Marketing in Australia
How is marketing a law firm in Australia different?
What changes when the firm is Australian: the rules, the channels Google offers, the Spam Act and Privacy Act at intake, and the currency and clock the accounts run on.
By Santiago Alvarez, Founder, Ad Hoc Digital
Last updated
The short answer
If you read one part of this page, read this.
Marketing an Australian law firm works on the same mechanics as anywhere: be findable, be credible, answer fast. What changes is the rulebook and the toolset: advertising answers to rule 36 and the Australian Consumer Law, with extra personal injury limits in Queensland and the NT, and Google's Local Services Ads isn't offered in Australia at all.
The back office changes too. Follow-up texts and emails fall under the Spam Act 2003, intake forms may fall under the Privacy Act 1988 and its Australian Privacy Principles, and the ad accounts need to be set up in Australian dollars and the right time zone from day one, because Google won't let you change either later.
This is a plain summary for marketing planning, not legal advice. Check the current rule with your bar or law society. We work with law firms across the US and Canada, and also in Australia and the UK.
At a glance
Seven things work differently for an Australian firm.
Most of a US marketing playbook carries over. These are the parts that don't, and where each one is covered in more depth.
| Area | What's different | Read more |
|---|---|---|
| Advertising rules | Rule 36 and the Australian Consumer Law everywhere; no filing step | Australian advertising rules |
| Personal injury | Ads limited to name, contact details and practice area in Queensland and the NT; claim farming laws in Queensland, NSW and the ACT | Queensland and NT, NSW |
| Google's ad products | No Local Services Ads; search ads and the Business Profile instead | LSA outside the US |
| Follow-up messages | Spam Act 2003: consent, sender identity, unsubscribe honoured within 5 working days | Follow-up sequences |
| Intake data | Privacy Act 1988 and the APPs if the firm is covered; sensitive information gets more protection | Below |
| Wording | "Lawyer", "solicitor" and "practitioner"; "specialist" reserved | Below |
| Money and time | Account currency and time zone fixed at setup; three jurisdictions skip daylight saving | Below |
The rules
The advertising rules are national in principle and state-shaped in practice.
Every state and territory has adopted the solicitors' conduct rules, so rule 36 is the common floor. What gets added depends on where the firm advertises and what it practices.
- For most practices: rule 36 and the consumer law
Family, criminal, estate, immigration, employment and commercial firms mostly need their ads to be true, not misleading, not offensive, and free of unearned "specialist" wording. Testimonials need evidence behind them. Our Australian advertising rules guide has the detail, including where each version of the rules applies.
- For personal injury: the state decides the plan
Queensland and the NT restrict what a PI ad may say and where it may run, to the point that paid search and social ads for PI services are out under our reading. NSW dropped its old ban. A firm across the Queensland and NSW border needs two plans, not one.
- For everyone: never pay per referred claim
Queensland and the ACT ban paying for claim referrals and both carve out advertising to the public. Our guide on paying for leads compares the rules.
Channels
Without Local Services Ads, the Business Profile, search ads and AI search do the work.
Google's Local Services Ads help center covers 11 countries, and Australia isn't one of them. With no pay-per-lead Google listing to apply for, the plan starts elsewhere.
Business Profile and reviews first
The profile feeds the map results, Google's AI answers and every search ad's credibility. Genuine reviews, collected within the rules on asking, compound for years. See our Business Profile guide.
One clear page per matter type
Plain explanations of how a matter works in your state. They serve Google, AI tools and, in Queensland, they're one of the few things a PI firm's own website may carry.
Google search ads
The paid channel that catches people at the moment of need, once LSA is off the table. Exact-match keywords per case type and state-targeted campaigns. Our Google Ads service works this way in every country.
Meta ads where the practice suits it
Family, estate and some employment matters respond to social ads. Rule 36's "offensive" limb and the consumer law shape the creative.
AI search alongside
ChatGPT, Gemini and Google's AI answers work the same way in Australia. AI search is built from the same profile, reviews and pages as above, so it adds little extra cost to a plan that already has them.
Canada has no legal Local Services Ads categories either, so it's the closest comparison we can show. A Toronto real estate solo with no online presence signed a first client within 24 hours of launch and made $10,875 in the first week on Google search ads, from just over $300 in ad spend. That's a Canadian result, not an Australian one, but it's the same channel mix an Australian firm would start with.
Follow-up messages
Automated follow-up texts and emails need consent, the firm's name and a working unsubscribe under the Spam Act.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority enforces the Spam Act 2003. Its guidance is more specific than most firms expect, and several points catch intake automations directly.
- Consent is express (a form, a ticked box, by phone, face to face) or inferred from an ongoing relationship. ACMA says you can't send an electronic message to ask for consent, and it's up to you to prove you have it, so keep a record of who consented, when and how.
- ACMA warns that automatically adding people to marketing lists because they "simply submitted an email enquiry" may breach the consent rules, and that automated "welcome journeys" aren't exempt.
- Every commercial message must identify the firm, using its legal name or its name and ABN, with contact details that stay correct for at least 30 days.
- The unsubscribe must be clear, free, work for at least 30 days, be honoured within 5 working days, and not ask for extra personal information or a log-in.
- An SMS sent from an alphanumeric sender name generally can't receive replies, so "reply STOP" from that sender doesn't work. ACMA lists this as a common breach.
- Using a CRM, answering service or agency to send the messages doesn't move the obligation. ACMA says the business remains responsible.
When we build a follow-up sequence, we treat any automated message that promotes the firm's services as commercial: consent wording on the form, the firm's name in the message, and an unsubscribe that works from the number or address it came from. Our follow-up sequences guide has the day-by-day structure, and our intake and follow-up systems page shows how we set it up.
Intake and privacy
If the Privacy Act covers your firm, the intake form is where the Australian Privacy Principles bite first.
The Privacy Act 1988 doesn't cover every small business. Whether it covers yours turns on turnover and a short list of exceptions, so check before you design intake.
The OAIC says most businesses with an annual turnover of $3 million or less aren't covered, counting all income from all sources. Its checklist asks whether turnover has exceeded $3 million in any financial year since 2002, and some businesses are covered regardless of turnover, including any that trade in personal information. A smaller firm can also opt in.
| Principle | What it covers | Where it shows up in marketing |
|---|---|---|
| APP 1 | A clearly expressed, up to date privacy policy | Linked from every page with a form |
| APP 3 | Collection, with higher standards for sensitive information | PI intake asks about health; criminal intake asks about records. Both are sensitive information |
| APP 5 | Telling people about the collection | A short notice at the form, not only in the policy |
| APP 7 | Direct marketing only if conditions are met | Newsletters and nurture emails to past enquirers |
| APP 8 | Cross-border disclosure | Our reading: a CRM or form tool that stores data overseas needs a look |
| APP 11 | Security, and destroying or de-identifying information | Who can see intake records, and how long old enquiries are kept |
Ask only what you need to call back
Name, contact details, the type of matter and the other party's name for a conflict check. The story can wait for the consultation, which keeps sensitive information off forms and CRMs.
Put a collection notice next to the form
Who you are, why you're collecting it, and a link to the privacy policy.
Separate the enquiry from the mailing list
A marketing consent box that's unticked by default, which also covers the Spam Act.
Check where the data lives
Ask the CRM and form providers which country stores the data, and note it for your privacy policy.
Wording, money and time
Small settings, like titles, currency and time zone, cause avoidable rework when they are wrong.
None of these is dramatic. Each one is far easier to get right at setup than to fix later.
- "Lawyer", "solicitor" and "practitioner"
The Uniform Law protects "lawyer, legal practitioner, barrister, solicitor, attorney, counsel or proctor" as titles. Australians search for "lawyer" and "solicitor"; US terms read as foreign on an Australian page. "Specialist" belongs to accredited specialists under rule 36.2.
- Australian dollars from day one
Google's account setup guide says the billing currency is permanent: "You can't change this later." An account opened in US dollars by mistake has to be replaced, and its history doesn't come with it. Our cost guide shows US figures in US dollars and Ontario figures in Canadian dollars; we don't publish Australian click prices.
- The account's time zone
The same Google page says the country and time zone used for reports and billing can't be changed later either. A firm with offices in Perth and Sydney should pick deliberately.
- Daylight saving splits the country
NSW, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and the ACT change clocks; Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory don't. In 2026 to 2027 it runs from 4 October to 4 April, so for half the year the gap between offices, intake staff and an answering service shifts by an hour.
What we see
We have no Australian results to show, so here's what we can say honestly.
We don't have Australian client results or reviews on this site, and we won't borrow a result from another country and imply it's local.
What we can say is what carries over. When we take on a firm outside the US, the first job is stripping out the US habits: Local Services Ads plans, US-style results headlines, "attorney" in the copy, and budgets in the wrong currency. What's left is the part that works everywhere: a strong profile, clear pages, focused search campaigns and intake that answers.
In our client work, intake moves cost per signed case as much as the ads do. That's as true in Brisbane as in Toronto, and it's why we measure the chain from enquiry to signed matter, set out in our intake metrics guide. Practice-specific plans are on pages like family law marketing.
If you run an Australian firm and want a straight answer on which channels fit your practice and state, schedule a consultation.
Common mistakes
Where firms go wrong.
The mistakes we'd look for first when an Australian firm's marketing was set up from a US template.
Waiting for Local Services Ads
It isn't offered in Australia. Build the Business Profile, reviews and search ads now.
Adding every enquirer to the newsletter
ACMA warns that auto-adding people who just made an enquiry may breach the Spam Act's consent rules.
"Reply STOP" from a sender name
Alphanumeric SMS senders generally can't receive replies, so the unsubscribe doesn't work.
Long intake forms
Asking for injury details or criminal history on a web form collects sensitive information before you need it.
An ad account in the wrong currency or time zone
Google doesn't let you change either after setup.
One national campaign for personal injury
It publishes in Queensland and the NT, where PI ads are restricted. Target by state.
Real results
What this looked like for real firms.
A result from Toronto, Canada, where Local Services Ads isn't open to lawyers either. It isn't an Australian result.
Identifying details are anonymized to protect our clients. Individual result, not a promise or prediction of any specific outcome for your firm.
FAQ
Questions lawyers ask us.
Straight answers to the questions that come up most.
Do you work with Australian law firms?
Yes. We work with law firms across the US and Canada, and also in Australia and the UK. We don't have Australian results on our site yet, so we'll show you the rules and the plan, not a borrowed number.
Can Australian lawyers use Google Local Services Ads?
No. Google doesn't list Australia for Local Services Ads, so the paid Google option is search ads, with the Business Profile, Meta and AI search alongside. Our guide on LSA outside the US has the country list.
Does the Spam Act apply to our follow-up texts and emails?
It applies to commercial electronic messages, and ACMA says messages can be commercial even when they're mostly factual. Get consent on the form, name the firm in every message, and include an unsubscribe that works and is honoured within 5 working days.
Does the Privacy Act apply to a small law firm?
Not always. The OAIC says most businesses with annual turnover of $3 million or less aren't covered, with exceptions, and any business can opt in. If your firm is covered, the Australian Privacy Principles apply to intake forms, CRMs and marketing lists.
Should our website say lawyer or solicitor?
Either is normal in Australia, and both are protected titles under the Uniform Law. Use the words your clients search for, which is usually "lawyer" plus the practice and city. Avoid "specialist" unless the named lawyer is accredited.
How much should an Australian firm spend on ads?
It depends on practice, city and competition, and we don't publish Australian click prices. Start from your own Keyword Planner estimates in AUD and work back from cost per signed case. Our Growth Guide suggests which channel to start with.
Are the advertising rules the same in every state?
Rule 36 and the Australian Consumer Law apply everywhere. Personal injury advertising limits and claim farming laws differ by state. See our Australian advertising rules guide for the state-by-state table.
Where we do this
The services this guide touches.
What this looks like when we run it for a firm, with a demo for your practice on each page.
Sources
Where these facts come from.
Official pages we read when writing this page. Platforms and rules change, so check the current version before you act on any of it. This is marketing guidance, not legal advice.
- Australian Communications and Media Authority, Avoid sending spam
- Australian Communications and Media Authority, Telemarketing and e-marketing: common issues and mistakes
- Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, Australian Privacy Principles quick reference
- Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, Small business
- Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, What is personal information?
- Google for Developers, Create Google Ads accounts
- Google Local Services Ads Help, Getting started with Local Services Ads
- NSW Government, Daylight saving
- Western Australian Legislation, Legal Profession Uniform Law (WA)
- Law Council of Australia, Australian Solicitors' Conduct Rules (where they apply)
Written by
Founder of Ad Hoc Digital. Leads strategy and works directly with every client firm on AI search, Local Services Ads, Google Ads and Meta ads.
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