In the world of digital marketing for family law attorneys, pay-per-click (often called PPC) advertising has emerged as a powerful tool. Family law PPC allows legal firms to reach a highly targeted audience—people who are actively seeking legal advice or services related to family law matters.
Whether it’s divorce, child custody disputes, or asset division, PPC campaigns can direct potential clients directly to your law firm’s website when they need your services the most. In fact, in a recent attorney marketing survey we conducted, 64% of people said if they had a legal problem, their first step to solving it would be to conduct research online.
The Basics of PPC for Family Law Firms
PPC, or Pay-Per-Click, is an internet marketing model (such as Google Ads) where advertisers pay a fee each time one of their ads is clicked. This method essentially allows firms to ‘buy’ visits to their site, rather than attempting to earn them organically. When executed properly, the cost of the click is trivial, considering the potential business it could bring.
For family law firms, the PPC landscape can be competitive, yet still very lucrative. Legal industry keywords are among the highest in cost per click, underlining the fact that many firms are willing to pay a premium for highly targeted traffic. However, an in-depth understanding of PPC campaigns along with a complete digital marketing strategy can help offset these costs significantly, making for a very nice ROI.
Keyword Selection in Family Law PPC
The importance of keyword selection in a PPC campaign cannot be overstated. Selecting the right keywords helps your ads reach the people looking for the services your firm provides. These keywords should closely relate to the subject matter and services you offer.
Keyword matching options, such as broad match, phrase match, and exact match, can greatly affect your campaign’s performance. Broad match keywords can reach the largest audience, but might not be as targeted, whereas exact match keywords reach a much more specific audience. Phrase match keywords can offer a balance between the two.
Along with regular keywords, there are also negative keywords. Negative keywords play a crucial role in refining the traffic your campaign attracts. These are words or phrases that, when included in a search query, prevent your ad from being displayed. This allows you to eliminate irrelevant traffic and improve your campaign’s performance. For example, some keywords that you would want to set as “negative” would be things like “jobs” and “salary” to eliminate job seekers from clicking on your ads.
Creating Effective PPC Campaigns for Family Law
Creating a successful PPC campaign for a family law firm involves several key steps and considerations.
- Define your goals: What do you want to achieve with your campaign? Increased brand visibility? More client consultations? The goals will shape your campaign strategy.
- Know your audience: Identify your target audience’s demographics, interests, and online behavior. This will help in creating ads that will appeal to them.
- Develop compelling ads: Effective PPC ads are clear, concise, and include a strong call-to-action. The ads should clearly convey what your firm offers and why potential clients should choose your services.
- Optimize your landing pages: The role of landing pages in PPC campaigns is vital. These are the pages where visitors land after clicking on your ads. The landing pages should be relevant to the ad content, visually appealing, and easy to navigate.
Measuring the Success of Your Family Law PPC Campaigns
To gauge the effectiveness of your family law PPC campaigns, it’s important to understand and monitor PPC metrics. These include key data points such as click-through rate (CTR), cost per click (CPC), quality score, and conversion rate.
- Click-through rate (CTR) gives you insight into how many people who see your ad are actually clicking on it.
- Cost per click (CPC) tells you how much each click on your ad is costing you.
- Quality Score is a Google Ads metric that reflects the overall quality and relevance of your ads.
- Conversion rate measures how many of the clicks on your ad resulted in the desired action, such as a phone call or a consultation booking.
By evaluating these metrics, you can measure the success of your PPC campaigns, identifying what is working well and areas where improvements could be made.
Ultimately your conversion rate and cost per new client acquisition are the most important PPC metrics. Make sure you know how to monitor these numbers. If you’re having a marketing agency run your PPC ads, make sure they are reporting these numbers to you on a monthly basis.
Google LSA for Family Law Attorneys
Google Local Services Ads (LSAs) are a type of online advertising developed by Google specifically for local service businesses, including attorneys and law firms. These ads appear at the very top of Google search results, even above traditional Pay-Per-Click (PPC) ads, when users search for specific local services.
For attorneys, Google LSAs provide an excellent platform to connect with potential clients in their local area who are searching for legal services. These ads show important information such as the firm’s name, reviews, and contact information. Additionally, Google LSAs for attorneys can earn the “Google Screened” badge, which can further build trust with potential clients.
While Google LSA ads are similar to Google PPC ads, there are some distinct differences. Unlike traditional PPC advertising where you pay per click, LSAs operate on a pay-per-lead basis. This means attorneys pay for actual leads – such as phone calls or messages – rather than just clicks on their ads. This can provide a more direct return on investment as it connects law firms with potential clients who have a clear intent to seek legal services.
Frequently Asked Questions about Family Law PPC
Q: How much does a family law PPC campaign cost?
A: The cost of a family law PPC campaign can vary widely depending on factors such as the competitiveness of the keywords you’re targeting, the geographic area you’re targeting, and the overall strategy of your campaign. It can be helpful to work with a PPC professional who can help you determine a budget that will allow you to achieve your goals.
Q: How effective are PPC campaigns for family law firms?
A: PPC campaigns can be highly effective for family law firms when they are properly managed. They can help increase visibility, attract more potential clients, and ultimately lead to increased revenue. However, the effectiveness of a PPC campaign can depend on many factors, including the quality of the ad copy, the relevance of the keywords targeted, and the overall strategy of the campaign.
Q: What are the best practices for setting up a family law PPC campaign?
A: Some best practices for setting up a family law PPC campaign include doing thorough keyword research, writing compelling ad copy, creating relevant and high-quality landing pages, and continuously monitoring and optimizing your campaign based on performance data. It’s also important to set realistic goals for your campaign and to have a clear understanding of your target audience and your campaign’s ROI.
Q. Do paid ads help improve SEO Rankings?
A. PPC itself won’t directly boost your SEO rankings. Google and other search engines keep a clear separation between paid ads and organic results to maintain user trust. However, PPC campaigns can indirectly influence SEO in a few positive ways:
- Improved Brand Awareness: By placing your brand at the top of search results with PPC ads, you increase brand familiarity. People who see your ads might be more likely to click on your organic listing later, even if they don’t click the ad itself.
- Keyword Research: PPC campaigns provide valuable data on keyword performance. You can see which keywords generate clicks and conversions in your ads, helping you identify strong keywords to target in your SEO strategy.
- Content Optimization: Running PPC ads can give you insights into user behavior and search intent. By analyzing what kind of ad copy resonates with your audience, you can improve your website content to better match user needs. This can lead to better organic search rankings.
- Indirect Link Building: In some cases, strong brand awareness from PPC campaigns can lead to other websites mentioning your brand or linking to your content. These links can be a positive SEO signal.
Overall, PPC and SEO for family lawyers are complementary strategies. PPC can drive traffic and provide valuable insights to improve your SEO efforts in the long run.
Conclusion
The Future of Family Law PPC
As the digital landscape continues to evolve, the future of Family Law PPC still looks very promising. With advancements in machine learning and AI based marketing poised to make an impact, PPC campaigns are becoming increasingly sophisticated and precise. Emerging trends, such as automation and personalization are expected to continue to shape the PPC landscape. In the future, family law firms will likely have even more tools at their disposal to target potential clients effectively and efficiently.
A well-executed PPC campaign can still be a game-changer for family law firms looking to grow, providing increased online visibility, highly targeted traffic, and more new clients. As with any marketing endeavor, success in PPC requires a comprehensive understanding of the strategy, meticulous planning, and consistent monitoring and optimization.
About the Author
Chris is a legal marketing consultant who has been helping attorneys and law firms grow their revenue and scale their legal practices for the past 13 years. His areas of expertise are in content marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), pay-per-click (PPC), digital PR & branding, and conversion rate optimization (CRO).
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