversions by 80%. For tips on running cost-effective video campaigns, check out our past blog post: Law Firm Video Marketing Techniques.

7. Skipping Doing Financial Math on Each Click

What you bid on each campaign should be lower than the profit that is generated from the clicks your ad will get. You need to consistently be doing math to make sure that your campaign is cost-effective, and that your law firm is generating a positive return on investment (ROI).

8. Driving Users to Irrelevant Campaign Landing Page

Make sure your campaign landing page is properly optimized for conversions. An optimized landing page is one that provides users with what they’re looking for when they click on your ad. It should include useful, original content with a single clear CTA.

9. Forgetting About the Campaign

You shouldn’t be sleeping on the job, and the same thing is true about your ad campaign. You’ll want to check on it daily to make sure it’s getting the results your firm needs. You won’t want to leave it untouched for a few days and come back to results that were less than what you intended, so set some reminders to check in on it.

10. More Clicks Do NOT Equal Better!

More clicks might call for better results at face-value, but in the grand scheme of ad campaigns, that isn’t necessarily true. You’ll want to focus on the returns your law firm is making from the investment rather than clicks alone. Use conversion tracking to ensure that you’re making the right changes to increase the performance of your firm’s campaign.

Takeaway

If your law firm spends time and resources on pay-per-click advertisements, be sure to keep these common pitfalls in mind. Don’t forget to constantly monitor your firm’s PPC campaigns and look for ways to optimize them for a better ROI.

When properly optimized, pay-per-click advertising can drive highly qualified leads right to your law firm’s website. If you’re afraid you’re wasting money or just want a second set of eyes to take a look at your campaign and offer suggestions, contact us for a consultation.