Google Adwords can be a very frustrating topic for law firms. You can invest resources into making a great site and getting great ads on Google, but simply putting people on your site does not pay the bills. You need the people who click on your ads to convert, otherwise, it feels like you are throwing money away. There are a few schools of thought out there: some understand that conversions are cyclical, and with the more clicks you get, the higher your chances are of conversion are. Others believe that if something doesn’t work, it is better to fix it. The truth, as it often does, lies somewhere in the middle of those two concepts.
When Should You Diversify?
It is always good to give your Adwords budget a few months, then adjust from there. If you don’t get a bunch of leads one month, that could just be variance from the people who decided to click or not click on your ad. There is a bit of randomness in Adwords, from how much you pay for a click to whether someone who clicks actually needs legal advice or is just “shopping around.” An unlucky streak on who clicks on your ads can lead to a bad month in conversions for your Adwords budget. If this continues to happen over the course of many months, maybe you should consider moving that budget to different avenues. Maybe using some of that money to get featured in a legal publication, or advertising on other websites is the best course of action. The most important thing is to not only look at conversions when looking at where you want to go with Adwords: conversions are great, but Adwords is a tool to get you to your website, and your website is your conversion tool. If Adwords is consistently putting people on your site for a reasonable price, maybe your website needs an overhaul.
What Should You Diversify To?
If you are considering diversifying your Adwords budget and do not know where to start, it is important to be patient. There are plenty of websites out there who will take your money without providing you with much of an advantage. If your firm has a strong presence on social media, it might be worth the money to pay for some sponsored posts on your most popular sites (Facebook, Twitter, etc). If you only care about people calling or submitting forms, maybe Yelp is the way to go. By advertising on Yelp, you can advertise on top of your opponent’s listings, and you are only a click away from a phone call from a potential client. Yelp is definitely at the younger stages of its paid advertisements for law firms, but being able to advertise while obstructing the profiles of competitors is a tantalizing proposition.
At the end of the day, you need to utilize restraint with whatever you decide to do with your Adwords budget. It might be worth it to slowly pull money out, or maybe even put a little bit more money in. Whatever you decide to do, remember that there are many factors at play, so look at as big of a data range as possible before making any decisions.