November 6, 2025 • 20 mins
Law firm budget allocation wastes money when you don't prioritize intent. Here's the 5-step system we use at Sterling Lawyers.
Poor campaign segmentation drains budget on low-value service lines and research keywords instead of revenue-driving divorce cases.
Most firms waste their budget on low-value keywords, while high-intent divorce searches remain underfunded. We segment campaigns by service profitability and purchase intent. It’s not about budget size—it’s about allocation.
These five budget rules maximize ROI through intent-based targeting and service-line segmentation. Weekly data reviews prevent waste. This paid search framework drives revenue, not just activity.
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📄 CHAPTERS
0:00 - Paid Search Budget Allocation Strategy for Family Law Firms
1:21 - Start With Highest Intent Keywords First
5:00 - Align Your Ad Spend With Service Profitability
9:15 - Set Minimum Campaign Budgets to Maintain Visibility
11:41 - Separate Brand vs Non-Brand Campaigns for Better ROI
15:01 - Make Data-Driven Budget Decisions Weekly
18:28 - How Often to Review Your PPC Campaign Budget
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
If your addollars aren't driving the right clients,
it's not your budget, it's your strategy.
Learn how to prioritize highand ten keywords that are going
to drive the right type of clientsand stay within budget.
Welcome back to the Sterling FamilyLaw Show,
the podcast designed to help familylawyers
(00:22):
build the firm of their dreams.
Today we are taking a deep diveinto paid advertising.
We have our head of paid advertising,James Patterson, with us,
along with the co-founder of our law firm,Sterling Lawyers,
and the president of our agency,Rocket Clicks, Tony Karls
We are here to break downwhat the ideal campaign budget
(00:46):
should look like,where to spend those dollars,
how much to allocate towardsdifferent types of campaigns.
This is a deep dive into the weedsas it relates to
how family law firmscan thrive in their paid search campaigns.
All right, gentlemen, we are back.
And we're going into the weeds on paidadvertising,
spending and budgets for family law firms.
(01:09):
Today we're going to talk aboutthe five budget allocation
strategies that family law firmsneed to use in order to thrive.
James, our first is startwith the highest intent keywords.
Talk to us a little bit about this.
Yeah.
So, when we really think about budgetallocation across any paid
media channel or mixthat you guys are active,
(01:32):
I mean, really whatwe're trying to hit on with this
first rule is prioritize what drivesthe most revenue for your business, right?
So from a paid search perspective,when we think about keywords,
right, is if we're doing a good jobbuilding out campaigns or segmenting
those based off of intent,what the users actually looking for.
So if you're doing that part well,you have multiple campaigns
(01:53):
based off of different user search intent.
What what we're really saying with thisfirst rule is let's maximize
that highest intent. One first.
So some examples of that would be divorceattorney near me, higher custody lawyer.
Milwaukee.
So what you're really looking forthere, right.
Is those near me?
Geo type, variations to the keywordalong with some form of bi variation.
(02:17):
So what we think about whatthat is like higher,
even some things like best, you know,divorce lawyer, those types of things.
Or it's very apparent that the user islike, I'm ready to make a decision.
I needed divorce lawyer, and I wantthe best one or the closest one to me.
Whatever the case may be,if you're targeting this group and again
segmenting well within your account,you should be spending the majority
(02:37):
of your budget here firstand then treating it
almost like a waterfall.
From there is trickling budget downto, lower content keywords,
similarly, and other channelsthat you might have in your mix.
We feel strongly that, you know,there is there is a lot of search volume
in that high contentcategory and page search.
We see a lot of success with, law firms,really targeting well, in that space.
(03:03):
But from there, depending on kind of, youknow, where users are in their journey.
Things like social mediaand programmatic ads are definitely going
to play a role in here as wellas it relates to especially prospecting.
You know, essentially trying to get adsin front of people that are maybe
somewhere in the middle or closeto that end in terms of their intent,
and making sure that, again,that really based off of the data
(03:24):
you're getting back and, and, signalsthat you're seeing in the account,
placing a budget where, whereyou're seeing the best results there.
Yes, I was going to caveat all thiswith the assumption
that our listeners are in the weedslooking at the data.
Right.
We're talking about prioritizingyour dollars in the right way.
You have to knowwhere that data is coming from
and how you're leveraging it to makethe right decisions.
(03:46):
Yeah, I would just like,create, create an opportunity
for visualizing this.
We typically break our keywords downinto a couple different buckets.
And then in an A, since, sincethe eyes come around, we also look at.
Is there an eye overview or not?
So what we're really looking for isand this first section is like very high
(04:09):
purchase intent keywordsthat don't have an eye overview
because that's going to generatethe most quality traffic for you.
Then you're going to look at morecommercial oriented terms,
that are they have commercial intentbut they're not ready to buy.
And then all the way up at the topwould be your research oriented terms.
(04:31):
And those are very much research oriented.
They're not going to convert,but they're great top of funnel,
especially for your petitionersthat are in the process of researching
for, you know, to two plus yearssometimes,
in terms of what they're going to doto move forward with a divorce action.
So the obviously,the things that towards the bottom
(04:52):
of the funnel, the purchase keywords,they're going to generate revenue for you,
they're the lowest hanging fruit.
And that'swhere we want to spend our dollars. First.
And Well said.
Alright James moving on to number twoalign budget
with service profitabilitywhich also seems intuitive right.
You want to spend your moneywhere you're making money.
Yeah, you would think so.
(05:13):
Where we dosee a lot of this stuff overlaps, right?
We've we've had our revenue roadmapin the past about, campaign segmentation.
And we're looking at likehow good a cap strategy looks like.
Really great segueway from what Tony was talking about.
And his last message there.
What we do see sometimes is one,campaigns aren't segmented correctly here
(05:34):
to break out thingslike service specific keywords by intent,
like we're talking about here.
They'll pull those numbers togetherand allow the account to,
you know, essentially spend wherethe search volume is, where Google Ads
thinks it's going to drive the conversionthat's set up in the campaign.
And what can happen is ultimatelya service line that you do offer
that is not your primary service lineor most profitable one.
(05:57):
Do you even really want to focus onends up taking a lot of your budget away
from, you know, specific termslike divorce lawyer and things like that,
and then send you're getting stufffor guardianship or whatever
the case may be for your law firm.
Or it's like, yeah, we you know,we might want to get some visibility here,
but we certainly don'twant to be spending,
even close to the majority of our budgeton those searches.
So just making sure that, again,in having a really good campaign,
(06:21):
segment strategyso that you have all of your campaigns,
split up by, you know, what,what service lines you have,
and then by intent,we'll help you make sure
that you don't give up in this space,because I think it just
there's a lot of overlap.
There is like where thethe issue is, is like, I don't think any
you know, law firm Warner goesand you know, working with their agency
or doing that themselves and go you know,yeah, you know, I'm totally fine with us
(06:45):
spending, you know, a bunch of moneyon things that aren't our biggest focus
for our law firm.
But it happens in a kind of sneaky way if,if you're not paying attention.
So I think that's that's reallythe biggest message with number two is
make sure your account set up for success.
That way you canthen you actually can do this.
And it's like,well I want to spend X amount of percent
on child custody searchesand I want to spend X amount on divorce.
(07:05):
Like you can be a lot more strategicand have more control that way.
Yeah. If you're listening James.
And it's been a whilesince you've taken a look at your account
or done some of these kind of maintenancehygiene activities, use
this as the, motivation to kind of doso because, like you said, over time
waste creeps in, plaque builds up,and the more
(07:26):
you can maintain a healthy account,the more profitable your account will be.
Yeah.
I mean, the the, unpleasant truthfor people in the, in the advertising
spaceis it's so much easier to run an account
that is set up purely,because it's,
there's there's less buttons to pushand there's less things to,
(07:51):
to move around when you have a reallyhighly segmented account that's built out
with lots of search intent and serviceand, and service line intention,
it's harder to manage,but the results are better.
And like, typically we're law firms,they fall prey
to not really understanding thisand then being sold, you know, $1,000
(08:12):
per month or lower,manager paid search account.
And all they're going to dois turn on Pemex
and run some general crap at it,and it's not going to work.
And then you'd be like,paid search doesn't work.
This is I mean, we do this all the time.
It's like, yeah, it doesn't workwhen you set it up like a buffoon.
So let's set it up better,like a professional would.
So you get the results. You should get.
(08:36):
You get what you pay for here.
What you pay for exactly.
All right,James, number three, don't invest.
Don't over invest in brand terms.
I know we see this a lot right now.
Well, peopleare just going to search for me by name.
Yeah.
So I mean, I don't want to get a loss.
And investing in brand termsis definitely a factor,
but something that we recommendwith the majority of our clients.
(08:57):
It's good to have visibility there.
The biggest thing when when clientsare thinking about like, well, you know,
they already know I am I'm not obviouslyin the organic search results.
The, thethe advantage that you still have in going
after brand terms is you're goingto get rank advantage, right?
So if you have competitorsbidding on your name,
you're automatically going to get thatfirst buy.
(09:18):
You can have a low CPC.
So as a result low cost for leads.
So it's going tobe really efficient that way.
You can also control the messaging.
Right. So like with in the SEO game right.
Google takes some liberties on what itshowing in the search results from,
you know, the metadatathat you put in there and stuff.
Sometimes the messaging thatmaybe you prefer to say isn't the one
that you're seeing in your search resultswith ads, you have full control of that.
(09:39):
So there's there's a little bitmore control there.
But kind of get to the point here is likethere is a balance here, right?
Because at the end of the day, yes,they do know your brand.
You do want to control,you do want to bump out your competitors,
but striking the right balanceof how much you're investing here
can can be somethingyou really want to think about.
Generally speaking, from a percentagestandpoint, somewhere
between 2 to 10% of your overall paidsearch budget is probably a good mark.
(10:03):
Obviously looking at important, importantKPIs like impression share and pressure
loss to rank things like thatbudget, will help, you know, indicate
if maybe you do havea little bit more runway to get in there.
Are you seeing a lot of competitorsshowing up for your brand new searches?
Those will be all, you know, obviously,more nuanced reasons why
maybe you'd be a little bitmore invested there, but ultimately.
(10:25):
Right.
Like when we were talkingabout rule number one,
like the end of the day,you know, net new leads,
that you want to get after that,have this really high intent.
If you're spending too much in brand,you might be then not spending enough in
your most important serviceline, keywords that are categorized
by intent and stuff like that.
So you're just going to be mindfulto how much you're spending there.
Hey, family law firm leaders.
(10:46):
My partner, Tony Karlsjust released his book where he lays bare
our precise blueprint for growingsterling lawyers from 0 to 17 million.
This is the blueprintthat we still use daily.
And Tony explains it in very simple terms.
The truth is, this is not simple to do.
Success requires and demands hard work.
(11:09):
But if you have the patienceand the work ethic to do it,
your family law firm will succeed.
Number four, expand budgetonly after maximizing priority areas.
So this is, what, 8020 rule here?
Yeah,to some degree, I would say that,
you know, the biggest thing here,it goes back to a lot of times
(11:29):
receiving accounts that were workingpreviously of the agency.
And then maybe you're the business ownerand you're doing everything.
So you you created the account,weren't really sure how to set it up.
Well, a lot of times,you know what we see in there is basically
this hodgepodge of many campaignswith many ranges of different intent
(11:49):
put into the account, and then minimalbudget in these different pockets.
Right?
So now you're spending just a little biton all of these, different
groups of campaigns that may not be eventhe ones you really want to prioritize.
So we're really saying with thisas an in an ideal state, right.
So you've got, you know,your campaigns segmented by service line
and by priority intentand things like that.
(12:11):
When you get to the pointof really maximizing your impression
shared,they're the results you're getting, right.
So really looking at your,you know, your cost per lead,
how much conversionsare you driving from that
there's different tools you can use toto understand, like what's my potential
maximum reach based off of these keywords.
And look in the keyword planner tool.
Things like that.
That should be your indication of like,okay,
(12:32):
now I can move into some of that more,you know, middle of the funnel
type, search intent or even low intent,depending on where you're at.
So the message of number four is,is like in terms of priority, as you're
looking to expand your account, expand,you know, where you're getting ads to show
within the search results in the ad spaceor even in other platforms.
(12:52):
Make sure you really focus on maximizingthose high intent spaces first
and then move on.
Because if you're putting all of thatin there, what's going to happen
is that lower intent stuff.
There's a lot more search volume there.
So Google will actually end upspending a ton of money
on a keyword like,you know, just lawyer, right?
Instead of a keywordlike divorce attorney.
Miami, Florida,which is going to be a massively different
(13:16):
conversion rate that you can expectfrom that keyword, and ultimately
probably a massively differenttype of lead who hits your books.
Right?
So one that actually ends up,more likely being, retainer
being sent and signed versusnow maybe I'll talk to you guys again in a
couple of months.
I'd say I'dsay two of this is really a combination
(13:36):
of the 0.1 and point two from earlier,as well as, like, so
within the intention of the keywords,but also across platforms.
So like a lot of times we'll,we'll see like only on,
Google ads. And we're not doing any leadgen opportunities on socials
which are very available.
(13:58):
Or everything's clumped together in, inGoogle ads and not broken out by priority.
So like a real practical example is youryour top performing keywords
from a, intention perspective.
We're going to be in the divorce layerand plus a plus a variant brand.
Your second best onesare going to be family lawyer.
(14:19):
And the reason that's second,and it's probably got a little higher
search volume,is the disparity of what's in there.
You need a lot more post judgments,a lot more channel because child,
child support actionsas well as divorce actions in there.
So you're going to get a different arraythat's going to have
a different value set.
Then after thatyou're going to have more post judgment
and lower value case types,that you can go after.
(14:44):
So it's making sure you're,you're segmenting
and going down the funnelon all that purchase opportunity
before you go up intohigher commercial intent or,
up into the research bucket.
So it's really important. So.
100%.
Okay.
Bringing this all together,our fifth point is make data
driven budget decisions.
(15:07):
Right.
Like we talked about earlier,this is not a gut feel.
This is a science.
This is based on the numbers.
What is working?
What is not working. Right, James?
Yeah, absolutely.
I think especially on the search front,I think generally speaking,
aside from people that really workin this field and are experts
(15:27):
at paid search,a lot of people don't realize how
how much volatilitythere is in the auction space.
Right?
So competitors are ramping up budgetat different times constantly.
They're pulling out.
They're coming in new competitorsthat were never they're coming in old ones
that you that had a previouslysmall budget now are ramping up.
(15:48):
Because I got a new agency. Right.
This is all going to impact, yourperformance one way or the other, right.
So how much budget does it take to youto ultimately make sure you're showing
in the top three resultswhen they're showing ads?
Now you have different messagingthat's in there
that that's different from today,that now you have to compete against.
Maybe they have a better offerthat they're
that they're showing in their messaging.
(16:09):
So there's a lot of these variability,these variables
that you have to be mindfulof as it relates to setting your budget.
Because if you just set itand you're not really looking at
what's probably happening is all of thesethings are going on in the background
and you're just going to eventuallyfeel some type of performance dip,
or maybe hopefully you're luckyand you see some some nice ramp
up and you oh, wow, that was weird.
(16:29):
And then eventually things,you know, go back to a level set.
If you're not paying attention to it,you're
not going to really understandwhat's going on in there.
The same thing can be said, right, for,social, social media and other,
ad platforms. Right. Auction based.
So there's there'sjust a ton of volatility, right?
There's people coming in and outconstantly pushing up CPM bids.
So getting your ad out there.
(16:50):
So if you're not being cognizantof the fact that like the budget
you set todaywould be very, very different two weeks
from now, month from now, next quarter,you know,
all these different time frames you'reprobably missing out on opportunities.
So just having a good full steer of whatyour what you're saying
can be really effective.
Outside of budget specifically,there are obviously tools
(17:10):
or like making decisions over, you know,should I maybe go into social media
or should I, you know, spend a little bitmore on brand? Right.
Like the real message here at numberfive is to is in addition
to just keeping a good pulseon how your budget is being utilized
for your different platforms, it's like,where am I placing you within my max?
Is there some changes to what's going onwith my brand campaign, which may indicate
that I should be spending more there?
(17:32):
Or maybe the opposite.
Maybe it's like we can get away with a $10a day budget here and get good results,
or we have no competitors in the auctionwith us.
Let's bump in that other $60we have per day for that brand campaign
and put it towards our buy for campaignwith with heavy purchase intent
that's now losing out on impressions.
So I think that's really the biggest,message with this one is being mindful
(17:53):
to that volatilityand then making those decisions of power.
We can, you know, push throughwhatever we're seeing based off of
data and performance metrics.
James, whatdo you what do you feel like the right.
Because I think you'reI think you're spot on.
Like what's the minimum do you feel likeis the right time time frame.
Because a budget you set today is based onmight be perfect for today,
(18:14):
but tomorrow it'smaybe it's only 99% correct.
Like what iswhat would you say is like the right time
frame to re readjust and re reviewwhat you have set up so that you're
maximally effective.
Yeah.
So I would say it'sgoing to obviously be very contingent
with your level of spend in the account.
So I just want to say that.
So if you've got, you know,we spend $500 per month on paid search,
(18:36):
it can be different.
I would say on average with our clientsI would say minimum weekly
just to get a pulse check,making sure you're seeing what you expect
from that budget spend. Right.
Especially in, you know, situationswhere maybe you've increased
in a recent time period.
Checking back in is critical right hereto really understand what kind of impact
(18:57):
you're going to get from it.
But as it relates to maybe like, you know,we've kind of had the same budget
and we just want to,you know, do kind of a maintenance check.
I would say weekly is like a minimum.
There, as you scale up your investmentin these paid media
platforms, biweeklybecomes, you know, more in play for sure.
Even daily, you know, if you can doa quick check, there's a lot of alerts
(19:19):
you can set up and stuff like thatto get a to get a good pull sometimes.
But I would say probably for the averageaccount, weekly is a good starting point.
Just to kind of see, like, hey, we,you know, if we set this budget for this,
what are we expecting to get out of it?
And what's changing week over weekand how may that, you know,
impact our decision to eitherchange our budget up or down.
(19:39):
Yeah.
I know that this we have like budget,budget trending and monitoring sheets
that we do for, for all of our clientsto keep, keep tabs on all of this stuff.
And it kind of helps ussee, like, are we are we
are we going to spend our budgetor are we not.
Are we going to go over budgetbased on what's in the marketplace or not?
And there's there's likeso there's a lot of variability
(20:00):
and paying attentionto it's really important.
could not agree more.
This is not aset it and forget it activity.
By spending five bucks a day or a thousandbucks a day, there are opportunities
to find efficienciesand and better perform.
And, the paid advertising in.
That's why we're hereto appreciate your time.
If your addollars aren't driving the right clients,
it's not your budget, it's your strategy.
Learn how to prioritize highand ten keywords that are going
to drive the right type of clientsand stay within budget.
Welcome back to the Sterling FamilyLaw Show,
the podcast designed to help familylawyers
(00:22):
build the firm of their dreams.
Today we are taking a deep diveinto paid advertising.
We have our head of paid advertising,James Patterson, with us,
along with the co-founder of our law firm,Sterling Lawyers,
and the president of our agency,Rocket Clicks, Tony Karls
We are here to break downwhat the ideal campaign budget
(00:46):
should look like,where to spend those dollars,
how much to allocate towardsdifferent types of campaigns.
This is a deep dive into the weedsas it relates to
how family law firmscan thrive in their paid search campaigns.
All right, gentlemen, we are back.
And we're going into the weeds on paidadvertising,
spending and budgets for family law firms.
(01:09):
Today we're going to talk aboutthe five budget allocation
strategies that family law firmsneed to use in order to thrive.
James, our first is startwith the highest intent keywords.
Talk to us a little bit about this.
Yeah.
So, when we really think about budgetallocation across any paid
media channel or mixthat you guys are active,
(01:32):
I mean, really whatwe're trying to hit on with this
first rule is prioritize what drivesthe most revenue for your business, right?
So from a paid search perspective,when we think about keywords,
right, is if we're doing a good jobbuilding out campaigns or segmenting
those based off of intent,what the users actually looking for.
So if you're doing that part well,you have multiple campaigns
(01:53):
based off of different user search intent.
What what we're really saying with thisfirst rule is let's maximize
that highest intent. One first.
So some examples of that would be divorceattorney near me, higher custody lawyer.
Milwaukee.
So what you're really looking forthere, right.
Is those near me?
Geo type, variations to the keywordalong with some form of bi variation.
(02:17):
So what we think about whatthat is like higher,
even some things like best, you know,divorce lawyer, those types of things.
Or it's very apparent that the user islike, I'm ready to make a decision.
I needed divorce lawyer, and I wantthe best one or the closest one to me.
Whatever the case may be,if you're targeting this group and again
segmenting well within your account,you should be spending the majority
(02:37):
of your budget here firstand then treating it
almost like a waterfall.
From there is trickling budget downto, lower content keywords,
similarly, and other channelsthat you might have in your mix.
We feel strongly that, you know,there is there is a lot of search volume
in that high contentcategory and page search.
We see a lot of success with, law firms,really targeting well, in that space.
(03:03):
But from there, depending on kind of, youknow, where users are in their journey.
Things like social mediaand programmatic ads are definitely going
to play a role in here as wellas it relates to especially prospecting.
You know, essentially trying to get adsin front of people that are maybe
somewhere in the middle or closeto that end in terms of their intent,
and making sure that, again,that really based off of the data
(03:24):
you're getting back and, and, signalsthat you're seeing in the account,
placing a budget where, whereyou're seeing the best results there.
Yes, I was going to caveat all thiswith the assumption
that our listeners are in the weedslooking at the data.
Right.
We're talking about prioritizingyour dollars in the right way.
You have to knowwhere that data is coming from
and how you're leveraging it to makethe right decisions.
(03:46):
Yeah, I would just like,create, create an opportunity
for visualizing this.
We typically break our keywords downinto a couple different buckets.
And then in an A, since, sincethe eyes come around, we also look at.
Is there an eye overview or not?
So what we're really looking for isand this first section is like very high
(04:09):
purchase intent keywordsthat don't have an eye overview
because that's going to generatethe most quality traffic for you.
Then you're going to look at morecommercial oriented terms,
that are they have commercial intentbut they're not ready to buy.
And then all the way up at the topwould be your research oriented terms.
(04:31):
And those are very much research oriented.
They're not going to convert,but they're great top of funnel,
especially for your petitionersthat are in the process of researching
for, you know, to two plus yearssometimes,
in terms of what they're going to doto move forward with a divorce action.
So the obviously,the things that towards the bottom
(04:52):
of the funnel, the purchase keywords,they're going to generate revenue for you,
they're the lowest hanging fruit.
And that'swhere we want to spend our dollars. First.
And Well said.
Alright James moving on to number twoalign budget
with service profitabilitywhich also seems intuitive right.
You want to spend your moneywhere you're making money.
Yeah, you would think so.
(05:13):
Where we dosee a lot of this stuff overlaps, right?
We've we've had our revenue roadmapin the past about, campaign segmentation.
And we're looking at likehow good a cap strategy looks like.
Really great segueway from what Tony was talking about.
And his last message there.
What we do see sometimes is one,campaigns aren't segmented correctly here
(05:34):
to break out thingslike service specific keywords by intent,
like we're talking about here.
They'll pull those numbers togetherand allow the account to,
you know, essentially spend wherethe search volume is, where Google Ads
thinks it's going to drive the conversionthat's set up in the campaign.
And what can happen is ultimatelya service line that you do offer
that is not your primary service lineor most profitable one.
(05:57):
Do you even really want to focus onends up taking a lot of your budget away
from, you know, specific termslike divorce lawyer and things like that,
and then send you're getting stufffor guardianship or whatever
the case may be for your law firm.
Or it's like, yeah, we you know,we might want to get some visibility here,
but we certainly don'twant to be spending,
even close to the majority of our budgeton those searches.
So just making sure that, again,in having a really good campaign,
(06:21):
segment strategyso that you have all of your campaigns,
split up by, you know, what,what service lines you have,
and then by intent,we'll help you make sure
that you don't give up in this space,because I think it just
there's a lot of overlap.
There is like where thethe issue is, is like, I don't think any
you know, law firm Warner goesand you know, working with their agency
or doing that themselves and go you know,yeah, you know, I'm totally fine with us
(06:45):
spending, you know, a bunch of moneyon things that aren't our biggest focus
for our law firm.
But it happens in a kind of sneaky way if,if you're not paying attention.
So I think that's that's reallythe biggest message with number two is
make sure your account set up for success.
That way you canthen you actually can do this.
And it's like,well I want to spend X amount of percent
on child custody searchesand I want to spend X amount on divorce.
(07:05):
Like you can be a lot more strategicand have more control that way.
Yeah. If you're listening James.
And it's been a whilesince you've taken a look at your account
or done some of these kind of maintenancehygiene activities, use
this as the, motivation to kind of doso because, like you said, over time
waste creeps in, plaque builds up,and the more
(07:26):
you can maintain a healthy account,the more profitable your account will be.
Yeah.
I mean, the the, unpleasant truthfor people in the, in the advertising
spaceis it's so much easier to run an account
that is set up purely,because it's,
there's there's less buttons to pushand there's less things to,
(07:51):
to move around when you have a reallyhighly segmented account that's built out
with lots of search intent and serviceand, and service line intention,
it's harder to manage,but the results are better.
And like, typically we're law firms,they fall prey
to not really understanding thisand then being sold, you know, $1,000
(08:12):
per month or lower,manager paid search account.
And all they're going to dois turn on Pemex
and run some general crap at it,and it's not going to work.
And then you'd be like,paid search doesn't work.
This is I mean, we do this all the time.
It's like, yeah, it doesn't workwhen you set it up like a buffoon.
So let's set it up better,like a professional would.
So you get the results. You should get.
(08:36):
You get what you pay for here.
What you pay for exactly.
All right,James, number three, don't invest.
Don't over invest in brand terms.
I know we see this a lot right now.
Well, peopleare just going to search for me by name.
Yeah.
So I mean, I don't want to get a loss.
And investing in brand termsis definitely a factor,
but something that we recommendwith the majority of our clients.
(08:57):
It's good to have visibility there.
The biggest thing when when clientsare thinking about like, well, you know,
they already know I am I'm not obviouslyin the organic search results.
The, thethe advantage that you still have in going
after brand terms is you're goingto get rank advantage, right?
So if you have competitorsbidding on your name,
you're automatically going to get thatfirst buy.
(09:18):
You can have a low CPC.
So as a result low cost for leads.
So it's going tobe really efficient that way.
You can also control the messaging.
Right. So like with in the SEO game right.
Google takes some liberties on what itshowing in the search results from,
you know, the metadatathat you put in there and stuff.
Sometimes the messaging thatmaybe you prefer to say isn't the one
that you're seeing in your search resultswith ads, you have full control of that.
(09:39):
So there's there's a little bitmore control there.
But kind of get to the point here is likethere is a balance here, right?
Because at the end of the day, yes,they do know your brand.
You do want to control,you do want to bump out your competitors,
but striking the right balanceof how much you're investing here
can can be somethingyou really want to think about.
Generally speaking, from a percentagestandpoint, somewhere
between 2 to 10% of your overall paidsearch budget is probably a good mark.
(10:03):
Obviously looking at important, importantKPIs like impression share and pressure
loss to rank things like thatbudget, will help, you know, indicate
if maybe you do havea little bit more runway to get in there.
Are you seeing a lot of competitorsshowing up for your brand new searches?
Those will be all, you know, obviously,more nuanced reasons why
maybe you'd be a little bitmore invested there, but ultimately.
(10:25):
Right.
Like when we were talkingabout rule number one,
like the end of the day,you know, net new leads,
that you want to get after that,have this really high intent.
If you're spending too much in brand,you might be then not spending enough in
your most important serviceline, keywords that are categorized
by intent and stuff like that.
So you're just going to be mindfulto how much you're spending there.
Hey, family law firm leaders.
(10:46):
My partner, Tony Karlsjust released his book where he lays bare
our precise blueprint for growingsterling lawyers from 0 to 17 million.
This is the blueprintthat we still use daily.
And Tony explains it in very simple terms.
The truth is, this is not simple to do.
Success requires and demands hard work.
(11:09):
But if you have the patienceand the work ethic to do it,
your family law firm will succeed.
Number four, expand budgetonly after maximizing priority areas.
So this is, what, 8020 rule here?
Yeah,to some degree, I would say that,
you know, the biggest thing here,it goes back to a lot of times
(11:29):
receiving accounts that were workingpreviously of the agency.
And then maybe you're the business ownerand you're doing everything.
So you you created the account,weren't really sure how to set it up.
Well, a lot of times,you know what we see in there is basically
this hodgepodge of many campaignswith many ranges of different intent
(11:49):
put into the account, and then minimalbudget in these different pockets.
Right?
So now you're spending just a little biton all of these, different
groups of campaigns that may not be eventhe ones you really want to prioritize.
So we're really saying with thisas an in an ideal state, right.
So you've got, you know,your campaigns segmented by service line
and by priority intentand things like that.
(12:11):
When you get to the pointof really maximizing your impression
shared,they're the results you're getting, right.
So really looking at your,you know, your cost per lead,
how much conversionsare you driving from that
there's different tools you can use toto understand, like what's my potential
maximum reach based off of these keywords.
And look in the keyword planner tool.
Things like that.
That should be your indication of like,okay,
(12:32):
now I can move into some of that more,you know, middle of the funnel
type, search intent or even low intent,depending on where you're at.
So the message of number four is,is like in terms of priority, as you're
looking to expand your account, expand,you know, where you're getting ads to show
within the search results in the ad spaceor even in other platforms.
(12:52):
Make sure you really focus on maximizingthose high intent spaces first
and then move on.
Because if you're putting all of thatin there, what's going to happen
is that lower intent stuff.
There's a lot more search volume there.
So Google will actually end upspending a ton of money
on a keyword like,you know, just lawyer, right?
Instead of a keywordlike divorce attorney.
Miami, Florida,which is going to be a massively different
(13:16):
conversion rate that you can expectfrom that keyword, and ultimately
probably a massively differenttype of lead who hits your books.
Right?
So one that actually ends up,more likely being, retainer
being sent and signed versusnow maybe I'll talk to you guys again in a
couple of months.
I'd say I'dsay two of this is really a combination
(13:36):
of the 0.1 and point two from earlier,as well as, like, so
within the intention of the keywords,but also across platforms.
So like a lot of times we'll,we'll see like only on,
Google ads. And we're not doing any leadgen opportunities on socials
which are very available.
(13:58):
Or everything's clumped together in, inGoogle ads and not broken out by priority.
So like a real practical example is youryour top performing keywords
from a, intention perspective.
We're going to be in the divorce layerand plus a plus a variant brand.
Your second best onesare going to be family lawyer.
(14:19):
And the reason that's second,and it's probably got a little higher
search volume,is the disparity of what's in there.
You need a lot more post judgments,a lot more channel because child,
child support actionsas well as divorce actions in there.
So you're going to get a different arraythat's going to have
a different value set.
Then after thatyou're going to have more post judgment
and lower value case types,that you can go after.
(14:44):
So it's making sure you're,you're segmenting
and going down the funnelon all that purchase opportunity
before you go up intohigher commercial intent or,
up into the research bucket.
So it's really important. So.
100%.
Okay.
Bringing this all together,our fifth point is make data
driven budget decisions.
(15:07):
Right.
Like we talked about earlier,this is not a gut feel.
This is a science.
This is based on the numbers.
What is working?
What is not working. Right, James?
Yeah, absolutely.
I think especially on the search front,I think generally speaking,
aside from people that really workin this field and are experts
(15:27):
at paid search,a lot of people don't realize how
how much volatilitythere is in the auction space.
Right?
So competitors are ramping up budgetat different times constantly.
They're pulling out.
They're coming in new competitorsthat were never they're coming in old ones
that you that had a previouslysmall budget now are ramping up.
(15:48):
Because I got a new agency. Right.
This is all going to impact, yourperformance one way or the other, right.
So how much budget does it take to youto ultimately make sure you're showing
in the top three resultswhen they're showing ads?
Now you have different messagingthat's in there
that that's different from today,that now you have to compete against.
Maybe they have a better offerthat they're
that they're showing in their messaging.
(16:09):
So there's a lot of these variability,these variables
that you have to be mindfulof as it relates to setting your budget.
Because if you just set itand you're not really looking at
what's probably happening is all of thesethings are going on in the background
and you're just going to eventuallyfeel some type of performance dip,
or maybe hopefully you're luckyand you see some some nice ramp
up and you oh, wow, that was weird.
(16:29):
And then eventually things,you know, go back to a level set.
If you're not paying attention to it,you're
not going to really understandwhat's going on in there.
The same thing can be said, right, for,social, social media and other,
ad platforms. Right. Auction based.
So there's there'sjust a ton of volatility, right?
There's people coming in and outconstantly pushing up CPM bids.
So getting your ad out there.
(16:50):
So if you're not being cognizantof the fact that like the budget
you set todaywould be very, very different two weeks
from now, month from now, next quarter,you know,
all these different time frames you'reprobably missing out on opportunities.
So just having a good full steer of whatyour what you're saying
can be really effective.
Outside of budget specifically,there are obviously tools
(17:10):
or like making decisions over, you know,should I maybe go into social media
or should I, you know, spend a little bitmore on brand? Right.
Like the real message here at numberfive is to is in addition
to just keeping a good pulseon how your budget is being utilized
for your different platforms, it's like,where am I placing you within my max?
Is there some changes to what's going onwith my brand campaign, which may indicate
that I should be spending more there?
(17:32):
Or maybe the opposite.
Maybe it's like we can get away with a $10a day budget here and get good results,
or we have no competitors in the auctionwith us.
Let's bump in that other $60we have per day for that brand campaign
and put it towards our buy for campaignwith with heavy purchase intent
that's now losing out on impressions.
So I think that's really the biggest,message with this one is being mindful
(17:53):
to that volatilityand then making those decisions of power.
We can, you know, push throughwhatever we're seeing based off of
data and performance metrics.
James, whatdo you what do you feel like the right.
Because I think you'reI think you're spot on.
Like what's the minimum do you feel likeis the right time time frame.
Because a budget you set today is based onmight be perfect for today,
(18:14):
but tomorrow it'smaybe it's only 99% correct.
Like what iswhat would you say is like the right time
frame to re readjust and re reviewwhat you have set up so that you're
maximally effective.
Yeah.
So I would say it'sgoing to obviously be very contingent
with your level of spend in the account.
So I just want to say that.
So if you've got, you know,we spend $500 per month on paid search,
(18:36):
it can be different.
I would say on average with our clientsI would say minimum weekly
just to get a pulse check,making sure you're seeing what you expect
from that budget spend. Right.
Especially in, you know, situationswhere maybe you've increased
in a recent time period.
Checking back in is critical right hereto really understand what kind of impact
(18:57):
you're going to get from it.
But as it relates to maybe like, you know,we've kind of had the same budget
and we just want to,you know, do kind of a maintenance check.
I would say weekly is like a minimum.
There, as you scale up your investmentin these paid media
platforms, biweeklybecomes, you know, more in play for sure.
Even daily, you know, if you can doa quick check, there's a lot of alerts
(19:19):
you can set up and stuff like thatto get a to get a good pull sometimes.
But I would say probably for the averageaccount, weekly is a good starting point.
Just to kind of see, like, hey, we,you know, if we set this budget for this,
what are we expecting to get out of it?
And what's changing week over weekand how may that, you know,
impact our decision to eitherchange our budget up or down.
(19:39):
Yeah.
I know that this we have like budget,budget trending and monitoring sheets
that we do for, for all of our clientsto keep, keep tabs on all of this stuff.
And it kind of helps ussee, like, are we are we
are we going to spend our budgetor are we not.
Are we going to go over budgetbased on what's in the marketplace or not?
And there's there's likeso there's a lot of variability
(20:00):
and paying attentionto it's really important.
could not agree more.
This is not aset it and forget it activity.
By spending five bucks a day or a thousandbucks a day, there are opportunities
to find efficienciesand and better perform.
And, the paid advertising in.
That's why we're hereto appreciate your time.
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