PPC Marketing for Attorneys: Should You Hire a Pro or Handle It In-House?

One universal truth about attorneys is that everyone needs one eventually. Attorneys can help when someone suffers an injury due to another party’s action, when they committed a crime and need professional defense, or when they need to arrange an adoption or handle tax problems with the IRS. Attorneys serve in many capacities. Because of how varied their work is, it’s essential for them to know how to reach the clients they are best equipped to help.

Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising offers a tremendous advantage to attorneys for the simple fact that it can reach an internet user at the exact moment they need legal representation. Virtually everyone who needs legal counsel will begin their search for an attorney online. The vast majority of these individuals will make decisions about their legal representation based on what they see and read online. PPC advertising is one of the most potent tools in any law firm’s digital marketing arsenal.

How Do PPC Ads Work?

So what is a PPC ad? As the name suggests, it is a paid form of advertising that takes place on search engines. Website owners develop ads and then bid on specific keywords and keyword strings. When a user types those keywords or keyword strings into the search engine, the websites that placed bids on those ads will be among the top results, and the website owner will pay the bid price to the search engine if the user clicks on their ad.

PPC ads can provide incredible returns on investment when leveraged correctly. For example, if it costs a law firm $100 every time a search engine user clicks on their PPC ad, but the average client will bring in about $10,000 in revenue to the firm, then as long as one out of every hundred clicks results in a client accepting representation, the firm can, at the very least, break even on their budget for that one PPC ad. This is just a rough example of how PPC ads can be fantastic revenue generators for law firms that know how to use them effectively.

Common Difficulties with PPC Advertising

Digital marketing is a multifaceted challenge. Any company or brand that wishes to market online must not only position themselves as an authority within a niche, but they must also assess and outperform their competitors. The legal field is incredibly competitive. PPC advertising is one of the most competitive areas of digital advertising for attorneys all over the country. Perhaps the biggest challenge facing modern lawyers who want to market their services on search engines more effectively is the sheer amount of competition they face.

Another pain point that many attorneys face occurs when they achieve one of the top spots in search rankings with their PPC ads. These ads appear at the very top of a search result page, and almost half of all clicks for that specific keyword string will go to one of the top three. If two law firms placed bids on the exact same keywords in the exact same amounts, the site with the better overall construction and content value will achieve the higher placement. No matter how much you bid on a PPC ad, it is only as strong as the content you produce on your website.

Finally, one of the most significant issues many law firms face when it comes to PPC ads is the time required to configure them correctly. This issue includes both the ads themselves and the construction of their websites to ensure they rank well for specific keywords and keyword strings no matter how much they bid. Law firms in this position must think carefully about the potential value of working with an outside professional PPC marketing service.

Benefits of Choosing Professional Help with PPC Advertising

The legal field is incredibly demanding. When attorneys and their supporting legal staff members aren’t actively working on cases, they are meeting with potential clients and performing a wide range of housekeeping tasks. They do so to ensure their firm is consistently in full compliance and ready to tackle complex cases. One of the most time-consuming in-house tasks any law firm faces is marketing. Modern marketing requires extensive knowledge of the systems that power a marketing campaign, consumer trends, and a firm understanding of search engine optimization (SEO).

The majority of people who need attorneys begin their searches for legal representation online, and capturing this audience must be a priority for any law firm. Unfortunately, finding the time to devote to crafting a solid digital marketing strategy entirely in-house is very difficult when attorneys and their support staff face the daily responsibilities their field presents.

When your firm partners with a professional digital marketing company or a professional PPC marketing service, the investment in their services translates not only to more time saved that can be devoted to casework. It also means better results as these firms specialize in digital marketing. The right PPC marketing service will already have the tools, experience, and resources to hit the ground running and develop a winning PPC campaign for an attorney, the results of which should easily justify the cost of investing in the service.

Taking PPC Into Your Own Hands

The only real drawback to hiring an outside PPC marketing service to create and manage a PPC campaign is the cost of the service. Like any business investment, it’s vital to gauge the return on the investment. Some attorneys may not like the idea of increasing their overhead costs to invest in PPC marketing. Attempting to handle PPC marketing in-house comes with several risks:

• The firm will either delegate PPC campaign management to existing staff members who may not have experience with this side of digital marketing or hire another full-time employee whose sole responsibility will be managing PPC campaigns.
• Under experienced PPC campaign managers may not achieve the results the firm expects or overspend on keyword bids.
• Attempting to handle PPC without hiring a new employee with practical experience on this end of digital marketing will likely lead to underwhelming or even negative results.

Ultimately, the only real benefit of handling PPC in-house is potential overhead savings, but this is only true if the in-house team is capable of delivering the PPC campaign results the firm owners expect to see. It is very unlikely that an inexperienced team will be able to compete with the results an accomplished and experienced outside PPC management service can offer.

If you are ready to invest in a PPC campaign for your law firm and want to ensure the best results possible, it’s a wise idea to investigate outside PPC management teams. They will not only take the responsibilities of managing your PPC campaign off your plate and save you time but also provide better results than an in-house team could manage. Contact RizeUp Media today for more information about the PPC management services we provide to law firms all over the country.

Resources: https://www.bluecorona.com/blog/ppc-for-lawyers-attorneys/

https://theppcjerk.com/should-i-manage-ppc-campaigns-myself-or-hire-a-professional/