2024 Google Ads Guide for Family Law Firms

There are two essential concepts here which you need to understand.

1. Negative Keywords: Negative keywords are the terms you want to steer clear of triggering your ads. For instance, let’s say your law firm specializes in wills and estate planning but does not handle litigation. In this scenario, you’d want to designate “litigation” as a negative keyword. This prevents your ad from appearing in searches containing that term.
2. Match Types: There are three primary ways to target a keyword: exact match, phrase match, and broad match. (There used to be a fourth, but Google has since removed it.) Let’s break down what each of these terms entails:
   • Exact Match: Your ad will exclusively appear when someone searches for your exact keyword or a close variant. For example, if you target “wills and estates lawyer” through exact match:
     • Your ad will display for searches like “wills and estates lawyer.”
     • Your ad might appear for searches like “wills and estates attorney” because Google may consider “lawyer” equivalent to “attorney.”
     • Your ad will NOT show for searches like “wills and estates,” “wills and estates lawyer near me,” “how to write a will,” or any other variations.
   • Phrase Match: Your ad will be triggered when all the words in your keyword phrase appear in the search term, in the same order. For instance, if you target “wills and estates lawyer” through phrase match:
     • Your ad will display for searches like “wills and estates lawyer,” “wills and estates lawyer near me,” “best wills and estates lawyer in Denver,” and so on.
     • Your ad will also appear when people search for your competitors, like “John Johnson wills and estates lawyer.”
     • Your ad might show for the “attorney” variants mentioned earlier.
     • Your ad will NOT show for searches like “wills and estates,” “wills and estates lawyer near me,” “how to write a will,” or other unrelated terms.
   • Broad Match: This match type is akin to giving Google carte blanche to display your ad whenever it deems fit. For example, if you target “wills and estates lawyer” using broad match, your ad will pop up for practically any query remotely related to writing a will. While broad match has its place in certain situations, it’s generally not recommended for most campaigns.

5. Understand Big Strategies

Now, let’s delve into some advanced concepts.

In the old days, you’d establish a maximum amount you were willing to pay for someone to click on your ad. For instance, you could cap your maximum cost per click (CPC) for the term “wills and estates lawyer” at $4, and that would be the end of it. This approach falls under the category of Manual CPC (cost per click) bid strategy.

However, we’ve moved beyond those days.

Today, a multitude of bid strategies exists, and it’s vital to discern which one aligns best with your campaign goals. Here’s a breakdown:

1. Manual CPC: As previously mentioned, this method straightforwardly sets the amount you’re willing to pay for each click.
2. Enhanced CPC: Under this strategy, you designate a CPC amount, but you grant Google the flexibility to adjust your bid based on the likelihood of conversion.
3. Maximize Clicks: This instructs Google to prioritize obtaining as many clicks as possible, with no emphasis on conversions.
4. Maximize Conversions: With this bidding approach, Google focuses solely on securing as many conversions as it can within your budget. There’s no predetermined limit on your cost per conversion; it could range from $5 to $100. Essentially, you’re telling Google, “Do your utmost to acquire as many conversions as possible.”
5. Target CPA (Cost Per Acquisition): Here, you set a desired cost per lead, let’s say, $75. Google’s task is to either obtain leads at or near this cost, fully utilizing your budget, or, if it can’t meet that goal, not spending your budget at all.
6. Target Impression Share: This bid strategy revolves around ensuring that your ad appears a certain percentage of the time.

The million-dollar question is, which bid strategy is the best fit for your campaign? That’s a truly loaded question. This is a very important determination to make, so it’s best to work this out with the help of an expert.

6. Send Traffic to Message Matched Landing Pages

This, my friends, is the secret sauce. Everything mentioned above is of course important, but pales in comparison to the impact of high-converting landing pages.

There are two critical keys to success here:

1. Instead of directing your ad traffic to your website, channel it to a dedicated landing page meticulously crafted to align with your ad’s content.
2. Understand that not all landing pages are created equal. In fact, they vary significantly. Over the years, I’ve honed my skills in creating high-impact landing pages. In the past year alone, I’ve developed a groundbreaking landing page technique that has catapulted the effectiveness of our ad campaigns by a staggering 300%. This technique is the secret sauce that transforms good campaigns into truly exceptional ones.

7. Track All Conversion Types

Ensure you’ve got comprehensive conversion tracking in place to capture every way a user can reach out to you. Typically, our clients have three primary conversion actions:

1. Lead Form Submissions: This represents the most straightforward type of lead generation conversion. You can effortlessly track it in Google Analytics by utilizing a thank-you page.
2. Live Chats: Tracking live chats varies depending on the specific tool you employ. However, it’s crucial to establish a goal tracking mechanism in Google Analytics for chat interactions.
3. Phone Calls: Tracking phone calls is a breeze with tools like Callrail.

In summary, there are multiple avenues that patients can get in touch with you. Ensuring that you have robust tracking in place for each of these contact methods is essential.