Tampa, FL · nationwideClient: A personal injury law firm, name withheld at their request. Happy to discuss on a call. Markets: Three, in two states. One home market, then two expansions. Period: 2014 to 2022. Peak spend: Multiple six figures a month across Google and Microsoft Ads. The budget grew to that level over several years; it did not start there. Outcome: An eight-year engagement in one of the most expensive keyword categories in the country, and the firm's Google reviews grown from a handful of poor ones to several hundred at a 4.8 average.
Where it started
In 2014 the firm had no landing page and no Google Ads account. We built both: a single page for the core injury intent with a click-to-call hero and a short form, and a Search account structured by practice area and by market. That first structure, themed campaigns with one intent each, is still the template we use.
Scaling to multiple six figures a month
Personal injury is the highest cost-per-click category in paid search, and the firm's home market is one of the most contested in it. Growing from a starting budget to multiple six figures a month over several years came down to four things:
- Structure that could take the money. Every practice area, every market and every intent stage (immediate need, research, brand) in its own campaign with its own budget and bid target, so an increase went where it was earning and nowhere else.
- Landing pages per intent. Car accident, truck accident, slip and fall, wrongful death, each with its own page, its own proof and its own tracking. No generic "injury lawyer" page.
- Call handling as part of the campaign. In PI, the lead is a phone call and the intake team decides whether it becomes a case. We tracked calls to keyword level and worked with the firm on answer rates and intake scripts, because a missed call at these click prices is money burned.
- Expansion by cloning. The second and third markets were launched from the proven home-market structure, with local pages, numbers and copy. The template held in both.
The reviews problem
When we started, the firm had a small number of Google reviews and most of them were bad, which in a category where every competitor shows stars in the ad is a direct hit on click-through and conversion. We built a follow-up process that reached clients after their case closed and made leaving a review easy. Over the following years the profile grew to several hundred reviews at a 4.8 average, and the star ratings in the ads and the Local Services listing did the rest.
What we'd do differently
We would have pushed Local Services Ads earlier once the category opened to law firms; the review base we had built was exactly what LSA ranking rewards. And we would have moved offline conversion import, feeding signed cases back into Google's bidding rather than just calls, in sooner than we did.
How it ended
The firm brought paid search in-house in 2022 after eight years, with the structure, pages and tracking we had built. That's the arrangement we set up every account to allow: you own it, and if you ever decide to run it yourself, you can.
What this means for your account
The same structure, page discipline, call tracking and review process run on every account we manage, whether the budget is a few thousand a month or a few hundred thousand. Google Ads management, Law firm marketing, Pricing.
