Working on pay-per-click advertising using Google AdWords is tough for any organization or enterprise, but it’s especially trickier for sectors that are not digitally native like the law industry. Advertising legal services online is hard enough—it gets even more challenging if you have to vie for people’s attention using paid advertising.

Sure, spending money on ads may guarantee you a premium ad spot, but you could be wasting your budget if you’re focusing on the wrong things. Ideally, when you run a Google Adwords campaign, your marketing dollars are closely aligned to your expertise and with the highest profits so that you can rake in a great return on investment (ROI).

If you’re going to be advertising on Google AdWords for the first time, here are some mistakes to keep in mind so that you could avoid them:

Focusing too much on being on the top

As lawyers, it’s in your nature to want to rank first place. However, when it comes to AdWords, ranking No. 1 on a particular keyword doesn’t automatically mean that your campaign is effective. While you get the best clickthrough rates for being on the top, you’re only wasting money if your ads aren’t profitable.

On the flip side, having an average rank might generate fewer clicks, but those clicks cost a lot less. The ads end up being more profitable as less money is involved. Additionally, when searching for lawyers, people tend to shop around first, and their decision doesn’t always go to the first law firm they see.

In case you’re No. 1 on search results, you will garner lower quality leads if you end up coughing up more money on clicks rather than actually gaining customers from those clicks. The best course of action here is to aim a ranking between 2 to 2.5, which would allow you to collect more informed leads.

Weak ad copy

While visual content is king online, search results don’t reflect that. Essentially, your words matter more when running PPC campaigns. If you want your campaign to work, you need to think out of the box and devise ways to stand out from the thousands of results available to searchers.

You may want to incorporate parentheses, brackets, and squiggly brackets in headlines, include numbers, include a snippet of a testimonial, add a compelling call to action, and mention discounts. It would also help if your ads answered the user’s questions. It should tell them how you could be of great help to them and that you’re capable of delivering the results they want.

Incorrect geographic targeting

Another common mistake law firms make with AdWords is poor geographic targeting. For instance, if your clientele includes the entire state of New York, the initial assumption is to target the whole state.

Even if you serve all of New York, though, your ads would not work well across the entire state. You will be better off targeting certain areas of the state where some keywords and ads are more profitable. The key here is to continue experimenting and optimizing until you find the areas and keywords that bring you the most leads and profit.

In conclusion

If you run online campaigns, the chances are that you’ve committed some of these mistakes. For your subsequent ads, make sure to keep these in mind so that you would no longer bleed money and have the best ROI instead.

We’re a pay-per-click advertising agency in New York offering the best ads management services. If you need assistance with running AdWords campaigns, get in touch with us today!