Not every potential client who visits your law firm’s website is going to reach out to you right away. But that doesn’t mean these people are out of your reach. Retargeting ad tactics for lawyers let you get your brand in front of people who come to your site but don’t follow through by calling you or filling out a contact form.
Retargeting is a powerful method that helps you grow your lead pipeline by reminding people who are on the fence that you’re ready and willing to help them.
Creating ads that follow people around the internet makes good financial sense, too. The people you retarget are eight times cheaper to reach than people who’ve never seen an ad for your firm before.
Setting up a retargeting ad campaign the right way helps you get more new clients and supplements your other law firm marketing efforts.
Here's what you need to know to succeed with those marketing campaigns.
How Does Retargeting Work?
Retargeting is relatively simple. Someone comes to your website, and you capture their information using a tracking cookie or a fillable form. You then use that information to help you serve ads on other platforms to that person.
There are two retargeting options that advertisers (you) use to reach their audiences:
- Pixel-based targeting
- List-based targeting
Pixel-based targeting uses cookies on your site to identify people and build audiences. Those cookies then allow your retargeting ads to show up to those target clients later, reminding them of your practice areas, positioning, and offer. Pixel ads will run for as long as 30 days from the last time someone visited a website.
List-based targeting requires you to come up with your own list of people to advertise to.
An example of list-based targeting would be gathering contact data from your email subscribers or people who attended a recent webinar. Lawyers who use list-based targeting then load potential clients’ data into an advertising platform so they can start delivering ads to that audience.
One last clarification: people often confuse retargeting and remarketing.
These are similar ideas with different kinds of execution. With remarketing, you use an email list to reach out to people who already expressed interest in your legal services. With retargeting, you place ads in front of people who may not have expressed any interest in your services yet but were browsing on your site.
Are Retargeting Ads Worth it for Lawyers?
Retargeting ads are worth it for law firms that already invest in advertising and legal SEO content marketing.
That’s because retargeting relies on having a pre-determined list of people to target. You need their information in order to target them in the first place. Running SEO or advertsing campaigns means you have people coming to your site and the ability to create such a list.
And adding retargeting into the mix with these tactics makes good financial sense.
Both advertising and creating content cost money. Someone who simply views your website and leaves is, in some way, lost money. You have to count on them to remember your law firm's name rather than starting their legal search all over again later.
But retargeting lets you recoup some of that lost value.
This tactic lets you reach people who have already been exposed to your brand. These are warmer leads who are deeper in your law firm marketing funnel. You don’t have to spend as much time building trust with them and educating them about your services as you need to do with cold leads.
That means you can present stronger ads to your retargeting audiences.
Retargeted ads allow for stronger calls to action. The people you present them to have already engaged with you in some way. That sets you up to make more direct asks than in cold audience ads.
Platforms for Retargeting Ads
There are three major platforms where lawyers run retargeting ads:
- On social media networks
- Through the Google Display Network
- Through Google Ads
Here’s what you need to know about each of them.
Social Media
Distributing your retargeted ads on social networks is great if your firm already uses social media ads or you know that your target audience is active on social media. These ads appear in your audience’s feeds just like any other ad. But the fact that these people are already aware of your law firm means your ad copy should be more direct to compel a conversion.
Facebook and other Meta properties are the easiest social networks to retarget people on.
That’s because building an effective retargeting list starts with installing the Facebook Cookie Pixel on your law firm’s website. That’s true whether you retarget on Facebook or another means. This fact makes porting your list from the Pixel back to Facebook a cinch.
But you're not limited to Facebook and Instagram alone.
Lawyers of all kinds also retarget on Twitter/X, LinkedIn, and even YouTube. Choosing between these platforms depends on where your audience hangs out online. There’s no sense in retargeting on LinkedIn if your audience doesn’t have active accounts there.
Google Display Network
Google Display Network is another top choice for retargeting. These ads appear as banner ads and side-of-site ads that are part of the network.
The big advantage of Google display ads is that they run on the sites that your retargeting audience already visits on their own. Your message follows them all over the web.
The other advantage of display ads is that it’s Google’s responsibility to get your ads in front of your list. All you need to do is create your banner ad. Then you just need to let Google distribute it.
Google Ads
Google pay-per-click ads are also capable of retargeting your prospective clients.
But search ads aren’t always the first choice compared to the options above.
Retargeted PPC ads rely on the person in your list making a similar Google search to the one that brought them to your site. There’s a high likelihood that that will happen, but the other two methods are more direct. You're better off using social ads and display network ads first if you're looking to test out retargeting.
Steps for Success in Retargeting
Retargeting is a straightforward process. You just need to follow a few steps to determine who you need to reach and how.
Follow these steps to get the best possible return on investment with your retargeting dollars:
- Build a solid list of targets
- Choose the right platforms
- Create strong ads
- Limit overexposure to your ads
- Track your results to make improvements
1. Build Your Remarketing List
You need the right tools to build a list of people who have visited your site before.
Start by installing Facebook Pixel on your site and setting up Google Analytics.
These tools do much more than get you a list. You can also see where people spend time on your website. For example, you’ll know there’s a potential semi-truck case if Google Analytics shows someone browsed your truck accident page for a while. That allows you to place that person into a category of people who only see retargeted truck accident ads.
2. Choose the Platforms Where Your Clients are Most Likely to Be
Run your ads on the platforms where you are most likely to reach your audience.
You need to know which social platforms your audience uses if you want to see good results. For example, a business lawyer might put a lot of their retargeting budget into LinkedIn because their audience spends more time there than on Facebook.
Do market research before implementing this aspect of your law firm marketing strategy since it's key to know as much about your audience as you can.
The caveat here is that if you choose the Google Display Network, you don't need to do as much work. It's more of a plug-and-play platform. Google’s tools are smart enough to run ads for people on the sites they visit.
3. Create Compelling Ads
Retargeting ads are more focused on conversion than other ones you might run in your digital marketing plan. The people you target have encountered your brand before. You don’t have to educate them about what you do or who you serve because they’re at the bottom of your PPC funnel.
All you need to do is create an ad that reminds them of your brand and asks them to contact you.
You still need great ad copy and a solid call to action. But you have room for more urgency since these viewers are more familiar with your brand.
4. Cap the Frequency of Your Ads’ Appearances
One downside of retargeting is that people resent seeing ads for the same brand over and over again.
And there’s only so much that creating different ads and ad variants can do to alleviate this fact.
You don't want to overexpose your potential clients to your ads to the point that they roll their eyes when they see your name. Use frequency limiting features to avoid audience ad fatigue. Social networks, Google Display Network, and Google Ads all have features to limit the number of times people in your retargeting list see your offer.
5. Track Your Results and Optimize
The first run of your retargeting campaigns will take a bit of testing.
It won’t be perfect out of the gate, but you’ll get plenty of data. Looking at this data as a growth opportunity lets you make informed decisions about what's working and what’s not. And that only makes future ads stronger.
Here are the most important metrics to track:
- Contact forms filled out
- Direct phone calls from an ad
- Emails sent
- Cost per acquisition
Tracking the number of cases that you sign will show you what your base ROI is. You’ll be able to see how adjustments to things like your ad copy and landing page elements affect your conversion rate.
Reach & Convert Your Target Clients with Remarketing
Retargeting ads are a great way to convert potential clients who are on the fence about your legal services.
This tactic lets you reach people who fully intend on hiring a lawyer but need a final push before they commit. Retargeting is an excellent tool to add to your legal marketing efforts in addition to standard lawyer PPC and content marketing campaigns.
But building out your list and writing stellar ad copy takes a lot of time out of a busy lawyer’s schedule.
Most lawyers work with experienced law firm marketing experts to get their retargeting campaigns off the ground, improve their conversion rates, and grow their case pipelines.
Rankings.io understands what it takes to make your law firm stand out from the competition. We’ve handled complex campaigns for lawyers of all types. Contact us today to see how our expert team will help you decide where to remarket and build out a unique marketing plan for lead generation at your firm.
