Quality Lead Generation For Law Firms: Pay per Lead Versus Pay per Click Leads

As the legal industry continues to become more competitive, law firms have to refine their marketing strategy to stand out. You need a solid marketing plan to maintain a constant pool of clients and this includes online advertising.

Your firm should understand two prominent advertising tactics: pay per lead (PPL) and pay per click (PPC) advertising. Implementing one or both of these advertising strategies can help your marketing and generate serious leads for your law firm.

While both options effectively increase visibility and generate leads, your budget, skillset, and goals will dictate which method is best for you.

What is a quality lead?

No matter what marketing strategy you employ, the primary goal is to generate quality leads. A quality lead is someone who shows interest in using your legal service and they fulfill basic qualifications such as appropriate location and the ability to pay for services.

Lead generation marketing strategies are used to obtain not only contact information so you can follow up but to also gather qualifying information so you may convert leads into paying clients. Both PPL and PPC marketing can help generate leads.

Pay per Lead Marketing

Pay per lead marketing is a performance-based model whereby you only pay a fee for a specific lead generated by a third party. In other words, when a third party successfully generates lead contact information in the form of an email, phone number, detailed consultation form, etc., you pay for that lead. The pay per lead option can also have additional criteria such as geographic location, intention to buy, and note of specific practice area needed, in order to qualify the lead further. You will pay a premium for highly qualified leads, and it may be worth it if these leads regularly convert to paying clients.

Pay Per Lead is often a good place to start if your firm is just establishing an online presence or can be beneficial to firms with established practices wanting to boost the volume of leads they receive. Leveraging the expertise of a third-party marketer can deliver prospects who may be unaware of your firm or services and would have never have contacted you otherwise.

Pay per Lead Advantages

  • Predictable advertising cost
  • Leverage expert knowledge
  • Qualified leads
  • Effective marketing channels

Pay per Lead disadvantages

  • Low-quality leads
  • No opportunity to understand your market

Pay per Click Marketing

Pay per click is an advertising model whereby you pay for each click the ad receives. The cost for each pay per click is significantly less than your cost for each pay per lead.

Pay per click is your traditional form of advertising on the web. Google and Facebook are major providers of PPC advertising and the technology has continued to improve from the early days of click fraud, bad links, and general keywords, to help make this a highly effective means of generating leads.

Pay per Click  Advantages

  • Fast results
  • More control
  • Complements other marketing channels
  • Provides a retargeting opportunity

Pay per Click Disadvantages

  • Fiercely competitive
  • Requires time to manage
  • No guaranteed result

Which is right for your firm?

Both PPL and PPC are marketing tactics that can be used to deliver leads to your firm. When deciding which is best for you, consider how involved you want to be in the process. PPL is done for you through a third party, while PPC allows you to be more involved and learn more about your market. If you would like more information about how to improve the number and quality of inbound leads to your law firm, call us now.