Are you running a paid search/Google Adwords campaign for your law firm but not getting the best possible results from it? It may be time to review your pay-per-click campaign, making sure you have all the pieces in place and optimized to get the most out of every click. Here are the most important components to a successful PPC campaign, and what you need to consider about each piece:

1. Budget. Legal terms are among the most expensive paid search words and phrases. There is no getting around that, because let’s face it: It is a competitive vertical. Good cost-per-conversion rates are still achievable, however. The main thing about estimating a budget is to understand that PPC is based on volume and scalability. You need to budget for a good number of clicks per day so you can compile and analyze the data, then make adjustments. When you find what works, scale it up. Having a budget that allows you to capture only one or two clicks a day will not give you enough data and feedback about your campaigns to determine what is successful.
2. Keywords. The main goal with keywords is to keep your focus. Do not bid on broad-match, single-word keywords such as “lawyer.” Instead, think about how potential clients would search for your firm—what types of words they would include with “lawyer”—so you can separate out the less relevant search queries. Also, watch out for those broad match types. Do not force Google to decide which queries best match up with your campaign intent; help out the search engine. Use phrase match or exact match to define the search queries you think your potential client might be using.
3. Ad Groups. Again, focus is the key concept here. It is far better to break a large group of keywords into several more tightly focused ad groups than to have one “catch all” group that probably will not relate your ads to different users’ intents as well as you could.
4. Ad Copy. A lot of trial and error are involved in getting your ads “just right.” You should continuously test and refine and, most importantly, drop ads that underperform. Good quality scores, which will help you pay less per click, come in part from how well your ads relate to your keywords. Whenever possible, use your keywords in to the ad copy itself.
5. Landing Pages. Is your landing page relevant to what the user was searching for? Is it easy to navigate, displaying a clear, direct message? Are there several prominent ways to contact your firm? If not, you could be missing out on conversions. Think of it like this: You paid for that click to get that potential client to your site, now you need to do everything you can to maximize the potential of your investment.

Putting together a successful PPC campaign can be a lot like putting together a puzzle without having a picture of the final product. It takes a lot of patience and thought, but if you break it down into smaller sections, it becomes more manageable. I hope these five tips help make the pieces of your campaign puzzle a littler clearer, as well as help your firm to realize the big-picture goals of your paid search campaigns.