How lawyers can use Google Ads to attract more clients

Google Ads is one of the most effective marketing channels in online marketing. Of course, Google Ads is also interesting for lawyers and law firms. Many law firms shy away from relying on this marketing channel. Too expensive, too inefficient, not the right mandate requests. And it’s true: Google Ads (and Microsoft Bing) on topics related to legal advice and law firms is relatively expensive.

The high level of competition usually goes hand in hand with expensive keywords. Every lawyer in the area is bidding on the same terms and is hoping for profitable mandates. Because Google Ads is ultimately an auction, this drives the click prices for promising search terms such as “criminal defense attorney Munich” beyond the € 5 mark, mind you.

“The biggest challenge is to get through the labyrinth of all the other lawyers,” says Alexander Sperber, Managing Director at UnitedAds, a Google Ads agency that specializes in online marketing for law firms, among other things.

With Google, it is comparatively easy for any law firm to reach potential clients online, but it is expensive because everyone is struggling to be at the top of search results.

The broad subject matter and the associated number of search terms and target groups make it complex to distinguish relevant search queries from irrelevant ones.

In addition, the search for the right law firm and the right lawyer can take some time. The so-called customer journey can therefore be long and winding, which also does not facilitate the alignment of the advertising campaigns.

In view of these challenges, many law firms still do not really trust law firm marketing with Google Ads.

This is a missed opportunity, because if you use Google Ads precisely tailored to the needs of your own law firm, Google Ads can be extremely efficient.

As a lawyer, you increasingly win new mandates online via your law firm’s homepage. Over 95% of all search queries in Germany are made via Google. With our marketing tips for lawyers and law firms, you can ensure that your law firm is found when you search the Internet for the areas of law you cover.

Because as a lawyer you are exposed to strong local competition. In order to assert yourself against the competition, it is actually not just a question of whether you use Google AdWords for your law firm marketing, but whether you are using your online advertising budget efficiently.

To be successful in search results, you need to somehow stand out.

You need to provide a reason why a searcher should choose your law firm over the attorney next door – whether it is 24-hour emergency service, free video & chat advice, or your great reputation, make the benefits of your law firm clear out.

One additional piece of advice: don’t get obsessed with spying on your competition. Just check out their website and ads and make yours better.

For lawyers and law firms, the phone is still the most important way to get in touch. A phone call is worth a lot more than a click on a website. High-quality leads in particular are more likely to pick up the phone.

So what can you do to direct more phone calls to your law firm via paid search?

Use call extensions

Call extensions add a phone number to your ads, which can increase your click-through rate. When a call extension is visible, users can tap or click a button to call your law firm directly. This enables you to get and track more conversions.

Google Ads will set up automatic call extensions if your website has a phone number and calls from users are one of your business goals.

Take advantage of call ads

Call ads are designed to encourage users to call your office. They are only delivered on devices that can be used to make calls. When a prospect clicks or taps the ad, they can call you right away.

This eliminates the often unnecessary step of visiting a landing page, and you can connect the searcher directly to a lawyer via the search results.

If people search for a lawyer on your phone, chances are you’ll want to call one. Because of this, most of the time, call ads work very well.

Use call tracking

Call tracking provides a lot of valuable information about incoming calls and shows the actual results of your marketing campaigns. Call tracking enables dynamic phone numbers to be used on your website. Incoming calls can therefore not be measured, but also assigned to individual users. With an integration with Google Analytics, you can see the exact source of a call. For example the Google Ads campaign and the Google Ads keyword.

With call tracking you combine offline and online advertising into a holistic analytical system with which you can fundamentally improve your marketing.

With call tracking you can see which marketing measures and which lead generation are really effective. This minimizes expensive wastage and increases the success of your law firm’s advertising activities.

Focus on mobile users

In practice, many calls from potential clients can only be made from a smartphone. Either because you have to be in a hurry, because you are on the road or you want to have a confidential conversation.

If your law firm is looking to start Google Ads on a budget, you should focus your advertising on the smartphone. Increase your bids on your mobile phone by 200-300%, systematically outbid the competition and address users preferentially who are much more willing to contact your law firm.

Be available

Make sure you are available 24/7. Experience has shown that advertisements that refer to the 24/7 emergency service of a law firm work particularly well.

If your law firm cannot be reached around the clock, we recommend an appropriate advertising schedule.

The use of an advertising schedule is particularly useful if you primarily offer your telephone number as a response option and only want to be contacted during the office hours. With the default settings, your ads will show through Google Ads at any time of the day. For example, by creating a custom advertising schedule, you can only plan your ad for working days from 9 am to 5 pm.

Google Ads in law firm marketing works optimally when the search terms (keywords) that those seeking advice enter in the search engine match the terms that describe your consulting services and for which you operate search engine optimization. Sounds easy, but it isn’t, which is why professional keyword analysis is essential for successful search engine optimization.

This keyword analysis must take into account which legal areas your advice covers (e.g. labor law), which sub-areas of the legal area you explicitly offer (employee advice) and which aspects you focus on within the sub-area (e.g. dismissal protection suits).

Videos can provide massive support when it comes to gaining user trust and getting them to make contact.

Present yourself and your law firm in an appealing video, explain how you work and ask the user to contact your law firm in order to solve their problem.

If you enjoy video as a medium, you can also develop a complete video marketing strategy and stand out from the competition with helpful explanatory videos, for example. But remember, before you can sell, you need to gain the trust of users and prospective clients.

There are potential clients who are uncomfortable picking up the phone and calling a lawyer. Many are more willing to contact a lawyer via a chat tool.

Give your clients different ways to get in touch with your law firm. You can also demonstrate customer proximity and modernity.

In view of the massive competition, a strong law firm brand should actually be the key to differentiating yourself in the industry. Unfortunately, one of the cheapest and easiest ways to support brand awareness is nowhere near being used enough. Display advertising.

Of course, there’s more to a law firm brand than just a few display campaigns, but display can help build a law firm brand.

Having a well-known brand makes it much easier to stand out from other lawyers in search results.

Remarketing allows you to target users who have already interacted with your website or mobile app. Your ads will be shown when these target groups visit a Google website or website in the Google advertising network. In this way you can increase your brand awareness or remind these users of your law firm.

Remarketing can be a strategic component of your law firm marketing if you want to generate more inquiries or increase your firm’s profile

Here are some of the benefits of remarketing

Optimized range / well-timed alignment:
You can have your ads show to users who have already interacted with your law firm. In this way you can reach users who are currently researching elsewhere and who are more likely to be ready to contact you. You can also make it easier for clients to find you by showing them your ads when they’re actively searching for your law firm on Google Search.

Targeted advertising:
Remarketing lists can be used to show ads in certain cases. For example, you can create a remarketing list and target it to people who have viewed your website for a long time.

Efficient pricing:
You can generate powerful remarketing campaigns using automatic bidding. In the case of real-time bidding, the optimal bid is calculated for the user who sees your ad. The aim is to win the auction at the best possible price.

Note
You must deactivate the collection of remarketing data for users who do not want to receive personalized advertising.

Google’s market share in Germany is over 90%. But this also means that you can definitely reach potential clients at Microsoft Bing.

Due to the lower competition, the click prices on Bing are often lower and the conversion rates higher.

It makes sense to test as a marketing channel.

If you implement all of this advice, you already have a fairly professional setup for your law firm marketing. In order to measure the success of your activities and continuously improve, you should definitely use consistent conversion tracking. Not least because law firm marketing on Google and Bing also costs a lot of time and money.

Conversion tracking is a free tool that tracks what happens after a customer interacts with your ads. So you can see whether the user has filled out your contact form, called the law firm or maybe watched a video. Based on this data, you can then further improve your law firm marketing.

Setting up a Google Ads campaign for your law firm isn’t too complicated. However, with Google Ads, the devil is in the details. A strategy that was successful yesterday may not work tomorrow.

You must therefore regularly check and optimize your campaigns. This is how you stay successful and relevant in this important marketing channel.

It would be a failure not to test Google Ads as a marketing channel for your law firm. Usually noticeable successes can be achieved with a manageable budget.

It is important that your law firm is clearly positioned in combination with attractive and error-free campaigns.