When it comes to Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising, few industries are as competitive—and as costly—as legal marketing. With high stakes and even higher keyword costs, a poorly managed PPC campaign can burn through your budget with little to show for it.
At Rankings.io, we have over a decade of experience helping attorneys dominate online search and maximize ROI, so we’ve seen firsthand what works—and what doesn’t—when it comes to PPC for lawyers.
In this post, we’ll break down the seven most common PPC mistakes law firms make and then, our Director of Paid Ads, Brianna Sudbury, will weigh in on how to actually run an effective PPC campaign.
Why PPC for Lawyers Often Fails
1. Sending Traffic to the Your Firm’s Homepage
Linking ads to your firm’s homepage instead of a dedicated landing page destroys conversion potential. According to an experiment conducted by Instapage, a landing page has nearly 3x the conversion rate of a generic homepage.
A homepage lacks focused messaging, and worse, has tons of distracting navigational links. Legal PPC works best on tailored landing pages (e.g., “Get a FREE case evaluation today”), not generic firm overviews.
“Landing pages should be split tested every single month on a Google Ads campaign. The headlines, the call to action buttons, the placement of different things, the colors, it sounds like it doesn’t matter but it absolutely matters and your campaign will perform better.” says Rankings CEO Chris Dreyer.
2. Failing to Track Conversions
If you’re not tracking conversions, you can’t optimize your campaigns. And you need to strategically use data to optimize your campaigns on a daily basis.
Remember, PPC isn’t a “set it and forget it” strategy. Legal search trends, competitor bids, and platform rules shift frequently. Without consistent optimization, even good campaigns degrade fast.
Read on to see what KPIs our in-house expert, Brianna Sudbury, says are the most important to track.
3. Using Top-of-Funnel Keywords
“This is critical.” Says Rankings CEO, Chris Dreyer. “You have to target the right keywords.”
Steer clear of top-of-funnel keywords with vague intent like “how to file a personal injury claim,” and instead focus on bottom-of-funnel terms that signal strong hiring intent, for example, “best personal injury lawyer near me”.
Also, don’t ignore the tools available to you. Skipping platforms like Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, or Ahrefs means missing out on valuable data about search volume, keyword intent, and competition.
Finally, never blindly copy your competitors’ keywords without evaluating whether they align with your specific services, location, and client base.
Too Many Get PPC for Lawyers Wrong—Here’s What to Watch For
4. Missing Your Target Audience
One of the fastest ways to waste your PPC budget is by targeting the wrong audience. Avoid attracting unqualified clicks from job seekers, pro bono inquiries, or users outside your service area.
“The larger your target audience, the cheaper your cost”, says our resident PPC pro, Brianna Sudbury.
On social platforms, neglecting to refine demographics like age, income, and interests can lead to poorly matched ads. And don’t blindly advertise everywhere—choose platforms where your ideal clients actually spend their time, and tailor your messaging to match.
5. Not Feeding Offline Conversion Data from CRM
A major mistake many law firms make is failing to feed offline conversion data—like qualified leads and signed clients—back into their ad campaigns. Most legal CRMs (unlike Hubspot, Salesforce, and other big players) don’t directly integrate with the platform your ads are running on, so you’ll have to do it manually.
Inputting offline data into your ads campaign will make it perform better and you'll get lower costs per conversion as a result.
So whether you’re using an old school spreadsheet or an integration tool like Zapier, neglecting to feed offline data into your CRM at least weekly (but ideally, daily) is a costly oversight.
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6. Generic Ad Copy
“You’re only as good as your ad,” says Brianna Sudbury, Rankings’ Director of Paid Ads.
Legal ads operate in a high-stakes, high-cost environment. That means you have only a few lines to create a strong first impression.
Every word must communicate:
- Relevance (you're the right type of lawyer)
- Urgency (why they should contact you now)
- Credibility (why they can trust you)
A well-crafted ad makes the searcher feel understood and confident that your firm can solve their specific problem.
Equally important is the call to action (CTA). A weak or generic CTA like “Click Here” or “Learn More” won’t motivate someone in legal distress to act. Instead, use powerful, outcome-driven CTAs tailored to legal intent.
7. Neglecting Geographic Targeting
Don’t ignore location targeting—most legal leads come from very specific geographic zones.
A personal injury lawyer from Chicago should target the Chicago area, rather than running a national or statewide campaign. Showing your criminal defense ad to users 300 miles outside your service area is a money bonfire.
Similarly, failing to leverage mobile-focused tactics—like “click-to-call”—means missing out on some of the highest-converting leads, especially for urgent practice areas like personal injury or criminal defense.
PPC for Lawyers Can Work Brilliantly — If You Watch These KPIs
Your ad campaigns should consistently measure the following KPIs:
- CTR (Click-through rate)
- Conversion rate
- CPA (Cost per acquisition)
- CPM (cost per thousand impressions)
“If your click through rate is low, try a better hook in your copy. If your conversion rates are low, you gotta really refine that landing page or your call to action. CPA too high? Try excluding some irrelevant audiences.” - Brianna Sudbury
To further the conversation, check out our guide to PPC for lawyers here.
The Right Way to Run PPC for Lawyers in a Nutshell
It starts with clearly identifying your target audience. Smart keyword selection ensures you're bidding on terms that align with strong legal intent, while relevant, compelling ad copy captures attention and drives clicks.
But the journey doesn’t stop at the ad—your landing page must be optimized for conversions, with clear messaging, trust signals, and strong calls to action.
Behind the scenes, effective budget management keeps spend under control, and ongoing A/B testing helps refine what works.
Finally, continuous performance tracking—both online and offline—is what turns good campaigns into great ones.
When all of these pieces work together, PPC becomes a powerful engine for steady, qualified legal leads.
Drawbacks of PPC for Lawyers
One of the primary drawbacks of PPC for lawyers is the sheer cost and competitiveness of the legal advertising landscape. Legal keywords—especially in high-demand areas like personal injury, criminal defense, or DUI—are among the most expensive in Google Ads, often costing hundreds of dollars per click.
This capital-intensive environment means there’s little room for error. To see a return on investment, law firms not only need expertly optimized campaigns but also flawless lead intake processes.
PPC can drive traffic, but without a system to capture and convert leads quickly and professionally, even the best campaigns will fall short.
In Conclusion: PPC for Lawyers is not for the Faint of Heart
Avoiding common PPC pitfalls can mean the difference between a campaign that drains your budget and one that consistently delivers high-quality leads.
By taking a strategic, informed approach to paid advertising, your law firm can rise above the competition and turn clicks into signed clients.
Ready to stop wasting ad spend and start getting real results? Explore Rankings.io’s expert PPC services and discover how our legal marketing experts can help you build high-converting campaigns that get results.
