PPC for lawyers: the complete DIY playbook

The keyword "personal injury lawyer" regularly clears $200+ per click in major metros. "Car accident attorney" often runs $150 to $400. That is not a bidding mistake. That is a symptom of case value: a signed PI case is worth tens of thousands of dollars in fees, so firms are rationally willing to pay hundreds of dollars for a single click.

Your response is not to run cheaper keywords. Cheaper keywords convert worse. Your response is to be more disciplined than every other firm in the auction: cleaner query control, sharper ad copy, faster intake response, and landing pages built specifically for the practice area, so the expensive click actually converts to a signed case. If you want the mechanics of the auction itself, read what Google Ads costs.

Google Local Services Ads sit above the paid Search results and are billed per lead, not per click. They also carry the "Google Screened" badge, which requires background checks on the firm and its attorneys and is increasingly what consumers look for before calling.

For most law firms, LSAs deliver the lowest cost per intake in the entire paid stack. They do not replace Search Ads. Search Ads still handle competitor queries, information queries, and specific practice areas LSAs do not cover. Run both, budget them separately, and track them separately.

Your homepage is not a landing page. A landing page has one offer, one action, no top nav, and copy written for the exact search query that sent the visitor there. For law firms, that means one page per practice area, minimum. Personal injury visitors are in a different emotional state than estate planning visitors, and one page cannot serve both.

The pattern that consistently wins:

• Headline that names the practice area and the city.
• One-sentence promise ("Free consultation. No fee unless we win.") above the fold.
• Short intake form (name, phone, case type, brief description) with a call button next to it.
• Trust block: verdicts and settlements, attorney bios, bar admissions, reviews.
• Case-type-specific FAQ that pre-answers the fears keeping the visitor from calling.
• Sticky call button on mobile. The large majority of legal traffic is mobile.

How you build the page matters less than how easily you can change it. If you are going to test headlines, offers and form length across practice areas, a dedicated builder earns its keep: Unbounce gives you conversion-focused templates and built-in A/B testing without touching the firm site. If you will publish one page and leave it alone, that subscription is overkill and a stripped-down page on your existing site is fine.

Start from a proven layout instead of a blank canvas. Our free bundle includes a personal injury law template built on the structure above: get the free landing page templates. The reasoning behind each section is in the PPC landing page guide and landing page design. To see where visitors abandon the intake form, compare the free and paid options in CRO tools, and if you are testing variants continuously, Unbounce keeps them in one place.

Single-metro, single practice area: plan for $5,000 to $15,000 per month in media. Below $5,000 in a competitive vertical, you cannot gather enough conversions to optimize and the algorithm never leaves the learning phase.

Personal injury, mass tort, or multi-metro firms: $20,000 to $100,000+ per month in media is normal. Case values justify the spend, and larger accounts unlock Performance Max, YouTube prospecting, and a real remarketing footprint.

Boutique or specialty (estate planning, immigration, IP): $2,500 to $8,000 per month can work because the auctions are lower and lifetime values are strong, especially paired with content and retargeting. Whatever the number, the weekly maintenance routine is the same one described in PPC optimization.

How to hire a PPC agency without getting burned

If you go the hiring route, ask three questions before you sign. First: "Show me a law firm account you currently manage and walk me through the campaign structure." A firm that cannot show you the account structure is not managing it closely. Second: "What does your weekly work look like?" A real answer names the search-terms report, negative keyword additions, and intake call review, not a monthly PDF. Third: "What is the shortest contract you offer?" A 12-month lock-in on a channel with a fast feedback loop protects the vendor, not you. Insist that the firm owns the Google Ads account, the LSA profile, and the call tracking, with your own admin login on all three.