PPC Advertising for Law Firms UK - An Ultimate Guide
If you’re in any way involved in marketing for a law firm, the chances that you’re using, or have at some point considered using pay per click advertising for your business.
Whether someone is searching “employment lawyer near me” or “conveyancing solicitor in London,” a well-run PPC campaign puts your firm right front and centre for that search.
However, PPC marketing for lawyers can be a tricky beast. Clicks can be expensive, competition is fierce, and you have both compliance and Google Ads policies to consider when creating your ads.
Without a strong strategy, it can be easy for a campaign to cost you money with little in the way of return.
Whether you’re running your PPC campaigns yourself, want to understand what your Google Ads agency is actually doing or are simply curious about whether Google Ads will work for your law firm, this guide is for you.
What’s in the Guide (click to jump to section)
Does PPC advertising for lawyers work?
Legal services are rarely impulse buys. People search for a solicitor when they’ve got a pressing need – whether that’s a looming court date, an urgent family matter, or are selling a property. And when they do, they want help fast. That’s exactly where PPC shines.
With platforms like Google or Bing, your firm can appear at the very top of the search results, precisely when someone is looking for the legal services you offer. No waiting for SEO to kick in. No, hoping someone stumbles across your website by chance. Just immediate visibility for the search terms that matter most.
Some of the benefits of Google Ads for law firms include:
High Intent Searches
The beauty of Google ads is that you’re not “interrupting” someone with your messaging. They are literally looking for the service that you offer at that exact time, making them far more likely to convert.
Location-based targeting
If you serve a local community or are a multi-branch high-street firm, you can help control your budget and target local searches with location-based targeting. This can help you show up when for those typical searches, such as “family lawyer near me” or show up for long-tail local keyword searches like “best employment lawyer in London”.
Real-time results
Unlike other areas of marketing, which can take time to see results or have unclear measurement, with Google Ads, you can see your campaign’s performance as it happens and adjust your strategy accordingly.
Budget control
You decide how much you want to spend and what practice areas you wish to target, meaning that you can optimise for the services that drive the most revenue and highest conversion rates. But be mindful that not all cost-per-clicks are the same, as we explain below.
What Type of Google Ads Campaigns Should a Law Firm Run?
Spoiler: not all Google Ads campaigns are created equal. If you’re a solicitor trying to get more enquiries, running the wrong type of campaign can feel like shouting into the void – and paying handsomely for the privilege.
Here is an insight into Google Ads campaign types that work well for law firms (and some not so well)
Search Campaigns
This is the type of campaign most people envisage when they think of Google ads.
Search ads show at (or near) the top of the search engine results page (SERP) when somebody types in a specific keyword into Google.
This tends to be the most popular campaign type for PPC marketing for law firms - and the one we usually start with for our clients.
Local Services Ads (LSAs)
These are the small profile-style ads that display your photo, reviews, and a click-to-call button at the top of the page. Not every legal area is eligible (and it’s still rolling out across the UK), but if you qualify, LSAs can drive solid leads. Find out more about how Local Service ads work. Here.
Performance Max Campaigns
Google are pushing hard for users to try Performance Max campaigns, but they’re not always the right fit. This is Google’s all-singing, all-dancing campaign type that runs across Search, YouTube, Display, Gmail and Maps.
It sounds fancy, and it can work well when integrated correctly, but you don’t have much control, and without the right setup, a lot of money can be wasted.
Display & YouTube Campaigns – For Brand Awareness or Retargeting
Want people to remember your name? Want to follow website visitors around the internet like a polite-but-persistent shadow? That’s what Display and YouTube Ad campaigns are for. Don’t expect floods of leads, but they’re great for building trust and keeping you top of mind.
PPC Assistance
Looking for help with PPC for your law firm. we offer both full Google Ads Management alongside more consultative services such as Google Ads training or consulting for your internal teams. Find out how we may be able to assist you by booking a no obligation discovery call.
How Much Does PPC for Law Firms Cost?
We hate to say it, but the answer is “it depends”. The cost of advertising your legal services will depend entirely on the services you wish to advertise, the locations you are targeting, and the level of competition in that market.
This is because, when you bid on keywords in Google or Bing ads, you are entering into an auction against other advertisers, and for very competitive or “high ticket” terms, the cost per click can be high.
To give you a feel for how this plays out in real life, here’s a snapshot from Google Ads’ Keyword Planner. You can see just how different the costs are depending on the practice areas you want focus on (this snapshot is taken in July 2025)
Personal injury lawyer has a top-end bid of over £51 per click. That’s no surprise - these are high-value cases and highly competitive.
Family lawyer near me comes in much lower, between £3.44 and £13.96, despite having solid search volume.
Conveyancing solicitor near me sits somewhere in the middle, but interestingly shows a 32% drop in searches over the last three months (a sign of a slower property market perhaps)?
And remember – that’s per click, not per lead. If your website isn’t converting, you could spend hundreds without a single enquiry. This is why optimising your website for conversions is so important - having a higher conversion rate (CVR) can hugely increase your return on investment.
Additionally, the changes in cost and search indicate that the results are also influenced by seasonality, search trends, and the level of competitiveness among other firms in their bidding.
While it may seem that Google ads for solicitors are expensive, the most crucial factor is the return on investment. A £50 click that turns into a £10,000 client? Worth it. A £5 click that never converts or worse yet - wastes your fee earners' time AND doesn’t convert - not worth it at all!
The key is to ensure you’re tracking the entire journey – from keyword to enquiry to signed client – so you can see what your return on ad spend looks like.
Google Ads Restrictions in PPC for Lawyers
Not everything is fair game when it comes to Google Ads. Certain areas of law, particularly those involving sensitive personal matters, are subject to restrictions.
For example:
Divorce, domestic abuse, and family-related services are subject to personalised advertising restrictions, which means you can’t target users based on behaviour or sensitive interests. Google is (understandably) cautious about showing ads in emotionally charged situations.
Personal injury claims are subject to strict advertising policies regarding compensation. You'll need to avoid any exaggerated or misleading language, and you may be asked to verify your firm’s legal credentials before running ads.
So even if you're willing to pay a lot for your click, Google might still reject your ad if it breaches their policies. Repeated violations can result in a complete ban on advertising with Google.
This is why it’s vital to work with someone who knows legal advertising inside out – or, if you’re running the ads yourself, make sure to keep up to date with Google’s advertising policies.
PPC Best Practices for Solicitors Firms
A Google Ads strategy extends far beyond selecting keywords and placing ads. If you want your PPC campaigns to bring in qualified leads, these are the essentials.
Use All the Ad Assets (formerly Extensions) You Can Get Your Hands On
Google provides you with free real estate through ad extensions. Use them.
Sitelinks: direct people to specific services (e.g. “Wills”, “Divorce”, “Settlement Agreements”)
Callouts: things like “Accredited specialists”, “20+ years experience”
Call extensions: let people call straight from the ad
Location extensions: show your address and opening hours
Learn more about Google Ads Assets (formerly extensions) and how to use them.
Send People to the Right Page (Not Your Homepage)
This one’s a killer. If someone clicks an ad about divorce lawyers and ends up on a generic “About Us” page, they’re hitting the back button faster than you can say “billable hours.” You need proper landing pages for each service, with clear next steps, contact forms, trust signals, and not too much fluff.
Make use of negative keywords.
In addition to knowing the keywords you want to rank for, it’s essential to understand the search terms that won’t drive ideal clients to your website. For example, while you may offer a free consultation, someone looking for their mythical “free half an hour with a divorce lawyer” might not be the best quality lead. Remember, when you’re paying for clicks, you only want to pay for those which are likely to convert.
Create a negative keyword list for those specific keywords that are unlikely to drive quality leads.
It’s worth remembering that Google will provide you with suggestions that aren't always the best for your business, so check out our common PPC mistakes law firms make to avoid getting caught out.
How to Track PPC Success (Because Clicks Aren’t Clients)
Here’s the thing about Google Ads: it’ll happily take your money and show your ads. But unless you’re measuring what happens after someone clicks, you won’t know if it’s actually working.
Too many law firms look at things like impressions or click-through rate and assume that means their campaign is doing well. Spoiler: it doesn’t. Here's what you really need to be tracking.
1. Conversion Tracking (Properly Set Up – Not Just “It Looks Fine”)
If you’re not tracking phone calls, form submissions, or chat enquiries, you have no idea how your ads are performing. That means you can’t optimise your budget, your keywords, or your landing pages – and you’ll end up guessing.
Set up:
Call tracking (using Google forwarding numbers or a tool like CallRail)
Form submission tracking (linked with Google Ads or via Tag Manager)
Chat tracking, if applicable
CRM tracking, if you want to know which leads convert into clients
2. Know Your Cost Per Enquiry
Clicks are nice. Leads are better. But how much are you actually paying for a real enquiry? If you spent £1,000 and got 20 proper leads, your cost per enquiry is £50. That’s the number you want to keep an eye on – and improve.
3. Quality of Leads
Not all leads are good leads. Are you getting people who:
Are interested in services you actually ofer
Are ready to invest in your services
Can afford it (if private work)
If your team is fielding 10 irrelevant calls a day, your targeting needs to be tightened. Use your call records or CRM notes to assess lead quality over time.
4. Return on Ad Spend (ROAS)
For some legal services, this is easy. If one client = £3,000 in revenue, and they came from a £150 ad click, that’s a win. For others, it’s more nuanced – especially if you're offering fixed fees or low-margin services.
Over time, you’ll want to understand:
How many enquiries turn into clients
What your average case value is
How long it take to convert a lead
This becomes even more important if you’re offering services with longer-term value. A one-off conveyancing case is easy to calculate. But a lead from a property developer who goes on to give you all of their conveyancing work? That’s a completely different picture. In these cases, your ROAS might not look impressive upfront, but over 6 or 12 months, it can massively outperform your other channels.
Other Options for Legal Marketing
Whether because of the associated cost or down to internal preference, PPC may not be your best option to generate leads for your law firm, but there are other digital advertising options that you may prefer.
SEO for law firms
Instead of paying for clicks, you can work on showing at the top of organic search results. Find out more about SEO for law firms.
LinkedIn Ads for lawyers
If you target B2B customers, such as those in the employment law, housing, or commercial law sectors, LinkedIn ads can be an ideal option. Unlike PPC, with social media ads - whether on LinkedIn or another platform - you pay for impressions, which can work out to be a more affordable option.
Want someone to take PPC off your plate completely?
We manage PPC for solicitors, barristers' chambers, legal providers and other aligned legal practices of all shapes and sizes.
If you're looking for smart targeting, transparent reporting, and a partner who is responsive and honest, please get in touch here and let’s have a chat.
Prefer to learn how to run campaigns yourself?
Our Google Ads training provides you with the tools, templates, and hands-on guidance to build your own lead-generating campaigns. Increasingly popular with law firms who want to bring their pay-per-click ppc campaigns in-house.
