Personal injury law is a vast umbrella covering many different types of accidents, from car crashes to medical malpractice, and from slips and falls to dangerous products. Many personal injury law firms wonder how to reach more clients ethically and easily, without having their advertising efforts get lost in the sea of attorney advertising.

Gone are the days when billboards or paid ads in phone books or newspapers made up the bulk of a firm’s marketing strategy. Most law firms are now looking for marketing space in the digital world, which is often where many of their potential clients are looking for them. Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is a common way for personal injury law firms to build their client base. The PPC advertising method involves the firm paying a fee every time someone clicks on their ad. The firm can bid on certain keywords and phrases in order to appear at the top of search results pages, which gives them more visibility and more credibility for those looking to use their services.

Overview of 4 Paid Ad Platforms

For those who are looking for ways to advertise their personal injury law firm online, here are four major platforms that are commonly included in marketing strategies for the legal industry.

1. Google Ads

Of all the paid ad platforms that personal injury law firms can use to market their services, Google Ads is the biggest. According to Techjury.net, there are 6.9 billion searches on Google each day, and the company has no real rivals for the top spot among search engines. For advertisers, Google Ads offers a number of tools to customize advertising campaigns in order to meet specific goals. 

Benefits and Drawbacks

The benefits of using Google Ads include the ability to obtain instant results, as your ad will immediately begin appearing on screens for those who search the keywords you’ve connected to your ad. The platform allows marketers to test the campaigns for a matter of days or weeks, and the ability to change course if the campaign is not turning out as expected. The platform gives predictable costs for firms without a large advertising budget. Advertisers have the ability to set a budget, and once that budget has been reached, the ad will quit running until the budget is reset.

However, many people who use Google Ads and don’t have prior training on PPC platforms can find the process of setting up an ad to be overwhelming and cumbersome. If they fail to choose effective keywords or use irrelevant landing pages, their efforts might not generate the traffic they were hoping for,

2. Facebook Ads

 Like Google, Facebook is another high-traffic platform where people often go to look for assistance with legal matters. The platform allows firms to target their advertising campaigns to those most likely to need their assistance through geographical targeting as well as keywords. Facebook also provides advertisers with tools that can show them how well their ads are doing and the ability to optimize their advertising by using the most effective ad most often. 

Benefits and Drawbacks

While there are benefits to having a presence on such a well-used platform, the cost of advertising has increased along with Facebook’s popularity, making it difficult for firms with a limited budget to advertise there on a regular basis. Further, advertising on Facebook only allows a company’s campaign to be seen by those who use Facebook, which is a far narrower pool of potential clients than one can reach with Google Ads.

3. LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a popular platform for B2B advertising, as it allows firms to share information on their profile that can be easily found through a simple search. LinkedIn commonly attracts a more professional crowd, which can help law firms target a specific group of potential clients by job title, company, or industry. LinkedIn provides extended opportunities for advertisers to send sponsored messages through email, as well as the ability to generate conversations with potential clients without having to send them to the firm’s webpage first.

Benefits and Drawbacks

While LinkedIn doesn’t have the volume or reach of Google or Facebook, it is very helpful for firms wishing to target a specific type of client from a professional background. Additionally, according to a study by HubSpot, advertisers who use LinkedIn see an average conversion rate of 6.1%, while those who use Google Ads see an average conversion rate of 2.58%.

4. Bing Ads

With just 3 percent of the market share, Bing is actually the second-most popular search engine behind Google. While 3 percent doesn’t seem like a lot, there are actually many people who use Bing as their search engine of choice. 

Benefits and Drawbacks

While Bing is not as popular as Google, thousands of people use the search engine every day, and potential clients are likely among them. Advertising on Bing is less competitive and less expensive than Google, making it more manageable for those with a small marketing budget. Additionally, Bing allows advertising across multiple time zones, which can be helpful for firms with a national presence.

Strategies for Developing Successful Ads

Regardless of the platform chosen for the law firm’s ads, there are a number of steps that should be taken in order to make a PPC advertising campaign successful, such as:

• Setting an advertising budget that considers factors such as the company’s overall marketing budget, how much the company can afford to pay per lead, and a determination of the goals that the ad is anticipated to achieve.
• Identify the keywords that potential clients would use when searching for an attorney who offers the services that the firm specializes in.
• The ability to measure the campaign’s success through metrics such as click-through rate, conversion rate, and cost per lead.

PPC advertising can be extraordinarily helpful for personal injury law firms, as part of a diverse overall marketing strategy that also uses content marketing, SEO, and other strategies to make their offering seen on the biggest, most commonly used social media and search sites. However, just as it is important to ensure that the firm is seen on these sites, it is equally important to avoid common PPC advertising pitfalls, such as neglecting the campaign by failing to measure and track its success on a regular basis or using keywords that are too broad or specific to provide much assistance to the targeted audience.