The Client
Legal Document Server is a process serving and court filing company in California. We rebuilt their Google Ads in 2023, which grew real leads from 7 a month to more than 200.
Law firms, landlords and individuals use Legal Document Server to file court documents electronically and to have papers served. It is a service people search for when a deadline is close, and they hire the first company that looks reliable.
"7 leads in May 2023. 210+ in September 2023."
The Challenge
Google Ads for legal services is an expensive, crowded market:
- High click costs. Legal keywords are some of the most expensive on Google, and "process server" and "court filing" searches are contested by national filing platforms.
- Tracking that missed the leads. In the twelve months before we started, the account recorded only about 15 leads, almost all of them calls, on more than $39K of spend.
- Two services, two buyers. Process serving and court filing attract different searchers, from attorneys to people representing themselves.
- Competitors on every search. National eFiling services bid on the same terms and on each other's names.
What We Built
1. Tracking That Counts Real Leads
We set up conversion tracking on Google Analytics 4 alongside the existing lead form and call tracking: form submissions, calls from the ads and new customer accounts created on the website all count as leads. Directions and phone-number clicks were kept out of the lead count.
2. Rebuilt Search Campaigns by Service
A new court filing campaign, Court Filing - LPA 2.0, on Maximize Conversions with a target cost per lead, plus a core Search Campaign - LPA and a Supplemental Search campaign, alongside the existing process serving campaign.
3. A/B Tests on Every Core Campaign
We ran A/B tests on process serving, court filing, the core search campaign, the supplemental campaign and competitor terms, then moved budget to the winners.
4. Performance Max
A Performance Max campaign, built in the fall of 2023, extended the account's reach from about 20,000 impressions a month to more than a million.
5. Daily Optimization via Ad Campaign Concierge™
Every campaign was reviewed daily through our proprietary Ad Campaign Concierge™ system: search-term mining, new negatives, bid targets adjusted and budget moved to the campaigns producing leads.
The Results
- 1,000+ real leads in eight months, May to December 2023.
- From 7 leads a month to 210+: 7 in May 2023, 68 in our first full month, and 210+ in September 2023.
- About $33 a lead across the engagement, on $34K+ of ad spend.
- Before us: about 15 recorded leads in the twelve months from May 2022 to April 2023.
- Lead mix: about 790 form submissions, about 140 calls from the ads and about 70 new customer accounts.
Key Takeaways
- You can't optimize what you don't count. Rebuilding tracking around forms, calls and account sign-ups gave the bidding something real to learn from.
- Split the services. Process serving and court filing buyers search differently, so they get their own campaigns and budgets.
- Test, then commit. A/B tests on every core campaign showed where leads were cheapest before the budget moved.
- The same budget can do far more. Spend stayed between about $4,200 and $4,700 a month from May to November 2023 while leads went from single digits to more than 200.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does a lead cost for a process serving company on Google Ads?
Across our eight months on Legal Document Server's account, May to December 2023, real leads averaged about $33 each: 1,000+ leads on $34K+ of ad spend.
How fast can Google Ads grow leads for a legal services company?
Legal Document Server went from 7 real leads in May 2023 to 68 in June, our first full month, and 210+ in September 2023, while monthly spend stayed between about $4,200 and $4,700.
Do legal services clients call or fill out a form?
Mostly forms. Of the 1,000+ real leads, about 790 were form submissions, about 140 were calls from the ads and about 70 were new customer accounts created on the website.
Should process servers bid on competitor names?
We tested it. The account ran a competitor campaign and a competitor A/B test alongside the core process serving and court filing campaigns, and the budget followed the campaigns that produced leads.
About This Campaign
Legal services lead generation on Google Ads, built with our proprietary Ad Campaign Concierge™ optimization system.
Industry: Legal Services (Process Serving & Court Filing) Platforms: Google Ads (Search, Performance Max) Location: California Account Duration: May 2023 to January 2024. The engagement has ended.
Real leads are form submissions (the lead form and Google Analytics 4 form submissions), calls from the ads and new customer accounts created on the website, as recorded in Google Ads. Directions, clicks on the phone number, clicks to call and Google Analytics engagement goals are excluded. "Before us" counts the leads the account recorded from May 2022 to April 2023 with the tracking it had then. Monthly figures are rounded to two significant figures. All amounts are in US dollars and rounded down.