Why and How Personal Injury Firms Should Research PPC Keywords

Attracting genuine leads and long-term clients is a priority for any business. In the highly competitive field of personal injury law, firms need to understand and utilize pay-per-click keywords in order to position themselves to appropriately stand out from competitors, as well as market to people who actually need their specific service. If you are looking to improve your PPC keywords acumen in order to create a better marketing funnel, then you’ve come to the right place.

We’ve put together a comprehensive guide on PPC keyword research, how to utilize it, and what pitfalls to avoid while spending plenty of dollars on your law firm’s marketing. We hope this helps elevate your digital marketing for maximum client acquisition.

What are PPC Keywords?

PPC (pay-per-click) ads  are essentially advertisements that your firm only pays for whenever they are clicked on by an internet user. The keywords that are used in PPC are typically extremely specific in order to attract a narrow demographic of potential clients – essentially your ideal client. In the case of personal injury firms, potential clients will typically be searching for lawyers closest to them, and you aren’t the only one! So, getting their attention over and above competitors within proximity (whether geographically or services offered) and converting them into your client is the goal of using PPC.

Google Ads is one of the most common forms of PPC advertising. These ads will be shown at the top of a user’s SERP (search engine results page) if their search falls within the keyword  parameters of your ad, and will hopefully attract those who are already looking for your services to click and reach your landing page. There are many variables that go into  a successful PPC campaign, but it always comes down to the most important thing in marketing: understanding your ideal customer. Without this, you won’t know what keywords to use in your PPC campaign in the first place, and you’ll miss out on many hot leads your competitors are easily swallowing up. 

Why Should a Law Firm Use PPC Keywords?

Legal marketing is extremely focused towards online searches, social media, and other formats accessible via PC and mobile phone. This trend towards instantaneous information and quick, reliable service only continues to skew more towards online use. Thus, making sure that your personal injury firm is at the top of search results where your ideal customer is typically searching for your services is the best way to get the attention of the right clients.

When you use PPC keywords on Google and other platforms, your ad will receive immediate exposure to select clients at the top of their search results. We highlighted Google Ads as the primary target for PPC advertising due to its dominance – over 90% of online searches still happen on Google. Assuming you have compelling and authoritative content, as well as a competent team executing a well-thought out and comprehensive marketing strategy to back it up, you’ll likely see results from Google keyword advertising pretty quickly

If your law firm has not been using Google keyword advertising and other forms of PPC campaigns, try to consult quality marketing professionals before diving in headfirst. You don’t want to waste valuable marketing dollars with inefficient  campaigns that don’t target the right clientele.

PPC Keywords for Personal Injury Law

It’s important to understand that although you’ll only be charged if someone clicks on your ad, this doesn’t mean you should be broad or sloppy with your keywords. Intentional targeting will get you the most immediacy on your campaign, and will create an inflow of potential long-term customers that will return value simply based on  keywords you’ve selected.

The more competitive a keyword is (how often a word or phrase is searched and advertised to by other companies), the more it might cost per click. The keywords ‘car accident lawyer’ and ‘personal injury lawyer’ are extremely expensive (Do we have some internal info for this? Most links are from other digital marketing sites or law firms) relative to less searched phrases like ‘motorcycle accident lawyer.’  Learning your niche audience and what they would specifically search for when seeking your services will be an extremely valuable compass for deciding on your PPC keywords.

The most valuable insight regarding a PPC campaign is that one round of ads and keywords won’t typically be enough when defining your campaign strategy. It takes time, willingness to adapt, and consistency with what works in order for your PPC campaigns to give you the utmost results.

Best Practices for Personal Injury Lawyer PPC Campaigns

In order to maximize the ROI on your law firm’s PPC budget, it may take some time. However, there are some ways to keep costs low while pivoting your way to success in the legal PPC ad words space:

  • Use exact match and phrase match keywords: Due to Google’s (and other platform’s) complex advertising algorithm, there is almost no such thing as a ‘one-size-fits-all’ keyword to attract the best customers in the legal field. Having a blend of exact match and phrase match keywords will allow you to target customers searching for your niche service. You also have to consider ‘searcher intent,’ meaning that although someone might use a keyword or phrase you’d like to use in your campaign, are they actually looking for your services when searching those particular keywords or phrases? They may not be intending to. The goal is to hyperfocus on those intending to look for your services on Google.
  • Your clients are human – think about what they will search: Business owners often get overwhelmed by the endless sea of PPC data; it’s totally normal! However, thinking about your ideal user and what they would type can help simplify your campaign in a way that’s effective toward reaching your target demographic. For personal injury lawyers, this means using strings that will capture urgent searches by potential clients looking for immediate services after an accident.
  • Utilize negative keyword strings: Negative keyword matching allows you to eliminate your ads from undesirable searches that might conflict with your intent. Especially if you notice that some of your competitors are being inefficient in this space, you can really launch yourself above them without wasting too much marketing capital.
  • Be consistent, analyze, and adapt: Like any other skill, PPC campaigns will take work to optimize for your firm and its specific niche. Using tools like Google Analytics, CRM, and lead/conversion tracking on your campaigns will all prove to be valuable long-term practices for your law firm’s overall success and growth.

If your internal marketing team is not proficient at optimizing these types of campaigns, consider getting outside consultation to get the results you’re looking for. It is typically well-worth the cost, and this is all quantifiable via a well-defined lead/conversion funnel. After all, your time and energy should be focused on having the best legal firm to represent all the new clients you’ll be taking on.

Get Marketing Results with Law Tigers on Your Side

At Law Tigers, we understand how difficult it can be to grow your legal firm while trying to navigate dynamic marketing strategies at the same time. In fact, our experience is what prompted us to help injury accident lawyers like you create optimal strategies without using too much of your company’s bandwidth.

If you’d like to upgrade your digital marketing to get the best clientele, please reach out to us today. We’d love to help you build the best PPC campaigns as soon as possible.