Does Google Adwords Work for Lawyers?

Does Google Adwords work for lawyers? Clearly, since there are so many personal injury ads that display in the righthand column when one types "New York personal injury lawyer" into Google (or any other geographic location).

But it could be Google Adwords only works for attorneys who are happy with securing a high volume of inquiries from budget-conscious prospects. It may not work as well for lawyers looking for affluent clients willing to pay top dollar for high end service. As a recent blog post by San Francisco estate planning lawyer Peter Myers attests.

Peter Myers runs an eponymous law firm in San Francisco specializing in estate and retirement planning. According to a May 13, 2008 blog post, Myers decided to launch a Google Adwords campaign using the keyphrase "San Francisco estate planner." However, the results were disappointing. As Myers puts it, while the ads increased site traffic, the inquiries generated were primarily from price-sensitive consumers who did not appear to appreciate the premium service that Myers' firm provides. As an example, he cites an inquiry from a woman with what sounds like a complicated estate planning situation who twice asks Myers to quote a fee. One is reminded of the adage, "if you have to ask how much it costs, then you can't afford it." Anyway, Myers says he responded with a letter that basically says he can't quote a fee until he reviews the woman's entire financial and family situation, and that this will not be an inexpensive process (Myers bills $600/hour).

Myers concludes that Google Adwords commoditizes legal services, and that this is detrimental to his business model since, as he puts it, "when your service becomes a commodity, the only remaining determinant between your ounce of gold and someone else's ounce of gold (or whatever commodity) is . . . price." Instead of intangibles like experience, insight, diligence, precision and commitment.

On the other hand, we have one client - a major California firm - that seems to have had success with Google Adwords since the ads are still running after several years.

Any thoughts, dear readers? We'd be happy to publish any stories you have.

Comments

[Lisa Solomon]

Myers' post does not give sufficient information to allow anyone else to determine whether his conclusion is warranted.

The only thing he tells the reader is what his keyword was. He doesn't even give us the text of the ad. Perhaps if the ad said something like

San Francisco Estate Planner
Specializing in estates $1M and up
Avoid Estate Taxes

He would be getting the types of inquiries he is interested in. Fewer click-throughs, but higher quality prospects.

Also, what did his landing page look like? Was he capturing names with an offer of a free report or whitepaper? Did he have any type of offer on the landing page? If the answer to these questions is "no," he was pretty much wasting his money.

[Joshua Fruchter]

Good points, Lisa. The text of the ad displayed on Google is critical to attracting appropriate leads, and an effective landing page is critical to converting those leads. See our blog posts in the "Landing Pages" category for some landing page "best practices."

[Kenneth]

I don't understand the following part of your post.

"On the other hand, we have one client - a major California firm - that seems to have had success with Google Adwords since the ads are still running after several years."

Why "seems to have had success"? If they're your client why not contact them to see whether they in fact have had success (as opposed to just leaving the ad in there out of inertia or firm bureaucracy). That way you could provide us with some specifics such as ROI, click through rates etc, even without providing any identifying or proprietary info that your client doesn't want revealed