Law Firm Advertising: How to Use Facebook and Google Ads to 10x Your Growth (With Examples)

13 minutes to read

Do you want to reach more people, more affordably?

Do you want to be able to track the return on your advertising dollar?

Then you need to get your law firm off the park benches and onto Facebook and Google.

Both ad platforms can deliver serious results for your law firm.

This article will show you how to do it.

We’ll cover:

Let’s get started.

Facebook Ads

An Introduction to Facebook Ads for Law Firms

With 2.75 billion monthly users, Facebook is officially the biggest meeting-place for your prospective clients.

And, unlike every other advertising platform out there, Facebook enables your firm to promote itself exclusively to your target market.

That means if you’re a divorce lawyer, you’re not paying to show an ad to a widowed 70-year old or a teenager.

Facebook’s ad targeting capabilities mean an immigration lawyer from Fort Lauderdale can target, specifically, Spanish-speaking Facebook users within a 25-mile radius who have shown an interest in Mexico, Cuba, Puerto Rico, or the Dominican Republic and shown an interest in immigration to the US:

There’s no surprise, then, that 7 million advertisers use Facebook ads to reach their target audiences.

Law Firm Facebook Ad Best Practices

In order for your law firm to find success with Facebook ads, though, you can’t just target your hometown, add a headshot, and hit “launch.”

Establishing best practices allows law firms to skip the learning curve and produce ads that get results right away.

This section will cover all the best practices for your next Facebook ad campaign.

Image Best Practices:

As the most eye-catching element, images are responsible for anywhere between 75-90% of an ad’s performance on Facebook.

Whether on mobile or desktop, people are scrolling through their Facebook newsfeed and only stop for the posts that interest them.

To get the best results from your Facebook ad…

  • Use a high-resolution image. Nothing says unprofessional like a low-res, fuzzy image.
  • Keep it simple. If you’re going to include text in your image, make sure it’s short and super legible, even at a glance.
  • Use contrasting colors. Facebook’s color scheme is blue and white, so try red, green or orange. If you’re using a headshot, consider a red tie. It might seem like a small thing, but it all adds up when you’re talking about thousands of people seeing your Facebook ad over several weeks.

Video Best Practices:

  • Hubspot has found that 54% of people wanted to see more video content from a brand or business they support, and 85% of people were more likely to purchase after viewing a video.
  • Video within Facebook Ads has been shown to drive anywhere from 25% to 100% higher click-rates than static images, and 59% of advertisers say video drives more Facebook ad clicks:

 

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To get the best results from your Facebook ad’s video…

  • Skip the script. Instead, just hit record and talk. Tell your story. Talk about what sets you apart from your competitors, and what unique value you bring. Being thoughtful and genuine will be more compelling than sticking to a robotic script.
  • Add subtitles. 85% of Facebook videos are viewed without sound, so make sure your message gets across by adding subtitles.
  • Focus on both audio and visual excellence. Neither is more important than the other. Get good sound equipment, a good camera, and a tripod (and a stabilizer, for moving shots).
  • Invest in professional editing. It might feel like it’s getting expensive, but high-quality video will pay off in no time when you see the increase in quality clients.
  • Keep your video under a minute. Facebook users don’t want to watch a movie. They want to understand the value of your service quickly.
  • Test. Does a quick, 10-second video drive more clicks than a 45-second video? Does a casual tone drive results better than a super-professional approach? Test multiple ad versions to find out.

Overwhelmed by producing your own video? If you need a hand with developing compelling video for your law firm’s Facebook ad strategy, speak to a video marketing expert from Crisp.

Text Best Practices:

Once you’ve grabbed the eye of your prospective client with an image or a video, it’s the text that keeps them there.

You need to provide a reason for someone to click through, and that’s where your Facebook ad’s text comes in.

Facebook Ad Copy Best Practices (provided by Facebook themselves):

  • Create different ads for different target audiences. For instance, use the copy “A mother’s place is with her children” when targeting recently-divorced mothers. Use “a father’s place is with his children” when targeting recently-divorced fathers. Specificity increases click-through rates.
  • Keep it short: People don’t want to read an essay. Keep your ad text as pithy, simple, and as clear as you can. Focus on the important information: name, location, specialty, value proposition, call-to-action.
  • Stick to a single call-to-action: Each Facebook ad will have a call-to-action built into it (in the form of button text). But it’s best practice to repeat that call-to-action in your ad copy as well. This avoids confusion about what your ad clickers are doing when they get to your website.
  • Mention price, discounts, exclusivity, and limited-time offers: This is Facebook’s recommendation, but (for law firms) we could change this to “a reason to click.” Be sure you include a reason for people to click your ad over a competitor’s. And this shouldn’t be years of experience, by the way. Instead, choose a truly unique differentiator — the reason you practice, the who you really are.

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Top Tip: Add Facebook’s conversion tracking pixel to your website. This will allow you to see how many people who clicked on your firm’s Facebook ad actually booked a consultation or became a client.

This is essential for tracking your Facebook ad campaign’s success.

Law Firm Facebook Ad Examples

 

Two bad Facebook ad examples:

What could be improved in these Facebook ads:

First and foremost, the first ad example has a low-res image.

You might not think this matters much, but it shows a lack of professionalism. And your Facebook ads are your firm’s first impression with prospective clients. A low-resolution image shows you haven’t tried very hard, and that’s not an impression you want to make.

The copy on that first ad is also grammatically incorrect and awkward. And the capitalization on “Initial Consultation” and “Free” is also incorrect. These may appear to be small errors, but (again) this is your firm’s first impression.

Do you want your firm to meet prospective clients having shaved, showered, and in a sharp suit? Or do you want to meet them on a Sunday morning, hungover and in sweatpants?

The second ad example has slightly better copy, though there’s no call-to-action in the text itself, and people have been given no real reason to choose Mr. Ramirez over a competitor. It’s completely generic.

Also, the image chosen includes hard-to-read text. This (like the low-resolution image in the other example) shows a lack of forethought.

Two great Facebook ad examples:

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Why these Facebook ads are great:

First and foremost, both ads use video, which isn’t just best practice. Video ads have shown to drive between 25% and 100% more clicks than static images.

And the videos are high-quality, showing professionalism. A bad video here would be just as detrimental as the low-resolution image in the example above.

Both ads are focused on telling the Facebook user exactly what step they need to take, with a call-to-action (“Click ‘Learn more’ to get a free case review”) or phone number.

These ads are also simple and to-the-point — letting the compelling messaging in the video do the work.

The Crisp Video team has years of experience running Facebook campaigns for law firms. Some of our clients have achieved hundreds of qualified leads through their Crisp Facebook campaigns, as well as hundreds of thousands of views on their Crisp videos – thereby increasing exposure and gaining more fans, followers, and clients. Click here to learn more.

Google Ads

Now that you have a better understanding of why your law firm should start running Facebook ads (and how you can get started), we need to turn the page.

Google Ads: the platform responsible for a staggering $24.1 billion of Google’s $27.77 billion revenue back in November 2018 (the last time they released numbers).

It’s massive.

Let’s take a look at how your law firm can use it to grow.

An Introduction to Google Ads for Law Firms

There are three primary ways for your law firm to advertise with Google:

1. Search Ads

Your law firm can choose a list of keywords or phrases that you want to appear for when someone searches for those phrases.

For instance, let’s say you’re that immigration lawyer from Fort Lauderdale we mentioned above.

You could pay to appear above all the search results whenever someone types “US immigration lawyer” within a certain radius of your law office.

When you select all the keywords or phrases you want to show up for, you’ll be entered into a bit of an auction.

Essentially, you’ll say “I will pay $5 for every person who clicks on my advertisement.” If that bid ($5) is more than the other lawyers have bid to appear for your keyword, you’ll appear at the top of the search results, and pay whenever someone clicks on your ad.

2. Google Ads (formerly known as Adwords)

As you well know, Google’s properties don’t begin and end with search. They also own Gmail, YouTube, Google Maps, and a couple dozen other sites.

You can pay to appear on all of these platforms through Google’s Adwords integrations. Like Search, your law firm’s Google Ad will only appear on content that is relevant to your target market.

For instance, if we search for “how to win a divorce” on YouTube, the following Google Ad pops up on the right side of the screen:

The ad example above is a static image, which doesn’t exactly grab the attention of a YouTube viewer.

Our recommendation is to create bumper ads or mid-roll ads instead – shorter, unskippable video clips which appear before or during a YouTube video. These ad types (which can be cut down from a longer video) are a great way to increase targeted awareness of your law firm.

If you choose to create a YouTube video ad (which we recommend), it’s best to get some assistance. Video creation can be a complicated and expensive thing, and (if done poorly) can actually be detrimental to your brand.

Crisp Video offers Social Stack, which gives your business six different video cuts optimized for the highest-traffic social platforms – perfect for social media advertising and YouTube advertising – alongside implementation and promotion campaigns to make sure your firm gets the most from your videos.

Here’s a video that breaks it all down:

3. Google Adsense

The Google Adsense program encompasses all the ads you’ll see on non-Google websites (like the ad for Docebo seen below on CNN.com):

In recent years, Google has started to enable advertisers to target website visitors based on their Google account information and other persona-defining characteristics that we can only imagine.

In general, though, these ads are cheaper as the intent of the visitor is less-known than with Search or Adwords.

A Brief Breakdown of Google Ad’s Quality Score:

To make it simple, the higher your quality score, the less you’ll pay when someone clicks on your Google Ad.

Quality scores provide a simple, easy way to tell you if you are doing the right or wrong thing when optimizing your law firm’s Google Ad campaigns.

How to make sure your law firm’s Google Ads have a great quality score:

  • Landing page experience: This includes things like your landing page’s load time and whether the keywords from your ad are also in the landing page copy.
  • Ad relevance: Does the copy in your ad match the keywords you’re targeting?</span
  • Expected CTR: How have your ads performed in the past? The better your CTR in past campaigns, the more trust Google will have that your ad is relevant to searchers (and the higher they’ll place your ad in results).

 

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Law Firm Google Ad Best Practices

Just having a Google Ad won’t drive anyone to your website, let alone encourage them to become a client.

You need to ensure your Google Ad is better than your competitor’s.

And that means following the best practices and using Google Ads to their full extent (extensions).

Google Ad Best Practices:

  • Find new keywords with the Keyword Planner: Google’s keyword planner will give you ideas and monthly search volume based on your target area and keywords. It’s a great place to start any Google advertising campaign.
  • Use negative keywords: For instance, if you’re a family lawyer, exclude people searching for immigration or corporate law by using the “-” symbol before your target keywords.
  • Use keyword match types: This ensures your Google Ad shows up not just for the keywords you’ve chosen, but similar searches as well. For instance, keyword match types cover your bases when it comes to typos:

 

If you’re struggling with search term optimization, check out Google’s resource.

  • Use emotional language: Just like everywhere else, your ad viewers will respond to powerful and emotional language more than faceless corporate-speak.
  • If you’re advertising with an image, keep it simple: Our recommendation is to show yourself talking with a client, working at your desk or walking through your community.

Using Google Ad Extensions:

  • Sitelink: The sitelinks extension enables you to provide additional links within your advertisement that takes the people who click to specific pages within your website. For instance, if someone’s interested in going directly to your client testimonials, you can provide a link to that page directly from the ad.
  • >Call: The call extension enables prospective clients to call you directly from search. This is especially powerful when you’re advertising on mobile.
  • Map button: The map extension enables prospective clients to open Google Maps directly from your ad, making it easier for them to find you.

Here’s an example of the map link button within a law firm’s Google search advertisement:

To learn more about all of Google’s ad extensions, check out their guide.

Top Tip:

Just like with Facebook ads, you need to add Google’s conversion tracking to your website to make sure your Google Ad campaigns are delivering results.

Otherwise, you won’t be able to tell if you’re just throwing money and time into the abyss.

The main difference between advertising online and advertising on traditional platforms (radio, TV, park benches, etc.) is your ability to see exactly how many results you’ve generated.

Law Firm Google Ad Examples

Here are the Google Ads that appear for a single Google search: “divorce lawyers Vancouver”

#1 and #2 are great.

#3 and #4 could use some work.

Essentially, #1 and #2 have used site linking, emotional language (“divorce lawyers who understand”), and a number of other extensions to maximize the square footage that they show for.

The second result, for instance, is seven lines long when shown on desktop. This is a significant portion of the search results.

The third and fourth results are only three lines. Yet they had the opportunity to include exactly as much information as the first two results.

It’s essential that, if you’re going to use Google Ads, you do so to the full extent of the platform’s capability. You’ll pay the same no matter what, so get more bang for your buck by learning how to do it all properly.

Conclusion

Both Facebook and Google Ads offer unparalleled ways for your law firm to introduce itself to prospective clients.

But, to get the most out of online advertising, you can’t dive in headfirst.

Take it slow. Try a simple campaign first.

Make sure you have tracking set up so you can see how many people you’re sending to your website (and how many of them are booking a consultation).

Then expand. Test new things. Try different language, different images, a different landing page.

Once you have a solid foundation of ads driving traffic and clients, sit back for a bit and let it grow your firm!

And if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out by clicking “Talk to Us” below.