Personal injury lawyers, particularly young lawyers, are constantly struggling to find new ways to attract new leads and prospective clients. 

They’re often told “you need PPC ads” or “you need to hire an SEO specialist.”

But what the heck does that mean, anyway? And how do you do that within your marketing budget?

Well, in this definitive guide, I’m going to answer all of your most frequently asked questions related to personal injury law for marketing, including PPC ads, SEO, and content marketing so you have a better grasp of digital marketing.

But first, is it unethical for lawyers to advertise?

These days, it’s considered ethical and encouraged for lawyers to advertise themselves, but it didn’t always use to be that way.

Back in the 1800s England, it was considered improper for an attorney to advertise himself because lawyers were seen as “doers of public good” and not salesmen with a flashy image. 

This outdated notion continued into the 20th century until finally in 1977, the Supreme Court decided it was legal for lawyers to advertise themselves using TV ads, billboards, radio ads, and more.

What are the laws regarding advertising a lawyer’s services?

Advertising a lawyer’s services is ethical and legal, as long as you do not:

• Pay people to recommend a lawyer’s services
• Pay past clients to leave reviews online
• Claim to be an expert in a field where you are not
• Make false or misleading claims about your services

For a more in-depth explanation, read our article on Attorney Advertising Rules Simply Explained. 

Do Google Ads work for personal injury law firms?

Yes, Google Ads are used in conjunction with SEO, blogging, and other marketing strategies to be the main traffic referral sources to boost your firm’s traffic through online searches.

Type in any legal term into a Google search, and you’ll likely see ads for legal services at the very top of the search engine results pages (SERP).

Paid ads, known as pay-per-click (PPC) ads, let marketers bid on specific keywords or search terms. 

When prospective clients search for a personal injury-related search term, their ad is placed at the top of Google’s search results. Each time the ad is clicked, you’ll be charged the amount you bid on that search term. 

Unsurprisingly, legal keywords are some of the highest-priced and most competitive search terms for marketers to target. However, the amount of leads that can be generated through Google Ads makes them well worth their price.

Also, PPC ads are a shortcut to getting listed at the top of search results — it’s possible to create an ad, get it approved by Google, and have it listed at the top of Google’s search results in a matter of a day or two. 

How much of your marketing budget should be spent on PPC?

It really all depends on what keywords are being targeted and the overall budget the client is comfortable paying, but most law firms spend a minimum of $1000 a month on PPC ads, with $1000 to $3000+ being more common.

The nation’s most competitive law firms will spend upwards of $10,000 a month, or somewhere around 2% to 10% of their revenue on PPC advertising.

For a more in-depth explanation, read our article How Much Does Content Marketing and SEO Cost.

Content marketing for personal injury law firms

An alternative to PPC ads are content marketing, typically referred to as blogging.

While PPC ads attract “paid traffic,” blogs will attract “organic traffic” meaning traffic that comes from people clicking on Google’s unpaid search results, such as blog posts that can satisfy their search query.

The key difference between blogging and PPC ads is blogs will stay online forever, whereas ads will stop showing once the budget has been spent.

For this reason, many law firms will invest in content marketing, creating a ton of blogs so people looking for legal help in Google searches will click on their article, and be directed to the law firm’s website, where they can fill out their information to become a new client.

But most law firms don’t have specific online marketing strategies, so just by taking the time to blog, you’ll have a leg up on the competition. 

SEO (and local SEO) marketing for lawyers

In addition to PPC ads and content marketing, law firm search engine optimization (SEO) is another strategy that improves a website’s Google ranking. It will make your personal injury firm’s website more visible in searches and earn more traffic.

The simplest way to explain SEO is this — by adding more personal injury keywords to your website, such as “car accident lawyer” or “motorcycle lawyer” you’ll increase your odds of being seen by people searching online for these terms.

SEO optimization then is finding the most relevant search terms that have the highest amount of monthly search traffic and adding those terms to a website in a non-spammy way.

Law firms should avoid “keyword stuffing” which involves haphazardly using these search terms too often in a distracting way. Which means don’t use the desired keyword in every other sentence or in a way that doesn’t make sense on the page.

Instead, SEO specialists will work with blog writers to give them a list of keywords and then have writers create a blog post that’s optimized around that search term, for example writing a blog called “5 Steps to Take After Being Involved in a Car Accident.”

These types of articles are popular in Google searches and can attract a serious amount of traffic to your law firm’s website. 

Additionally, ensure that your firm’s address and contact information are clearly listed on your website. This helps local SEO, which means that your firm will appear in results when users search “personal injury lawyer near me.”

How to find new legal marketing ideas for a personal injury law firm

The best place to find legal marketing ideas is to look at your competitors, known as “competitive analysis.”

Using law firm SEO and keyword planning tools, a digital marketer can spy on your competitor’s websites to see which keywords they’re targeting, what their top blog posts are, and even the keywords they’re currently bidding on!

This competitive analysis helps marketers find gaps, known as “gap analysis” to find underused keywords or other keywords your competitors aren’t using, so you can fill a gap to tap into an unreached audience.

Kaleidico  — a marketing agency for personal injury lawyers

Looking to generate more case inquiries to fuel your law firm’s business? Then we want to work with you!

Kaleidico is a lead generation agency that specializes in marketing for the legal industry.

Our core team is comprised of web developers, SEO specialists, graphic designers, blog writers, editors, account managers, and social media managers. 

For your marketing dollars, you’ll get a whole team of professionals to implement our digital marketing strategies.

Schedule a Discovery Session today and we’ll discuss how our proven plan can improve your law firm’s SEO and generate more monthly case leads.

Photo by August de Richelieu