Industry Guide · 16 chapters · first chapter coming soon
Google Ads for Lawyers and Law Firms, Built to Pay for Signed Cases, Not Calls.
A law firm shares the search page with national injury brands, legal directories and lead sellers, and every ad it runs answers to its state bar. A personal injury click can cost many times a family law click, so the math has to start from the fee a signed case brings in. These sixteen chapters build a Google Ads account in the order that works, using real searches, websites and client reviews from one example market, Las Vegas. The method works for solo lawyers and firms of every size and practice area anywhere in the US.
Sixteen Chapters, From the First Call to a Signed Case
New to Google Ads? Begin with Chapter 1. Each chapter builds on the ones before it.
Measure
Count calls, chats and forms, send signed cases back to Google, and know what a case is worth
Tracking Signed Cases, Not Calls
Hiring Searches Before Questions
What a Signed Case Is Worth
Build
Win the searches where people hire a lawyer, one case type at a time
One Ad Group per Case Type
Free-Help Searches Out, Free Consultations In
Known Searches, Then the Long Tail
A Bid for Each Practice Area
Headlines About the Callback
Launch
Settings to fix before the first dollar goes out
Settings That Match Your License
Scale
More reach once the account knows what a signed case looks like
Performance Max for Sensitive Practices
Demand Gen for Estate Planning
Local Services Ads, Tested Later
AI Max and Your Results Page
Law Firms
Bonus chapters: bar advertising rules, missed calls, and ads in Spanish
Bonus: Bar Rules for Google Ads
Bonus: Missed Calls
Bonus: Ads in Spanish
The Rollout, Month by Month
The order matters as much as the campaigns. Each step waits until the one before it has taught Google something.
Isolation and brand
Exact match on the searches where people hire a lawyer, one ad group per case type, plus your firm's and lawyers' names.
Exploration
Broad match with a target CPA, once quality leads reach about 30 a month. Bigger firms get there sooner.
Performance Max
Only after months of clean data, with sensitive practice areas run without a client list.
Demand Gen, Local Services Ads and AI Max
Video for practices clients plan ahead for, pay-per-lead ads as a test once Search is signing cases, and Google's newest automation last.
How to Use This Guide
Starting a new account?
Read in order. Tracking signed cases and the case-value math come before the first keyword.
Chapter 01 →Ads already running?
Check what your account counts as a conversion and who answers the phone. Counting every call as a win and paying for calls nobody picks up are two common leaks.
Chapter 15 →One example market
Examples come from Las Vegas firms, described as we found them. Run the same steps in your own market.
Chapter 05 →Rather Have Us Build It
For Your Firm?
We build law firm accounts in this order. See our Google Ads management.
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