Local search engine optimization (SEO) is critical for law firms that want to consistently attract new clientele. Geotargeting ads for lawyers can help your practice make the most of your ad spend by ensuring your marketing efforts are seen by those most likely to utilize your services.
Here’s what to know about geotargeting, how to use it to boost traffic and leads to your firm, and how Surefire Local’s business intelligence marketing software for attorneys can help.
What Is Geotargeting?
Geotargeting is the process of distributing online advertisements to people who are within a particular geographical location and who meet certain predefined criteria that you select. For example, if you’re a divorce attorney, you can set campaign parameters to show ads to female users making over $60,000 who live within 20 miles of your location.
Types of Geotargeting
There is more than one type of geotargeting and which you choose depends on your campaign goals and the needs of your audience.
- Audience geotargeting – Remarketing ads that are displayed to users based on location data history and user shopping behavior
- Local intent targeting – Ads that are optimized for users searching with “near me” and “in [City]” keywords
- Weather targeting – Ads that promote products or services related to current local weather to selected users
- Pay-per-click advertising – Establish long-term ads using locally relevant keywords
- Social media geotargeting – Ads on social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook that offer hyper-specific targeting capabilities for local users
- Geofencing – Ads that display to users who enter a designated area
- Beaconing – Ads that display to users who are within a certain distance of your business
You can use multiple types of geotargeting within your ad campaigns to generate the results you want. For example, you can use audience geotargeting at the same time as local intent targeting. Your ad might say something like “Hurt in a car accident in San Francisco? Call our California injury attorneys at . . ..”
Then, you can set your ad specs to display to parents of teen drivers, people searching for vehicle repair after an accident, etc. This allows you to hyper-focus your ads directly for your ideal clients and the people who are most likely going to be interested in the type of legal services you offer.
How Does Geotargeting Work?
When you create geotargeting ads for lawyers, there are hundreds of different options you can select for where your ad will display and who will be able to see your ad. In your ad manager dashboard, you will be able to choose your ad location, and things like the gender, hobbies, income, and age of the users you want to see your content.
For example, if you’re a personal injury attorney in San Francisco, you may want to set your ads to show to male and female users who are age 18+ and who own or drive a car. If you’re a family lawyer that wants to take on more child custody cases, you can set your ads to display to male and female users who are aged 25 to 45 who frequently shop for items for babies and children.
Why Should You Use Geotargeting Ads For Lawyers?
Attorneys can use geotargeting ads to increase the number of qualified leads they get from local residents who are actually interested in hiring a lawyer. There are many other benefits to utilizing geotargeting ads for your law practice. You can also:
- Hide your local ads from competitors
- Decide who sees your ads and when
- Improve your local relevance and user experience
- Directly meet the needs of users closest to your location
- Create personalized, meaningful ad content that resonates with your target audience
- Boost interaction and engagement with your content
- Prevent fraudulent transactions with alerts triggered by activity from unusual locations
- Optimize your marketing budget
- Increase the speed and relevancy of your legal services
Easy Geotargeting Best Practices For Attorneys
When setting up geotargeting ads for lawyers, it’s important to follow established best-practices that have been proven to be effective for local search engine marketing. Here are a few easy first steps you can take.
Optimize your ads for your office hours.
Set your geotargeting ads to display during office hours so interested users can call or message when someone is available to answer questions. Not only does this improve the user experience and boosts your engagement and conversion rates, it reduces your marketing spend on initiatives that launch while your office is closed.
You can opt not to show local ads at night if you’re an estate law attorney, or you can set your ads to display at night if you’re a criminal defense and DUI lawyer. Think about what fits your target audience, who your ideal client is, and when they might be most in need of your services. Then, tailor your ads to display for those users at exactly the right times.
Use local signifiers when you can.
Local keywords are critical for your campaigns, and even in the content you publish on your blog or social media. Include the name of your city, town, or county in the ad and ideally, put multiple versions of your location keywords so your ad will show to users searching any one of them.
You should also consider having a local telephone number for your firm instead of a 1-800 number, especially for your local ads. Make sure your ad copy sounds local by using the same language and jargon as residents in the area.
Make sure your location is set correctly.
This might sound like a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised at how many attorneys lose money over ads that have been set to display in the wrong location. For example, if your law firm is in Washington state but you accidentally set your ads to display in Washington D.C., this becomes a significant issue.
If this happens, you should pull the ad as soon as you realize it. Be aware that your city or state may have the same name as another and be extra careful when setting your location to make sure it’s the exact one you want. One helpful tip is to expand the section for advanced targeting and use the visual map to select your ad locations to help you verify that you’ve got the right area.
Test any changes to your ad campaigns before scaling up your local marketing efforts.
It’s important that the money you spend on your legal marketing goes as far as possible, especially now that the online space is more competitive for attorneys than ever before. You can use your local ads to test changes and new ideas with a smaller audience before scaling up, so you aren’t dropping funds on large campaigns that might not do well.
Instead of launching a new or updated marketing campaign, you can use geotargeting to launch the ads to a smaller audience to gauge reaction and engagement. Tweak, test, and repeat until you get the metrics you’re looking for. Then, you can launch the campaign to a larger audience or geographical area without worrying that the entire thing will bomb.
Use high-quality images and video.
If your ads contain images or video, it’s important that they’re as high-quality and high-resolution as you can possibly get. Blurry photos and choppy video can work against you when it comes to encouraging potential clients to convert. If possible, use locally-recognizable photos in your marketing, like a picture of your office or photos of your attorneys in common places around your town that can be identified in a photograph.
Exclude locations that don’t perform well.
There’s no reason to pay money for ads in areas that you don’t serve or that don’t perform well. Make sure you’re tracking and analyzing the performance of your ads so you can pull poorly performing campaigns before they tank your budget.
Then, make a note of the locations where you’re not getting a good return on investment (ROI) so you can avoid launching new local marketing campaigns in those areas. This allows you to focus your marketing budget on locations that do well and bring in the most revenue for your ad spend.
Request a Demo of Surefire Local’s Business Intelligence Marketing Software For Lawyers
Legal marketing can be challenging, especially for solo attorneys and small practices who are already pressed for time between consultations, paperwork, and court dates. But if you’re not marketing your law firm, your stream of new clients will eventually wane and suddenly, you’ll find yourself in the office with a quiet phone and an empty schedule.
Surefire Local’s business intelligence marketing software is specifically designed to help small companies and entrepreneurs streamline their local advertising and SEO efforts so they can make the very most out of every ad dollar they spend. Our tools can help lawyers get 85% more clients and up to 34% more traffic!
Contact us today at (703) 884-8442 to schedule your demo and learn how business intelligence software can help your firm succeed.