Why Lawyers Should Run Facebook Ads
Depending on your area of practice, you could have thousands (or millions) of people who could eventually become a client. The issue that all business owners face, not just attorneys, is how to get their name in front of the right people at the right time.
This is where Facebook ads for lawyers come in. Facebook gives you the flexibility to run different types of ads simultaneously and hone in on the specific audiences you’d like to reach.
With Facebook ads, lawyers can:
Build Awareness
Before a prospective client can call you for a consultation, they have to know that your law firm exists. With Facebook, you can run ads that inform local residents of your presence, specialties, and the results you’ve gotten for clients in sticky situations.
Educate Your Audience
As your name becomes more well-known in the community, the next step is convincing people that your law firm is the right choice. Facebook ads give you an opportunity to educate your audience about various legal options, what your firm does, and why people should trust you to help them.
Drive Conversions
Once you’ve built awareness and established your law firm as an authority with a track record of success, people who need legal help are now more likely to remember that you exist. Plus, with Facebook ads, you may have the option to show your ads to someone at the exact right time (for example, people who have already visited your website).
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Benefits of Facebook Ads for Lawyers
The sheer number of eyeballs flocking to Facebook every day isn’t the only reason to run Facebook ads. While we often recommend multiple platforms for advertising (including Google PPC), Facebook ads provide benefits that other platforms can’t match.
The benefits of Facebook ads for law firms include:
- Advanced targeting options: Unlike radio and television ads, which broadcast your message to an entire city, Facebook allows you to segment your audience and serve different ads to different people.
The result is more relevant ads that engage your audience at a lower cost. Despite recent changes to the Facebook algorithm in terms of privacy, advertisers still have a vast collection of interests to select from when it comes time to buy media on Facebook.
Some of the available targeting options are:
- Gender
- Location
- Education
- Household income
- Interests
- Job title
- Life events (getting married, moving to a new city, starting a new job, etc.)
- Flexible budgeting: If you’ve ever bought ad space on television, radio, billboards, or magazines, you know that you know that there’s a set fee that you pay based on how long (or big) the advertisement is. The initial investment isn’t cheap, either.
With Facebook, you can start advertising for as little as a few dollars per day. If an ad gains traction with your audience or shows other signs of being successful, you can scale your budget as needed with the click of a button.
- Customizable creative: Again, you’re not locked into a single billboard design or television spot. At any time, you can adjust your graphics or messaging and relaunch or edit a Facebook ad in a matter of minutes.
- Tracking and measuring capabilities: Have you ever wondered if an ad “worked?” Facebook’s tracking and measuring capabilities allow you to see the success of a campaign based on impressions, clicks, phone calls, and even client conversions.
When you take the guesswork out of what made you successful, you can duplicate and multiply that success.
- A/B testing: Instead of being married to an ad and being committed to running it until the campaign is over, you can test multiple variations of an ad simultaneously and see what works best.
Experiment with text versus video, long versus short copy, and different images and graphics. You might be surprised to see what types of messages resonate with your audience!
What Facebook Custom Audience Does in a Campaign
Facebook Custom Audience is a powerful tool that allows marketers to tailor their advertising campaigns to reach a specific group of people, based on their unique characteristics and interactions with your business. This feature is particularly beneficial for law firms, including those specializing in bankruptcy in Maryland, as it enables them to connect with their target audience more effectively. Here’s how Facebook Custom Audience can transform your campaign:
Targeted Outreach
- Precise Targeting: Custom Audience allows you to segment your audience based on specific criteria such as demographics, interests, and behaviors. This means you can create ads that are specifically tailored to the needs and preferences of your target audience.
- Re-engagement: You can target individuals who have previously interacted with your content, visited your website, or used your app. This is particularly useful for keeping your firm top-of-mind and encouraging repeat consultations or referrals.
Enhanced ROI
- Cost-Effective: By targeting only those who are most likely to be interested in your services, you reduce wastage on irrelevant audiences, ensuring that every dollar of your ad spend is used effectively.
- Performance Tracking: Custom Audience integrates seamlessly with Facebook’s analytics tools, allowing you to track the performance of your campaigns and make data-driven decisions to optimize your strategy.
Real-World Application: A Bankruptcy Law Firm in Maryland
A bankruptcy law firm in Maryland utilized Facebook Custom Audience to remarkable effect. They created a campaign targeting individuals who had visited specific pages on their website, such as those detailing bankruptcy filing processes and financial consultation services. Here’s how they did it:
- Audience Segmentation: The firm identified website visitors who spent more than a minute on their ‘Bankruptcy Services’ page.
- Tailored Content: They created ads that addressed common concerns and questions about bankruptcy, showcasing their expertise and empathy.
- Follow-Up: The firm used sequential retargeting to provide additional value, sending follow-up content like ‘Steps to Take After Filing for Bankruptcy’ to those who interacted with the initial ads.
The results were impressive. The campaign saw a significant increase in consultation bookings and a higher engagement rate compared to their general campaigns. By leveraging the power of Facebook Custom Audience, the firm was able to deliver the right message to the right people at the right time, ultimately driving conversions and establishing a strong online presence in their niche market.
Incorporating Facebook Custom Audience into your campaign strategy can significantly enhance your ability to connect with and convert your target audience, ensuring that your marketing efforts are both effective and efficient.
Retargeting
One of the most powerful benefits of Facebook advertising is that it gives you the ability to show ads exclusively to people who have already been on your website!
This practice is known across the industry as “retargeting,” and it is a surefire way to convert people who are starting to become familiar with your practice into clients.
Here’s an example of how it works:
Step 1: A potential client lands on your website either through a Google search, another Facebook (or Instagram) ad, or a referral from a friend or family member.
Step 2: This potential client browses a couple of pages on your site and ultimately leave without booking a consultation. Maybe they got distracted at work, or they decided they wanted to do more research before committing to a meeting.
Step 3: Your website, through the use of something called a Facebook pixel, tracks this visit. Your website can even detect which pages on your site the potential client went to. Based on this behavior, Facebook moves this potential client into a custom audience that you can run retargeting ads to.
Step 4: The potential client sees a retargeting ad reminding them to follow through with the consultation. The potential client is grateful for the reminder and calls your office.
You’ve probably heard statistics like it takes an average of eight touchpoints to close a deal. This means that someone is not very likely to call your law firm the first time they see a Facebook ad. Instead, it could be the second, third or tenth time a prospect sees your ad before they pick up the phone or fill out a contact form.
Retargeting lets you reach your prospect and remind them that you’re here to help.
Optimize Your Campaign: Re-Engagement Strategy
Facebook Lookalike Audiences represent a sophisticated way to reach new people who are likely to be interested in your services because they’re similar to your existing clients. For law firms, leveraging Lookalike Audiences can significantly enhance the effectiveness of marketing campaigns by targeting individuals who resemble their best clients. Here’s how Lookalike Audiences can be a game-changer for law firms:
Understanding Lookalike Audiences
- Definition: A Lookalike Audience is a custom audience created by Facebook that mirrors the traits and behaviors of your source audience. This source can be your existing clients, website visitors, or a list of leads.
- Precision in Targeting: Facebook analyzes the common qualities of the people in your source audience, such as interests or demographics, and then finds people who are similar to (or ‘look like’) them.
Creating a Lookalike Audience for Law Firms
- Choose a Source Audience: Your source audience should be high quality, containing individuals who have meaningfully interacted with your firm. This could be past clients, website visitors who spent a significant amount of time on your service pages, or those who have engaged with your content.
- Define Your Audience Size: You can choose how closely your Lookalike Audience matches your source audience. A smaller audience size is more closely matched to the source audience, while a larger audience size increases reach but reduces the level of similarity.
- Customize Your Campaign: Tailor your ads to resonate with the needs and preferences of your Lookalike Audience. For law firms, this might involve highlighting your expertise, success stories, or the unique services you offer.
Benefits for Law Firms
- Expand Your Reach: Lookalike Audiences allow you to reach beyond your existing clientele and tap into a new pool of potential clients who are likely to be interested in your legal services.
- Improve Campaign Efficiency: By targeting individuals similar to your best clients, you’re more likely to see higher engagement rates, better conversion rates, and a lower cost per lead.
- Data-Driven Decisions: Lookalike Audiences are built using Facebook’s robust data and algorithms, ensuring that your marketing efforts are backed by solid data.
Real-World Application
Imagine a family law firm in Chicago that has successfully used Facebook ads to target individuals needing legal assistance with divorce proceedings. By creating a Lookalike Audience based on the characteristics of their past clients, the firm can reach a broader audience likely to require their services. The ads might highlight the firm’s compassionate approach, expertise in family law, and testimonials from satisfied clients, resonating deeply with individuals undergoing similar life events.
In conclusion, Facebook Lookalike Audiences offer a powerful way for law firms to extend their reach and connect with potential clients who are most likely to need their services. By understanding and utilizing this tool effectively, law firms can ensure that their marketing efforts are not just broad, but also sharply targeted and highly efficient.
Landing Page Checklist
The best ad in the world can still flop if you don’t send your visitors to a well-designed, professional page that sells your services. Many advertisers make the mistake of sending traffic strictly to the home page. While this can be done sometimes, usually, it’s not the best destination because the home page is often too general and provide a lot of information that isn’t relevant to your audience.
At Legal Marketing Strategy Pros, we recommend having a specific landing page for different types of ads that lead your prospect down the path you want them to take.
A winning landing page will contain the following elements:
- A clear and compelling headline with a desirable value proposition
- A clear call to action (consider multiple calls to action)
- A click-to-call button in the page header
- Professional images
- A contact form
- Social proof (including testimonials and membership badges to relevant associations)
- Information on the page that matches the information in the ad
- Bullet points to break up content and make the message more readable
- Mobile-friendly, responsive design
Website Landing Page
Get Help Building a Comprehensive Facebook Marketing Plan for Your Law Firm
Facebook advertising can be a game changer for law firms, especially when it’s done the right way. Before you create ads and begin running them, contact Legal Marketing Strategy Pros at (941) 404-1370 for a free consultation and discovery call.
Whether you’ve run Facebook ads in the past or this is your first time, our team of legal marketing experts can help you achieve a positive ROI with a Facebook ads for lawyers winning strategy.