Should a law firm use Performance Max?

You give it a goal, a budget, text, images and videos, and optional signals about your customers. It uses keywordless targeting: instead of a keyword list, Google uses signals from your campaign, website and assets to decide when, and for which searches, your ads appear. Bidding is Smart Bidding, set per auction on the predicted chance of a conversion.

Google recommends it when you want to maximize performance "without restricting where your ads appear". For a law firm, where the ads appear is most of the question.

It needs conversions a new account doesn't have

Smart Bidding learns from conversions. A firm might get 10 or 20 leads in a first month, and the ones that matter, signed cases, show up weeks later. With little to learn from, Performance Max spends by prediction on thin evidence. On Search we start with Maximize clicks and a cost per click cap for the same reason, and switch to conversion bidding after about 30 leads.

Lower-intent channels share the budget

Google says Performance Max distributes the budget across channels based on where it predicts the return. Someone watching a video isn't searching for a DUI lawyer right now. Google's pages list controls for searches, brands, pages and placements, but not a setting that keeps it to Search alone. When we set up a search campaign for a firm, it runs on Google Search only.

Generated text and pages need the firm's review

With text customization on, Google writes headlines and descriptions from your site and ads. With Final URL expansion on, it can send people to a different page and write a matching headline. Google itself says you remain responsible for the compliance and accuracy of that content. For a lawyer, an ad no one approved is a bar rules question. Some states also expect ads filed with the bar, covered in our Florida and Texas guides.

It can take credit for your own name

People searching your firm's name were going to find you anyway. Without brand exclusions, Performance Max can serve on those searches and report cheap conversions that look like growth.

1. 1

   Check the conversion data

   About 30 or more real leads a month, with qualified leads or signed cases sent back from the CRM so Google learns which leads mattered. Our Google Ads call tracking guide covers sending calls back.

2. 2

   Keep Search running on your core searches

   Exact match keywords for your main case types stay in Search, with enough budget that they aren't limited.

3. 3

   Set the fences before launch

   Brand exclusions for your firm, account-level negatives, Final URL expansion off (or tight URL exclusions), and text customization off unless every generated line will be reviewed.

4. 4

   Give it assets the firm approves

   Headlines, descriptions, images and video you'd be comfortable showing a bar regulator. No client faces, no results the rules don't allow.

5. 5

   Fund it separately and set an end date

   A fixed test budget for a set number of weeks, not money taken from a working search campaign. Google says learning usually takes one to two conversion cycles.

6. 6

   Judge it on cost per signed case

   Check the channel performance report and search terms weekly. A cheap lead from YouTube that never signs is not a cheap lead. Our guide to cost per signed case shows the math.

For a firm just starting, the order is a Search campaign on exact match, a page per case type, and tracked calls. A Toronto real estate solo starting from nothing generated $10,875 in the first week on that kind of Google search ads setup. More on injury searches on our personal injury marketing page.