Most law firms start with the wrong question. "How much should we spend on Google Ads?" only has a real answer once you know two numbers: what a new case is worth to your firm, and how many leads it takes to sign one.

This guide walks through the math we use when we plan campaigns for law firms, realistic starting ranges by practice area, and the mistakes that burn budget before a single case comes in.

Why Google Ads for lawyers is so expensive

Legal keywords are some of the most expensive in Google Ads. In competitive practice areas like personal injury, a single click in a large metro area can cost well over $100. Family law, immigration, criminal defense and estate planning are usually cheaper, but they still cost more per click than most local services.

That has a practical consequence: small budgets run out fast. If your average click costs $60 and your landing page turns 8% of visitors into calls or form submissions, each lead costs about $750. Your budget has to be large enough to produce enough leads to tell whether the campaign works.

Step 1: Know what a case is worth

Start with the average fee you collect per case. For contingency work, use your average net fee after costs, not the settlement amount.

| Practice area example | Average fee per case | What that means for ads | |—|—|—| | Estate planning (flat fee) | $2,500 | You need a low cost per case | | Family law | $6,000 | Room for a moderate cost per lead | | Personal injury (net fee) | $15,000+ | You can afford expensive clicks |

These numbers are only examples. Use your own averages from the last 12 months.

Step 2: Know your intake numbers

Google Ads delivers leads, not signed clients. What happens after the call matters just as much as the campaign.

Track two rates:

  • Lead to consultation: how many calls and forms turn into a real consultation.
  • Consultation to signed case: how many consultations become paying clients.

Example: 10 leads, 5 consultations, 2 signed cases. That is a 20% lead-to-case rate.

If you don't know these numbers yet, start logging every call and form in a simple spreadsheet or your CRM for the next 30 days. Without them, any budget is a guess.

Step 3: Calculate your budget backwards

Once you have those numbers, the budget almost calculates itself:

Monthly budget = target new cases × (cost per lead ÷ lead-to-case rate)

Example:

  • Goal: 4 new cases per month
  • Expected cost per lead: $250
  • Lead-to-case rate: 20%
  • Cost per signed case: $250 ÷ 0.20 = $1,250
  • Monthly budget: 4 × $1,250 = $5,000

If your average fee is $6,000, those 4 cases bring in $24,000 from $5,000 in ad spend. That is the kind of math that justifies a budget to partners.

Rough starting budgets by practice area

These are planning ranges, not quotes. Real costs depend on your city, competition and how good your landing page and intake are.

| Practice area | Cost per click | Reasonable starting budget | |—|—|—| | Personal injury | Very high, often $100+ in large metros | $10,000+/month | | Criminal defense | High | $3,000 to $8,000/month | | Family law | Medium to high | $3,000 to $6,000/month | | Immigration | Medium, often lower in Spanish | $2,000 to $5,000/month | | Estate planning | Medium | $1,500 to $4,000/month |

A useful note for bilingual firms: in many markets, Spanish-language searches have less competition than the same searches in English. A separate Spanish campaign with Spanish ads and a Spanish landing page can lower your cost per lead.

Where law firm ad budgets get wasted

Most accounts we review don't have a budget problem. They have a waste problem.

1. Irrelevant searches. Without negative keywords, your ads show for searches like "free legal advice", "paralegal jobs", "law school" or "how to become a lawyer". Review the search terms report every week during the first months.

2. Sending traffic to the homepage. Someone searching "DUI lawyer near me" should land on a DUI page, not a homepage listing eight practice areas.

3. Not tracking phone calls. Most legal leads call. If you only count form submissions, Google optimizes toward the wrong thing and you can't tell which keywords bring cases.

4. Too many campaigns for the budget. Five campaigns with $30 a day each will never collect enough data. Start with one or two practice areas and expand once they work.

5. Ads running when nobody answers. If calls at 11 p.m. go to voicemail, either schedule ads for office hours or set up an answering service.

A real example: when we audited a law firm's account, it had spent $669 with zero conversions recorded, and its keywords had Quality Scores between 1 and 3 out of 10. The budget wasn't the issue. The ads pointed to a generic page and conversions weren't being measured, so Google had nothing to optimize toward.

What your landing page needs

Your landing page decides whether a $60 click becomes a consultation. At minimum it should have:

  • A headline that matches the search ("Houston Family Law Attorney", not "Welcome to Our Firm")
  • A click-to-call phone number visible without scrolling
  • Trust signals: reviews, bar memberships, years in practice and results where your state bar rules allow
  • A short form (name, phone, a brief description of the case)
  • A Spanish version if you serve Spanish-speaking clients

If your current site isn't built for this, it's worth fixing before increasing spend. We cover what that looks like in our law firm web design page.

How long before you judge results

  • Days 1 to 30: the account collects data. Expect to clean up search terms and adjust bids.
  • Days 30 to 90: cost per lead stabilizes and you can see which keywords bring real cases.
  • After 90 days: decide whether to scale, based on cost per signed case, not cost per click.

Cutting a campaign after two weeks usually means paying for the learning phase without keeping what it learned.

Frequently asked questions

Is $1,000 a month enough for Google Ads for a law firm? In a low-competition practice area or a small city, it can bring a few leads. In personal injury or a large metro area, it may run out in a few days. Use the formula above to see what your goal actually requires.

Should I use Local Services Ads as a lawyer? Local Services Ads (with the Google Screened badge) charge per lead instead of per click and show above regular ads. For many firms they work well alongside search campaigns, not as a replacement.

Can I run Google Ads in Spanish? Yes. Create a separate campaign targeting Spanish keywords, with ads written in Spanish and a Spanish landing page. Don't mix both languages in the same ad group.

Do I need an agency to run legal Google Ads? Not necessarily, but someone needs to review search terms, conversions and call quality every week. The accounts that fail are usually the ones nobody watches.

Next step

If you already run Google Ads and aren't sure where the budget goes, a Google Ads audit will show you exactly where spend is leaking. If you're starting from scratch, see how we manage Google Ads for lawyers.