Law Firms · Raleigh & the Triangle
Marketing for law firms in Raleigh
A family law inquiry and a personal injury inquiry are different businesses that happen to share an office. They have different case values, different decision speeds and different competitors, and running them through one campaign produces an average that describes neither.
Legal is also the most expensive category we work in, which means the tolerance for sloppy targeting is close to zero.
What we run for law firms
One campaign structure per practice area. Separate budgets, separate landing pages, separate negative keyword lists, so a $400 family law click never competes with a $12 traffic ticket click.
Intake tracking that goes past the lead. Call tracking, form separation by matter type, and reporting that follows through to consultations booked and matters signed rather than stopping at the form fill.
Negative keyword discipline. In legal this is most of the job. “Free”, “pro bono”, “salary”, “how to become” and job-seeker queries will drain a legal budget faster than anything else in advertising.
Local SEO and reviews. Practice-area pages, a properly categorised Google Business Profile, and a review process that respects your bar rules.
Content that answers the question people actually type before they are ready to call, which is how a firm gets cited in AI search results.
The number that actually matters
Attorneys and legal services average $9.87 per click and a 5.55% conversion rate, landing at $131.63 per lead. That is roughly double the all-industry average of $66.69 and it is the highest of any category in the study.
Sticker shock here is normal. What is not normal is not knowing it going in, then concluding in month two that the campaign has failed when it is performing exactly at category median.
The number that decides whether this works is not cost per lead. It is cost per signed matter, and that depends as much on how fast your intake answers as on anything happening inside the ad account.
Benchmarks from the WordStream 2026 Google Ads Benchmarks study, an analysis of more than 13,000 search campaigns running April 2025 to March 2026. Local search and review figures from BrightLocal.
How it works
- 1. Discovery. What a signed matter is worth to you over their lifetime, what you can afford to pay for one, and which services actually make you money.
- 2. Tracking first. Call tracking and form tracking installed and tested with a real call and a real submission before anything launches.
- 3. Build and launch. Campaigns, pages or print, depending on what we agreed. Ten to fourteen days from kickoff for paid search.
- 4. Manage and report. Monthly, on cost per signed matter rather than impressions.
Common questions
Is Google Ads viable for a small firm?
It depends entirely on case value and intake speed. A practice area with $6,000 average matter value can absorb a $131 lead comfortably. One with $900 matters usually cannot, and we will tell you that rather than take the retainer.
What about LSAs?
Local Services Ads sit above the standard results and are worth testing for the practice areas Google supports. They are not a replacement for search campaigns and the lead quality varies more than the pitch suggests.
How do you handle bar advertising rules?
We write to them and you approve everything before it runs. North Carolina has specific requirements around claims and disclaimers, and your compliance sign-off is part of the process rather than an afterthought.
How long until this pays?
Clicks immediately, meaningful data in about 30 days, real optimisation at 60 to 90. Because case values are high and volumes are low, legal accounts need longer to accumulate enough conversions for decisions that are not noise.
Who this is for
A good fit: Established firms with a defined practice area, real case value, and an intake process that answers quickly. Speed of first contact matters more in legal than almost anywhere else.
Not a fit: Firms wanting to advertise five practice areas on one small budget, or where inquiries sit unanswered for a day. At $131 a lead, a slow intake is an expensive habit.
Book a 20-minute call
You tell us what’s going on, we tell you whether we can help, and if we can’t, we usually know who can. No pitch deck.
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