“PPC” is an acronym for “pay-per-click.” The name of this type of digital advertising is derived from how it functions; your law firm will only pay when a searcher clicks on one of your ads. You may have heard this type of advertising called “search engine marketing,” “SEM,” or “paid search.” PPC for attorneys can drive targeted traffic to your site, quickly, while also boosting the public awareness of your law firm. PPC advertising opportunities are available on Google, Bing, YouTube, Pinterest, Facebook, and Twitter.

PPC marketing for law firms can provide numerous benefits, including:

• Brand awareness: Each time that a prospective client sees one of your paid ads, brand recognition can increase. This awareness can be boosted, even when someone doesn’t click on an ad. Although there isn’t a way to determine how people see your ad without clicking on it, having it appear near the top of the page is nevertheless an opportunity to promote your law firm. This is true in traditional advertising and marketing—and it’s also true with PPC ads.
• Accessibility: Every company, including every law firm, has equal access to Google Ads, so PPC really is a great equalizer. More specifically, your lawyer PPC ad can appear right next to one with an especially large or high profile firm, and it doesn’t cost much to get started. So, it can make sense to take advantage of this ease of accessibility.
• Targeting qualified leads: Getting traffic to your site is one thing, while having traffic that’s targeted to your services and locations is the important thing. PCC is valuable because it can focus on target audiences that are more likely to pay attention to your ads and interact with them. You can choose times of day, locations, devices, user ages, and more, which makes this a key way that PPC is different from SEO.
• Conversions: A conversion, in the lingo of online marketing, is a step that takes your prospect closer to a stated goal (which could be, for example, a request for a free consultation). Paid search ads are designed to guide prospects through the process, taking them from the ad to a landing page with dovetailed messaging and keeping them on a desired pathway. Each time that a prospect takes another step in this conversion pathway, it becomes more likely that they’ll ultimately convert.
• Data and insights: This form of digital marketing provides important insights into the strategies of your competitors, and you also discover more about your own target audiences. Data gathered and insights gleaned can be sliced, diced, and tested. Patterns and behaviors can be examined, and conversions analyzed, to create an optimal digital marketing strategy.

To discuss how PPC marketing for law firms can help your company, please get in touch.

Yes, there are multiple types and a paid search strategy can include more than one of them. Most of them are text ads, which includes Google ads, but PPC goes further than that. For example, there are also:

• Retargeting ads: If someone has engaged in an activity, perhaps searching for a certain service, then this type of ad could be shown to them. This retargeted ad can remind and reinforce what a user had previously been researching.
• Display ads: These can be found in the footer, top, or sides of a web page.
• Call-only ads: With these ads, a click starts a phone call, rather than taking them to a landing page. Because of how they work, they are only displayed on devices where a call can successfully take place.

You can! There are how-to articles and videos that can be found through a Google search that guide you through the process: from setting up the paid search campaign to bidding on keywords, creating landing pages, managing the campaign, and more. So, the right question to explore might be how much time you have to learn about PPC, and how much time you have to build and manage the campaign in a way that maximizes benefits.

Creating an optimal campaign takes a significant amount of time, from the original setup to researching competitors’ strategies, finding and reviewing keywords, creating ads, designing landing pages, monitoring and adjusting campaigns, and so forth. One of the more time consuming aspects (but one that’s crucial) is when you dial in on bids to balance costs and performance.

If, for example, bids are too low, then your law firm will receive less of the impression share than you should. If they’re too high, then money that could have gone towards getting new clients was, instead, wasted. The reality is that PPC is not something you can set up and forget, and we’ve had plenty of customers who have contacted us when their PPC management was too time consuming. When we began to manage their campaigns, this freed up time that they could now devote to running their companies.

As another time-consuming activity, companies that manage their own PPC campaigns need to continually educate themselves about the changes that constantly occur with search engines and their PPC programs. This is above and beyond the time spent closely monitoring bids and adjusting them, as needed, but it’s necessary because innovations are always taking place, including those that can make a big difference in your campaigns.

DAGMAR Marketing can manage all of these aspects of PPC for attorneys, from conducting competitive research, crafting strategies, and then creating, optimizing, and managing your campaigns. So, whether you’ve already done PPC advertising at your firm, in-house, or want to talk about how PPC can help your law firm, we’d love to hear from you.

Although it may not be the right choice for every law firm, paid search can efficiently and effectively generate targeted leads. When managed well, it’s an affordable form of digital marketing, so it’s often worth the money invested.

Our expert team at DAGMAR can look at your situation and budget, and let you know if PPC would be a good choice for your law firm. (We’ll tell you if it isn’t.)So, get in touch with us for a free consultation.

Definitely! That’s a real benefit of paid search. In fact, PPC works at its best when integrated with other marketing campaigns—and, in turn, PPC can help other marketing performed through other channels to become more successful.

Criteria you should use is similar to what you’d use for other service providers, including:

• Technical expertise: PPC is a mixture of art and science, but mostly science based. So, seek an agency with deep technical skills that is also highly skilled in ad and landing page creation. Plus, the agency should keep up with the ever-changing nature of PPC.
• Reputation: Ask for and review references, and also check out online reviews.
• Customization: A flexible approach can be key because each element of your law firm can play a role in how your paid search strategy should be customized. This includes the services you offer, where your offices are located, and more.
• Results: Results rock! Positive ones achieved by an agency, especially for clients in the legal industry, are extremely compelling. So, ask agencies if you can see what they’ve accomplished and, if you don’t get what you need, it’s time to move on.
• Customer service: Ask how available your day-to-day contact will be and request that person’s contact information. Find out how the agency will send reports to your law firm; what will be provided in them; and what format will be used. You’ll want comprehensive performance information about your PPC campaign that, by its very nature, is complex. Will you be given all of the information you need, rather than just part of the story?
• Contracts: Many reputable PPC agencies operate on a monthly contract, while others will want a longer commitment. Before you choose an agency, get information about the length yours would be. A longer one isn’t necessarily a red flag, but they benefit the agency more than they do your law firm.

Fortunately, they can come quickly, perhaps as fast as just a few weeks. We’ll analyze the pay-per-click advertising data that we collect and focus on continuous improvement. We’ll share results in your reports and we’re available to discuss them at any time.

Signing up at Google is free. You’ll pay when someone either clicks a Google Ad of yours or when one triggers a phone call. What that cost will be depends upon multiple factors, including the ad’s relevance, existing competition for the targeted keywords, and the number of clicks received. Keywords come with different costs, with some being too expensive to be worth using, and we’ll select the ones right at the sweet spot for your campaign. If you’d like to talk about how PPC costs are calculated, just give us a call.

There are three broad ways to promote your brand through the media: earned, owned, and paid. In your overall online marketing strategy, it can make sense to use each of them strategically for optimal performance. Here’s more about them:

• Paid media: This is when you pay to have marketing content appear online (in other words, not on your own website).
• Owned media: You upload content onto your own website, including your blog, having complete control over what appears.
• Earned media: Examples of earned media include when a client posts a review about your law firm or a media source mentions it in an article. This happens organically.

Paid media includes online ads, as well as sponsored/promoted material on Twitter, LinkedIn, and other social media platforms. This can be an exceptionally flexible form of digital marketing, one where your law firm has some control over ad targeting, with paid media being both efficient and cost-effective.