The '3 R's' Method:
PPC Audits for Your Law Practice
Creating an effective PPC audit can be daunting because there are so many options and details to consider. To make the most out of your law firm’s paid search campaigns, you need to create a process that considers all aspects of your campaign.
In order to streamline the process, it may be helpful to focus on three: Reach, Relevance, and Response. By paying attention to budgeting these three steps, PPC audits can become much simpler which makes your campaigns more effective use of your budget.
Maintenance
How often you should run an audit on your Google or Bing Ads campaigns varies based on their complexity, but generally speaking, it’s a good idea to do so at least twice a year.
keep an open mind while conducting your audit so you can make meaningful improvements. While starting your audit, think about why you set up your campaigns initially as well as if there have been changes in strategies or goals since then.
before you start:
- It is essential to always remember your reasoning for the foundational aspects of your campaigns, such as strategy and goals. Similarly, regularly evaluating any changes made in these areas can help prevent mistakes in campaign execution.
- For more reliable data, set your date range to cover at least three months. If you need more information, keep expanding the time frame.
How ads get to their destination.
You can use the following options to help control ad delivery and get your message in front of those prospects most likely to use your firm’s services.
- Targeting
- Settings
- Ad Budget
- Ad Scheduling
- Audiences & Lists
- Ad position and bid prices
- Automation
- Campaign types
How ads connect to the right audience
Now that you’ve identified your target audience for your legal services, it’s time to provide them with the information they need. This could include advice on what to do if a loved one has suffered from neglect in a nursing home, as just one example
Keep your target audience in mind when thinking of what keywords to use for your legal services. Make sure that your ad messages and landing page text are relevant to their needs so that they are more likely to see your campaigns.
Relevant ads also have:
- overall better results
- higher quality scores
- lower click costs
Options to ensure your campaign’s relevance include:
- Keyword choices & match types
- Campaign structure
- Ad group segmentation
- Negative keywords & lists
- Landing pages
- CTR
- Ad Type
- Ad copy development
How ads deliver ROI
Ads that are more relevant to your target audience will produce more leads, period. Now you need to focus on converting those targeted leads into conversions, which can be defined as someone signing up for your email list or requesting a free consultation. You can do this by providing valuable information and strong calls to action that compel the reader to take action.
The following are options to streamline the prospect journey:
- Conversion types
- Conversion tracking
- Click-Through-Rate
- Call tracking from ads
- Tracking messages & chats
- Cost-per-conversion, return-on-ad-spend (ROAS)
- Call tracking from pages
- Landing pages
- Conversions & Conversion rates
Where your PPC audit should begin
Once you have identified your target audience, you can begin to brainstorm ideas that will bring them to your site. Take into account the 3 R’s of PPC audits— Reach, Relevance, and Response—and consider how they interact with each other. This should be a foundation for creating an effective ppc audit.
From here, you can look at the core elements of your campaign to see if they are working as intended. This includes checking campaign settings, targeting criteria, ad scheduling, budgeting, and bid prices. You should also consider audiences or lists, the types of campaigns you are running, automation processes, keyword choices, and match types, negative keywords & lists, and ad group segmentation.
Finally, you should look at the performance of your ads. This includes looking at CTRs, conversions, conversion rates, cost-per-conversion, return on ad spend (ROAS), landing pages, calls to action, and tracking messages & chats.
By taking the time to review these metrics and making adjustments as needed, your PPC audit will ensure that you are getting the best possible results from your campaigns. With a comprehensive audit and an understanding of each of the 3 R’s — Reach, Relevance, and Response — you should be able to maximize ROI from your pay-per-click marketing efforts.
REACH
How to Configure Your Network Settings
If you want your search and display campaigns to be effective, it is essential that you keep them separate.
Here are the key details about each type of campaign:
- Search Network With this feature, you can select which you want your text ads appear on the search engine.
- Display Network The potential for your ads to appear on this global platform is unrivaled, as it reaches 90% of internet users. Your ads can be placed in highly sought-after advertising spaces, allowing you to reach your target audience where they spend the most time.
You have the option to target users with specific criteria, such as demographics, interests, and topics. This helps you ensure that you are serving relevant ads to those most likely to convert.
You should always spend your advertising money on the place that is most likely to produce conversions. For a law firm, narrowly targeting each PPC campaign is essential and could even double results. You can make this happen by preventing clicks from people who live too far away or don't need your specific type of expertise and only showing ads in areas near your offices.
By evaluating your predefined reports, you can identify patterns in scheduling, like which days or times of day generate the most conversions. To make the most out of your campaigns, take advantage of this information by adjusting your bids for prime times.
Although you may want to save money by starting with a smaller budget, this can often have negative consequences, such as:
- low clicks
- low conversions
- low impression share
Varying your ad budget will result in different costs and click-through rates. To find out what works best for you, use a keyword planner to research how often ads appear at different budget points. From there, you can determine where your sweet spot is.
To ensure you're spending your money wisely:
- Narrow your target area.
- Exclude areas that don't generate conversions.
- Desist using keywords and match types that never convert.
- cheaper bid prices
- By making additional scheduling adjustments and delivery options, you can save money and show your ads more frequently.
If you have a bigger budget, consider adding segmentation or day-parting to your campaigns. These additions can provide more benefits to your campaign, especially if:
- location-based
- shared budget
- heavily segmented
Try reworking your approach after taking a look at your click-through and conversion rate data. What's the best way to get maximum return? You might find that, by reducing unnecessary costs, you can actually improve metrics. After figuring out what works best, use rules or scripting usage to maintain optimum bids and positions.
Are you getting more conversions from mobile, tablet, or desktop? Adjusting your bids for each device will help determine which devices work best and can be used to optimize campaigns.
Are you bidding too low? The impression share metric can help you evaluate how effective your campaign is and whether a higher bid could increase the number of impressions.
AI-powered automation can be used to optimize your campaigns in real time. It looks at how your ads are performing and makes adjustments based on the data collected. This allows for better optimization of bids and budgets, so you can focus more on reaching your goals.
Lawyers often serve clients from all over the world. To better reach these people, you need to set up campaigns in different languages so they can understand your ads and convert. Language targeting will help you make sure that you're showing your ads to the right people.
RELEVANCE
The most important part of a successful PPC campaign is relevance. If your ads are not relevant to what people are looking for, they won’t click on them and you won’t get any conversions. Relevancy should be maintained throughout the entire process, from keyword selection to ad copy and landing pages.
Using too many keywords can have a negative impact on your campaigns. To ensure that you don't overuse them, try grouping related keywords together and setting bid caps for each group. This way, you won't waste your budget on irrelevant searches and will still be able to get the most out of your campaigns.
By dividing your keywords into smaller, more manageable groups, you can create ads that perfectly align with the searches being made by people who need legal assistance. In turn, this will result in a number of benefits, such as a higher quality score, lower click costs, and improved CTR and conversion rates.
Adding additional links to your ad can help you stand out from the competition. Site links enable you to direct users to specific pages on your website, such as a contact page or blog post about a particular topic. This will make it easier for people to find what they are looking for and drive up conversion rates.
By connecting your Google Ads account to the corresponding Google My Business listing, you allow people in the vicinity to see location information. This may make these ads show up on Google Maps, leading to more clicks and conversions.
Don't miss the chance to add useful info to your PPC ad! For example, you could let people know that you have 15+ years of experience providing legal services in your community.
When you need to list the services that you offer, the structured snippet extension can help. This extension allows you to specifically define the services that your law firm provides, making it easier for people to find what they're looking for.
Make sure that potential clients can easily get in touch with your law firm. Adding a call extension to your ad allows people to call with just one click. This will result in more leads and conversions, making it easier for you to build relationships with the right clients.
RESPONSE
It's also important to make sure that your goals are aligned with the results you're trying to get. For instance, if you want to increase brand awareness and improve website traffic, it's critical that your campaigns focus on those objectives. This way, you can ensure that you're getting the most out of your efforts and seeing the best possible results.
Conversion tracking is essential for determining the success of your PPC campaigns. By tracking conversions, you can see which ads and keywords are resulting in sales or other desired outcomes.
The conversion pixel status options are 'current,' 'inactive,' and 'unverified.' Most of the time, these statuses are only used for organization or reporting.
Keep an eye on your conversions, singling out which conversion is from a unique visitor. Also take note when someone completes a conversion more than once.
This window must be adjusted according to your sales cycle, regardless of if it's listed in days or months. Although other businesses usually have a “sales cycle”, law firms need this process so that they can attribute PPC conversions correctly.
The return on investment (ROI) for any marketing campaign is an important measure of whether it's working. To calculate ROI, you must divide the total return from your campaigns by the total amount spent. This will help you determine whether or not your PPC campaigns are profitable and if they should be continued.
How much is one lead worth to your business? Is your campaign resulting in conversions that are high-quality and cost-effective?
Now that you have a list of items from your PPC audit, it's time to prioritize them. First, address the items that are associated with the most wasteful spending and contribute to high costs per lead.
Focus next on items that will help streamline your PPC campaign. Has the auditing process so far improved the profitability of your PPC channel? If not, you may need to address more complex issues entirely by creating and executing a methodical plan. In some cases, an entire campaign overhaul might be necessary.
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Reach out to us today and we’ll be happy to help you get the most out of your PPC campaigns.
We can work with you to create and execute a plan that will maximize the success of your PPC campaigns!
