If you own a personal injury law firm, you know generating leads and driving traffic to your website is critical to maintaining and growing case load for your practice. There’s so much involved in reaching your potential clients and improving your visibility online, none of which you or your team have time to manage. So, let’s take a deep dive into one of the most effective channels, paid search for personal injury law firms, to help provide some guidance.
Paid search advertising is a gold mine that many personal injury law firms need to maximize to thrive in a competitive space. This is why we created an all-encompassing guide on paid search, how personal injury lawyers can benefit from it, and strategies to adopt to attract leads for your law firm.
Want to know how we can help you amplify your paid search for your personal injury law services?
Table of Contents
- What is Paid Search for Personal Injury Law Firms?
- Is Paid Search for Personal Injury Law Firms the Right Investment?
- Terms and Concepts That Personal Injury Attorneys Need to Know
- Setting Up Campaigns of Paid Search for Personal Injury Law Firms
- Choosing the Right Paid Search Platform
- Strategies for Successful Ad Campaigns In Paid Search For Personal Injury Law Firms
- Optimize Your Paid Search Campaigns With OppGen
What is Paid Search for Personal Injury Law Firms?
Paid search for personal injury law firms refers to a digital marketing strategy to advertise legal services related to personal injury cases across major online search engines. In an auction-like environment, firms can an amount they would like to bid to pay whenever their ads get clicked. This is also referred to as a pay-per-click model. Paid search ads usually appear at the top of search engine results, distinguishing them from organic search results.
Is Paid Search for Personal Injury Law Firms the Right Investment?
Yes, paid search is a worthwhile investment for personal injury law firms because it provides an avenue to capture bottom-funnel traffic seeking immediate help with their legal issue. When search ad campaigns are run successfully, they yield clear-cut benefits, which include:
Measurable Results
With paid search, law firms can assess the performance of their campaigns in real-time, including the number of prospects that click on their ads and leads generated. Using Google Analytics, they can measure the ROI, conversion rates, click-through rates, and other key metrics to optimize their strategies. Having difficulty analyzing your metrics? Let us handle it.
Immediate Visibility
Compared to other advertising models that generate results within months or years, paid search ads can drive traffic once it’s run. This leads to increased visibility, culminating in client acquisition.
Flexibility and Customization
Depending on performance data and goals, you can tailor your ad campaigns, keywords, and target demographics. Paid search makes it easy for law firms to customize their marketing strategies based on their objectives.
Targeted Reach
You can incorporate specific keywords and phrases related to personal injury law in your ad campaign so they’re displayed to individuals seeking legal assistance. Furthermore, you can set ads to target location and demographics. This ensures that the ads are shown to prospective clients interested in your service.
Cost Control
Paid search is cost-efficient, allowing law firms to set monthly or daily budget for their campaigns. In this case, you only pay when someone clicks on your ad. Hence, it’s budget-friendly.
Competitive Advantage
Prioritizing paid search can give your personal injury law firm a competitive advantage over your competitors in the legal landscape. With this, you can outbid your competitors for ad placements while increasing your reach to potential clients.
Brand Awareness
Consistent and strategic search ads ensure your brand is in the face of prospective customers. Even if they don’t click on your ads, they know about your law firm.
Terms and Concepts That Personal Injury Attorneys Need to Know
Personal injury law firms looking to do paid search advertisements need to acquaint themselves with the following terms and concepts:
Click-Through Rate (CTR): This measures the number of times a user clicks on your ad. Typically, it’s calculated as the number of clicks divided by the total number of impressions (views). A higher CTR translates to effective ads.
Cost Per Click (CPC): CPC is the amount a personal injury lawyer pays each time someone clicks on their ad. This is determined by dividing the total cost of your clicks by the total number of clicks.
Conversion Rate: Conversion rate refers to the percentage of users or visitors who take a desired action by clicking on the ads. A high conversion rate indicates that many people are interested in your service.
Cost Per Impression (CPI): CPI is a metric for measuring the cost incurred by advertisers per view by users. To calculate the cost per impression for an ad, divide the cost of advertising by the number of times it was displayed to users.
For example, if you spent $500 on a campaign that generated 100,000 ad impressions, the CPI would be $5. CPI determines the cost-effectiveness and efficiency of ad campaigns.
Call to action (CTA): This is a prompt or clear and direct instruction to take immediate action. CTAs usually create a sense of urgency, encouraging potential customers to act on a decision.
Examples of CTAs: “Buy Now,” “Contact us,” “Schedule a consultation,” etc.
Ad Rank: As it suggests, ad rank is an ad’s position on search engine results. The bid amount, quality score, and ad extensions determine ad rank.
Impressions: Impressions represent the number of times an ad is displayed to users. Each time an ad appears in a search result or on a website, it counts as an impression.
Keyword: This is a specific word or phrase attorneys bid on and incorporate in their ad campaigns to initiate their display when users search for that word. You should know that legal keywords rank among the most-priced and competitive search terms for lawyers handling personal injury cases.
For example, if your firm specializes in automobile accidents, you can consider adding target keywords such as ” car accident injury lawyer,” “motorcycle injury lawyer,” “lawyers for auto accidents,” and ” car crash lawyer” in your ads. Using these keywords increases your ads’ visibility to users searching for those services.
Geotargeting: This involves targeting ads to specific geographic locations, ensuring they are shown to users in a defined area.
Bidding Strategy: Bidding strategy refers to the approach and tactics personal accident lawyers use to set bid amounts for keywords.
Quality Score: This is a Google Ad metric that evaluates the relevance and quality of an ad and landing page. Higher quality scores make your ad strategically positioned, resulting in a lower CPC.
Setting Up Campaigns of Paid Search for Personal Injury Law Firms
Creating effective ads of paid search for personal injury law firm involves a systematic approach that maximizes visibility, targets relevant audiences, and optimizes conversions. Here’s how to build a successful paid search campaign:
Define Your Goals and Objectives
What is your goal and objective for the ad campaign? Do you want to increase your visibility? Is generating leads your focus? Regardless of your goal, ensure you clarify it to tailor your strategy accordingly.
Perform Keyword Research
Conduct keyword research to identify the most relevant keywords related to personal injury law. Utilize tools like Google Keyword Planner or SEMrush to find high-volume, targeted keywords.
Source: Semrush
Understand Your Target Audience
Define your target audience based on demographics, location, behavior, and intent. Tailor your ad content and targeting to resonate with potential clients seeking personal injury legal help. For example, you can create a paid search ad to target users who have recently experienced accidents or injuries.
Create Compelling Ad Copy
A compelling ad copy should be engaging, clear, and concise. It should highlight your law firm’s strengths, services, and unique selling propositions.
Here’s an example of an ad copy:
Let Our Top-Rated Personal Injury Attorneys Handle Your Injury Case
Call Now for a FREE Consultation
Accidents happen, but justice shouldn’t be an accident. At [Your Law Firm Name], we’re here to fight for YOUR rights and maximum compensation.
Why Choose Us?
- Proven Track Record – Millions Recovered
- Experienced Team of Trial Lawyers
- 24/7 Availability – We’re Here When You Need Us
- No Win, No Fee Guarantee
Let’s help you get back on your feet. Our dedicated legal team is ready to assess your case and guide you every step of the way.
Call [Your Phone Number] or Visit [Your Website] Now. Your road to recovery starts here. Put our expertise to work for you.
[Your Law Firm Name] – Your Trusted Advocates for Justice
From the ad above, you’ll notice that we used a captivating headline and included a call to action. We also highlighted the law firm’s unique selling propositions and expressed the services in a clear tone.
Choosing the Right Paid Search Platform
While there are several platforms to run paid search for personal injury law firms, Google Ads is more effective as it enables you to reach more targeted clients actively seeking legal assistance. Follow the steps below to run an ad campaign:
Create a Google Ads Account
Google Ads account is crucial to running PPC campaigns. Thus, you’ll need to create an account. Go to ads.google.com and follow the instructions to set up your account. You’ll know from your dashboard once your account is up and running.
Create Your First Campaign
Before creating ad campaign of paid search for personal injury law firm, you need to define your goals. Do you want to generate more leads? Drive traffic to your website? On the dashboard, there is a list of goals to choose from.
- Sales – effective for boosting online or in-store purchases
- Leads – prompt users to join a newsletter or share contact details
- Website traffic – directs users to a website or landing page
- Product and brand focus – showcases a specific product or service for visibility
- Brand awareness and reach – introduce your brand to potential clients
- App promotion – drives app downloads
- Local store visits and promotions – ideal for local retail promotion
- Create a campaign without a goal’s guidance– a customizable ad setting for advanced users
We’ll advise you to choose “Create a campaign without a goal’s guidance” since this goal allows you to customize your ad. Afterward, select a campaign type, name your campaign, and proceed to the bidding strategy.
Choose a Bidding Strategy
Do you want clicks, conversions, or impressions? Select a bidding strategy that aligns with your objectives. Opt for clicks if you want to drive traffic to your website or select conversions for advanced campaigns. Meanwhile, impressions would be a preferred option if you want to promote your legal services or create awareness about your personal injury law services,
Customize Your Campaign Settings
This section specifies the language you want your ads to be in, geographical locations, and the demographics you’re targeting. Tailor your campaigns to target places and areas with high safety concerns, like hospitals, construction sites, and highways.
Moreover, you can create an ad schedule indicating when your ads should run. If you have difficulty creating an ad schedule, allow your ads to run through the day for some days. Doing this will help you monitor when your ads garner more clicks to adjust your schedule as needed.
Alternatively, contact our team to craft an ad schedule for you.
Since personal injuries are unpredictable and accidents can happen at any time, there’s a high chance that the search for a “personal injury lawyer near me” will increase. Hence, you might want to incorporate that in your ads.
Furthermore, running ads outside business hours, including weekends, would be ideal. Plus, it’s cost-efficient. Above all, whether you decide to run ads on weekends, outside business hours, or any day of the week, ensure you respond promptly to calls and emails.
Select Keywords
Once you’ve customized your campaign settings, enter the keywords or search terms you’re targeting in the provided space. Ensure you organize keywords into ad groups based on themes like “Car Accidents” or other legal services you provide.
With these ad groups, you can target your ads to individuals searching for a car accident lawyer or attorney. When creating ad groups, you can block specific keywords to narrow your ad placements.
Create Ad
After selecting your keywords, create your ad. Your ad should include headlines, description, and links to your website. You can add a link to your landing page as well. Ensure you integrate your keywords into the headlines and descriptions. These texts should be compelling to boost click-through rate (CTR).
For example, in this ad copy:
Injured? Get the Compensation You Deserve!
Top-Rated Personal Injury Attorneys
Call Now for a FREE Consultation
The headlines are “Get the compensation you deserve,” “Top-rated personal injury attorneys,” and “Call now for free consultation.”
Set a Budget
Budgeting for ad campaigns is an essential marketing strategy for your personal injury law firm. Having a proper budget helps you keep track of your expenses – how much you’re spending on ads and how much you’ll need to spend to get the desired results.
Google Ads may recommend a daily or weekly budget, depending on your campaign settings. However, you can customize your budget.
For efficient budget allocation, you’ll need to consider factors like keyword competitiveness, geographic location, and target audience.
Some keywords may be competitive; therefore, you’ll have to bid higher. For example, the keywords “personal injury lawyer” are highly sought after, so if you want to target those keywords in your ad copy, you’ll need to pay a higher price.
Meanwhile, keywords with low competition will be low-priced. Typically, we suggest that you use both high and low-competition keywords for maximum ROI while staying within your budget.
Strategies for Successful Ad Campaigns in Paid Search For Personal Injury Law Firms
An effective paid search ad campaign is a product of strategic planning, compelling content, precise targeting, and continuous optimization. Here are strategies to help you achieve a successful ad campaign:
Create Dedicated Landing Pages For Your Ads
Like its name, a landing page is the first page users see when they click on your ad.
Your paid search ad campaign should be geared toward driving traffic to a relevant, highly converting landing page. Bear this in mind:
- Visitors should see information about your firm, attorney bios, awards and achievements of the law firm, client testimonials, and a strong call to action on the landing page.
- Unlike regular web pages, landing page offers in-depth information about your personal injury law firms. Therefore, invest time in crafting a relevant and focused landing page for your brand.
- To optimize user experience and increase conversions, ensure your website is user-friendly for the audience to navigate it easily.
- Strive to answer common questions that the audience may have concerning your services.
In addition, attractive visuals go a long way in capturing users’ attention than an array of texts. So, include some eye-catching visuals in your landing page. To generate more leads and gather more information about your potential clients, offer a free resource like a white paper, report, or e-book.
Use Ad Extensions in Your Ad Campaigns
Incorporating ad extensions in your paid search ads provides additional information, boosts visibility, and increases click-through rate. You can add call extensions, site link extensions, review extensions, and location extensions to your ads. Here’s how these ad extensions work:
Call Extensions: Including a phone number in your ad makes it easy for clients to reach you with a tap or link. This extension is effective for those who want to take prompt action concerning a decision or proposition.
Site link extensions: These are clickable links to specific pages on the website. They’re usually below the main text of an ad and easily direct users to relevant pages, promoting user experience and engagement.
Review extensions: Review extensions allow you to display positive reviews, ratings, or third-party feedback directly within the ads. These reviews provide social proof and credibility to potential customers, influencing their decision-making process positively.
Location extensions: Here, your ad showcases your physical address so your potential clients can locate you. The extensions also help you to target local audience within your area.
Use High-Quality Keywords in your Ad Copy
Generate a comprehensive list of keywords related to your personal injury law services. Assess the search volume and competition for each keyword. Select the relevant ones. Ensure these keywords are included in your headline, description, and URL.
Most importantly, they should be the search intent of users. In addition, incorporate long-tail keywords (phrases with three or more words) to capture specific search queries and target potential clients looking for precise legal assistance.
Integrate Different Match Types in your Ads
Keyword match types influence how Google will display your ads in search queries. The match types include broad match, phrase match, and exact match.
- Using broad match allows your ads to appear in search queries relating to your keywords.
- Phrase match directs the display of your ads for searches for phrases or closely related keywords.
- When you use the exact match keywords, your ad only gets displayed if the search query precisely matches the specified keyword.
Bonus tip: Combine match types in your ad to reach more people with your ad goals. Once you generate leads, you can tailor your ad campaigns using exact match for specific keywords to drive traction to your website.
Bid for Relevant Keywords
Typically, you have to bid to get your ads featured on the first page of the search results. When budgeting for an ad campaign, set a maximum amount to bid for each keyword. Check how competitive each keyword is and determine the bids for ad visibility. Bid amount and relevant keywords are factors that search engines prioritize when displaying ads for particular keyword searches.
For example, you bid for the keywords: “personal injury lawyer” at $2, and your competitor set their bids at $1 for the same keywords. Search engines will display your ads to users who search for that particular keyword because your ad is relevant to their search, and you have a higher bid.
Don’t know how bidding works? Let’s guide you.
Remarketing
Most times, users come across ads without taking any timely action. We recommend implementing remarketing strategies to re-engage those who have previously interacted with your ads. You can retarget users who visited car accident services pages by displaying ads highlighting your expertise in car accident cases.
Rather than listing your services, explain how you can help them resolve their personal injury issues. Then, initiate prompt action using call-to-action like “schedule a free consultation” or “request a free case review today!”
Assess your Ads Performance
It’s not enough to create an ad campaign; you need to measure its performance. Some metrics to assess include keyword performance data, click-through rates, cost-per-click, ROI, and cost per acquisition (CPA).
Tracking these metrics helps you adjust your ad campaign strategies. Change specific keywords for targeted phrases to increase clicks and improve impressions.
Analyzing these metrics also identifies if your ad copy or landing pages are underperforming. With these analytics, you can fine-tune your ad copy and allocate resources effectively while maximizing your ROI.
Optimize your Paid Search Campaigns with OppGen
There’s so much involved in paid search advertising; this guide does justice. If you own a personal injury law firm, you’ll find the guide to be a nudge on the right path. It explains how to create an ad campaign, terms to know, and strategies to adopt for an effective campaign.
Let’s take the hassle off you by helping you build a marketing roadmap that will make you stand out from your competitors. Schedule a session today! Let’s discuss how to refine your PPC campaigns.
