You’re paying for every click in your law firm’s PPC, or pay-per-click, campaign, so a report showing more calls at a lower cost per lead ought to be good news. But intake tells a different story: callers need another practice area, their cases fall outside your jurisdiction, or they're asking about a service you don't offer. The campaign looks healthier while the team spends more time explaining why the firm can't help.
I'd start the campaign review with that disagreement. Which searches brought those callers in? What did the ad and page lead them to expect? Then ask intake what happened after contact. Buying the click is only the beginning of the work.
Key takeaways
- Agree with attorneys and intake on what makes an inquiry suitable before interpreting the campaign report.
- Review actual search terms, geographic reach, the landing page, and the response process together.
- Check the campaign’s bidding goals and later intake outcomes; a cheaper inquiry is not automatically a better business result.
Give the manager a usable definition of a suitable inquiry
Start with the cases you want and the cases you can actually take. Practice area and geography matter, but so do capacity and the firm's intake criteria. Have the attorneys and intake team agree on those criteria before the campaign manager starts interpreting the results.
For a hypothetical employment practice, a caller with a landlord dispute is outside scope. Someone with an employment issue may still need an attorney in another jurisdiction. A third caller may be suitable, but intake needs more information before deciding. Those are three different outcomes, and they shouldn't disappear into one “unqualified” label.
The marketer shouldn't decide whether someone has a legal case. Ask the firm to approve broad categories marketing can use, such as the wrong practice area or a location you don't serve, while intake assesses the actual matter.
Review the searches you paid for
A keyword is your targeting instruction, whereas a search term is what a person actually searched. The distinction matters because even exact match can match searches with the same meaning or intent; it doesn't mean only the identical text can trigger an ad.
Review the search terms available in the account alongside inquiry patterns. If an ad group intended for employment disputes is repeatedly attracting criminal-defense searches, investigate the match settings, keywords, and ad copy. Exclude clearly irrelevant terms where appropriate. Don't assume the report exposes every query, or that a query alone tells you whether someone has a suitable case.
Be careful with broad exclusions such as “free.” A paid estate-planning practice and a contingency-fee injury practice may need different treatment. Someone searching for a free consultation isn't necessarily unwilling to hire a lawyer. An exclusion should reflect the firm's offer, not a generic negative-keyword list.
Check who can see the campaign and who can answer
Location targeting needs to reflect the people the firm can serve. Review the actual targeting options, exclusions, and location reports. A campaign aimed at people physically in an area has a different purpose from one aimed at people researching a matter there from elsewhere. Google's location options explain those distinctions and the limits of its location signals.
Try contacting the firm during the hours its ads run. If nobody answers at night, ask what happens to that inquiry next. A reliable answering service or clear callback arrangement might make evening advertising worthwhile, but an unanswered phone without follow-up is a different situation. Decide from the response process and results, rather than switching off nighttime ads by default.
Make the ad and destination tell the same story
An employment-law ad should lead to a page that explains the relevant service. It may be an existing practice page or a dedicated landing page; the important question is whether it answers the searcher's questions and offers a working contact route.
Suppose an ad mentions severance agreement review, but the destination talks mainly about courtroom litigation. That leaves the visitor to work out whether the advertised service is available, so repair the mismatch before testing button colors.
Have the firm review advertising claims under its applicable professional rules. ABA Model Rule 7.1 prohibits false or misleading communications; the controlling jurisdiction's rules require their own review. An award, case result, or fee claim needs accurate context. A marketer can't turn an unverified claim into a responsible one by adding a disclaimer.
Open the page on a phone and try the contact route. Does the inquiry reach intake? You can choose relevant searches and write an accurate ad, then lose the conversation because the form never delivers its message.
Inspect the conversion goal before trusting the result
Google Ads optimizes according to the conversion setup you give it. Inspect which actions are included in the campaign's bidding goal. A page visit, phone interaction, form submission, suitable inquiry, and signed engagement each describe a different stage.
A received inquiry may be a sensible starting measure. Call it an inquiry, though, rather than a qualified case. A later outcome may help the campaign learn if the relevant policies, consent, and data controls allow that transfer. Have the firm decide what can be shared and with whom before enabling it. Improving a report isn't a reason to upload someone's confidential legal account.
Check for duplicate events and the delay between contact and a signed engagement. Comparing this week's advertising cost with this week's signed cases can mix different groups of people. Follow inquiries from a defined period long enough to observe their outcomes.
Use diagnostic metrics without mistaking them for business results
Click-through rate can help you investigate ad relevance, while cost per click shows the price of traffic. Both become more useful when you follow what happens after the click.
Quality Score is a diagnostic tool, not the auction's input score or a formula for your profitability. If its landing-page component is weak, investigate the experience. Don't assume raising a displayed score will produce a predictable reduction in cost per signed case.
For example, an account may produce fewer inquiries after a clearer service description but more suitable consultations. That change deserves a closer look, but it might also reflect a change in demand or traffic mix, so compare the context before crediting one edit.
Ask for a management record you can follow
Your manager should be able to explain what changed, why, and what would indicate that it helped. “We optimized the campaign” doesn't provide that explanation.
For example, suppose several inquiries came from outside the service area. The manager could show you how they checked targeting and clarified the page, then explain what they'll look for in the next comparable period. If there aren't enough inquiries to reach a confident conclusion yet, I'd want them to say so.
Keep firm-controlled access to the account and the necessary reporting. Agree on who can approve changes, spending increases, and new claims. Those responsibilities matter whether the work is handled internally or by an agency.
If the dashboard and intake team disagree, begin there. Talk with Morpheus Consulting Inc. about the campaign, the available evidence, and which questions an account review should answer.
