When someone needs legal help, the first place they often turn to is their phone or computer. While having a strong website with an SEO presence is part of what it takes to get your law firm seen, you can also use online ads to reach a far greater, local audience. When planned correctly, online ads, such as Google Ads or Facebook and Instagram Ads, impact your overall online visibility and your local search rankings. All of this combines to get more potential clients to see your content, and that can translate into more clients for your firm. Here is a look at why online ads are an important part of local advertising and some important localized online ad optimization tips for lawyers and law firms.
How Online Ads Improve Your Local Reach
As a law firm, your primary online marketing focus is the people who can utilize your services. This means local reach is vital. As you work to localize your online presence, online ads are a big part of the process.
You can purchase ads on Google, but you can also purchase them on social media, YouTube, and directories. When people in your target area spend time on these sites, they are shown your ad. As long as you properly target the ads to a specific market, it is quite effective at reaching people by their geographic location.
Just how effective is this? First, you’re able to deliver information that people want where they are looking. Statistics show that nearly half of all searches on Google are looking for location-specific information. Second, it increases brand awareness by as much as 80%. It’s also something people appreciate and rely on, in some instances. In one survey, 75% of customers said that paid ads made it easier to find the local businesses they needed.
Key to Success – Choose the Right Platforms
One of the challenges in online advertising is the many platforms available to pick from. You must choose the online platforms that provide the most value to your law firm. What works well for you may not be what works well for a business in a different industry.
The most popular online platforms for advertising include:
- Google – This is, by far, the most popular choice, but it’s also the one with the most competition. Remember, 89% of people search for local businesses using their mobile device at least once per week, and many of those searches will go through Google. A strong, targeted presence is a key to attracting some of those people.
- Facebook – There are 3.04 billion people who use Facebook, and they spend an average of 30 minutes per day checking the platform. This adds up to billions of opportunities to reach people. Facebook has excellent targeting tools to help you target people by their geographic area, so utilize these to reach more potential clients. This platform reaches people of most age groups, which is also part of what makes it so effective for law firms.
- Instagram – Instagram has similar usage statistics as Facebook, with 2.4 billion registered users and 33 minutes per day average use. Of those, around 500 million will open the app at least once a day. This platform gives you the chance to offer photo and video advertising, which is quite effective with the modern audience. Instagram’s user profile is weighted heavily to the 34 and under age group, which may indicate which type of law firm can benefit most from a presence here.
- YouTube – YouTube gets more minutes per day with averages of 48.7 minutes daily, which makes sense because the platform offers videos for people to watch. Of those videos watched, 87.7% were from mobile devices.
- X – X, the platform previously known as Twitter, is a short-form content platform. On this platform, you post short posts that generate buzz. It can be a good option to get people to see your content and build you as a thought leader. The platform has 250 million daily users and 550 who visit monthly.
- Directory Listings – Directory listings, like Yelp and Yahoo!, are an essential part of your local search strategy, but most directories offer paid opportunities to boost listings to get them in front of more people.
What platform works best for you is going to be different from your competition, so take some time to analyze your target audience and where they spend their time. Then, choose the best platform to focus on.
As you choose a platform, don’t forget about your budget. In general, you should be spending 12 to 2 percent of your income to focus on local marketing, but that doesn’t mean all of that money has to go to the same place. You can easily spend all of your marketing money on just one platform, but you may find it more effective to spread your money across two or three. In addition, you can get free marketing by being active on these platforms, and combine that with the paid posts to further your reach.
How to Create Targeted Local Ad Campaigns
Now that you have chosen the right platform to advertise your business, it’s time to create targeted local ad campaigns. First, determine your specific geographic parameters. How far from your office’s location do you want to go? You can use city, state, county, and even zip code to narrow down your geographic preferences.
Then, make sure the ad copy connects to a local audience. In your words and your images or video, showcase the city or state where you do business.
Finally, one of the best localized online ad optimization tips for lawyers is to utilize the tools within the ad platforms that will add location data to your ad. Google has location extensions you can use to tag your ads, and other platforms have similar features.
Collaborate with Local Partners
Another way to get more eyes on your ads is to collaborate with local partners. Your law firm could coordinate with a collision repair center to target people who have been in a car crash, for instance. You can combine their advertising dollars to make a joint ad to reach their target audience.
Use Analytics Well
Like all types of online ads, local advertisements need to be monitored carefully to ensure they’re performing well. Set up the analytics on the platform, and track your work. If you notice areas that could improve, make adjustments. When these adjustments are informed by analytics, they will be more effective.
Another way you can optimize your local advertisements is with A/B testing. This process involves creating two versions of a similar ad, with variations on targeting, wording, or budget, and running them to compare which one performs well. A/B testing will show you what works well for your target audience, and you can use that data to plan future ad campaigns.
Finally, consider using a tool or service to help you streamline these local online ads. With so many potential platforms available, managing them all independently, and keeping track of your analytics, is hard. If you can place them all within one platform, you can more easily see what you need to see to keep your marketing efforts on track.
Simplify Online Marketing with Surefire Local
Managing your local online advertising efforts is vital to reaching new clients with your branding message, but it can be quite time-consuming. Yet you still need to prioritize it. If you are looking to better prioritize and manage your local advertisements, consider partnering with Surefire Local
Surefire Local provides an all-in-one marketing platform for local law firms and other businesses. We help you establish your online presence by creating and using local signals across various platforms. This can effectively:
- Get more customers from every platform to your website
- Turn more website visitors into clients
- Track results so you can optimize your advertising performance
With your advertising’s greater local visibility aided by Surefire Local, new clients can more easily find you, and you can manage all of your online advertising in one convenient place. We help you ensure your budget is going towards ads only seen by people in your service area. We also provide analytics and reporting to help you tweak and optimize those ads to reach the most possible people. Our platform harnesses AI to generate recommendations you can use to improve your marketing efforts.
Finally, we keep you educated and informed through a range of educational resources. Log on to the platform to access blog posts, webinars, and more focused on online marketing. Armed with the right knowledge, you will be better able to reach potential clients in a crowded online marketplace.
See how easy it is to market your law firm using Surefire Local. Attend a demo today.