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Is Google Ads Still Worth It for Law Firms in 2025?
•Rosen Advertising•Season 4•Episode 20
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Is Google Ads Still Worth It for Law Firms in 2025?
Are your Google Ads campaigns delivering the results they used to for your law firm? The digital advertising landscape has undergone seismic shifts, and what worked in 2021 simply won't cut it anymore. As we navigate 2025's competitive terrain, law firms must adapt or risk watching their marketing budgets disappear into what I call "the money pit."
The truth is that Google Ads remains incredibly powerful for law firms – but only under the right conditions. Success now demands well-defined intake systems, comprehensive conversion tracking, and relentless optimization. Firms that treat Google Ads as a "set it and forget it" tool are destined to fail.
Is Google Ads Still Worth it for Law Firms in 2025? Welcome to Legal Marketing 101. I'm Toby Rosen. Today we are talking about Google Ads. Obviously, if you know me, this is one of my favorite topics. But today we are talking about whether or not Google is still worth it, and if you don't want to listen to the whole episode, I'll give you the answer right now. The answer is yes, it's still worth it, but and this is a big but, this is a Kardashian sized, but here it's only worth it if you evolve with the platform. That is the only way that this is going to work. So let's start with the elephant in the room. Google ads looks nothing like it did even a few years ago.
Speaker 1:
If you've been running campaigns on Google for a while, you've probably noticed that the game has changed completely, and not in ways that are making it a lot easier for law firms. First, the competition landscape has shifted. Local services ads have muscled their way to the top of the page, the AI stuff is up there, and all of this is pushing traditional search ads further down the page. That means, even if you're running great campaigns on Google, you're literally getting less screen space, and behind the scenes, google's auction system is increasingly AI-driven the manual bidding, all this stuff that I still really like. I have to admit that even it is starting to slip, because the days of obsessively tweaking individual keyword bids may be something of the past very soon. Now there's a lot more that's going to happen to Google in the next year. So the AI stuff and the competition landscape just the real estate we can achieve here on Google, it's very different and it's going to continue to get different. But this is the first element that has really changed things on Google, and we're also seeing a really sharp rise in cost per click, especially in the high stakes areas like PI, family law, immigration. If your cost per click or your budget felt expensive before, buckle up because it is getting pricier and that means every click we generate has to count. And another big shift is the quality score and landing page experience. These things have become so much more critical to your success.
Speaker 1:
On Google Ads, google's AI is looking at the whole picture. Their ability to process data is really incredible. But they're looking at how fast your site loads, whether the landing page matches the user's intent, not just the keyword, and they're looking at how well you convert those visits into actual customers. Conversion tracking is not optional anymore. It is the backbone of a successful campaign because, look, google is looking at that data and so if you're not optimizing for conversion, you're not going to perform well on Google Bottom line. Here the fundamentals still matter a lot, but the way that we succeed with Google ads is evolving rapidly. It's a lot less about micromanagement and a lot more about the strategy, feeding the data to the right places and being quick to adapt to these changes.
Speaker 1:
But now we've talked about how the changes work. Let's talk about whether or not it's worth it. And look, we have to be real here. It is not for everyone and in fact, for a lot of small law firms it is just a money pit. It is just a backyard fire pit, a solo stove. Please sponsor me. It's a money pit that you can set your money on fire in.
Speaker 1:
If you're working with a small budget, maybe no intake tracking Google ads in 2025 is lighting your money on fire. I know it's tempting to just try a $500 campaign and and see if it works a little bit and then spend more money on the implementation. But the reality is those legal clicks are really expensive and without a proper system to track where the leads are coming from and whether they're converting, you are flying completely blind. I feel like I used that phrase in an episode recently and trust me, google is going to take your money either way. But if you're in an industry where it's $10 or $50, even per click we're looking at a very small sample size from one of those $500 or $1,000 tests. And if we don't even have any data on what's happening to those users, oh boy, I'm just going to pass out at that one. And the same goes at the entire intake process. This has to be dialed in. You can have the best ad strategy in the world, but if no one's answering the phone or following up with the potential clients those leads are why? Why even pay for them in the first place? They're gone.
Speaker 1:
We still see firms that are spending thousands and thousands a month on ads, but letting these hot prospects slip through the cracks because their intake team is poorly managed, poorly trained or just overwhelmed. It's like pouring a bunch of water into a crock. It's not going to stay in the crock. And here's the really big one. If you think Google ads is a set it and forget it tool, do yourself a favor and just don't bother. The firms that are winning today are the ones that are actively managing, optimizing and adjusting their campaigns constantly.
Speaker 1:
But let's look, I can be angry and aggressive about this. Let's look at the flip side. Who should still be running Google ads? If your firm has that really well-defined intake system, solid CRM, then, yeah, you're ahead of the game. That means you can track every lead, see exactly what's working and make data-driven decisions. So run some ads. Google ads is still a powerhouse for firms in high-value practice areas, whether that is personal injury or class actions or some certain types of family law where a single client could mean tens of thousands in revenue these types of law they still work because if your LTV, your lifetime client value, is still long, google Ads can absolutely be worth the investment. And, most importantly, the firms that win with Google Ads I've said it like five times. You should know what I'm about to say but they are the ones that are ready to test, tweak and optimize relentlessly, constantly, without ever stopping, because there's no magic formula anymore. There kind of never was, but there definitely isn't one now.
Speaker 1:
Success in any type of marketing, but particularly on Google ads, comes from staying agile, watching the data closely. It's 2025. We've got to watch the data and adapting as fast as Google is evolving, because if we're not adapting to what Google is doing, then again I'm just going to pass out at this episode. So if you're in that group of firms, you're ready to tackle the Google ad stuff. You've got the tracking. You can throw $500 into a test and immediately see if it worked or not. Then what is working in 2025?
Speaker 1:
First up is LSAs local service ads and yes, these can be a little bit hit or miss, but when they hit they really hit. And here's the key Reviews. I've talked about it 10 times, but it's the key to everything. If your firm has a solid base of great reviews, you keep them fresh then LSAs are a goldmine. But if your reviews your profile is really weak or, worse, it's inconsistent with whatever you're doing, then you're going to struggle to stay competitive in that space or get a foothold in the first place.
Speaker 1:
A lot of people thought LSAs were going to be a shortcut, but what they really are is. They're sort of Google's way of saying show me your social proof or get out of the way. And next there's search ads. Yeah, these are still alive and cooking, and yes, they have evolved and yes, they're generally more expensive. But high intent keywords like best divorce lawyer near me or injury lawyer free consult this is where the action is. Broad or long tail keywords is a little bit dicey these days. It depends market to market. But Google's AI this has taken a lot of the guesswork out of the equation, and so trying to sneak into new markets with clever targeting it's a lot harder than it used to be. We kind of need to do the right thing the right way and then be smart. So we still need these tight ad groups, but it's way more important to have sharp copy and really, on the intake side, you need that automation working in your favor.
Speaker 1:
And then there is the landing page game. This is one I've talked about a lot on the show and we're going to again, but this is a non-negotiable Every campaign has to have its own tailored landing page. No more just dumping traffic into the homepage, crossing our fingers and hoping someone calls. Our pages have to actually have something specific. We need to match the promise of the ad. We need to be lightning fast. We need to be mobile optimized that's part of lightning fast and we usually need to be pretty much laser focused on generating conversions. We don't want a phone number and a button if we can avoid it. So if we're building great landing pages, go back and listen to the episodes on this. But really, what you're thinking about is clear CTAs, calls to action, easy contact forms and zero distraction. No, if it doesn't lead the user into making the action, then it's not optimized for the conversion. Let's put it at that.
Speaker 1:
Now I'm going to run through two more things that are a little bit more bleeding edge, but they're cool, and these are two of the things that you can do to really supercharge your Google ads in 2025. And if you're not doing this, well, again, I'm just going to pass out. How many times can I say this? So, first, up call tracking and your CRM. If you are not using these tools, you are wasting money full stop. You have to know where your leads are coming from and what happens to them once they reach you. Guesswork doesn't cut it. We need to know where they came from, how much it costs us to acquire them and how much they actually generated for us, because if those numbers don't work out well, we have a problem.
Speaker 1:
And next we have AI, enhanced optimization. This is some secret sauce. We're going to get into it more in the future. But these machine learning techniques, they can really help us test everything. All this A-B testing I've been talking about for years, whether it's headlines, ad copy, button colors on the website all of these things we need to continually refine our campaigns.
Speaker 1:
The firms that are embracing this AI enhanced technology are the ones that are staying ahead of the curve, and everybody else is calling me so. In short, the fundamentals on all of this, they haven't changed, but the space evolves, the precision, the tech needed to succeed, that is absolutely at a new level. And Google ads yes, it can still drive absolutely massive ROI for your law firm. I know this because we're doing it with firms every day. But you have to play the new game by the new rules. So what do you need to do today? Review your ad structure. If you haven't really changed anything since like 2021, you're behind. It's not COVID anymore. We're doing business again. And if you want to do more business, you need to make sure, whether it's your advertising manager, your assistant who's running your campaigns or you yourself, make sure these systems are updated, because if they're not, I'm going to beat you. That's it for Legal Marketing 101. Check out RosenAdvertisingcom for more Thanks.
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