Leveraging media analytics for law firms makes a difference between merely running campaigns and mastering them to gain competitive advantages. Any law firm can launch a website, open social accounts, and adopt search marketing. But not all legal firms understand how to leverage data-driven marketing analytics to create laser-focused advertising campaigns. The key for law firms to maximize their return on investment (ROI) is using data—not guesswork—to deploy marketing that brings in more qualified clients without wasting resources or dollars.
What Data Should Guide a Law Firm’s Marketing Decisions?
When making data-based marketing decisions, law firms must consider metrics from Google Analytics, social media insights, SEO tools, and email marketing platforms to understand which campaigns will maximize their results without maxing out their budgets. Here are some of the insights each of these information sources offers:
- Google Analytics tracks website traffic, user behavior, and conversion metrics to create a picture of site performance and visitor preferences.
- Social Media Insights provide metrics on the success of social posts, audience demographics, and engagement; social platforms offer insights for free, and a paid management tool, like Hootsuite or Sprout Social, is an option to reduce manual data integration and consolidation.
- SEO Tools like Moz and SEMrush provide keyword ranking data, backlink profiles, and competitor analysis to guide website optimization.
- Email Marketing Platforms offer analytics on open and click-through rates and subscriber behavior to help law firms refine campaign content and optimize send times.
Now that you know where to find data-driven insights, let’s look at how to use these for smarter, more efficient advertising.
Prioritize Marketing Channels
Your law firm wouldn’t be successful if it took on every approaching client. This is also true of marketing opportunities. Though it’s surprising to hear, law firms must understand that every advertising channel won’t be a good fit for every firm. That’s why ad agencies that specialize in legal dig into media research and analysis before investing time, effort, and dollars into campaigns. Data-driven marketing insights can identify which channels bring in your most qualified clients. When you understand where advertising wins come from, you can prioritize those ads to maximize your return on investment and stop or limit less effective campaigns.
Insightful Client Acquisition
You’re familiar with direct causation and cause-and-effect relationships, so think of data-driven advertising as our version of this for client acquisition. Digital media analytics for law firms offer insights into how campaigns, calls to action, and social posts affect searcher’s behavior, earning clicks, engagement, and form leads. According to Clio, 26% of law firms don’t track their leads, leaving many opportunities on the table. Urchin Tracking Module (UTM) parameters—text codes at the end of URLs—are one way law firms can track a lead from the source to the contact form using Google Analytics.
Using visitor behavior metrics and traffic statistics allows you to set aside what you think you know about your clients and understand objectively who they are, what terms they search for, and how they find legal advice. This helps you build more accurate customer personas and fine-tune your marketing to maximize ROI and streamline client acquisition. Here are some ways to shift advertising efforts based on this information:
- Choosing opportunities in media publications tied to client interests
- Updating geographic settings for PPC and remarketing campaigns
- Selecting targeted TV ad zones
- Improving local SEO to attract clients in nearby cities
- Segmenting email subscribers to send personalized, targeted campaigns that garner higher response rates
Optimize Content and Campaigns
Attorneys know that legal arguments need to be precisely worded and influential but may not realize how language also relates to the success of a firm’s landing pages, email campaigns, and social feeds. If your law firm doesn’t appear near the top of the search engine results pages (SERPs), it’s time to take a look at keyword rankings and data. National Law Review reported that 96% of people looking for legal advice search for it online. If your firm isn’t in a visible position, you’re likely losing ground to competitors running optimized campaigns.
Search engine optimization (SEO) tools provide insights into the terms potential clients are searching on. This data helps you understand how to position your law firm as a solution to their needs. Optimizing landing pages, articles, social profiles, and the law firm’s business listing can improve your firm’s visibility to qualified clients. For example, a law firm that handles family law can build evergreen content around divorce, child support, and related topics to provide valuable resources to visitors who then engage with the content and become leads.
Identify Opportunities
Analyzing opposing attorneys to determine their strengths and weaknesses shouldn’t be limited to the courtroom. Ad agencies that specialize in the legal industry evaluate competitor data to identify marketing gaps worth capitalizing on. Search marketing data highlights which terms competitors are outranking you for to help you prioritize updates to your practice area pages or blog posts. If you see topics they’ve overlooked and pages lacking value, step up your content creation to capture searchers’ attention. Take note of competitors’ ads and create your campaigns with more compelling copy and distinct selling points to outperform their efforts and maximize your ROI.
Understand Campaign Performance
Mock trials and focus groups are two ways lawyers can gauge jurors’ reactions and tweak their arguments before a case. Digital media analytics for law firms work similarly, offering valuable information to help you test and fine-tune your advertising strategies. Performance data, such as click-through rates, conversions, and social engagement metrics are evidence of what’s working and what needs adjusting. Here are some takeaways to harvest from campaign data:
- What campaigns lead to which conversions (phone calls, form submissions, emails, etc.)
- Which topics resonate best with your audience
- The optimal post or send times for maximum engagement
- The most effective content type (videos, tutorials, FAQs, or legal articles) by channel
- Which pages earn higher engagement and longer session durations
- How variations in subject lines, calls to action, or headlines change response rates
You’re already a trained attorney—why take on the role of a marketer, too? Let an ad agency that specializes in the legal industry help. At Brandon, we use digital media analytics to shape law firms’ organic and paid marketing strategies to make every initiative count. Contact us for help putting the data to work for you.
Scott Brandon
Chief Executive Officer
Scott has led the growth of Brandon into a Southeastern powerhouse with over 120 employees in four offices across the U.S. As a highly sought-after strategist and business-minded visionary, he has helped develop and grow brands such as YETI Coolers, Southern Tide, CresCom Bank, Williams Knife Co. and Fish Hippie. Always on the forefront of technology, Scott’s focus is on data-driven marketing and developing growth minded strategies and tactics. Although he has an endless passion for marketing, Scott is happiest when he is outdoors hunting and fishing with his family.
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