You either love PPC advertising or you hate it. As an attorney reading this, you probably have a PPC success story or a horror story depending on which side of the fence you ended up. I’ve worked with multiple attorneys who have had horror stories and shown them the light. PPC doesn’t work when you don’t know what you are doing. If your past vendors failed, there’s a reason for it. Today I’m going to go through the most common reason that PPC campaigns fail. The Search Terms Report.
#1 Reason PPC Campaigns Fail: The Search Terms Report
All other metrics aside, the search terms report is critical to success and the main reason PPC campaigns fail. It shows you the exact searches people made before clicking on one of your ads. It allows you to see the mindset and intent someone had with their search before they clicked on your ad. Capturing people with the right intent is EVERYTHING in PPC advertising. If you capture clicks and traffic on searches with the wrong intent, you’re likely losing money on your campaign. To see success, you need to capture 90+% high-quality, good intent searches. You could have a really high Click-Through Rate and low Cost-Per-Click, but if you aren’t getting clicks with an intent to hire, you’re burning money.
Clicks don’t pay the bills, leads do.
Example of Bad Intent: “divorce lawyer salary” or “family attorney pro bono”
Example of Good Intent: “divorce lawyer near me” or “family lawyer in tampa”
Here’s a side-by-side list to get a better idea of what you need to see in your search terms report:
Example Firm: Family Law Firm located in Tampa
| Good | Bad |
| “family lawyer” | “when do I need a family lawyer” |
| “family lawyer near me” | “family lawyer in los angeles” |
| “tampa family lawyer” | “how much do family lawyers cost” |
| “family attorney in Brandon” | “family lawyer for $500” |
| “family law attorney” | “list of family lawyers in Tampa” |
If you are currently running PPC ads, you should check this report at least once per quarter to verify you are getting good clicks and not wasting money. Your PPC manager should be checking this daily as clicks are coming in.
Interested in learning more about why your previous PPC efforts failed? Maybe you need help verifying if your current (or past) PPC campaigns are efficient? Learn more about PPC management for Law Firms or schedule a break-through call now.
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