At Riley Summers, we manage Google Ads for law firms with a clear aim: more of the high-value cases the firm wants most, at a cost that makes sense. Not every inquiry will be one of them. Some will be average cases, some the firm may refer out, and some that look strong at first won't hold up once the firm reviews them, for example when there isn't enough insurance coverage to justify taking the case. We build campaigns by practice area and market, send each click to a dedicated landing page with call tracking, and keep cutting spend on searches that aren't producing cases, so the mix keeps shifting toward better ones. Results are evaluated by cost per case inquiry and, when the firm shares its intake data, cost per signed case. Management is a flat monthly fee, not a percentage of ad spend.
Your Google Ads account
The account and its data belong to your firm, not to us.
Your call tracking
The tracking account, numbers and call recordings are in your firm's name.
Ad spend on your card
Google bills your firm directly. We charge only our fee.
Flat fee, 60-day out
No percentage of spend and no long-term contract.
On this page
- Cost per Signed Case Is the Number That Matters
- What's Included in Law Firm PPC Management
- How We Evaluate PPC Results
- What We Usually Find in Existing Law Firm Accounts
- Who Manages Your Account
- How Law Firm PPC Management Starts
- What Your Monthly Report Shows
- Related Law Firm Services
Cost per Signed Case Is the Number That Matters
Most agency reports for law firms lead with clicks, impressions and lead counts. None of those covers the firm's overhead. A managing partner needs to know what each signed case cost to acquire, by practice area, and whether that cost leaves room for a profitable caseload.
In personal injury, a single click can cost several hundred dollars. A $300 click that becomes a signed truck accident case is inexpensive. A $40 click from someone looking for free legal advice, a paralegal job or a practice area the firm doesn't handle is expensive, however cheap it looks in a report.
Every decision we make in the account, from the searches we bid on to the page each ad sends people to, is aimed at lowering the cost of a signed case.
What's Included in Law Firm PPC Management
Account review or new build
If the firm already runs Google Ads, we start with a full review of the account and its history. If it doesn't, we build a new account in the firm's name.
Campaigns by practice area and market
Each practice area, and each market the firm serves, gets its own campaigns and budget. A strong car accident campaign isn't left subsidizing a weak workers' compensation one, and each can be evaluated on its own results.
Search terms and negative keywords
We review the searches the budget is actually paying for, continuously, and block the ones that aren't producing cases: job seekers, law students, requests for free advice and practice areas the firm doesn't handle.
Ad copy built on credentials
Licensing is assumed in legal advertising, so the ads lead with what sets the firm apart, such as awards and certifications ("Super Lawyers since [year]"), written within the advertising rules that apply to the firm.
Practice-area landing pages
Each practice area gets a dedicated landing page with a custom form, call tracking and no site navigation, usually on a subdomain of the firm's own website. The pages are built on our proprietary landing page system.
Call and conversion tracking
Calls and form submissions are tracked back to the campaign that produced them, and conversion tracking is set up to separate real case inquiries from noise such as short calls and sales calls.
Budget management
Budgets are set by practice area and paced through the month, so spend isn't exhausted in the first two weeks or left unspent at the end. When one practice area is producing case inquiries at a better cost than another, we recommend moving budget toward it, and the firm decides.
Google Ads is our focus, because Google is still where most people go when they need a lawyer. We also evaluate Microsoft Advertising and ChatGPT ads where a firm's market and budget support them.
How We Evaluate PPC Results
A campaign can do everything right up to the phone call and still lose money if the call goes unanswered or the inquiry isn't followed up. That's why we evaluate results all the way to the signed case, not just to the lead.
We build and manage the first four steps. The firm's intake team owns the last two, and that's where many campaigns are won or lost. When the firm shares its intake data from Lead Docket, Captorra or a similar system, we match signed cases back to the campaigns, practice areas and searches that produced them, and shift effort toward what's signing cases.
What We Usually Find in Existing Law Firm Accounts
Every practice area in one campaign
Car accidents, workers' compensation and everything else share one campaign and one budget, so the most expensive searches quietly take most of the money and nobody can see which practice area is paying off.
What we do instead
We structure campaigns by practice area and market, each with its own budget, so every one is evaluated on its own cost per case.
Ads sending clicks to the homepage
Someone searching for a truck accident lawyer lands on a general homepage and has to find their own way to the right information, or to the phone number.
What we do instead
Each practice area gets a dedicated landing page with a custom form and call tracking, and no navigation to wander off into.
Budget spent on the wrong searches
Broad match keywords pay for job seekers, law students, people wanting free advice and practice areas the firm doesn't handle.
What we do instead
We review search terms continuously and build out negative keywords, so more of the budget goes to people likely to need the firm's help.
Every call counted as a lead
Short calls, wrong numbers and sales calls are counted as conversions, so the account looks healthier than it is and Google optimizes toward the wrong calls.
What we do instead
We set up conversion tracking to separate real case inquiries from noise, so reports and bidding reflect what matters.
Accounts owned by the agency
The Google Ads account, its history and the call tracking numbers sit with the agency, so leaving means starting over.
What we do instead
The Google Ads and call tracking accounts are in the firm's name, with Riley Summers added as a user.
Missed calls after hours
Ads run in the evening and on weekends, but nobody answers, and the caller moves on to the next firm.
What we do instead
We ask what the firm already has in place for after-hours calls and intake. If there's nothing, we connect the firm with established legal intake and answering services.
Seeing any of these in your firm's account?
Request a free ad campaign review and landing page UX audit. You'll receive a short written analysis of your Google Ads campaigns and landing pages that points out what may be missing, with notes and questions on items such as heatmap tracking.
Request a free campaign reviewWho Manages Your Account
Your account is managed by Mark Riley, founder of Riley Summers. As VP at a national legal-marketing agency, Mark built the agency's paid search strategy and personally built and ran PPC campaigns for personal injury firms. Campaign structures he built were adopted as the standard across a multi-firm legal group. Over his career, he has managed more than $70 million in digital advertising budgets.
His legal work has centered on motor vehicle accidents (car, truck, motorcycle and pedestrian), general personal injury, medical malpractice, workers' compensation and Social Security Disability.
The figures below come from a personal injury account Mark built and managed, in a major metro market, over about three months.
| Campaign | Case inquiries | Cost per inquiry | Conversion rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Personal Injury | 44 | $1,101.31 | 29.73% |
| Car Accident (exact match) | 11 | $1,445.66 | 40.74% |
| Personal Injury (exact match) | 6 | $355.49 | 54.55% |
| Auto Accident (exact match) | 4 | $802.83 | 66.67% |
| Injury (exact match) | 4 | $616.35 | 50.00% |
| Accident (exact match) | 1 | $619.10 | 33.33% |
Exact-match campaigns ran at lower volume, so their conversion rates move more from month to month. The main campaign's volume is the more reliable indicator.
How Law Firm PPC Management Starts
- Free campaign review and landing page UX audit. A short written analysis of the firm's current Google Ads campaigns and landing pages, or of where paid search could fit if the firm is starting fresh.
- Scope and fee. We agree on the practice areas, markets and budget, and set a flat monthly management fee based on them.
- Setup. A one-time setup fee covers the campaign build and a landing page for each practice area, with a custom form and call tracking.
- Launch and ongoing management. Campaigns go live, and we manage search terms, ads, landing pages and budget pacing every month.
There's no initial term. Either side can end the engagement with 60 days' notice. The firm keeps its Google Ads account, its call tracking account and all of its data. Landing pages are built on Riley Summers' proprietary landing page system and remain with Riley Summers if the engagement ends. They usually sit on a subdomain of the firm's own website, or on a Riley Summers domain if the firm prefers.
What Your Monthly Report Shows
Every call and form submission from the campaigns is tracked. Each month, the report shows case inquiries and cost per inquiry by practice area and campaign, where the budget went, and what we changed and why. We review it with the firm rather than sending numbers without context.
Signed cases and cost per signed case are reported when the firm shares its intake data. That's the most useful number in the report, and we recommend every firm share it.
Related Law Firm Services
Find out where your firm's Google Ads budget is going.
If your firm is already running Google Ads, we'll review your campaigns and landing pages and send a short written analysis of what may be missing. If you're starting fresh, we'll look at where paid search could fit your practice areas and markets.
Request a free campaign review