As federal and state laws grow increasingly more complicated and traffic accidents are on the rise, the demand for experienced personal injury lawyers is stronger than ever. According to the analysts at IBISWorld, the personal injury lawyers and attorneys industry has grown by around 3.6% every year for the last five years, increasing faster than the economy overall. More demand means more lawyers and a greater need to make your firm stand out. This can be difficult for small firms that are just starting out or are hoping to expand. Here is a look at paid ad strategies for personal injury law firms that can boost your outreach without breaking the bank.

What Is Lead Generation?

A lead is a person who indicates an interest in a company’s product or services. In the personal injury arena, potential clients who reach out to the firm after becoming injured in an accident are the firm’s leads, as they are seeking a free case evaluation or contacting the firm for more information about how to obtain compensation for their injuries. 

Lead generation is the process that causes these potential clients — when faced with seemingly dozens of firms to choose from — to click on the law firm’s website and fill out their contact form or call the office to request a free case evaluation. The firm’s intake team then has the opportunity to provide assistance to this potential client and explain how they can enter a contingent fee agreement in order for the firm to begin working on their case. The end goal of this process, of course, is to turn these potentials into clients.

Common Lead Generation Tactics

Lead generation begins with enabling the potential clients in the firm’s region to see the types of cases they take through an advertisement. While there was a time when attorneys used multiple channels such as the radio, television, and newspapers to generate leads. Now it is far more common to establish a lead-generating presence by advertising on multiple platforms across the internet. The process of lead generation, as explained by HubSpot, generally includes the following steps:

• A potential client learns about the firm through its social media page, website, or blog.
• This potential client then responds to the call to action by clicking a link to the firm’s website.
• The landing page on the firm’s website provides the potential client with the opportunity to call the office or fill out the online contact form in order to request a free case evaluation.

Some of the tactics commonly used by personal injury law firms to generate leads include providing content through a blog that provides a call to action to drive readers to the firm’s landing page, as well as establishing a presence on various social media platforms in which the posts promote the services the firm provides. Again, these posts would link back to the firm’s landing page on its website.

Cost-Effective Strategies for Lead Generation

Social media is at the heart of cost-effective lead generation. Why? Because nearly three-quarters of the U.S. population regularly uses social media, according to Pew Research. To put it simply: social media is the fastest way to reach people from the firm’s regional area who need their services.

Which social media platform is best for ads? While it is possible to advertise across multiple platforms, including Facebook, the strategy is suggested, as it remains the most popular social media platform for those over age 30 and is one of the most commonly used platforms for all U.S. adults. Facebook offers advertising options even for firms without expertise in advertising. The platform provides the opportunity for the firm to set their budget and select an audience, as well as tools designed to help them manage their ad and track its success.

Instagram is the leading website for the 18-29 demographic and also is a cost-effective platform for generating leads. Instagram allows firms to interact with potential clients through the use of photos and videos, and any post can be converted to a sponsored ad through a simple process. Like Facebook, Instagram allows advertisers to set the budget that works for their firm and tracking tools to help them quickly determine which campaigns are working and which are not.

Twitter also provides cost-effective advertising opportunities, allowing firms to generate leads directly in a tweet. The potential client has an option to leave a “card” for the firm that includes their name, email address, and twitter username to let the firm know they’re interested in the services offered without ever leaving their Twitter page.

Don’t Forget About Google Ads

While social media is crucial for generating leads in a way that won’t eat up a law firm’s budget, Google Ads is another important ingredient for affordable advertising. With 6.9 billion searches being performed on Google each day, paying for a sponsored ad on the platform places the firm’s information at the top of the search results page when people search for keywords that have been connected to that ad. The platform is attractive to marketers because it allows them the freedom to run advertising campaigns for as long as they need, change them if they’re not performing as well as anticipated, all while having predictability in how much their campaign will cost.

Tips for Creating Ads that Will Bring Clients to the Firm

Once a law firm has determined the platforms for their advertisements, the next order of business is to determine how to create ads that drive potential clients to the firm. Nearly all the social media platforms provide tracking tools and advertisers are encouraged to use those tools to determine which types of sponsored posts (advertisements) are performing best. Once they have that information, they will likely have a clearer picture of how to incorporate their call to action.

While the call to action is important, many people are simply not ready to make the call and hire an attorney. This is where the quality of the information provided by the firm, rather than the quantity, comes into play. As a potential client continues to peruse the social media pages and websites for law firms that could possibly help them with their dilemma, regular and well-planned posting of useful information for the potential client will provide the thought leadership that brings them back to this firm, far more than simply repeating the well-worn lines that begin with: “If you’ve been injured in an accident, you may be entitled to compensation.”