Why are my law firm's Google Ads not turning into signed clients?
By the Margin Media team · Updated
Law firm Google Ads usually fail after the click, not before it. The ad works, the person calls, and the call rings out, lands in voicemail or waits a day for a call back, by which time they have spoken to another firm. Check what happens to each enquiry before you change the ads.
Where do paid enquiries go missing?
They go missing between the click and the consultation. A person who clicks a lawyer's ad wants to talk to someone now, and each of these gaps sends them back to the search results, where the next firm's ad is waiting.
- The call arrives while intake is on another line, and rings out.
- The ad runs in the evening or at the weekend, when the phone goes to voicemail.
- A web form sits in a shared inbox until the next afternoon.
- The consultation is booked a week out, nobody reminds the person, and they don't come.
How do you tell an ad problem from a phone problem?
Put two things side by side for the same week: what the ad account says it sent, and what your phone log and inbox say arrived. Then count how many of those calls were answered by a person on the first try.
If the ads sent calls and the calls weren't answered, it is a phone problem, and better ads will only send more people to voicemail. If the calls were answered and were about matters you don't handle, it is an ad problem: the wording, the search terms or the area you target.
What should a law firm fix first?
Fix the answering first, because it makes the ads you already pay for worth more. Then look at the ads: one campaign for each practice area you want, its own page with one clear way to call or book, and hours that match when your phone is covered. Check your state bar's rules before any ad wording goes live.
How does Margin handle both halves for a law firm?
Margin runs the ads and answers the calls they produce. The ads run on Facebook and Instagram, in an account your firm owns, with a booking page for each campaign and the ad budget paid from your card straight to the platform. Mia, the AI receptionist, answers the calls day or night, or only the ones your intake team misses, and books the consultation.
The limits are plain. Bookings land on the portal calendar and your office is told. Texting starts once phone carriers approve your firm's number. What Mia says about the matters you take is agreed with you before anything is built.
What Margin sets up for this.
- Ads on Facebook and Instagram, in an account you own
- Mia, the AI receptionist, on every call
- Booking onto your calendar
- A monthly report and strategy call
What a business needs is decided on its audit. It is a one-time setup fee and a monthly fee, with exact numbers on the audit.
How Margin works for law firmsSee the portal with a sample business
Related questions
Should my law firm pause its ads until the phones are fixed?
Not always. A law firm can keep ads running in the hours its phone is reliably answered and pause them for the hours it isn't. That stops the waste straight away while the answering side is sorted out.
Who should own a law firm's ad account?
The law firm should. If an agency holds the account in its own name, the history and the learning leave with the agency. Ask for an account in your firm's name, with the ad budget billed to your own card.
Are evening and weekend ads a waste for a law firm?
Only when nobody answers. People search for a lawyer at night and at the weekend, so those hours can be valuable to a law firm, but each click is wasted if the call ends in voicemail. Cover the phone or switch those hours off.