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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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_02 (00:00):
If your ad dollars aren't driving the right
clients, it's not your budget.
It's your strategy.
Learn how to prioritizehigh-intent keywords that are
going to drive the right type ofclients and stay within budget.
Welcome back to the SterlingFamily Law Show, the podcast
designed to help family lawyersbuild the firm of their dreams.
(00:25):
Today we are taking a deep diveinto paid advertising.
We have our head of paidadvertising, James Patterson,
with us, along with theco-founder of our law firm,
Sterling Lawyers, and thepresident of our agency, Rocket
Clicks, Tony Carls.
We are here to break down whatthe ideal campaign budget should
(00:47):
look like, where to spend thosedollars, how much to allocate
towards different types ofcampaigns.
This is a deep dive into theweeds as it relates to how
family law firms can thrive intheir paid search campaigns.
All right, gentlemen, we areback and we're going into the
weeds on paid advertisingspending and budgets for family
(01:09):
law firms.
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 start withthe highest intent keywords.
Talk to us a little bit aboutthis.
SPEAKER_00 (01:24):
Yeah, so um when we really think about budget
allocation across any paid mediachannel or mix that you guys
have active, I mean, really whatwe're trying to hit on with this
first rule is prioritize whatdrives the most revenue for your
business, right?
So from a paid searchperspective, when we think about
keywords, right, is if we'redoing a good job building out
campaigns, we're segmentingthose based off of intent, what
(01:48):
the user is actually lookingfor.
So if you're doing that partwell, you have multiple
campaigns based off of differentuser search intent.
What we're really saying withthis first rule is let's
maximize that highest intent onefirst.
So some examples of that wouldbe divorce attorney near me,
higher custody lawyer, uhMilwaukee.
So what you're really lookingfor there, right, is those near
(02:10):
me geotype um variations to thekeyword, along with some form of
buy variation.
Um so what we think about withthat is like hire even some
things like best, you know,divorce lawyer, those types of
things where it's very apparentthat the user is like, I'm ready
to make a decision.
I need a divorced lawyer and Iwant the best one or the closest
(02:31):
one to me, whatever the case maybe.
If you're targeting this groupand again segmenting well within
your account, you should bespending the majority of your
budget here first, and thentreating it almost like a
waterfall from there istrickling budget down to uh
lower intent keywords.
Uh similarly, in other channelsthat you might have in your mix,
um, we feel strongly that um youknow there is there is a lot of
(02:53):
search volume in that highestintent category and paid search.
We see a lot of success with uhlaw firms um really targeting
well in that space.
But from there, depending onkind of you know where users are
in their journey, um, thingslike social media and
programmatic ads are definitelygoing to play a role in here as
well as it relates to especiallyprospecting, um, you know, uh
(03:15):
essentially trying to get ads infront of people that are maybe
somewhere in the middle or closeto that end in terms of their
intent, um, and making sure thenagain that really based off of
the data you're getting back andand um signals that you're
seeing in the account, placingthe budget where you're seeing
the best results there.
SPEAKER_02 (03:31):
Yes, I was gonna caveat all this with the
assumption that our listenersare in the weeds looking at the
data, right?
We're talking about prioritizingyour dollars in the right way.
You have to know where that datais coming from and how you're
leveraging it to make the rightdecisions.
SPEAKER_03 (03:46):
Yeah, but just to like create uh create an
opportunity for visualizingthis, uh we typically break our
keywords down into a coupledifferent buckets um and then
add a since since AI is comearound, we also look at is there
an AI overview or not?
Um so what we're really lookingfor is and this first section is
(04:10):
like per very high purchaseintent keywords that don't have
an AI overview because that'sgoing to generate the most
quality traffic for you.
Um then you're gonna look atmore commercial-oriented terms
um that are they have commercialintent but they're not ready to
buy, and then all the way up atthe top would be your
research-oriented terms.
(04:31):
Um and those are very muchresearch oriented, they're not
gonna convert, but they're greattop of funnel, especially for
your petitioners that are in theprocess of researching for you
know two plus years sometimes,um, in terms of what they're
gonna do to move forward with adivorce action.
So the obviously the thingstowards the bottom of the
(04:52):
funnel, the purchase keywords,they're going to generate
revenue for you.
Uh they're the lowest hangingfruit, and that's where we want
to spend our dollars first.
SPEAKER_02 (05:00):
Yeah, well said.
All right, James.
Moving on to number two, alignbudget with service
profitability.
Which also was seems intuitive,right?
You want to spend your moneywhere you're making money.
SPEAKER_00 (05:11):
Yeah, you would think so.
Um, where we do see a lot ofthis stuff overlaps, right?
We've we've had a revenueroadmap in the past about um
campaign segmentation and we'relooking at like how a good
account strategy looks like.
Really great segue from whatTony was talking about in his
last message there.
What we do see sometimes is whencampaigns aren't segmented
(05:33):
correctly here to break outthings like service-specific
keywords by intent, like we'retalking about here.
Um, they'll pull those numberstogether and allow the account
to um, you know, essentiallyspend where the search volume
is, where Google Ads thinks it'sgonna drive the conversion
that's set up in the campaign.
And what can happen isultimately a service line that
you do offer that is not yourprimary service line, your most
(05:56):
profitable one that you evenreally want to focus on ends up
taking a lot of your budget awayfrom you know specific terms
like divorce lawyer and thingslike that.
And instead you're getting stufffor guardianship or whatever the
case may be for your law firmwhere it's like, yeah, we you
know, we might want to get somevisibility here, but we
certainly don't want to bespending um even close the
majority of our budget on thosesearches.
(06:16):
So just making sure that, again,in having a really good campaign
um segment strategy so that youhave all of your campaigns uh
split up by you know what whatservice lines you have and then
by intent will help you makesure that you don't goof up in
this space.
Because I think it it justthere's a lot of overlap there,
is like where the the issue isis like I don't think any you
(06:38):
know law firm owner goes in, youknow, working with their agency
or doing that as themselves andgo, you know, yeah, you know,
I'm totally fine with usspending you know a bunch of
money on things that aren't ourbiggest focus for our law firm,
but it happens in a kind ofsneaky 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'sset up for success that way,
(06:59):
because then you actually can dothis.
Then it's like, well, I want tospend X amount of percent on
child custody searches, and Iwant to spend X amount on
divorce.
Like you can be a lot morestrategic and have more control
that way.
SPEAKER_02 (07:09):
Yeah, if you're listening, James, and it's been
a while since you've taken alook at your account or done
some of these kind ofmaintenance hygiene activities,
use this as the uh motivation togo do so.
Because, like you said, overtime waste creeps in, plaque
builds up.
Um, the more you can maintain ahealthy account, the more
(07:30):
profitable your account will be.
SPEAKER_03 (07:32):
Yeah.
I mean, uh the the unpleasanttruth for people in the uh in
the advertising space is it's somuch easier to run an account
that is set up poorly um becauseit's there's there's less
buttons to push and there's lessthings to move around when you
(07:52):
have a really highly segmentedaccount that's built out with
lots of search intent andservice and and service line
intention.
Um it's harder to manage, butthe results are better.
And like typically where lawfirms uh they fall prey to not
really understanding this andthen being sold, you know, a
thousand dollar per month orlower.
(08:14):
Uh I'll manage your paid searchaccount, and all they're gonna
do is turn on PMAX and run somegeneral crap at it, and it's not
gonna work, and then you'll belike, paid search doesn't work.
This is, I mean, we hear thisall 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 aprofessional would.
Um so you get the results youshould get.
SPEAKER_02 (08:35):
Well said.
Get what you pay for here.
Get what you pay for, exactly.
Yes.
Uh all right, James.
Number three, don't invest,don't overinvest in brand terms.
I know we see this a lot, right?
Oh, well, uh, people are justgonna search for me by name.
SPEAKER_00 (08:49):
Yeah, so I mean, I I don't want to get lost.
I mean, investing in brand termsis definitely effective.
It's something that we recommendwith the majority of our
clients.
It's good to have visibilitythere.
The biggest thing when whenclients are thinking about it's
like, well, you know, theyalready know who I am.
Um, I'm gonna obviously win inthe organic search results.
The the the advantage you stillhave in going after brand turns
(09:12):
is you're gonna get rankadvantage, right?
So if you have competitorsbidding on your name, you're
automatically gonna get thatfirst spa.
You're gonna have a low CPC, soas a result, low cost per lead.
So it's gonna be reallyefficient that way.
Um, you can also control themessaging, right?
So, like with in the SEO game,right?
Google takes some liberties onwhat it's showing in the search
results from you know themetadata you put in there and
(09:32):
stuff.
Sometimes the messaging thatmaybe you prefer to say isn't
the one that you're seeing inyour search results with ads,
you have full control of that.
So there's there's a little bitmore control there.
But to kind of get to the pointhere is like there is a balance
here, right?
Because at the end of the day,yes, they do need your brand.
You do want to control, you dowant to bump out your
competitors, but striking theright balance of how much you're
investing here can be somethingyou really want to think about.
(09:55):
Um, generally speaking, from apercentage standpoint, somewhere
between two to 10% of youroverall paid search budget is
probably a good mark.
Um, obviously looking atimportant important KPIs like
impression share, impressionloss to rank, things like that
budget will help you knowindicate if maybe you do have a
little bit more runway to get inthere.
(10:16):
Are you seeing a lot ofcompetitors showing up for your
branded searches?
Those will be all, you know,obviously more nuanced reasons
why maybe you'd be a little bitmore invested there.
But ultimately, right, like whatwe were talking about in rule
number one, like at the end ofthe day, you know, net new leads
um that you want to get afterthat have this really high
intent.
If you're spending too much inbrand, you might be then not
(10:36):
spending enough in your mostimportant service line keywords
that are categorized by intentand stuff like that.
So you're just gonna be mindfulto how much you're spending
there.
SPEAKER_01 (10:45):
Hey, family law firm leaders, my partner Tony Carls
just released his book where helays bare our precise blueprint
for growing sterling lawyersfrom zero to 17 million.
This is the blueprint that westill use daily.
And Tony explains it in verysimple terms.
The truth is, this is not simpleto do.
(11:06):
Success requires and demandshard work.
But if you have the patience andthe work ethic to do it, your
family law firm will succeed.
SPEAKER_02 (11:15):
Number four, expand budget only after maximizing
priority areas.
So this is uh what 80-20 rulehere?
SPEAKER_00 (11:25):
Yeah, to some degree, I would say that um, you
know, the biggest thing here itgoes back to a lot of times
receiving accounts that wereworking previously with
agencies, or maybe you're thebusiness owner, 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, whatwe see in there is basically
this hodgepodge of manycampaigns with many ranges of
(11:48):
different intent put into theaccount and then minimal budget
in these different pockets,right?
So now you're spending just alittle bit on all of these um
different groups of campaignsthat may not be even the ones
you really want to prioritize.
So we're really saying with thisis in an ideal state, right?
So you've got you know yourcampaign segmented by service
(12:08):
line and by priority intent andthings like that.
When you get to the point ofreally maximizing your
impression share there, theresults you're getting right.
So really looking at your, youknow, your cost per lead, how
many conversions are you drivingfrom that?
There's different tools you canuse to kind of understand like
what's my potential maximumreach based off of these
keywords.
You can look in the keywordplanner tool, things like that.
(12:30):
That should be your indicationto be like, okay, now I can move
into some of that more middle ofthe funnel type uh search intent
or even low intent, depending onwhere you're at.
So really the message withnumber four is like in terms of
priority as you're looking toexpand your account, expand, you
know, where you're getting adsto show within the search
results in the ad space or evenin other platforms, make sure
(12:53):
you really focus on maximizingthose highest intense spaces
first and then move on.
Because if you're putting all ofit in there, what's gonna happen
is the lower intense 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, justlawyer, right, instead of a
keyword like divorce attorney,Miami, Florida, which is gonna
(13:14):
be a massively differentconversion rate that you can
expect from that keyword.
And ultimately, probably amassively different type of lead
who hits your books, right?
So one that actually ends up uhmore likely being a retainer
being sent and signed versusnah, maybe I'll talk to you guys
again in a couple of months.
SPEAKER_03 (13:34):
I'd say, I'd say too, this is really a
combination of the point one andpoint two from earlier.
Um as well as like so within theintention of the keywords, but
also across platforms.
So like a lot of times we'llwe'll see like we're only on uh
Google ads and we're not doingany lead gen opportunities on
(13:56):
socials, which are veryavailable, um, or everything's
clumped together in in Googleads and not broken out by
priority.
So like a real practical exampleis your your top performing
keywords from uh uh intentionperspective are gonna be in the
divorce lawyer plus plus uh plusa variant brand.
(14:16):
Your second best ones are gonnabe family lawyer, and the reason
that's second, and it's probablygot a little higher search
volume, is the disparity ofwhat's in there.
You're gonna get a lot morepost-judgments, a lot more child
custom child uh child supportactions, as well as divorce
actions in there.
So you're gonna get a differentarray that's gonna have a
different value set.
And then after that, you'regonna have more post-judgment
(14:39):
and uh lower value case types uhthat you can go after.
So it's making sure you'reyou're segmenting and going down
the funnel on all that purchaseopportunity before you go up
into higher commercial intent oruh up into the research buckets
is really important.
SPEAKER_02 (14:59):
So uh okay, bringing this all together, our fifth
point is make data-driven budgetdecisions, 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 notworking, right, James?
SPEAKER_00 (15:17):
Yeah, absolutely.
I I think especially on thesearch front, um, I think
generally speaking, um, asidefrom people that really work in
this field and are experts atpaid search, um, a lot of people
don't realize how how muchvolatility there is in the
auction space, right?
So competitors are ramping upbudget at different times
(15:39):
constantly.
They're pulling out, they'recoming in.
New competitors that were neverthere are coming in, old ones
that had a previously smallbudget now are ramping up
because they got a new agency,right?
This is all going to impact umyour performance one way or the
other, right?
So, how much budget does it taketo get to ultimately make sure
you're showing in the top threeresults when they're showing
(15:59):
ads?
Um, now you have differentmessaging that's in there that
that's different from today thatnow you have to compete against.
Maybe they have a better offerthat they're that they're
showing in their messaging.
So there's a lot of thesevariabilities these variables
that you have to be mindful ofas it relates to setting your
budget.
Because if you just set it andyou're not really looking at it,
what's probably happening is allof these things are going on in
the background and you're justgonna eventually feel some type
(16:22):
of performance dip.
Or maybe hopefully you're luckyand you see some some nice ramp
up and you go, oh wow, that wasweird, and then eventually
things you know go back to levelset.
If you're not paying attentionto it, you're not gonna really
understand what's going on inthere.
The same thing can be said,right, for um social media and
other um ad platforms, right?
It's all auction-based.
(16:42):
So there's there's just a ton ofvolatility, right?
There's people coming in and outconstantly, pushing up CPM bids
to getting your ad out there.
So if you're not being cognizantof the fact that like the budget
you set today could be very,very different two weeks from
now, a month from now, nextcourt, you know, all these
different time frames, you'reyou're probably missing out on
opportunities.
So just having a good pulsethere of what you're what you're
(17:04):
seeing can be really effective.
Um outside of budgetspecifically, there, obviously,
too, as you're like makingdecisions of, you know, should I
maybe go into social media orshould I, you know, spend a
little bit more on brand, right?
Like the real message here withnumber five is too, is in
addition to just keeping a goodpulse on how your budget is
being utilized for yourdifferent platforms, it's like,
(17:24):
where am I placing it within mymix?
Is there some changes to what'sgoing on with my brand campaign,
which may indicate that I shouldbe spending more there?
Or maybe the opposite.
Maybe it's like, oh, we can getaway with a$10 a day budget here
and get good results, or we haveno competitors in the auction
with us.
Let's bump in that other$60 wehad per day for that brand
campaign and put it towards ourbuy core campaign with heavy
(17:46):
purchase intent that's nowlosing out on impressions.
So I think that's really thebiggest um message with this one
is being mindful to thatvolatility and then making those
decisions of power.
Are we gonna you know pushthrough whatever we're seeing
based off of data andperformance metrics?
SPEAKER_03 (18:01):
James, what do you what do you feel like the right
because I think you're I thinkyou're spot on, like what's the
minimum do you feel like is theright time time frame because
the budget you set today isbased on might be perfect for
today, but tomorrow it's maybeit's only 99% correct.
Like what is what would you sayis like the right time frame to
re readjust and re-review whatyou have set up so that you're
(18:26):
maximally effective.
SPEAKER_00 (18:28):
Yeah, so I would say it's gonna obviously be very
contingent with your level ofspend in the account.
So I just want to say that.
So if you've got, you know, youonly spend$500 per month on pay
search, it's gonna be different.
I would say on average with ourclients, I would say minimum
weekly just to get a pulsecheck, making sure you're seeing
what you expect from that budgetspend, right?
Especially in um, you know,situations where maybe you've
(18:51):
increased in a recent timeperiod.
Checking back in is criticalright here to really understand
with what kind of impact you'regonna 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 aminimum um there as you scale up
your investment in these paidmedia platforms, bi weekly
(19:12):
becomes you know more in playfor sure.
Um even daily, you know, if youcan do a quick check, there's a
lot of alerts you can set up andstuff like that to get a to get
a good pulse on things.
Um but I would say probably forthe average account, um, weekly
is a good starting point.
Um, just to kind of see, like,hey, we you know, if we we set
this budget for this, what arewe expecting to get out of it
(19:32):
and what's changing week overweek and how may that you know
impact our decision to eitherchange our budget up or down?
SPEAKER_03 (19:39):
Yeah, I know that this uh we have like budget
budget trending and monitoringsheets that we do for for all of
our clients to keep keep tabs onall of this stuff, and it kind
of helps us see like are we arewe are we gonna spend our budget
or are we not?
Are we gonna go over budgetbased on what's in the
marketplace or or not?
And there's there's like yousaid, there's a lot of
(19:59):
variability and paying attentionto it's really important.
SPEAKER_02 (20:04):
Could not agree more.
This is not a set it and forgetit activity.
Whether you're spending fivebucks a day or a thousand bucks
a day, there are opportunitiesto find efficiencies and and
better perform in uh the paidadvertising game.
That's why we're here.
Jets, appreciate your time.
If your ad dollars aren't driving the right
clients, it's not your budget.
It's your strategy.
Learn how to prioritizehigh-intent keywords that are
going to drive the right type ofclients and stay within budget.
Welcome back to the SterlingFamily Law Show, the podcast
designed to help family lawyersbuild the firm of their dreams.
(00:25):
Today we are taking a deep diveinto paid advertising.
We have our head of paidadvertising, James Patterson,
with us, along with theco-founder of our law firm,
Sterling Lawyers, and thepresident of our agency, Rocket
Clicks, Tony Carls.
We are here to break down whatthe ideal campaign budget should
(00:47):
look like, where to spend thosedollars, how much to allocate
towards different types ofcampaigns.
This is a deep dive into theweeds as it relates to how
family law firms can thrive intheir paid search campaigns.
All right, gentlemen, we areback and we're going into the
weeds on paid advertisingspending and budgets for family
(01:09):
law firms.
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 start withthe highest intent keywords.
Talk to us a little bit aboutthis.
SPEAKER_00 (01:24):
Yeah, so um when we really think about budget
allocation across any paid mediachannel or mix that you guys
have active, I mean, really whatwe're trying to hit on with this
first rule is prioritize whatdrives the most revenue for your
business, right?
So from a paid searchperspective, when we think about
keywords, right, is if we'redoing a good job building out
campaigns, we're segmentingthose based off of intent, what
(01:48):
the user is actually lookingfor.
So if you're doing that partwell, you have multiple
campaigns based off of differentuser search intent.
What we're really saying withthis first rule is let's
maximize that highest intent onefirst.
So some examples of that wouldbe divorce attorney near me,
higher custody lawyer, uhMilwaukee.
So what you're really lookingfor there, right, is those near
(02:10):
me geotype um variations to thekeyword, along with some form of
buy variation.
Um so what we think about withthat is like hire even some
things like best, you know,divorce lawyer, those types of
things where it's very apparentthat the user is like, I'm ready
to make a decision.
I need a divorced lawyer and Iwant the best one or the closest
(02:31):
one to me, whatever the case maybe.
If you're targeting this groupand again segmenting well within
your account, you should bespending the majority of your
budget here first, and thentreating it almost like a
waterfall from there istrickling budget down to uh
lower intent keywords.
Uh similarly, in other channelsthat you might have in your mix,
um, we feel strongly that um youknow there is there is a lot of
(02:53):
search volume in that highestintent category and paid search.
We see a lot of success with uhlaw firms um really targeting
well in that space.
But from there, depending onkind of you know where users are
in their journey, um, thingslike social media and
programmatic ads are definitelygoing to play a role in here as
well as it relates to especiallyprospecting, um, you know, uh
(03:15):
essentially trying to get ads infront of people that are maybe
somewhere in the middle or closeto that end in terms of their
intent, um, and making sure thenagain that really based off of
the data you're getting back andand um signals that you're
seeing in the account, placingthe budget where you're seeing
the best results there.
SPEAKER_02 (03:31):
Yes, I was gonna caveat all this with the
assumption that our listenersare in the weeds looking at the
data, right?
We're talking about prioritizingyour dollars in the right way.
You have to know where that datais coming from and how you're
leveraging it to make the rightdecisions.
SPEAKER_03 (03:46):
Yeah, but just to like create uh create an
opportunity for visualizingthis, uh we typically break our
keywords down into a coupledifferent buckets um and then
add a since since AI is comearound, we also look at is there
an AI overview or not?
Um so what we're really lookingfor is and this first section is
(04:10):
like per very high purchaseintent keywords that don't have
an AI overview because that'sgoing to generate the most
quality traffic for you.
Um then you're gonna look atmore commercial-oriented terms
um that are they have commercialintent but they're not ready to
buy, and then all the way up atthe top would be your
research-oriented terms.
(04:31):
Um and those are very muchresearch oriented, they're not
gonna convert, but they're greattop of funnel, especially for
your petitioners that are in theprocess of researching for you
know two plus years sometimes,um, in terms of what they're
gonna do to move forward with adivorce action.
So the obviously the thingstowards the bottom of the
(04:52):
funnel, the purchase keywords,they're going to generate
revenue for you.
Uh they're the lowest hangingfruit, and that's where we want
to spend our dollars first.
SPEAKER_02 (05:00):
Yeah, well said.
All right, James.
Moving on to number two, alignbudget with service
profitability.
Which also was seems intuitive,right?
You want to spend your moneywhere you're making money.
SPEAKER_00 (05:11):
Yeah, you would think so.
Um, where we do see a lot ofthis stuff overlaps, right?
We've we've had a revenueroadmap in the past about um
campaign segmentation and we'relooking at like how a good
account strategy looks like.
Really great segue from whatTony was talking about in his
last message there.
What we do see sometimes is whencampaigns aren't segmented
(05:33):
correctly here to break outthings like service-specific
keywords by intent, like we'retalking about here.
Um, they'll pull those numberstogether and allow the account
to um, you know, essentiallyspend where the search volume
is, where Google Ads thinks it'sgonna drive the conversion
that's set up in the campaign.
And what can happen isultimately a service line that
you do offer that is not yourprimary service line, your most
(05:56):
profitable one that you evenreally want to focus on ends up
taking a lot of your budget awayfrom you know specific terms
like divorce lawyer and thingslike that.
And instead you're getting stufffor guardianship or whatever the
case may be for your law firmwhere it's like, yeah, we you
know, we might want to get somevisibility here, but we
certainly don't want to bespending um even close the
majority of our budget on thosesearches.
(06:16):
So just making sure that, again,in having a really good campaign
um segment strategy so that youhave all of your campaigns uh
split up by you know what whatservice lines you have and then
by intent will help you makesure that you don't goof up in
this space.
Because I think it it justthere's a lot of overlap there,
is like where the the issue isis like I don't think any you
(06:38):
know law firm owner goes in, youknow, working with their agency
or doing that as themselves andgo, you know, yeah, you know,
I'm totally fine with usspending you know a bunch of
money on things that aren't ourbiggest focus for our law firm,
but it happens in a kind ofsneaky 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'sset up for success that way,
(06:59):
because then you actually can dothis.
Then it's like, well, I want tospend X amount of percent on
child custody searches, and Iwant to spend X amount on
divorce.
Like you can be a lot morestrategic and have more control
that way.
SPEAKER_02 (07:09):
Yeah, if you're listening, James, and it's been
a while since you've taken alook at your account or done
some of these kind ofmaintenance hygiene activities,
use this as the uh motivation togo do so.
Because, like you said, overtime waste creeps in, plaque
builds up.
Um, the more you can maintain ahealthy account, the more
(07:30):
profitable your account will be.
SPEAKER_03 (07:32):
Yeah.
I mean, uh the the unpleasanttruth for people in the uh in
the advertising space is it's somuch easier to run an account
that is set up poorly um becauseit's there's there's less
buttons to push and there's lessthings to move around when you
(07:52):
have a really highly segmentedaccount that's built out with
lots of search intent andservice and and service line
intention.
Um it's harder to manage, butthe results are better.
And like typically where lawfirms uh they fall prey to not
really understanding this andthen being sold, you know, a
thousand dollar per month orlower.
(08:14):
Uh I'll manage your paid searchaccount, and all they're gonna
do is turn on PMAX and run somegeneral crap at it, and it's not
gonna work, and then you'll belike, paid search doesn't work.
This is, I mean, we hear thisall 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 aprofessional would.
Um so you get the results youshould get.
SPEAKER_02 (08:35):
Well said.
Get what you pay for here.
Get what you pay for, exactly.
Yes.
Uh all right, James.
Number three, don't invest,don't overinvest in brand terms.
I know we see this a lot, right?
Oh, well, uh, people are justgonna search for me by name.
SPEAKER_00 (08:49):
Yeah, so I mean, I I don't want to get lost.
I mean, investing in brand termsis definitely effective.
It's something that we recommendwith the majority of our
clients.
It's good to have visibilitythere.
The biggest thing when whenclients are thinking about it's
like, well, you know, theyalready know who I am.
Um, I'm gonna obviously win inthe organic search results.
The the the advantage you stillhave in going after brand turns
(09:12):
is you're gonna get rankadvantage, right?
So if you have competitorsbidding on your name, you're
automatically gonna get thatfirst spa.
You're gonna have a low CPC, soas a result, low cost per lead.
So it's gonna be reallyefficient that way.
Um, you can also control themessaging, right?
So, like with in the SEO game,right?
Google takes some liberties onwhat it's showing in the search
results from you know themetadata you put in there and
(09:32):
stuff.
Sometimes the messaging thatmaybe you prefer to say isn't
the one that you're seeing inyour search results with ads,
you have full control of that.
So there's there's a little bitmore control there.
But to kind of get to the pointhere is like there is a balance
here, right?
Because at the end of the day,yes, they do need your brand.
You do want to control, you dowant to bump out your
competitors, but striking theright balance of how much you're
investing here can be somethingyou really want to think about.
(09:55):
Um, generally speaking, from apercentage standpoint, somewhere
between two to 10% of youroverall paid search budget is
probably a good mark.
Um, obviously looking atimportant important KPIs like
impression share, impressionloss to rank, things like that
budget will help you knowindicate if maybe you do have a
little bit more runway to get inthere.
(10:16):
Are you seeing a lot ofcompetitors showing up for your
branded searches?
Those will be all, you know,obviously more nuanced reasons
why maybe you'd be a little bitmore invested there.
But ultimately, right, like whatwe were talking about in rule
number one, like at the end ofthe day, you know, net new leads
um that you want to get afterthat have this really high
intent.
If you're spending too much inbrand, you might be then not
(10:36):
spending enough in your mostimportant service line keywords
that are categorized by intentand stuff like that.
So you're just gonna be mindfulto how much you're spending
there.
SPEAKER_01 (10:45):
Hey, family law firm leaders, my partner Tony Carls
just released his book where helays bare our precise blueprint
for growing sterling lawyersfrom zero to 17 million.
This is the blueprint that westill use daily.
And Tony explains it in verysimple terms.
The truth is, this is not simpleto do.
(11:06):
Success requires and demandshard work.
But if you have the patience andthe work ethic to do it, your
family law firm will succeed.
SPEAKER_02 (11:15):
Number four, expand budget only after maximizing
priority areas.
So this is uh what 80-20 rulehere?
SPEAKER_00 (11:25):
Yeah, to some degree, I would say that um, you
know, the biggest thing here itgoes back to a lot of times
receiving accounts that wereworking previously with
agencies, or maybe you're thebusiness owner, 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, whatwe see in there is basically
this hodgepodge of manycampaigns with many ranges of
(11:48):
different intent put into theaccount and then minimal budget
in these different pockets,right?
So now you're spending just alittle bit on all of these um
different groups of campaignsthat may not be even the ones
you really want to prioritize.
So we're really saying with thisis in an ideal state, right?
So you've got you know yourcampaign segmented by service
(12:08):
line and by priority intent andthings like that.
When you get to the point ofreally maximizing your
impression share there, theresults you're getting right.
So really looking at your, youknow, your cost per lead, how
many conversions are you drivingfrom that?
There's different tools you canuse to kind of understand like
what's my potential maximumreach based off of these
keywords.
You can look in the keywordplanner tool, things like that.
(12:30):
That should be your indicationto be like, okay, now I can move
into some of that more middle ofthe funnel type uh search intent
or even low intent, depending onwhere you're at.
So really the message withnumber four is like in terms of
priority as you're looking toexpand your account, expand, you
know, where you're getting adsto show within the search
results in the ad space or evenin other platforms, make sure
(12:53):
you really focus on maximizingthose highest intense spaces
first and then move on.
Because if you're putting all ofit in there, what's gonna happen
is the lower intense 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, justlawyer, right, instead of a
keyword like divorce attorney,Miami, Florida, which is gonna
(13:14):
be a massively differentconversion rate that you can
expect from that keyword.
And ultimately, probably amassively different type of lead
who hits your books, right?
So one that actually ends up uhmore likely being a retainer
being sent and signed versusnah, maybe I'll talk to you guys
again in a couple of months.
SPEAKER_03 (13:34):
I'd say, I'd say too, this is really a
combination of the point one andpoint two from earlier.
Um as well as like so within theintention of the keywords, but
also across platforms.
So like a lot of times we'llwe'll see like we're only on uh
Google ads and we're not doingany lead gen opportunities on
(13:56):
socials, which are veryavailable, um, or everything's
clumped together in in Googleads and not broken out by
priority.
So like a real practical exampleis your your top performing
keywords from uh uh intentionperspective are gonna be in the
divorce lawyer plus plus uh plusa variant brand.
(14:16):
Your second best ones are gonnabe family lawyer, and the reason
that's second, and it's probablygot a little higher search
volume, is the disparity ofwhat's in there.
You're gonna get a lot morepost-judgments, a lot more child
custom child uh child supportactions, as well as divorce
actions in there.
So you're gonna get a differentarray that's gonna have a
different value set.
And then after that, you'regonna have more post-judgment
(14:39):
and uh lower value case types uhthat you can go after.
So it's making sure you'reyou're segmenting and going down
the funnel on all that purchaseopportunity before you go up
into higher commercial intent oruh up into the research buckets
is really important.
SPEAKER_02 (14:59):
So uh okay, bringing this all together, our fifth
point is make data-driven budgetdecisions, 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 notworking, right, James?
SPEAKER_00 (15:17):
Yeah, absolutely.
I I think especially on thesearch front, um, I think
generally speaking, um, asidefrom people that really work in
this field and are experts atpaid search, um, a lot of people
don't realize how how muchvolatility there is in the
auction space, right?
So competitors are ramping upbudget at different times
(15:39):
constantly.
They're pulling out, they'recoming in.
New competitors that were neverthere are coming in, old ones
that had a previously smallbudget now are ramping up
because they got a new agency,right?
This is all going to impact umyour performance one way or the
other, right?
So, how much budget does it taketo get to ultimately make sure
you're showing in the top threeresults when they're showing
(15:59):
ads?
Um, now you have differentmessaging that's in there that
that's different from today thatnow you have to compete against.
Maybe they have a better offerthat they're that they're
showing in their messaging.
So there's a lot of thesevariabilities these variables
that you have to be mindful ofas it relates to setting your
budget.
Because if you just set it andyou're not really looking at it,
what's probably happening is allof these things are going on in
the background and you're justgonna eventually feel some type
(16:22):
of performance dip.
Or maybe hopefully you're luckyand you see some some nice ramp
up and you go, oh wow, that wasweird, and then eventually
things you know go back to levelset.
If you're not paying attentionto it, you're not gonna really
understand what's going on inthere.
The same thing can be said,right, for um social media and
other um ad platforms, right?
It's all auction-based.
(16:42):
So there's there's just a ton ofvolatility, right?
There's people coming in and outconstantly, pushing up CPM bids
to getting your ad out there.
So if you're not being cognizantof the fact that like the budget
you set today could be very,very different two weeks from
now, a month from now, nextcourt, you know, all these
different time frames, you'reyou're probably missing out on
opportunities.
So just having a good pulsethere of what you're what you're
(17:04):
seeing can be really effective.
Um outside of budgetspecifically, there, obviously,
too, as you're like makingdecisions of, you know, should I
maybe go into social media orshould I, you know, spend a
little bit more on brand, right?
Like the real message here withnumber five is too, is in
addition to just keeping a goodpulse on how your budget is
being utilized for yourdifferent platforms, it's like,
(17:24):
where am I placing it within mymix?
Is there some changes to what'sgoing on with my brand campaign,
which may indicate that I shouldbe spending more there?
Or maybe the opposite.
Maybe it's like, oh, we can getaway with a$10 a day budget here
and get good results, or we haveno competitors in the auction
with us.
Let's bump in that other$60 wehad per day for that brand
campaign and put it towards ourbuy core campaign with heavy
(17:46):
purchase intent that's nowlosing out on impressions.
So I think that's really thebiggest um message with this one
is being mindful to thatvolatility and then making those
decisions of power.
Are we gonna you know pushthrough whatever we're seeing
based off of data andperformance metrics?
SPEAKER_03 (18:01):
James, what do you what do you feel like the right
because I think you're I thinkyou're spot on, like what's the
minimum do you feel like is theright time time frame because
the budget you set today isbased on might be perfect for
today, but tomorrow it's maybeit's only 99% correct.
Like what is what would you sayis like the right time frame to
re readjust and re-review whatyou have set up so that you're
(18:26):
maximally effective.
SPEAKER_00 (18:28):
Yeah, so I would say it's gonna obviously be very
contingent with your level ofspend in the account.
So I just want to say that.
So if you've got, you know, youonly spend$500 per month on pay
search, it's gonna be different.
I would say on average with ourclients, I would say minimum
weekly just to get a pulsecheck, making sure you're seeing
what you expect from that budgetspend, right?
Especially in um, you know,situations where maybe you've
(18:51):
increased in a recent timeperiod.
Checking back in is criticalright here to really understand
with what kind of impact you'regonna 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 aminimum um there as you scale up
your investment in these paidmedia platforms, bi weekly
(19:12):
becomes you know more in playfor sure.
Um even daily, you know, if youcan do a quick check, there's a
lot of alerts you can set up andstuff like that to get a to get
a good pulse on things.
Um but I would say probably forthe average account, um, weekly
is a good starting point.
Um, just to kind of see, like,hey, we you know, if we we set
this budget for this, what arewe expecting to get out of it
(19:32):
and what's changing week overweek and how may that you know
impact our decision to eitherchange our budget up or down?
SPEAKER_03 (19:39):
Yeah, I know that this uh we have like budget
budget trending and monitoringsheets that we do for for all of
our clients to keep keep tabs onall of this stuff, and it kind
of helps us see like are we arewe are we gonna spend our budget
or are we not?
Are we gonna go over budgetbased on what's in the
marketplace or or not?
And there's there's like yousaid, there's a lot of
(19:59):
variability and paying attentionto it's really important.
SPEAKER_02 (20:04):
Could not agree more.
This is not a set it and forgetit activity.
Whether you're spending fivebucks a day or a thousand bucks
a day, there are opportunitiesto find efficiencies and and
better perform in uh the paidadvertising game.
That's why we're here.
Jets, appreciate your time.
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