A small law firm can lose a case before anyone discusses the law. The call goes to voicemail, the web form gets answered the next afternoon, or the firm down the road has more recent reviews. As a digital marketing agency for law firms, we run Google Ads, local search, Facebook ads and the intake follow-up behind them, and measure the work in consultations booked and cases signed.
- For firms in personal injury, family, immigration, estate planning and employment law, in the US and UK.
- Google Ads and local search for urgent matters; Facebook ads for planned ones.
- A first reply within seconds of every web inquiry, at any hour, and a named person alerted.
- Tracking from the ad to the call, the consultation and the signed case.
- Ads written to your bar's or the SRA's rules, and signed off by your firm.
- Monthly services run $500-$2,000 a month, month-to-month. Website builds run $1,200-$15,000.
Why law firm marketing stalls
- Expensive clicks, few consultations. Broad terms like "lawyer" matching job and law school searches, and ads landing on the home page.
- Plenty of calls, few signed cases. Every call counted as a win, so Google learns to find callers, not clients.
- Inquiries that go cold overnight. Forms checked in office hours, while many people can only look for a lawyer after work.
- Missing from the map. A thin Google Business Profile, few recent reviews, and no routine for asking.
Intake speed is part of the marketing
Someone with an injury, a custody dispute or a visa deadline often contacts more than one firm, and the first useful reply tends to win the consultation. Much of the ad budget is wasted if the inquiry it buys waits until tomorrow.
So intake gets fixed before the ads scale: a first reply to every form within seconds, with a booking link, an alert to a named person, and tracked numbers so missed calls get returned.
Local search, your profile and reviews
For most practice areas, the map results decide who gets the call, and a complete Google Business Profile carries much of that: the right category, each practice area, hours you answer and recent reviews. Google's guidelines let a public-facing lawyer at the verified office have a profile, ask a solo lawyer at a branded firm to share one named "Firm: Lawyer", and exclude unstaffed virtual offices.
Ask every client for a review when a matter closes. Google's review policy bans incentives and asking only the happy ones, and the FTC's rule on fake reviews bars paying for reviews of a set sentiment. The ABA's Formal Opinion 496 says a bad review doesn't by itself permit revealing client information in a reply.
In the US, Local Services Ads charge per lead, not per click, after Google checks each lawyer's state bar license. Google is moving them into Google Ads as pay-per-lead Performance Max campaigns, in phases through 2027.
What a legal click costs
LocaliQ's 2026 search advertising benchmarks, drawn from its customers' campaigns, put the average cost per click for attorneys and legal services at $9.87, the highest of 23 industries, against $5.42 overall. Keyword Planner shows the range for your own terms and city.
An illustration, not a benchmark: at $10 a click, if one click in 20 books a consultation and one consultation in four signs, a signed case costs $800 in ad spend. Know what a case can carry, then judge every campaign against it.
Advertising rules to check first
This is a summary to help you brief us, not legal advice. Your bar's or regulator's rules decide, and a lawyer at your firm signs off every ad, page and email before it runs.
- ABA Model Rule 7.1. Nothing false or misleading. The comments warn that true past results can mislead if they imply the same outcome for others.
- Rule 7.2. Pay for ads, not recommendations. A certified specialist claim needs an approved certifier named in the ad, and every ad names a responsible lawyer or firm with contact details.
- Rule 7.3. No live person-to-person solicitation for fees, with narrow exceptions. Ads to the general public and replies to people who asked for information aren't solicitation under the model rule.
- Your state. Each state adopts its own version, and some add filing or labeling requirements. Check your state bar's rules.
- SRA Code, 8.8 and 8.9. Accurate publicity, charges included, and no unsolicited approaches to members of the public other than current or former clients.
- What that allows. Advertising to the public "so long as this is done in a non-intrusive and non-targeted way", online included. Writing to people named in accident news is out.
- Transparency Rules. Services such as residential conveyancing, uncontested probate, immigration applications (not asylum) and unfair dismissal claims need prices on the website. Every SRA-regulated firm's site must show its SRA number and digital badge.
Immigration firms should also read Google's government documents and services policy: ads offering to obtain documents such as passports or electronic travel authorizations, or entry to the US Diversity Visa lottery, run only from certified advertisers.
What we do for law firms
- Google Ads for local business. People search for a lawyer near them today.
- Local SEO. You're missing from the map results.
- Facebook ads for local businesses. For planned matters, such as wills and estate plans.
- Websites for local service businesses. Visitors on a phone can't find the number or the next step.
- Landing pages. Your ads land on the home page, not a page about the problem.
- AI marketing automation. Inquiries wait for office hours.
How law firm marketing fits together
Pick the practice areas that pay
Matters where a signed case can carry the cost of finding it, and the firm has capacity.
A page per practice area
What the matter involves, how fees work, who handles it, and a tap-to-call number.
Search ads on hiring intent
Practice area plus location, call ads only in intake hours, and a budget per area.
Answer in seconds
An automatic first reply, a named person alerted, and missed calls returned within the hour.
Track to the signed case
Consultation and retained stages sent back to Google through enhanced conversions for leads, so bidding learns which searches sign clients.
Proof, and what we haven't done
We haven't published any law firm work. Two published pieces show the parts that carry over:
- Nurture, our own follow-up app. It routes each Meta lead form by its answers, sends the first email within seconds at any hour and alerts a named person. It runs for clients, none of them law firms.
- A Midlands climbing gym, not a law firm. The previous agency's sales campaign returned £0.82 for every £1 spent, while post engagements seem to have been the figure reported. Eight months after we took over, it returns £2.99, and a booking costs £9.44 instead of £38.78. For a firm, the lesson is to report outcomes, not activity.
What it costs
| Service | Price | Terms |
|---|---|---|
| Ads management (Google, Facebook or Instagram) | $500-$2,000 a month | Month-to-month, no setup fee, ad spend paid straight to the platform |
| SEO and AI search visibility | $500-$2,000 a month | Month-to-month, no long-term contract |
| Website, landing page or store build | $1,200-$15,000, fixed price | Agreed in writing; 50% to begin, balance on delivery |
| Landing page for one practice area | $1,200-$2,500, fixed price | Copy, build and tracking included |
Entry plans start at $500 a month. Full details are on our pricing page.
Who we're not for
- Firms whose intake can't answer new inquiries quickly and won't change that. More ads only raise the cost per case.
- Anyone who wants guaranteed case numbers or rankings. Nobody can honestly promise either.
- Plans built on cold-contacting consumers. The SRA bars unsolicited approaches, and US rules restrict solicitation.
Guides for law firms
- Facebook leads not answering the phone?: why it happens, and the follow-up that fixes it
- Google Ads clicks not converting?: the checks to run before touching the budget
- Search vs Performance Max: where budget belongs when every click is expensive
- Is SEO worth it?: when search pays, and how to tell if it's working
Questions law firms ask a marketing agency
What does a digital marketing agency for law firms do?
It brings in people who need your practice areas and turns them into signed clients, through Google Ads, local search, reviews, fast intake and tracking to the retained matter.
Why is Google Ads so expensive for lawyers?
One signed case can be worth thousands in fees, so many firms bid on the same searches. LocaliQ's 2026 benchmarks put the legal average at $9.87 a click, the highest of the industries it lists.
Can lawyers advertise on Google and Facebook?
Yes, in the US and the UK, within the profession's rules: nothing misleading, no specialist claims without certification, no live solicitation in the US and no targeted approaches in England and Wales. Details vary by state. This is not legal advice.
How do you track which ads lead to signed cases?
Calls come through tracked numbers, forms save their source, and consultation and retained stages from your case management system go back to Google. Campaigns are judged on signed cases.
Have you worked with law firms before?
We haven't published any law firm work. What carries over is our intake follow-up, tracking to the signed outcome, and the local ads work in our case studies. We'll say on the first call what transfers and what doesn't.
How much does law firm marketing cost with NCMborz?
Google Ads, Facebook ads or local SEO management runs $500-$2,000 a month, month-to-month, with ad spend paid straight to the platform. A practice-area landing page runs $1,200-$2,500.
Who isn't a good fit?
We're not the right fit if your intake can't answer new inquiries quickly, if you want guaranteed case numbers, or if the plan depends on contacting people who haven't asked to hear from you.
Want to know how many of last month's inquiries became signed cases, and which ads they came from? Book a strategy call and we'll work it out with you.