Google Ads for Law Firms: Measured on Signed Cases, Not Form Fills

Berke Law Firm, P.A. — Social Security Disability, United States

Leads Up 62% While Cost per Lead Fell 13%

Client:

A US law firm with more than 35 years in Social Security Disability, representing claimants whose SSDI and SSI benefits have been delayed or denied, working nationally rather than from a single metro.

The problem:

Disability representation is contested by established firms and national representative services, which pushes click costs up. The claim process is long, so the gap between first enquiry and signed representation is measured in weeks. And claimants overwhelmingly pick up the phone rather than filling in a form, which meant the account’s conversion signal had to be built around calls or it would have been learning from a fraction of the evidence.

What we did:

• Made phone calls the primary tracked conversion, since that is how this firm is actually retained.
• Ran tightly on phrase match with a maintained negative keyword list, rather than broad match in an expensive category.
• Separated query groups by how claimants phrase the search benefit type, representative type, and situation so each could be read and bid separately.
• Built remarketing to stay present across a claim cycle long enough that nobody decides on the first visit.

Results (October to December 2024):

• Total leads rose 62% across the quarter, from 176 per month to 285.
• Cost per lead fell 13%, from $12.61 to $10.95, while monthly spend rose 41%. Scaling usually costs efficiency; here it did not.
• 660 of the quarter’s 717 leads were phone calls — 92%. An account optimised toward form submissions would have been bidding against the other 8%.
• Average cost per click ran from $3.12 to $4.78 across the account’s main terms, with click-through rates between 3.87% and 6.94%.

Confidential Legal Services Firm — United States

Qualified Legal Enquiries Increased by 32% While Cost per Lead Fell by 24%

Client: Confidential — Legal Services Industry
Industry: Legal Services
Target Market: United States
Campaign Type: Google Search Ads
Campaign Duration: 30 days before optimization vs. 30 days after optimization
Primary Objective: Generate more qualified enquiries from prospective clients while improving advertising efficiency.

Problem That Was Faced by the Client:

The legal services firm was using Google Ads to attract prospective clients but struggled to turn its advertising budget into consistent, qualified enquiries. Broad keyword targeting attracted searches that were not closely related to the firm's services, while overlapping ad groups made it difficult to allocate budget to the most relevant searches.

The firm also lacked a clear view of which campaigns generated enquiries, making it harder to assess cost per lead and identify opportunities for improvement. Inconsistent conversion tracking further complicated performance analysis.

The client needed a more focused campaign structure that could reach people actively searching for relevant legal services, reduce irrelevant clicks, and provide more reliable performance data.

Solution Provided by Us:

W3era developed an optimization strategy focused on search intent, campaign structure, lead tracking, and budget efficiency.

• Restructured campaigns: Organized campaigns and ad groups around individual legal service categories to improve keyword-to-ad relevance.
• Refined keyword targeting: Prioritized high-intent searches related to the firm's legal services and reviewed match types to improve traffic relevance.
• Added negative keywords: Identified irrelevant search terms and excluded them to reduce avoidable advertising spend.
• Improved ad copy: Aligned headlines and descriptions with the legal services offered and the needs of prospective clients.
• Refined geographic targeting: Focused advertising on locations the firm could serve.
• Improved conversion tracking: Established consistent tracking for enquiry forms and phone-call leads, where supported by the tracking setup.
• Optimized budget allocation: Reviewed campaign performance and shifted budget toward campaigns producing more relevant enquiries.
• Monitored lead quality: Recommended assessing enquiry quality alongside conversion volume so that optimization would focus on potential clients, not just form submissions.

Result:

• Cost per lead decreased from $60.00 to approximately $41.67.
• The conversion rate increased from 5.00% to 8.25%.