Overview of Local Service Ads for Lawyers

Local Service Ads

There are a lot of ad types that can be used to the advantage of a law firm. One of the most helpful for generating high-quality leads is the Local Service Ads for lawyers. These are a new type of ad that brings prospective clients right to you. This can be through text, call, or your own intake software. These ads are used to match up customers looking for an attorney with local law firms. This gives you a direct line from potential customers to your door.

LSAs

An LSA is a unique type of ad that doesn’t work just like a regular pay-per-click ad. PPC ads have long been used for their ability to connect with the right target demographics. PPCs are clicked on by the potential customer, and that click then sends them to your website. However, an LSA works rather differently. Instead of sending a user to your website, it puts them into direct contact with you. Once they click, it sends them to your firm’s customized profile that allows the customer to book an appointment, make a call or send a text directly to your firm.

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While a PPC ad is helpful for building traffic to a website, an LSA is the key to getting the customer to actually get into contact with you. Instead of bookmarking a website, they can actually text right then and there. It just takes them one click to have all of these ways to connect.

High-Quality Traffic

Digital ads are so useful and effective because they can be so targeted, and LSAs are perfect for this. They are highly targeted not just for customers who are looking for a law firm, but there are designations for many different types of law. If a potential client is looking for a specialist in bankruptcy law, that’s who they are put into touch with. There are 17 law categories that you can be listed in, so traffic can be truly targeted to what you do best.

The Cost of LSAs

If you’ve long paid for PPC ads, you know that you pay for each time someone clicks on the ad, even if they aren’t really interested in it. This can add up over time to be an expensive way to advertise. LSAs work much differently. When a prospective client clicks on the ad, it brings up your profile and ways to communicate with you. You don’t pay for that initial click at all. What you pay for is whether they actually get in touch with you. This is a far better metric for getting high-quality leads, and people who click the link out of curiosity aren’t costing you a cent.

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The bill is handled by your firm by coming up with a weekly LSA budget that you can set by using the Google Local Service Ads app. Whenever someone chooses a direct connection method and contacts you, some of that budget is debited for the connection. You never go over budget because you’ve set a maximum weekly spend.

The Placement of LSAs

If someone goes to a search engine and types in what they want to find, they get a page of search results. Most people don’t go past the top part of this first page when they’re looking for a good result to click on. That’s why it’s so important to be high up on that page. Many people will see PPC ads near the top of the page and may click on one or more of those results. However, LSAs run even higher on the page of those- right at the top. That makes them highly visible for people who are searching for just what your firm does. This high degree of targeting and this high placement combine to make this the perfect place for local law firms to advertise. When someone gets a query results page on their laptop, there will be three LSAs across the top. When a customer uses a cell phone or tablet, there will be two LSAs there.

Background Verification

Another reason that LSAs are so different from PPC ads is that they come with verification. Before your firm can get listed in one of these ads, Google will have to do the required vetting to make sure that you’re who you say you are. Google checks your law license and bar number and verifies your insurance. Once you are verified, your LSA is tied to your Google My Business address. To have it connected also requires that your firm have at least one client review, and your ratings have to be at least 3.0 out of 5. Once all of these conditions are met, you can have that direct connection method live for customers who are searching for a firm like yours.

LSA and Keywords

Unlike with regular AdWords ads, you don’t choose the keywords that will decide on who gets your ads. That part is handled by Google alone. After the verification of your law firm, Google chooses terms that will be used to describe your law firm. The many different practice areas that you can choose from will undoubtedly have something to do with the algorithm, so choose wisely.

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Law Firms of All Sizes

When smaller law firms are up against the big firms, it can be hard to compete. However, the hyper-focus on local businesses and the recognition of high review scores can level the playing field. It’s a great way to use ads in a way that puts you even with other firms no matter what their size. This can be a good chance to get the attention of locals in need of an attorney who might not have heard about your firm at all without the ads.

Be Ready for Clients

Before you start with LSA ads, make sure you have the personnel needed to follow up with the clients who contact your firm. While this is a great way to attract new clients and get your name out there, if you don’t have a system that can handle these communications coming in, LSAs may not be right for your firm.

SEO and Lawyers

SEO and lawyers go hand in hand, so it’s important to find a company that knows how to market to customers looking for lawyers. If you want to know more about this or any other important marketing technique for lawyers, you need an SEO agency dedicated to lawyers that can answer your questions. Give our law firm SEO agency a call to find out how we can help your firm. It may be LSA ads or there may be other ways that we can best drive potential clients your way.

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