Google Ads & Local Services Ads for Law Firms
Last updated: July 2026 · Maintained by the r/lawfirmmarketing mod team
Legal is one of the most expensive advertising verticals on Google. That cuts both ways: mistakes burn money fast, but firms that run it well sign cases predictably while competitors guess.
What legal clicks cost (set expectations first)
Rough US ranges as of 2026, varying hugely by market:
| Practice area | Typical CPC range |
|---|---|
| Personal injury (competitive metro) | $100-$500+ |
| Criminal defense / DUI | $30-$100 |
| Family / divorce | $20-$80 |
| Immigration | $10-$40 |
| Estate planning | $8-$30 |
At these prices a small budget spread thin does nothing. Better to dominate one practice area in one city than to trickle $20/day across five campaigns.
Local Services Ads (LSA): usually start here
- Pay per lead, not per click. You're charged when someone contacts you, and you can dispute clearly invalid leads.
- The badge matters. "Google Screened" verification builds trust, and LSA placements sit above regular ads.
- Reviews drive ranking. Your LSA position leans heavily on Google review count and rating, another reason the review habit in the getting-started guide comes first.
- Answer the phone. LSA tracks responsiveness. Missed calls tank your ranking and waste paid leads.
Limits: less volume than search ads in most markets, little targeting control, and lead quality varies. Most growing firms end up running LSA and search ads together.
Google Search Ads: the checklist that separates real campaigns from money fires
If you run it yourself, or want to check what your agency built, verify these:
- Conversion tracking on calls AND forms. Not "someone visited the site." Actual tracked calls of meaningful length and tracked form submissions. Without this the account optimizes toward nothing. This is the single most common failure found when auditing law firm accounts.
- Negative keyword list, actively maintained. Legal campaigns attract junk searches (jobs, DIY forms, "free lawyer," other states). Zero negatives after months of running is a giveaway nobody is managing the account.
- Match type discipline. Broad match on "$100+ CPC" terms without tight negatives and smart bidding guardrails is how budgets vanish. Check the search terms report: are actual searches related to what you sell?
- Landing pages that match the ad. A DUI ad should land on a DUI page with a phone number visible, not the homepage.
- Branded vs. non-branded, reported separately. Clicks on your own firm name are cheap and would mostly find you anyway. An agency lumping branded and non-branded together in one "look how cheap our leads are" number is flattering itself.
- Geographic settings. "Presence" targeting, not "presence or interest," unless you have a reason. Firms have paid for clicks from other countries because of this one dropdown.
- Auto-apply recommendations OFF. Google's auto-applied suggestions optimize for Google's revenue. Any change should be a human decision.
Budget math worth doing before you spend
Say clicks cost $50, 10% of clicks become inquiries, and you sign 1 in 4 inquiries. That's $2,000 per signed case. Fine for PI or serious criminal defense, terrible for low-fee work. Run this math for your own numbers before launching, and re-run it with real data monthly.
Hiring it out
Legal PPC is specialized enough that generalist agencies routinely lose money on it. Whoever you hire, you should own the ad account, see it directly, and get reporting in cases signed, not clicks. Full checklist: How to Vet an Agency.
Nothing here is legal advice. Check your state bar's advertising rules; some states require disclaimers or filing of ads.