Master Law Firm Advertising to Grow Your Legal Practice

Advertising is pivotal for lawyers who want to significantly expand their client base since it provides a direct channel to connect with potential clients searching for legal services.

For attorneys, advertising offers the quickest way to produce results, enabling you to more efficiently reach your target audience.

When executed well, advertising generates leads and ensures a substantial return on investment (ROI). It is essential to any comprehensive marketing strategy because it enhances brand visibility and credibility in a competitive market.

Why This Article Matters to You

In this article, we guide attorneys through setting their advertising budget, explore marketing strategies and how they work, and discuss measuring your ad campaign’s success.

By understanding these key elements, attorneys harness the power of advertising to maximize their outreach and impact in the legal market.

For a deep-dive into winning law firm marketing strategies for your practice area, read our comprehensive guides: Bankruptcy | Criminal Defense | Estate Planning | Family Law | Immigration | Personal Injury

The Landscape of Law Firm Advertising

Get ready to navigate the evolving terrain of legal marketing. Let’s take a glance at the nuanced differences between traditional and digital advertising.

Traditional Versus Digital Advertising for Law Firms

The shift from traditional advertising methods to digital advertising has significantly transformed the law firm marketing landscape. While billboards and newspaper ads were once the gold standard, digital platforms have ushered in a new era of outreach for law firms.

Digital advertising—like Google Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Ads and Local Services Ads (LSAs)—offers unparalleled precision in reaching specific demographics. Unlike billboards, digital ads are tailored to target potential clients based on their location, behavior, and interests, ensuring a higher engagement rate.

Additionally, the ROI for digital advertising tends to be notably higher, given its ability to track leads, analyze user behavior, and adapt strategies in real-time. Traditional advertising is often more challenging to measure, making it tough for law firms to evaluate the effectiveness of their marketing efforts.

The Effects of Transitioning from Print Ads to Digital Marketing

Constellation’s Director of Advertising Beverly Lodge affirms, “Transitioning from traditional print advertising to a targeted PPC approach isn’t just a shift in strategy—it’s a game changer. This move enables specific attribution to leads not associated with print.

“Now, we can precisely target potential clients actively seeking legal services, measure every dollar spent for accurate ROI, and continuously fine-tune campaigns for optimal performance. In a highly competitive market, this level of control and measurability isn’t just an advantage; it’s a necessity.”

Why Digital Advertising?

• It puts you in front of more prospects. Did you know that 96% of people search for a lawyer online?
• It’s faster than other channels to deploy. According to Patrick Carver, CEO of Constellation Marketing, “We love advertising because you can go from ‘idea’ to ‘live campaign’ within a couple of hours, meaning we can deliver ROI for our clients at light speed.”
• It’s scalable. Other paid advertising methods—like TV commercials and billboards—are expensive. However, attorneys can start a digital advertising campaign with no minimum ad spend and then scale up as they see results.
• It’s trackable. While other methods may work, they are impossible to track. With the proper tracking setup, attorneys can measure their ROI in real-time.

Budgeting for Your Advertising Campaigns

Embarking on a successful advertising journey starts with a well-thought-out budget. Follow along as we explore budgeting strategies for your law firm advertising campaigns.

How Much Should You Spend?

Determining the ideal advertising budget as part of your law firm marketing plan is a nuanced process that varies based on your marketing goals, practice area, and existing revenue streams.

While no “one-size-fits-all” budgeting strategy exists, an excellent starting point is to allocate 7%-10% of your law firm’s monthly revenue to marketing, with your advertising budget included within that total.

Check out a real-life example of a bankruptcy attorney who was skeptical of investing in digital marketing and ended up with a stellar ROI:

Scott Goldstein of the Law Office of Scott Goldstein, LLC, discloses, “I’ve been using Constellation for several months and just transferred all of my online presence and advertising to their oversight. Their staff is responsive and quick to answer my questions. Their reporting is transparent and easy to understand.

“What counts, though is results. I can say that the ROI on their work is excellent. My lead count has jumped tremendously, and the quality is great. I am very pleased with their work.”

Setting Financial Goals

Setting financial goals provides a clear roadmap for your law firm, ensuring your online advertising goals align with your resources and market dynamics.

These targets serve as benchmarks for success and enable your firm to focus its efforts strategically, maximizing the impact of your advertising campaigns and fostering sustainable law firm growth.

We use a two-step process for our clients:

1. Start with a small budget with the primary goal of seeing how much it costs to generate one new client. During this exercise, you’ll learn your cost-per-lead and cost-per-client acquisition.
2. Next, take the information from step one to create a simple financial model forecasting how much you need to spend to meet your new client acquisition goals.Check out our easy-to-follow formula:

   Take your new client goal and multiply it by the number of leads it took to secure one client from step one. This total is a budget estimate of what it should cost to hit your goal.

Choosing the Right Law Firm Advertising Strategy

Creating an effective law firm advertising campaign is crucial. Tailored approaches that align with your target audience amplify your outreach, enhance client engagement, and establish a solid presence in the competitive legal market.

Google Ads for Lawyers

Google Search Ads are a powerful avenue for attorneys to reach prospective clients searching for legal services. One of their primary benefits lies in this immediacy. When someone searches for a lawyer, your ad appears at the top of the search results, ensuring your law firm website’s visibility to a highly targeted audience.

Google ads enable you law firm to set a specific budget and pay only when someone clicks on the ad, maximizing your ROI. Additionally, Google’s robust analytics provide invaluable insights into the performance of your PPC ads, allowing you to refine your marketing strategy based on real-time data.

By effectively leveraging your law firm’s Google Search Ads, you enhance your online presence, attract qualified leads, and substantially grow your client base.

Google Local Services Ads

Google Local Services Ads offer attorneys a direct and efficient way to connect with potential clients in their area. One of the standout benefits is the local focus. These ads target users within a designated geographic radius, making them highly relevant for law firms serving specific regions or cities.

By displaying essential information like your firm’s name, phone number, and hours of operation, LSAs help people quickly assess your law firm online.

To utilize LSAs, attorneys must complete a verification process and set a weekly budget based on their advertising goals. Clients can then contact the law firm through the ad, streamlining the process of connecting with you.

Attorneys who use Google Local Services Ads significantly enhance their online visibility, attract clients in their local area, and establish a strong foothold in their community, ultimately leading to business growth and client acquisition.

Facebook Ads for Lawyers

Have you considered social media advertising? Facebook Ads provide a highly targeted approach to reaching more clients, leveraging the platform’s extensive user data.

Its detailed audience targeting options allow law firms to tailor their ads based on demographics, interests, location, and online behavior. This precision ensures that ads are shown to users more likely to be interested in legal services, maximizing the likelihood of conversion.

Facebook Ads for lawyers help improve brand awareness, generate leads, and foster meaningful connections with potential clients in the vast social media landscape, ultimately leading to law firm growth.

Television and Online Video

TV commercials allow law firms to showcase their credibility and services to a diverse audience. These ads enable attorneys to convey their firm’s personality, trustworthiness, and success stories, establishing a solid brand presence in viewers’ minds.

Additionally, online video ads—whether on platforms like YouTube or social media—enable precise targeting similar to other digital ads, ensuring that the content reaches a target audience.

Attorney video marketing enhances the emotional appeal, making it easier to engage viewers. Both mediums encourage creative storytelling, enabling lawyers to humanize their law practice and build a personal connection with their audience.

TV Commercial Case Study

Alexander Shunnarah, a successful Alabama attorney, runs thousands of TV commercials monthly (and has over 2,000 law firm billboards).

Thanks in part to his video marketing, Shunnarah receives 1,500 calls every Monday. If he can convert 5% of those calls, he’s gaining 75 new cases! That’s approximately $750,000 generated from his marketing efforts.

Print Advertising

Print advertising—encompassing mediums like magazines, newspapers, trade publications, and direct mail—can still benefit attorneys in the digital age.

One key advantage is the tangible nature of print materials. Prospective clients often find physical ads more memorable and trustworthy. Magazines, newspapers, and trade publications also allow lawyers to target specific demographics, reaching niche audiences.

Direct mail marketing for attorneys remains effective due to its personal touch. Many law firms send helpful information directly to potential clients’ mailboxes to create a lasting impression.

Print advertising, especially when combined with digital marketing, creates a lasting impact and fosters meaningful connections, complementing your overall marketing strategy in a multi-channel approach.

Law Firm Billboards

Billboard advertising offers law firms a unique opportunity to capture the public’s attention in a high-visibility, local setting. The key benefit lies in its constant presence, as billboards are seen by commuters and passersby daily, ensuring a consistent brand presence.

To maximize the impact of billboard ads, attorneys should choose strategic locations with both high traffic and relevance to their target audience, such as near courthouses or areas with significant legal demand.

Additionally, billboard advertising works better when used in conjunction with Google search ads or TV commercials. While they may not immediately bring in new clients, they are an effective advertising medium when incorporated into a holistic marketing strategy.

Measuring Your Advertising Campaign’s Success

Measuring your advertising campaign’s success is crucial because it helps you evaluate the effectiveness of your strategies and make data-driven decisions to maximize your ROI.

Key Performance Indicators to Track

Key performance indicators (KPIs) are metrics used to evaluate the success of an advertising campaign. They provide valuable data to measure progress toward your law firm’s strategic goals and objectives.

Beverly Lodge, our in-house KPI expert, shares, “KPIs are important because they give you a clear picture of how your digital advertisements are doing. They help you figure out what’s working and what needs improvement. Plus, they ensure your firm gets the best advertising investment return.”

Keep an eye on these 9 KPIs, and you’ll be on your way to digital marketing success:

1. Click-Through Rate

The CTR tells you how many people actually click on your ad. A high CTR means your ad entices people to take action.

2. Conversion Rate

The conversion rate shows the percentage of people who clicked on your ad and then took an action, such as filling out an online form. A high conversion rate means your ad is doing its job and driving people to your law firm website.

3. Cost Per Click

CPC tells you how much you pay each time someone clicks on your ad. A low CPC is excellent because it means you’re getting more clicks for your money.

4. Quality Score

The quality score rates your keywords and ads based on their relevance to people’s searches. The higher the score, the less you’ll pay for clicks and the better your ad positions.

5. Ad Position

Your Google ads positions shows you where your ads appear on the search results page. Generally, you want to be in the top positions—that’s where the action is. However, being lower is more cost-effective.

6. Return on Ad Spend

ROAS reveals how much revenue you make for every advertising dollar. High ROAS is the goal because it means your ads are driving serious profits.

7. Impression Share

Impression share shows you the percentage of times your ad was shown out of the total opportunities it had to be shown. If you’re missing out on potential views, it’s time to optimize!

8. Ad Click-Through Rate (CTR) by Device

This one breaks down your CTR by device—mobile, desktop, or tablet. CTR by device helps you understand where your audience is engaging with your ads the most.

Expert tip: Users typically trend toward mobile devices for service-based verticals like law firms.

9. Ad Extension Performance

Ad extensions boost the effectiveness of your ads. Be sure to monitor their performance and tweak them to get the best results.

ROI: The Ultimate Metric

By understanding which aspects of your advertising campaign generate revenue, you optimize your budget, focus on the most successful marketing strategies, and allocate your firm’s resources where they yield the highest returns.

This data-driven approach ensures that your law firm makes informed decisions, refines your marketing tactics, and continuously improves your advertising efforts, ultimately driving the growth of your legal practice.

The Importance of ROI at Constellation

Our ROI focus helps us make the best decisions concerning your marketing campaign and ensures you spend your marketing budget wisely.

At Constellation, we do all the campaign tracking and monitoring so you can keep doing what you love—representing your clients. Still, we know it’s essential for you to see the success of your marketing efforts.

So, each month, our Client Strategy Team will share the number of clients and an estimated dollar amount generated through our ad campaigns with you. We aim to ensure you know exactly what you’re getting in return for your ad spend.

Law Firm Advertising Case Study

Kevin C. Martin, Attorney at Law, added $60,000 in new revenue by working with Constellation for 60 days.

Check out what he had to say about his experience with our team: “I’ve searched for a long, long time for a marketing firm to work with. Patrick and his team at Constellation Marketing are doing an amazing job. I highly recommend them!”

Harnessing the Power of Law Firm Advertising

The significance of advertising for law firms cannot be overstated because it serves as the cornerstone for growth and success. While digital advertising offers unparalleled precision and ROI, traditional methods like billboards and print ads often retain significant impacts.

The synergy between these approaches paints a comprehensive picture. By integrating both, law firm marketing harnesses the power of tailored campaigns, ensuring maximum visibility and attracting the right clients.

Are you ready to elevate your legal practice to greater heights? Consult with us now for tailored advertising solutions that will transform your law firm’s presence and drive unprecedented growth!