Law firm PPC · Google Ads for legal services

Google Ads for law firms, priced against signed cases

Legal keywords are among the most expensive in Google Ads, and most of the clicks are people who will never instruct you — wrong jurisdiction, wrong matter type, or shopping for free advice. I structure legal accounts around the matters worth taking, and report cost per signed case rather than cost per enquiry.

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Available as an account audit, a rebuild around matter value, or ongoing management for a firm.

What a legal account has to survive

Matter types separated so a high-value case is not bid like a routine query
Jurisdiction and practice-area exclusions built before spend starts
Intake tracked from first call to signed matter
Cost per signed case as the reported number

Where legal budgets leak

In a category this expensive, the loss is rarely the bidding. It is paying for enquiries the firm was never going to take, and losing the ones it would.

Paying for the wrong matters

Broad legal terms pull in the wrong jurisdiction, matters below your minimum, opposing parties and people looking for free guidance. Each one costs the same as a real enquiry. Negative keywords and matter-level structure are what separate them.

Losing the right ones at intake

A qualified enquiry that rings out, waits two days for a callback, or meets a form asking for a case summary is a paid click wasted after the click. Intake speed and the first response are part of the campaign, not separate from it.

What legal PPC work covers

Six areas, in the order they usually need attention.

Practice-area demand mapping

Search demand is separated by matter type, urgency and jurisdiction, so budget follows the work the firm actually wants.

Account structure by matter value

High-value matters get their own campaigns, budgets and acceptable acquisition costs, instead of competing with routine enquiries in one bucket.

Negative keywords and exclusions

Free-advice searches, DIY queries, competitor and opposing-party terms, out-of-jurisdiction traffic and job seekers are excluded and reviewed on an ongoing basis.

Call and enquiry tracking

Calls, forms and chat enquiries are tracked to the campaign and keyword, with call duration and outcome recorded so quality is visible, not assumed.

Intake and the first response

The landing page, the enquiry form, the call routing and the time to first response are reviewed, because that is where qualified enquiries are lost.

Cost per signed case reporting

Enquiries are matched back to qualification and signing, so the report shows what a signed matter cost by practice area.

How legal accounts are run here

Matters are separated by value before budgets are set, so the expensive clicks are the ones worth buying.
Exclusion lists are treated as ongoing work, because legal search terms drift constantly.
Enquiry quality comes from the firm's own feedback, not from a platform conversion count.
Intake response time is measured, since it decides whether paid enquiries convert.
The firm keeps ownership of the account, the call tracking and the reporting.

Is this the right fit?

We discuss the goal, budget and access needed to do the work.

You run or market a firm and want more signed matters in specific practice areas.
Google Ads costs are high and nobody can tell you which spend produced signed cases.
Someone at the firm can tell me which enquiries were qualified and which were signed.

When a different approach may be needed

You want volume of enquiries regardless of matter quality.
Nobody can report back on which leads converted, so cost per case cannot be measured.
The firm cannot answer enquiries quickly enough for paid search to pay back.

Common questions from firms

Legal keywords are expensive. Is Google Ads still worth it?

It depends on the value of a signed matter and how many enquiries convert. A high click cost is fine when a case is worth enough and intake converts. It is ruinous when half the enquiries are out of jurisdiction and calls go unanswered. That arithmetic is the first thing to check.

How do you keep out people looking for free advice?

Negative keyword lists built around DIY and information-seeking language, matter-level ad copy that states what the firm handles, and landing pages that qualify rather than maximise form fills. Search terms are reviewed continuously because the queries keep changing.

Can you track which enquiries became clients?

Yes, if the firm can tell me. Calls and forms are tracked to campaign and keyword. Once you mark which enquiries were qualified and which signed, that feeds back into reporting and bidding.

Do you work with a particular practice area?

The structure works wherever the matter value justifies paid search — personal injury, family, immigration, employment, conveyancing, criminal defence. The economics differ by area, so acceptable cost per case is set per practice area rather than for the firm as a whole.

What about Local Services Ads?

Where they are available for legal services in your market they are usually worth running alongside search, since they are priced per lead. They need their own screening and review, and are handled as a separate line rather than folded into the search reporting.