Keywords are, arguably, the most important piece of your pay per click (PPC) advertising strategy.
Choose the right keywords and you’ll reach the right people. You’ll get more impressions and clicks. You’ll get more purchases from the clicks you generate. And you’ll even spend less money in the long run, since you won’t be wasting money on bad matches or weak opportunities.
The problem is, choosing and controlling keywords in PPC advertising is challenging.
Yes, even for the pros.
There are so many keywords to choose from and so many different controls you can use to tinker with your campaign that it’s almost inevitable to make conversion mistakes – and if not outright mistakes, then inefficiencies that reduce your potential.
Fortunately, once you understand some of the most common and impactful keyword mistakes in PPC advertising, you can take caution to avoid them and optimize your campaign for the better.
These are some of the most common keyword mistakes in PPC advertising we see from clients, competitors, and other advertisers online.
Optimizing a PPC ad campaign is all about improving efficiency. It’s almost impossible to be efficient if you’re using too many keywords at once. On one hand, we understand the temptation to keep adding keywords; each new keyword is a new potential demographic segment and a new opportunity for your brand. But it’s usually better to keep your selection of keywords relatively narrow and focused.
There are a few main problems with using too many keywords. For starters, your attention is going to be split across too many different areas; instead of becoming a true expert on a small handful of keywords, you’ll end up knowing very little about the dozens you’re following. Additionally, you’ll be wasting money on keywords that are strictly underperforming your best options.
If you want to fix this problem, simply focus on a narrower range of keywords. Generally, you should only keep the keywords that are generating around 200 clicks or more – and filter out any keywords that seem to perform worse than your best ones (as well as ones that seem irrelevant).
At first glance, using broad match keywords seems like a no-brainer. With broad match turned on, your keywords are going to appear for a wide variety of different searches, including those that are synonymous with your main keyword and some types of related searches. That means your ad is going to appear to a wider range of people and earn more impressions.
However, using broad match keywords recklessly and without strategic focus is usually bad for your campaign. More isn’t always better in the world of PPC advertising; in fact, it’s usually worse. You’re better off targeting a small handful of people who are positioned to buy your product than targeting thousands of people who are practically irrelevant. This is one of the common keyword research mistakes that can drain your budget without delivering real results.
You can fix this in a few different ways. For example, you could stop leaning too heavily on broad match keywords and start focusing on phrase match and exact match keywords, which give you much more precise targeting options. This aligns better with search intent, ensuring your ads are shown to users who are genuinely interested in what you offer.
You can also use broad match more effectively with the use of modifiers, which allow you to control how your keywords are considered with respect to search engines and user searches. As examples, adding a + to a word will ensure it appears in every search – and including phrases in [brackets] will make sure the entire phrase is present in every search. Implementing these refinements is a crucial part of a strong SEO strategy and effective keyword research.
Ad groups exist to give you more insight and control over your PPC ad campaigns, so try to avoid misusing them by compiling keywords into bulky and unnecessarily large groups. If you put all your conceivable targeting options into one gigantic mass, you’ll have difficulty delineating the different elements of your strategy.
Instead, make sure each of your ad groups is laser-focused on a specific theme (such as a product or service you offer, a geographic location, etc.). The exact theme doesn’t matter much, as long as you’re using ad groups strategically.
Most newcomers to the PPC game are so focused on finding the perfect keywords to add to their campaign that they don’t realize how powerful negative keywords can be. In case you aren’t familiar with them, negative keywords are keywords that you don’t want to appear for a given search. You can use these to filter out specific types of people who may not be interested in what you’re selling – and save money in the process.
If you don’t use negative keywords at all, you’re probably missing out on your true potential in this field. For example, imagine you’re advertising a bakery and you’re placing ads for people who are searching for “chocolate chip cookies.” You want to appeal to people who might buy your chocolate chip cookies, but people who search for this phrase might be looking for recipes or instructions for how to make their own; you can filter out this traffic simply by adding negative keywords like “-recipe.”
There’s a certain point in most PPC ad campaigns when managers begin to feel confident in what they’re doing. Your ads are working period you’re getting clicks. You can claim the campaign is profitable. What do you do at this point?
Novices are typically tempted to keep things running exactly as they are, potentially indefinitely. After all, if it ain’t broke, you don’t fix it, right?
The logic here makes sense, to a degree, but if you go this route, you’ll be crippling your potential. You’ll miss out on all the experiments that could push your campaign further and all the little refinements that could make your campaign even more efficient. Instead of remaining complacent with decent results, you should always strive for better results. That doesn’t mean you have to change your entire campaign, but you should be allocating at least a portion of your budget to pushing for more.
What’s your ad conversion rate like? If this metric is disappointingly low, it could be an indication that your ads aren’t relevant for the keywords you’re choosing. This may sound like a simple and obvious problem, but it’s something that many advertisers run into.
Remember, the people searching for this keyword phrase are looking for something specific. If your ad isn’t carefully crafted to appeal to those people, it’s not going to get much interaction. Always make sure that your keywords and advertisements are very closely aligned.
When it comes to audience targeting, you have to think beyond mere demographics. You also have to think beyond simple product or service searches. If you want to add more power to your campaign, you need to think about your specific sales funnel and how searchers might fall into that sales funnel.
Different businesses and different industries model their sales funnels in unique ways, but usually, sales funnels follow a process similar to awareness > consideration > purchase. Targeting the right people at the right stage of the sales funnel could dramatically increase your results. Choosing specific phrases and including keyword modifiers targeted to people at the end of the sales funnel could greatly increase the number of people making purchases after clicking your ads. At the same time, targeting people earlier in the sales funnel could help you avoid some of the most prominent competition in your industry, saving you money while earning you customer loyalty.
The only wrong approach is to ignore the sales funnel in your strategy entirely.
Landing pages play a massive role in determining the success of your PPC campaign. No matter how well your ads perform or how much traffic do you generate, your campaign is going to fall flat if you aren’t able to convert your new visitors.
The critical flaw here for most PPC advertisers is a landing page that doesn’t match the ad or doesn’t match the keyword phrase. If you promise a special discount in your ad, that discount better be present on your landing page. If you’re advertising running shoes, don’t take your visitors to a landing page that features boots.
Obviously, you’ll also need to spend time optimizing this landing page so it’s as persuasive and perceptibly trustworthy as possible.
The bulk of your campaign is going to focus on product and service keywords, but if you totally neglect brand keywords, you’ll be sabotaging your own potential.
Many people ignore brand keywords entirely because they feel like these targeting options are practically irrelevant. After all, if a customer already knows about your brand, there’s no use trying to raise their brand awareness further. And there’s a good chance your brand website is already ranking at position one for brand keyword searches.
However, there are some good reasons to bid on your own brand keywords. Branded keywords have the potential to increase your account’s quality score. They almost guarantee your brand will be featured at the top of the search results page. You’ll generate more traffic to your website. And perhaps best of all, this serves as a competitive defense – so your worst competitors can’t try and dethrone you by targeting your branded keywords.
Targeting competitor brand keywords, eh? If you’ve never considered the option before, you’re certainly considering it now. Bidding on the branded keywords of a competitor can be a powerful, if cutthroat move. You can siphon traffic from a major competitor, increasing your traffic while dealing a blow to your peers simultaneously.
However, it’s reckless to approach this without an effective strategy. If your ads aren’t relevant to the people conducting these searches, you’re not going to generate clicks, and your quality score could go down. If you don’t have a plan to convert these prospects, you’ll end up wasting money trying to sabotage competitors rather than building your own business. And the worst part is, if you’re actively trying to sabotage your competitors, you could end up harming your brand reputation.
None of this means that you have to avoid targeting competitor brand keywords. It just means you need to have a carefully considered strategy in place for them.
We’ve covered 10 of the most common mistakes that people make with keywords in the PPC world, but this list is by no means comprehensive. There are many other strategic flaws and examples of poor decision-making that can negatively impact your campaign.
On top of that, the PPC ad world is always changing with new controls and features for advertisers, new competitors, and changing consumer attitudes. Search engine algorithms are constantly evolving, which means what worked yesterday might not work today.
If you want to avoid all PPC ad mistakes (or at least as many as possible), you should follow these important golden rules:
Are you tired of PPC advertising mistakes bogging down your otherwise profitable campaign?
Do you need some extra guidance in targeting the best possible PPC keywords?
PPC.co is here for you. We’ve got the experts. We’ve got the experience. All you need to do is reach out and we’ll send you a free proposal. Contact us today!
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Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising isn’t an optional marketing accessory – it’s a serious tool for law firms that want measurable results fast. Whether your practice areas involve personal injury, criminal defense, family law, federal crimes, or estate planning, PPC gives you access to leads who need your services now. But throwing money at Google and Facebook without a plan will only drain your budget. If you’re tired of seeing competing law firms outrank you, this guide is for you.
Let’s explore the 10 key aspects of PPC campaigns that will bring you paying clients without wasting your ad spend.
PPC only works if you get the foundation right. That means finding keywords and phrases that your ideal clients type into search engines when they need help. If you choose the wrong keywords, you could end up wasting your ad spend fast. Law firm PPC is highly competitive and one of the most expensive PPC markets around. Small mistakes can cost a lot of money.
To get this done, use keyword research tools like Google Keyword Planner, Google Autocomplete, and Semrush to get a list of 30-50 keywords related to your location and practice area.
Remember that PPC keywords will differ from general keywords used to get traffic to your website. You’re paying for each click, so for PPC, you only want to target keywords that indicate the user is likely to become a paying client. High-intent keywords are the ideal target, like “DUI attorney” or “drug charge defense attorney.” These phrases indicate the user is facing charges and needs an attorney now.
Use long-tail keywords related to your practice areas. These are phrases like, “how to beat a DUI charge in [state],” “how much does a child support lawyer cost in [county]?,” and “what should I do after being arrested for [offense]?”
Long-tail keywords are less likely to be cannibalized by your other paid ads, AI-generated summaries, and featured snippets. They’re also more likely to send you hot leads who become clients.
When a user searches for the phrase “how to beat a DUI charge in California,” the algorithm will know the user’s zip code, and will serve them ads for local DUI law firms who have successfully optimized their ads for DUI-charge-related phrases.
Avoid generic keywords, like “lawyer in [city].” While there’s a possibility someone searching for a generic lawyer might need your services, there’s also a chance they’re looking for someone outside of your practice areas. It’s not worth wasting ad spend to find out.
Understand that optimizing your ads for certain searches doesn’t necessarily mean using those exact words in your copy. For example, to optimize for the search “DUI attorney near me,” you’d use the phrase “DUI attorney” and include locations by city name, county, or zip code. You don’t need to include the words “near me” because ad algorithms interpret those words as a command to return local results. Google is good at discerning intent from searches.
Your PPC ads should direct users to a specific landing page created just for that ad. Don’t send people to your home page because it will make conversions harder. Home pages are too generic and will break the user’s sense of continuity and flow.
Each landing page should be specifically relevant to the user’s search query. For example, if your ad talks about services related to divorce, clicking should send users to a web page that outlines your divorce-related services.
Most attorneys create one page for every practice area and send paid ad clicks to those pages. This strategy is good since it serves visitors regardless of their origin. However, in order to track PPC ad conversions, it helps to have landing pages that don’t show up in search results and only get shown via ads. All you need to do is make a copy of your practice area pages, give them friendly URLs, and use them for your ad destinations.
A good landing page will encourage the user to call your law firm right away. To accomplish this, you need the following elements:
Your landing pages serve one purpose: to get users to call your law firm. With that in mind, make sure your phone number is visible on every page above the fold, preferably in your header. To make it clickable use the following markup:
<a href="tel:1234567890">(123) 456-7890</a>
Use this markup for every instance of your phone number throughout your website so mobile users can click to call. This seemingly small convenience will get you more leads.
People need a reason to trust you, so include client testimonials, previous settlement wins, Google and Trustpilot reviews, and links to your Avvo or Martindale profile.
Your copy should aim to convert clicks into leads that either contact you via phone, a contact form, or chat bot. Don’t be wordy – mention your specialty, location, what makes you different, and instruct people to contact you now. For example, your drug charge landing page might state you have 20+ years of experience and that you offer free consultations. Copy doesn’t need to be long to be compelling. For law firms, shorter is better – people don’t have time to read an essay when they’re just trying to get help.
Your CTA should be visible above the fold and on every page throughout your website. It should be clear, short, and direct. For example, tell visitors to call you for a free case evaluation.
Paid ads only work when you’re willing to spend money. If your daily budget isn’t high enough, your ads won’t get served to many people. To increase your impression share and therefore increase ad visibility, you need a good ad Quality Score and a decent budget. Higher bids can push your ads into favorable positions, which can increase your click-through rate (CTR) and generate more conversions.
Legal keywords can cost more than $100 per click, so you need to invest in your ads. However, if you’re doing ads on your own, start with a conservative budget and ramp up once you identify the campaigns that are converting. If you’re working with a reputable PPC agency, you can go all-in from day one without worry.
Even though lawyers typically pay more per lead than other industries, PPC ads are still considered a low-cost, effective form of marketing. Compared to other options, paid ads are cost-effective and excellent for capturing relevant leads immediately. As long as your ads are running, you’ll get clicks to your website.
When you identify your high-performing ads, cut the fat and pause keywords or ads that are underperforming and reallocate that money to your winners. PPC ads need to be managed weekly to ensure optimal performance.
The time your ads run matters; not every hour in the day is equal. There’s no need to advertise 24/7 unless you’re going to answer calls at 3:00 a.m. People might call you, get your voicemail, hang up, and call someone else in the morning. Even if you have a contact form on your website, someone who is stressed out and facing serious criminal charges may not go back to your site to look for an alternate way to contact you. They’ll go to bed and search for someone else in the morning.
So, what are the best hours to run ads? Most law firms see the most conversions during business hours and early evenings, so that’s when your ads should run in local time. Schedule your ads to run during peak hours for mobile searches. This is easy with Google Ads. To avoid paying for junk clicks, turn off your campaigns on holidays, weekends, or hours you aren’t available unless you have someone ready to take calls.
Location targeting is how you’ll get better conversions. You only want people in your local service area to see your ads, but you need to tell the ad platforms where you want your ads to be served.
Target high-value zip codes based on income, need, and proximity. If you work on a contingency basis, you might want to target people regardless of income since you’ll get paid if and when you win their case. However, if you don’t work with contingency fees, you need to be specific about your targets.
It’s equally important to exclude irrelevant locations from your ads. If you notice you’re getting clicks from neighboring states or areas you don’t serve, set your negative geotargeting rules to block them.
To get more clicks from relevant leads, use location-specific copy in your ads. Mention your city or county in the ad headline to catch people’s attention.
Negative keywords are your secret weapon for reducing wasted ad spend on irrelevant clicks. Add negative keywords that would indicate a user is not searching for actual legal services. For example, standard words like “free,” “pro bono,” “advice,” “template,” “blog,” “forum,” or “DIY” are a good place to start. People searching for these words are unlikely to become paying clients.
Other negative keywords to include are phrases and words that:
· Indicate a person is just looking for information or resources, but they don’t need a lawyer
· Are related to legal areas outside of your practice areas
The back end of your PPC platform will track clicks, but you need to track leads. The easiest way to do this is by hiring a PPC agency to manage your entire campaign from top to bottom. However, if you’re running ads in-house, here are some tracking strategies:
· Use call tracking software. You need to know which ads are generating calls. Tools like CallRail and WhatConverts will show you exactly where your calls are coming from.
· Tie form submissions to campaigns. If you just collect general form data, you won’t know where people came from. Connect each form to the ad group or keyword so you can track clicks and conversions.
· Ignore vanity metrics. A high click-through rate doesn’t mean much if you’re not getting conversions. Focus on cost per lead and cost per signed case. If your CTR is exceptionally high compared to conversions, adjust your campaign until you get better results.
Remember that you can’t improve what you don’t track.
While some people will call right away, not everyone looking for legal help will convert immediately. People facing criminal charges are more likely to make immediate phone calls, but when the matter isn’t urgent, people tend to research their options for a bit. This is where remarketing comes into play.
Remarketing ads help you convert more leads by targeting individuals who have already interacted with your ad or website, keeping your law firm at the top of their mind. You can customize your ad based on the web pages they visited for an even more personalized experience. However, you should limit the frequency so your ad doesn’t follow them for weeks or months.
Google Ads Assets are one of the most under-utilized PPC features, but they’re packed with power that can help you generate more high-quality clicks that convert to leads. The most useful assets for law firms include:
· Lead form assets. If you want to advertise during non-business hours, lead form assets will allow users to fill out a form directly within the ad, skipping the landing page completely. This will allow you to gather leads after hours without disappointing users when you don’t answer the phone.
· Location assets. This will display your physical address, hours, phone number, and map with your ads, including on YouTube. You’ll need a Google Business profile to set this up.
· Call assets. This allows users to call you directly from an ad. It displays a click-to-call button for mobile users, and displays your phone number for desktop users. This only works on the Google Search Network.
If you want to enhance your Google Ads performance, Ads Assets are essential.
PPC isn’t something you want to wing, especially when each click can cost $100 or more. If you’re not getting leads, you need a better strategy. Managing legal PPC campaigns requires a lot of time, constant optimization, and a solid understanding of how to attract leads that will become clients. That’s where a PPC agency becomes your competitive advantage.
At PPC.co, we help law firms build high-performance PPC campaigns that convert clicks into paying clients. If you’re tired of wasting your money and want results you can see, contact us today for a free consultation. We won’t just bring you traffic – we’ll get you qualified leads who need your help now.
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By strategically combining Performance Max and high-intent Search campaigns, we not only increased lead volume but improved overall efficiency and ROI. This rapid and measurable improvement underscores the value of data-driven optimization and expert campaign management.
This case study is a testament to what can happen when a well-structured campaign meets expert strategy and continuous optimization. Whether you're launching a new property or looking to boost occupancy in a competitive market, PPC.co delivers real results—fast.
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