In the technology age, your digital marketing strategy as a lawyer is key to your firm’s success. The number of clients you work with and the revenue you bring in depends on your ability to connect them with your legal services. This can only be employed through an effective marketing plan.
At Sting Marketing, we believe in a multi-discipline approach to digital marketing that makes conversations rather than just drawing website traffic. Paid Per Click (PPC) Advertisements are one crucial component of your law firm’s overall marketing strategy.
PPC involves creating an advertisement and giving it online visibility through a search engine host. Then, any time someone clicks on your ad and goes to your website, there is a cost per click. Similarly, if nobody opens your ad, you are not charged anything by the search engine host.
Since 93% of all website searches occur on Google, it makes sense for lawyers and attorneys to invest their PPC strategies into Google Ads. When a potential client searches for a personal injury lawyer or car accident lawyer, they will notice your advertisement before all the rest. Pay Per Click PPC is a proven method to jumpstart leads and revenue faster than conventional methods.
What does PPC accomplish?
Many attorneys have come across PPC Ads while testing the organic search results to look for their own names but do not understand what it accomplishes. They are skeptical of its positive results in the long run rather than temporary spikes in their website traffic. In short, they want to know what PPC does.
1). Instant Results
Unlike Instagram and Facebook that rely upon building a following and brand before customers can connect to your legal services, PPC does it in seconds. Paid advertisements place your legal firm in the presence of consumers rather than the other way around.
You will not have to wait several months before leads and conversions occur: law firm PPC does it the moment your advertisement hits Google Ads. Lawyers and attorneys can gather an increasing list of clients because of higher click-through rates.
2). Market Segmentation
Less-experienced digital marketing companies will tell you to widen your net to “catch the most fish”. However, what they do not mention is how your core audience, the people who actually need your lawyer expertise, is ignored in the process.
For no-nonsense law firms that do not waste resources, PPC does just that by market segmentation, which boils down to your exact target market. PPC focuses on who you want to reach and then reaches them effectively that drives conversion rates up.
3). Insightful Analytics
Google Analytics, a free tool that pairs alongside Google Ads, will automatically track the actions of potential clients after clicking on your posted PPC. These insights include the pages they visited after the landing page, which keywords brought in the most people, and how many website users scheduled a consultation due to your advertisement.
Analytic information like this informs your current PPC management by telling you whether your target audience was reached through PPC and other online efforts. Then, your expert marketing team can use these key insights to drive even more leads and revenue.
What are the benefits of PPC?
No legal professional should ever consider Pay Per Click Advertising as a part of their marketing strategy if it did not benefit their firm. The cost-benefit analysis must always win in the favor of lawyers and attorneys. PPC does this very often if utilized by a knowledgeable digital marketing firm.
First on Organic Search Results
While traditional SEO strategies compete against other law firms for the top search result spots for their legal services, PPC does the work for you. Google’s new search engine algorithm places PPC above regular search results, meaning that you have the overwhelming advantage in legal marketing.
More Leads and Revenue
Because you have tailored your PPC to your segmented audience, you are placing your advertisement in front of victims who need your law firm’s help. Paid advertisements on Google Ads generate the right kind of website traffic that earns massive returns in leads and revenue rather than clicks with no conversations.
What does PPC cost?
While there are different forms of ad spend associated with PPC, the most well-known is keyword choice for your advertisement. Similar to keyword usage in SEO, they must be chosen carefully with your target audience in mind. That way, you can be found by them after they type in the Google search bar.
The term “divorce attorney” on a Google Ad costs an average of $62.92 while more popular keywords like “car accident lawyer” charge over three times that amount. Auction-style bidding for keywords becomes competitive around popular search phrases and it is easy to overspend on irrelevant keywords if you are not careful.
Again, lawyers and attorneys have to look critically at PPC from a broad perspective, realizing that initial keyword costs are marketing investments. With the help of an experienced digital marketing company, you can maximize your PPC advertisement space and make the most out of your firm’s budget.
How does PPC differ from SEO and social media?
PPC is required as a part of a multi-disciplinary law firm marketing strategy but has key differences to SEO and social media.
| PPC | SEO | Social Media |
|---|---|---|
| Paying for ad clicks | Staying current with keyword trends | Connects and engages with followers |
| Instant results | Long-term marketing strategy | Long-term marketing strategy |
| Creating and running ads | Optimize website/blog content | Create posts with photos and captions (improves SEO) |
| Audience segmentation | Audience segmentation | Audience segmentation |
| Keyword ad bidding | Keyword selection | Hashtags |
SEO
Keyword selection is just as crucial to a successful SEO strategy as with PPC but the main difference is that these are not purchased. Instead, they are discovered through deep analytics research that analyzes search patterns among users. SEO research works to figure out which keywords will attract certain markets.
The process begins with audience segmentation, then leads to keyword research that orients how website content and blogs are written. SEO’s job as a whole is to focus on branding and following that will pay off several months down the road and beyond rather than immediately.
Social Media
Platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and Tik Tok hold key advantages to connecting and engaging with followers more than PPC and SEO. However, they are also focused on long-term branding and following with social media content that relates to them.
When your law firm shares a recent blog post or consultation client form, it improves all SEO work by increasing online brand exposure. Market segmentation, as with the other two digital marketing strategies are the foundation of social media management. This can be utilized through local and general hashtags that reach specific target markets.
