So you’ve decided what type of PPC provider is right for you. But do you know the different traffic sources marketers use to find prospects for your firm?
Google & Bing Ads
Google and Bing can be broken down into different sub-categories because each channel has multiple ways of delivering ads. We’re primarily going to talk about Google because they own roughly 90% of the search market with Bing having far less volume.
Search Result Ads
Ads in the search results are some of the highest quality because consumers have high intent when they’re searching for legal help. They’re looking for the services you offer in order to solve a problem.
When a lead converts from a search ad, they’re a higher probability of close because they want to talk to you about help.
Display Ads
Display ads are image advertisements that appear on news sites, YouTube videos, and various other spots around the internet.
Because most users that see display ads aren’t actually looking for legal help, display campaigns generally have an extremely low conversion rate with a high cost per lead.
YouTube Ads
You may be surprised to hear that YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world, right behind its parent, Google.
YouTube consumption is massive and ads are relatively affordable. If you have a practice area that isn’t time sensitive, like estate law or bankruptcy, YouTube is a channel that might work for you.
If your services are needed within a very short window of time, like criminal law, DUI, or personal injury, YouTube is a more difficult channel to generate leads.
Facebook/Instagram Ads
Social media ads are often lower quality than Google or Bing because they were never intending to contact you in the first place. We call that lower intent.
Someone marketing on Facebook might be using their ads to suggest users pursue a personal injury case that occurred over a year ago.
Technically, the case might have some merit, but older cases are generally lower quality. The same low quality idea also applies to consumers that weren’t injured or insurance wasn’t involved.
They may be a “lead,” but the likelihood of a case is very low.
Affiliate Networks
Affiliate networks are generally used by lead vendors and not as often by traditional agencies. Lead vendors will often buy leads from affiliate networks or post their landing pages on the networks for marketers to generate leads.
Hypothetically, in this scenario, unknown marketers run ads and sell leads to the network for $50, the network sells the lead to the lead vendor for $80, and then the lead vendor sells you the lead for $150. It’s very difficult to generate a quality lead for $50 and you’re paying $150 for it after various stages of markup.
