Crafting great copy for ads is one of the most critical aspects of PPC for attorneys. Unfortunately, it’s also one of the trickiest. Not only do you get a small number of characters to work with, but you also have to keep your practice area in mind when writing the actual copy. And because no two legal areas are alike, there is no single ad copy template that you can download and fit your ad around.
(Pixabay / MiamiAccidentLawyer)
Fortunately, there are ways to write effective copy for your ads, and it all starts with learning the fundamentals. Below are 6 essentials to help you compose powerful copy. You can easily enhance your criminal defense marketing by combining best practices with digital marketing trends.
1. Leverage Numbers
People have a thing for numbers. They’re visually different from text, and they allow for faster reading. Numbers also represent facts, so using them in your ad copy can make your firm appear more credible and trustworthy. Law firms can use numbers in the form of years of experience, as well as to convey the amount collected in settlements and verdicts to date. Here’s an example:
2. Focus on Benefits
It may sound coarse, but the majority of your customers (except loyalists, maybe) do not really care about your business. They care about how it benefits them. As your competitors in the online marketing space offer a service similar to yours, it’s a good idea to highlight what makes your firm unique compared to other businesses.
For example, take a look at these two ads:
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Notice how the first ad highlights what’s in it for a prospective client: Qualify in 60 seconds. Now compare this with the second ad that does not mention any unique benefit (every other law firm nowadays offers free consultation).
So, when writing your ad copy, think about the end goal your customers are trying to reach. How do you make their journey easier or better? If you specialize in offering a benefit, be sure to make that a focal point to get the most clicks and conversions for your PPC ads. If you’re really willing to make your criminal defense advertising campaign work you must invest the time and effort into analysing your online compatitors landscape.
3. Include Emotional Triggers
Just because your copy needs to be short and concise doesn’t mean it has to be boring. By including emotional triggers in your ad headline, description or CTA, you can stir a response in people reading your ads. Targetting your audience is crucial when creating a proper campaign for criminal defense attorney advertising goals.
To come up with emotional triggers, you need to know who you are dealing with. Ask yourself:
- Who is the customer? Are you trying to target a recent divorcee? An injured commuter? A debtor?
- What is the persona of my firm? A transparent advisor? A supportive friend? A quick fix?
Once you have figured out the answers, write your copy from the perspective of your company persona to trigger the appropriate emotions in your customers.
For example, if you’re planning to serve as a transparent advisor to an individual in debt, here’s the type of ad copy you could use:
Essentially this PPC ad copy does three things:
- It focuses on the individual’s pain point (the struggle to pay bills)
- It promotes transparency by indicating that bankruptcy may or may not be an option (by using the word if)
- It uses one of the most powerful words in marketing, i.e., “you”
Pro tip: Power words such as “you,” “now,” or “learn” are ideal for grabbing people’s attention. They carry the capability to trigger emotional and impulsive reactions. By evoking feelings present in their mindset at the time of the search, you can make people feel more connected to your firm and be more likely to click through and sign up for your service.
4. Answer Questions in Advance
The mark of a proactive law firm is anticipating how its audience will react. To address this, you can try using your ad copy to answer questions your target audience will ask before they ask them. Here are some questions they may have:
- How much does the appraisal cost?
- What do I get in terms of customer service?
- How long does it take to complete the paperwork?
- Is there any type of guarantee in place?
- What other services can I sign up for?
Here’s an example of an ad copy that answers most of these questions:
When you provide the audience with the most important information up front, you give your PPC ads a chance to snag all those clicks and conversions before your competitors do.
5. Craft Specific and Actionable CTAs
When it all comes down to it, law firms run PPC ads because they want people to take a certain action. In your case, that might be picking up the phone and making a call to your business. For others, it might be downloading an ebook, subscribing to an email list, or filling out an appraisal form.
Regardless of the action you want people to take, personalize your invitation. For example, you can craft a call-to-action that invites people to do something about their legal situation, somehow creating a sense of urgency or FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out).
Here’s an example:
Slip and fall injury is a terrible accident to be in, and any delays in contacting a lawyer can reduce the victim’s chances of getting compensation. That’s why calls-to-action work really well for this area of practice. The CTA “Speak to a Lawyer Now” in the ad above reiterates the importance of acting fast and invites searchers to take action and get in touch with a legal firm as soon as possible.
Pro tip: Make sure the call-to-action in your ad copy is coherent with the information present on your PPC landing page. Using the example above, the landing page for the law firm’s ad should include a phone number that people can dial to speak to a lawyer or a way to connect with the law firm virtually.
6. Use Keywords in The URLs
The last tip is to place your top keywords in the URL of your ads. This will help your ad rank better as well as make it easy for searchers to identify what your business is about.
Most PPC solutions, including Google Ads, allow you to customize the URL for your audience. The display URL and the final one can be different from each other. It’s the former that you can customize to better promote your law firm’s services.
For example, see how this law firm uses a customized URL to attain better visibility in SERPs:
In this ad, the URL is customized to include what’s probably the main keyword the firm is targeting (personal injury lawyer).
In addition, the company has also included the name of the city in the URL to give people an idea of the location it covers.
You, too, can include the name of the city where your firm is located in order to drive relevant leads for your business.
Conclusion
PPC is a game of inches, and small improvements in your ad copy can mean the difference between winning and losing. By following the tips above, you can make your ads stand out from the crowd. Of course, as a leading PPC firm in the legal and attorney marketing space, we still have a few more tricks up our sleeves.
At Webrageous, we know the nuts and bolts of writing great ad copy for law firms, as well as how to optimize not only keywords, but landing pages and overall campaigns, in order to achieve measurable outcomes. If you’d like some help with your law firm pay-per-click management, give us a call at 855-225-9478.
