Ogus Marketing Group is a Google Ads Partner agency that manages Google Ads for law firms in the US and Canada. This page is for managing partners who want to know exactly how a law firm account should be built: campaign structure, the searches we block, Local Services Ads, call tracking to signed cases, and bar advertising rules.
It is part of our PPC for lawyers service. If you’d rather we just look at your account, request a free Google Ads audit.
The problem with most law firm Google Ads accounts
Google makes it easy to launch a campaign in an afternoon, and for a law firm the defaults are expensive. Broad match plus suggested settings will show your “divorce lawyer” ad to people searching for divorce forms, paralegal jobs and free legal aid. At an average legal cost per click of $9.87 (LocaliQ, 2026), fifty bad clicks is roughly $500 gone before anyone notices.
The second problem is measurement. Google counts a “conversion” when someone calls or submits a form, with no idea whether that person was a potential client or someone who wanted free advice. Accounts that never feed lead quality back into Google end up buying more of whatever converts cheapest, which in legal is often the wrong people.
How we structure law firm campaigns
By practice area first, then by intent
Each practice area gets its own campaign with its own budget, location targeting and ad schedule. That is the only reliable way to control how much goes to personal injury versus family law.
Inside each campaign, ad groups are organized by what the searcher is trying to do:
| Intent tier | Example searches | How we treat it |
|---|---|---|
| Urgent, hire-now | “dui lawyer near me,” “arrested for dui what to do,” “truck accident attorney [city]” | Highest bids, tightest match types, call-focused ads, ad schedule matched to phone coverage |
| Case-specific | “contested custody lawyer,” “wrongful termination attorney,” “estate planning attorney flat fee” | Own ad group and landing page section per case type, so the ad repeats the searcher’s situation |
| Researching | “how much does a divorce lawyer cost,” “do I need a lawyer for a will” | Lower bids or a separate low-budget campaign; useful for some firms, waste for others |
| Brand | Your firm and attorney names | Small, cheap campaign so competitors bidding on your name don’t take your referrals |
Bidding on other firms’ names is a judgment call for your firm, not for us. We don’t do it without your explicit sign-off.
Location and schedule
We target the counties and cities where you accept matters, and set location targeting to people physically in or regularly in those areas, not people who are merely interested in them. The ad schedule follows your intake coverage. If calls after 6 p.m. go to voicemail, we either cut bids after hours or ask you to add an answering service before we buy those clicks.
Match types
Google offers three keyword match types. Broad match can show your ad on “searches that are related to your keyword,” phrase match on searches that “include the meaning of your keyword,” and exact match on searches with “the same meaning or same intent” (Google Ads Help, About keyword matching options).
New law firm accounts start on exact and phrase match for the hire-now and case-specific themes. Broad match comes in only once tracking is proven and Google has lead-quality data to learn from.
Negative keywords: the list that pays for itself
Negative keywords stop your ads showing on searches you don’t want. Two details matter. First, negative keywords don’t match close variants: you have to add synonyms and singular and plural versions yourself, though Google does handle misspellings (Google Ads Help, About negative keywords). Second, a careless negative can block good traffic.
Our starting set, tailored per practice area and extended weekly from your search terms:
| Theme | Example negatives |
|---|---|
| Free and low-income help | “pro bono,” “legal aid,” “free legal advice,” “low income” |
| Jobs and careers | jobs, job, salary, salaries, careers, hiring, paralegal, internship, “legal assistant” |
| Education | school, schools, degree, LSAT, “how to become,” course, classes |
| DIY and forms | forms, template, templates, “do it yourself,” pdf, “without a lawyer” |
| Records and lookups | “inmate search,” “arrest records,” “court records,” mugshots, “case status” |
| Wrong practice area | e.g. “real estate” in a family law account, “workers comp” in a car accident campaign if you don’t take it |
Why we rarely add “free” on its own. Many personal injury and criminal defense firms offer free consultations, and “dui lawyer free consultation” is a strong search. A blanket “free” negative blocks it, so we exclude specific free-help phrases instead.
Each practice area also has its own traps: “settlement calculator” for personal injury, “uscis forms” and “case status” for immigration, “will template” for estate planning. Our personal injury, criminal defense, family law and immigration pages list the practice-specific themes.
Local Services Ads vs. search ads
Google’s Local Services Ads (LSAs) often sit above search ads on legal searches, with a badge and star rating. Many firms should run both.
How LSAs charge. You pay per valid lead, not per click: “You’re charged for each valid lead you receive through your Local Services ad.” Valid leads include answered calls, messages and booking requests. Google says it does not charge for some lead types, including leads received outside business hours, service-type mismatches, and customers who don’t respond to your follow-up, and you can report poor-quality leads through a feedback survey (Google, How leads work).
How they rank. Google lists your bid, your responsiveness to inquiries, how relevant you are to the search, and profile quality, including “your rating, number of reviews, average response time” and verification checks (Google, About ad rankings). A firm that answers fast and earns steady reviews can outrank one that simply bids more.
Screening and the badge. Google screens LSA advertisers with license checks and, depending on category and location, background and insurance checks (Google, How providers qualify). Many guides still describe the “Google Screened” badge. Google has since moved to a single “Google Verified” badge for all Local Services advertisers; existing verified advertisers received it automatically, and new advertisers earn it by completing screening (Google, About Google Verified badge).
| Local Services Ads | Search ads | |
|---|---|---|
| You pay for | Valid leads | Clicks |
| Keyword control | None; you choose service types | Full: keywords, match types, negatives |
| Ad copy and landing page | Your LSA profile | Written for each ad group; your own landing page |
| Biggest ranking levers | Responsiveness, reviews, bid | Bid, ad relevance, landing page experience |
| Best for | Firms with fast intake and good reviews | Firms that want control over case types and volume |
Our approach: where your practice area and market are eligible, we run LSA alongside search, report LSA leads in the same dashboard, and use search to cover the case types LSA can’t target.
Call tracking and intake
For many firms, most leads are phone calls: 86 of Brown Law’s 141 leads were calls. Untracked calls mean managing blind.
- Google forwarding numbers on ads and your landing pages, which Google provides at no cost and which tie each call to the campaign and keyword that drove it (Google Ads Help, phone call conversions).
- A minimum call length to count as a conversion, so 10-second wrong numbers don’t train Google’s bidding.
- Form tracking with test submissions before launch, and again after any website change.
- Lead qualification built into the ads. Ad copy names the practice area and the cases you take, and forms ask about the matter before the inquiry reaches you. We use form answers and conversion data to cut keywords that produce junk, and where your systems allow it, we import signed cases back into Google Ads so bidding learns what a client looks like, not just a caller.
- Intake reviews. Good cost per lead but few signed cases? We check missed calls, callback times and after-hours coverage before touching the ads.
Landing pages that match the search
We build or brief one landing page per practice area, with sections or variants per case type. Every page has: the phone number in the first screen with click-to-call on mobile; a headline that repeats the search (“Charged with DUI in [County]?”); what happens on the first call; a short form; reviews and credentials you are allowed to cite; and the name of the responsible attorney or firm with contact details.
Staying inside bar advertising rules
We’re a marketing agency, not your ethics counsel; your state’s rules (or your provincial law society’s, in Canada) govern. State rules largely follow the ABA Model Rules, and these three shape Google Ads copy:
- Rule 7.1: “A lawyer shall not make a false or misleading communication about the lawyer or the lawyer’s services” (ABA Model Rule 7.1). So: no “best,” “#1” or “guaranteed” claims you can’t substantiate, and past results only with the context your state requires.
- Rule 7.2: a lawyer can’t claim to be a specialist unless certified by an approved organization that the ad clearly identifies, and every communication must include “the name and contact information of at least one lawyer or law firm responsible for its content.” The rule also bars paying anyone for recommending your services, with exceptions that include paying for advertising (ABA Model Rule 7.2). We keep “specialist” and “expert” out of ads unless you hold the certification, and put the responsible attorney on every landing page.
- Rule 7.3: governs solicitation directed at a specific person. The ABA’s comment says a communication is not a solicitation if it “is automatically generated in response to electronic searches” (ABA Model Rule 7.3, Comment). Search ads fall on that side of the line. Cold outreach to people who never contacted you is a different matter.
Some states add filing, disclaimer or record-keeping requirements beyond the Model Rules. Your firm approves every ad and landing page before it goes live, and we keep a copy of what ran.
Budget: a worked example
For the full method, read how much a law firm should spend on Google Ads. Here is the arithmetic for one campaign.
Scenario (assumptions, for illustration): a criminal defense firm wants to test DUI and misdemeanor cases in one county with $4,000 a month. LocaliQ’s legal data puts criminal law at a $12.30 average CPC and a 9.90% conversion rate (LocaliQ, legal benchmarks, 2022-23 data).
- Daily budget: $4,000 ÷ 30.4 = about $132/day (Google caps monthly spend at 30.4× the average daily budget; Google Ads Help)
- Clicks: $4,000 ÷ $12.30 = about 325 a month, or about 11 a day
- Leads: 325 × 9.90% = about 32 a month, an implied cost per lead of about $124
- Signed clients, assuming 1 in 4 leads signs (your rate may differ): about 8 a month, or about $500 in ad spend per client
LocaliQ’s reported criminal-law cost per lead ($101.49) is lower than the $124 implied by its CPC and conversion averages, because each figure is averaged separately. We plan with the more conservative number. If your typical DUI fee is several thousand dollars, about $500 per signed client is a strong return. If not, we narrow keywords or geography before spending more.
Proof: Brown Law
Brown Law (Lorie Brown) is a nursing law practice with a narrow audience, where tight structure matters most. We built hundreds of tailored keywords, with headlines and descriptions written for nurses looking for legal help. Over 10 months:
| Metric | Result |
|---|---|
| Leads | 141 |
| Phone calls | 86 |
| Average CPC | $8.13 |
| Conversion rate | 10.32% |
| Cost per lead | $81.39 |
| Leads that became clients | 20%+ |
A 10.32% conversion rate is nearly double LocaliQ’s 2026 legal average of 5.55%, and the cost per lead is about 38% below the $131.63 average. See the Brown Law case study and our other case studies.
Months 1-3 in your Google Ads account
Month 1: Free audit of your existing account (search terms, wasted spend, tracking, settings). Agree on practice areas, geography, schedule and budget split. Install and test call and form tracking, get your approval on ads and landing pages, then launch on exact and phrase match with the full negative list, checking spend and search terms daily.
Month 2: Weekly search-term cleanup, bid adjustments by device, hour and location, tightening the qualifying questions in ads and forms, and ad copy tests.
Month 3: With 60 to 90 days of data, we report cost per lead and early sign rates by practice area and recommend what to scale, fix or cut, including whether to add LSA or broaden match types.
Frequently asked questions
Do Google Ads work for lawyers?
Yes, when the account is built for legal searches: separate campaigns by practice area, strict negative keywords, call tracking and fast intake. Brown Law averaged $81.39 per lead over 10 months with more than 20% of leads becoming clients. Accounts run on Google’s default settings tend to pay for a lot of irrelevant searches.
What negative keywords should a law firm use?
Start with free-help terms (“pro bono,” “legal aid,” “free legal advice”), jobs and salary terms, education terms like “school” and “LSAT,” DIY and forms terms, and record lookups. Add synonyms and plurals, because negative keywords don’t match close variants. Avoid a blanket “free” negative if you offer free consultations.
Should my law firm use Local Services Ads or Google search ads?
Often both. LSAs charge per valid lead and reward responsiveness and reviews, but give you no keyword control. Search ads cost per click and let you choose case types, locations and landing pages. If you answer fast and have strong reviews, LSA can be a lower-risk start; search ads fill in what LSA can’t target.
Are Google Ads allowed under bar advertising rules?
Yes. Under ABA Model Rule 7.3’s comment, communications automatically generated in response to electronic searches are not solicitations. The ads must still be truthful and not misleading (Rule 7.1), avoid unapproved specialist claims and name a responsible lawyer or firm (Rule 7.2), and meet any extra requirements in your state.
What does a Google Ads agency for law firms do that we can’t do in-house?
Nothing you couldn’t learn, but it takes weekly time most attorneys don’t have: reading search terms, maintaining negatives, testing ads, rechecking tracking and tying leads to signed cases. An agency that runs other law firm accounts also helps you skip the expensive first months of mistakes.
Get a free Google Ads audit for your law firm
If you’re already running Google Ads, we’ll review your account for free and show you where the budget is going: which search terms are wasting money, whether calls are being tracked, and what your real cost per lead is. If you’re not running ads yet, we’ll help you build a budget from your own numbers.
Call 365-366-2524 or request your free Google Ads audit.
Ogus Marketing Group is a Google Partner agency based in Hamilton, Ontario, running Google Ads and Facebook Ads for law firms and accounting firms across the US and Canada.