One marketing strategy that can be used to boost traffic to your law firm website is a Pay Per Click (PPC) campaign with Google. You start by selecting certain keywords that you anticipate people with use in searching for you on the Internet. Then, when a Google user types in those keywords, gets a search results page, and clicks on a link that shows up for your site, you pay a fee.

For example, let’s say you want to be found for the keywords “student loan lawyer,” so that whenever someone types that in to Google, your content using those words shows up highly ranked on page one. For each time that happens, you agree to pay Google $5.15.

Depending on how often people type in searches using those words, the monthly cost can get expensive. However, if the potential revenue for each case you may obtain through this method is high enough, it could be well worth the expense.

The problem is that law firms often enter into these arrangements with Google without taking the necessary steps to ensure success, and ensuring that they make more money than Google does. Here I want to discuss three of the biggest PPC mistakes lawyers make and how you can avoid them.

1. You Aren’t Sending Paid Clicks to a Targeted Landing Page

One of the worst things you can do in a pay per click campaign is have the resulting traffic go to your website’s homepage, or a generic landing page for that practice area such as student loan law. It puts your potential clients in a position where they have to hunt around for what they’re looking for, and it can leave them wondering, “Why am I here?”

An essential step in any PPC strategy is posting a well crafted and well worded landing page to your website that speaks specifically to the visitor’s legal problem. They were searching for solutions to that problem when they typed that phrase into Google. Make sure that when they click on your link they get the solution immediately (which is to retain you).

For this reason, this landing page should speak directly to the offer or service you’re promoting without a lot of other distractions. It should include “trust signals” (like reviews and testimonials), along with a strong call to action that convinces visitors to take the next step with you.

2. You Aren’t Tracking Your Law Firm’s PPC Leads Effectively

Never, ever, ever engage in any kind of marketing that you cannot track and measure. If you do not do this, you will have no idea whether your marketing efforts have been successful. For this reason, not tracking leads — or not tracking leads effectively — is a huge oversight in any PPC advertising campaign. You can’t expect a significant return on your investment if the leads you’re paying for are falling through the cracks!

You need to set up a system that tracks the following KPI’s:

• • Number of clicks to your website from the search results
  • Number of times those that click through respond to your call to action
  • Number of website visitors that respond to your call to action and ultimately retain you
  • Amount of revenue from those new clients

Tracking every lead you’ve paid for is absolutely critical for keeping your PPC spending under control.

3. You Set Your PPC Campaigns and Forget About Them

Like most everything else in your marketing, pay per click is not “set it and forget it.” To get a real return on your spend, you need to manage your ads carefully all the time. You need to analyze your results and make adjustments that save you money and make your ads better at attracting actual clients and cases.

If you’re not monitoring and managing your PPC, you won’t know if it’s really working. And that means that you can’t know if the money you’re spending is really worth it.

Need More?

Do you need help managing your Pay Per Click campaign (or help crafting an effective one)? The experts over at my strategic partner Foster Web Marketing can provide it. Just click here to learn more about what they can do for you.

Need assistance with your online marketing content and web site? Want a killer landing page for your PPC campaign? I can help! Just click on this link to schedule an initial, no obligation call with me to discuss your needs.

Want More?

Was this helpful? Intriguing? Thought provoking? Well, there’s more where that came from! You can get great business and professional practice tips in your inbox every week by subscribing to my newsletter!  You’ll get actionable, bite-sized tips every Friday to help you make more money by spending less time and providing better legal services!

Want even more? You can avail yourself of the many resources I provide free of charge. Whether it be my newsletter, my posts on LinkedIn, my videos, or my web site, you will find useful, actionable information and tools for being more successful.