PPC for lawyers · Google Ads for law firms · Australia
PPC for lawyers, bid on what a matter is worth.
Legal clicks are some of the dearest in Australian search. Keyword Planner puts top-of-page bids for 'workers compensation lawyer' at $21 to $159 and for 'criminal lawyer' at $10 to $46 (October 2026). At those prices, Google Ads only pays for a law firm when each practice area runs on its own budget, every call is followed through to the matter it became, and the ads stay inside the conduct rules of each state they run in. That is how we run PPC for lawyers.
30 min · No pitch · Senior operator on the call
Engagement intake, currently open
$9 to $36
Top-of-page bid range for 'family lawyer', searched 12,100 times a month in Australia. Keyword Planner, October 2026.
$14 to $103
The same range for 'personal injury lawyer', the practice area where the click is dear and the state rules are strictest.
Google Partner
Profit Geeks is a Google Partner agency, run by a founder with more than ten years in paid search.
How we run marketing for law firms
Four principles for Google Ads in a law firm.
Principle 01
Bid from what a matter is worth
The most a click is worth is the fee a matter leaves after the work, multiplied by the share of clicks that enquire, enquiries that book a consultation, and consultations that become matters. We work that number out with the partners for each practice area before any bid is set. Then the market price tells you which practice areas to push and which to leave to referrals and search.
Principle 02
Every call followed to the matter
Call assets on Google forwarding numbers log each call from an ad with its length and whether it connected, and a call only counts as a conversion past the minimum length you choose. Calls from the website are tied to the click the same way. The consultations and matters those calls become are then imported from your practice-management system, so the bidding learns from files opened, not phones ringing.
Principle 03
Copy written to the rules where it runs
Google's legal requirements policy puts compliance with the laws of every targeted area on the advertiser, and the laws differ by state. Rule 36 applies everywhere, but personal injury advertising is restricted by statute in Queensland and Western Australia, and the Northern Territory has its own provisions. So each state runs as its own campaign with copy the firm has approved for that state, and nothing written for New South Wales drifts across the border.
Principle 04
Spend follows the hours someone answers
A click that rings out is still paid for. Call assets can be scheduled to chosen days and hours, and call reporting shows which calls went unanswered. We set the schedule to when intake actually picks up, then use the missed-call data to show the partners what extended hours or an answering service would be worth before anyone pays for them.
Deliverables
What we build and run in a law firm's Google Ads account.
01
A campaign for each practice area you want more of, with its own budget, keyword list, ad copy and landing page, and a value per matter agreed with the partners.
02
Call assets and call reporting on Google forwarding numbers, with a minimum call length agreed for counting a call as a conversion.
03
Phone numbers set up the way Google now checks them: shown as text on your site (Google suggests E.164 format in the page source) or your domain verified through Search Console, so call assets are not disapproved as unverified.
04
Website calls and forms tied to the click that produced them, matched to consultations and matters in your practice-management system and uploaded to Google Ads inside its 90-day import window.
05
Location targeting and campaigns split by state, so copy approved for one state's rules never serves in another.
06
An approval log: every ad and landing page version, the person at the firm who signed it off, the states it ran in and the dates.
07
A weekly search terms review with the exclusions written up, so the partners can see what was blocked and why.
08
Weekly management by the senior operators who set up the tracking, and a monthly report of cost per consultation and cost per matter by practice area.
Who this is for
- Australian law firm with practice areas where clients search with urgency, such as family, criminal, employment, injury or conveyancing
- An intake desk that answers during the hours the ads run, or a plan to cover them
- A practice-management system or CRM where consultations and matters are recorded
- Partners prepared to put a value on a matter for each practice area
Who it isn't
- Wanting ads live before calls and matters can be tracked
- Wanting 'no win no fee' or outcome claims in ads in states where the law limits them
- A budget too small to give a practice area enough clicks to judge. We will tell you if that is the case.
- Hoping more clicks will make up for an intake desk that cannot answer them
How we work with law firms
A fixed fee for running the account. Never a share of the spend.
When an agency's fee is a percentage of spend, it earns more every time legal clicks get dearer. We charge a fixed fee for the agreed scope instead, set out in a written proposal once we have seen your numbers on the free audit call. If your tracking already follows calls through to matters, management starts straight away; if it does not, the setup comes first.
Optional · Two weeks
The two-week diagnostic
A read-only audit of the Google Ads account, call tracking and intake: wasted search terms, missed calls by hour, conversion settings and what each practice area costs today. Written up, ranked and yours.
Step 01 · Setup
Tracking to the matter
Call reporting, conversion settings, the practice-management connection and offline uploads, rebuilt so Google learns from matters. A fixed scope, and skipped if what you have already works.
Step 02 · Ongoing
Weekly Google Ads management
Budgets moved between practice areas on cost per matter, search terms worked, ad copy refreshed through your sign-off process, and a monthly report by practice area.
Meta, LinkedIn Ads for commercial and corporate practice areas, lawyer SEO and a new website can be quoted in the same proposal. A firm whose spend is too small to carry a management fee will be told so on the call.
Where to go next
Related services and neighbouring industries.
Related services
Law firm marketing →
The full service for law firms: tracking to matters, then ads and search run weekly.
Lawyer SEO →
Practice-area pages, the map results and AI answers, beside paid search.
Google Ads management →
How we run Google Ads for Australian businesses in every industry.
Call tracking →
How each call is tied to the ad, keyword and page that produced it.
Related industries
- Law firm websites →
- Marketing for accountants →
- Marketing for tradies →
- Dental marketing →
- NDIS provider marketing →
- Childcare marketing →
- Mortgage broker marketing →
- Real estate marketing →
Where we run Google Ads for law firms
SydneyMelbourneBrisbanePerthAdelaideNational (remote)
Run your numbers
Proof, with the working shown
We'd rather show you the maths than the buzzwords.
“Profit Geeks rebuilt our whole sales engine, and not just the ad accounts. They went after the systems sitting behind them too. Sales are up 140% and we've pushed past $25M. Honestly the bit I didn't see coming was the operation running leaner than it did back when we were half the size.”
“We were quietly bleeding about a thousand dollars a week and had no idea why. They found the leaks, sorted out the measurement and the offer, and now we'll do more than $10K in a single day. Same product. Completely different business.”
“We went from scraping together two installs a week to running four crews and fifteen-plus jobs a week, north of $10M turnover. The clever bit was they tied the scaling to what we could actually deliver, so growth never broke the operation. Booked jobs, not vanity leads.”
“After iOS, our Meta numbers stopped matching the bank, and we'd basically been writing the gap off as “just tracking.” Profit Geeks rebuilt our measurement server-side and reconciled it straight back to the P&L. Turned out about $1.42M of ad spend in year one had been working all along. They're the first team that showed me the maths instead of a dashboard.”
“We didn’t spend a dollar more on ads. What they did was fix how we counted a booked job versus a platform “conversion,” cut the wasted spend, and by week twelve our blended ROAS had more than tripled. Revenue went from $4.8M to $9.1M. Same senior bloke on every call too. No juniors, no relay race.”
Reasonable questions
What you're probably thinking.
01
We've been burned by an agency before.
Most of our intake has. The difference is structural. A senior operator runs your account, not a junior hidden behind a dashboard, and you leave the first call with written findings you own even if we never work together. No relay race, no account manager translating between you and the people doing the work.
02
How do I know it'll actually work for my business?
You don't yet, and neither do we until we've seen your numbers. That's why the first step is a diagnostic, not a contract. We've documented this in DTC and home services (the case studies show the full working) and run the same playbook in professional services. If the maths isn't there for you, we'll tell you on the call.
03
What if there's nothing worth fixing?
Then you've spent thirty minutes and walked away with a second opinion that cost you nothing. We'd rather say no than take on an engagement we can't earn, so we turn away intake that isn't a fit. There's no pitch and no follow-up sales sequence.
04
What does it cost, and what am I signing up for?
A fixed fee for the measurement rebuild, then a fixed fee for ongoing management, both quoted in writing after the call. No per-channel markup and no percentage of your ad spend. The same senior operators handle measurement, media and margin, and scaling is tied to your contribution margin, so spend only climbs when the numbers say it's working.
Frequently asked
Questions about PPC for lawyers.
Do Google Ads work for lawyers?
Yes, for practice areas where clients search with a problem in hand and one matter is worth many clicks, provided the account is measured on matters rather than enquiries. Searches like 'family lawyer' (12,100 a month in Australia) and 'criminal lawyer' (3,600) come from people looking to instruct someone soon. When Google Ads disappoints a firm, the cause is usually what the account was told to count: rewarded for every enquiry, it finds more enquiries, not more matters.
What does a Google Ads click cost for lawyers in Australia?
It depends heavily on the practice area. Keyword Planner's top-of-page bid ranges (roughly the 20th to 80th percentile of what advertisers have paid for the top of the page) for Australia, October 2026, with monthly searches: conveyancer $9 to $32 (22,200); family lawyer $9 to $36 (12,100); divorce lawyer $9 to $38 (3,600); criminal lawyer $10 to $46 (3,600); traffic lawyer $13 to $47 (1,000); employment lawyer $8 to $41 (3,600); immigration lawyer $7 to $22 (3,600); probate lawyer $6 to $34 (1,000); commercial lawyer $11 to $54 (2,400); personal injury lawyer $14 to $103 (2,400); compensation lawyer $23 to $129 (1,300); workers compensation lawyer $21 to $159 (3,600); medical negligence lawyer $16 to $169 (2,900). What you actually pay depends on your ad quality and on what competitors bid.
Do click costs change by city?
Yes, by a lot. For 'family lawyer' plus the city, Keyword Planner's top-of-page bid ranges run $15 to $49 in Melbourne, $11 to $45 in Sydney and Brisbane, $8 to $25 in Adelaide and $5 to $18 in Perth (October 2026). For 'criminal lawyer' the spread is $13 to $64 in Brisbane against $6 to $18 in Adelaide. A national firm should not run one budget across every city, and a Perth firm should not assume east coast prices.
How much should a law firm spend on Google Ads?
Start from the matter, not the budget. A worked example, as arithmetic rather than a benchmark: if a family law matter leaves $4,000 after the work, one in three consultations becomes a matter, one in two enquiries books a consultation and one in ten clicks enquires, the most you can pay for a click and break even is $4,000 x 1/3 x 1/2 x 1/10, about $67. Then budget for enough volume to learn from: Google's guidance for Target CPA bidding is about 30 conversions in 30 days per campaign, which is why early bidding often runs on consultations while matter data builds.
How do you track calls from Google Ads back to matters?
In three layers. Call assets use Google forwarding numbers, available in Australia, so Google can log each call's length and whether it connected, and count it as a conversion when it passes the minimum length you set. Calls from the website use forwarding numbers swapped onto your site, so they are tied to the click as well. Then the consultations and matters those calls become are recorded in your practice-management system and imported back to Google Ads within 90 days of the click.
How call tracking worksAre lawyers allowed to advertise on Google in Australia?
Yes. We found no lawyer-specific Google Ads policy for Australia; Google's legal requirements policy puts compliance with the laws of each targeted area on the advertiser. The laws that matter are rule 36 of the solicitors' conduct rules, which bars false, misleading or offensive advertising and 'accredited specialist' claims without accreditation, and, for personal injury work, the state statutes: Queensland's Personal Injuries Proceedings Act and Western Australia's Civil Liability Act limit what injury advertising may say and where it may appear. This is general information: confirm with your law society.
Law firm advertising rules, state by stateWhich lawyers are in demand in Australia?
By search demand, conveyancers and family lawyers lead: Keyword Planner shows 22,200 searches a month for 'conveyancer' and 12,100 for 'family lawyer', ahead of 'migration agent' (4,400) and 3,600 each for criminal, employment, immigration and workers compensation lawyers (October 2026). Demand is not the same as value. The dearest clicks sit in injury work, where 'medical negligence lawyer' reaches $169 at the top of its bid range, because a single matter there can be worth a great deal.
How do you advertise a law firm on Google without breaching the rules?
Write each ad about the service, the place and how to book. Leave out outcome promises, claims such as 'best' or 'leading' that you cannot back up, and 'specialist' wording unless a named solicitor holds the accreditation. Keep personal injury ads to what the statute allows in Queensland and Western Australia. Have a partner sign off each version, keep a dated record of what ran and where, and set location targeting so copy approved for one state does not serve in another.
The advertising rules in fullShould we bid on 'no win no fee lawyers'?
Only where the message is allowed and accurate. Keyword Planner shows 2,900 monthly searches at top-of-page bids of $15 to $89 (October 2026). In Queensland, the Queensland Law Society's guidance is that 'no win no fee' may appear in personal injury advertising only on the firm's own website, and that the phrase without qualification is likely to mislead unless the firm will indemnify a losing client against the other side's costs and the client pays no disbursements. Western Australia's Civil Liability Act likewise limits injury advertising outside the firm's own site. In February 2026, QLS Proctor reported a tribunal fining a practitioner $30,000 over 'No Win, No Fee' injury advertising.
Further reading
Law Firm Advertising Rules in Australia, State by State
What rule 36 and the personal injury statutes allow in search ads, on social media and on your own site.
How Much Does a Google Ads Agency Cost in Australia?
Fee models and AUD ranges to compare any Google Ads quote against.
Google Ads conversion tracking
Setting up conversions that reflect real enquiries rather than page views.
What you actually buy
We fix the measurement, then we run the account. It starts with a free call.
Which of these sounds like your week?
- Meta says one number, Google says another, the CRM says a third, and the bank says something else again.
- The leads come in and most of them are rubbish.
- Traffic is fine. Not enough of them buy.
- You cannot spend more without losing margin.
- Something is wrong and you cannot say what.
All five are the same job. We fix the measurement first, then the same senior operators run the spend against it. The free call is where we work out which part you need first.
00 · Free
Run your own numbers
Six calculators and an attribution reference. Work out your break-even ROAS, your CAC payback, and whether the spend is structurally profitable, before you talk to anyone. The calculators need no signup.
01 · Free · 30 minutes
The profit audit call
A senior operator looks at your real spend, revenue and attribution gap on a call. You leave with a written fix list you keep, whether or not we ever work together. No deck, no follow-up sales sequence. We reply within one business day with three times to choose from.
02 · Optional · Two weeks
The two-week diagnostic
Read-only. We change nothing in your accounts. Every tag, event and consent rule mapped and written up: 20 to 35 pages, every issue rated P0 to P3 with an engineering-day estimate, and a 90-minute walk-through on day twelve. Yours to hand to us, your own team, or your existing agency. About a third of clients run this first, then decide.
03 · The engagement · Ongoing
The rebuild, then we run it
The first twelve weeks rebuild the measurement server-side so the reports reconcile to the bank, and work the funnel where the leak actually is. From there the same senior operators keep running Google Ads, Meta and search, with budget, bids and creative decided weekly against contribution margin and the reasoning written down. If your measurement is already sound, management starts straight away.
What it costs
Four things set the number
- The size of your stack
- How many ad platforms are live
- The state of your CRM integration
- How many service lines and locations you run
Two things do not
- Your industry
- How much you spend on ads
Revenue only matters because a bigger business is usually a bigger scope. We do not price off a percentage of it. We charge for the work, not for what you look like you can afford.
How it is billedThe rebuild is fixed scope, paid in instalments. Ongoing management is a fixed fee for the agreed scope. Both are quoted in one written proposal after the call. No hourly billing and no percentage of ad spend.
Included at no extra costThe written playbook and decision log, yours to keep whether we run the account or your team takes it in-house.
What happens after you book
Three steps. No mystery.
Step 01 · Within 1 business day
30-minute audit call
A senior operator on the call. We look at your real numbers, spend, revenue, attribution gap, and tell you on the call whether the rebuild is worth doing for you and where it would start. No pitch deck.
Step 02 · Within 1 week
Written proposal
Fixed scope, fixed number, written up. The proposal names deliverables, timeline, the people involved, and the price. No hourly billing, no retainer drift.
Step 03 · Within 2 weeks
Engagement starts
Senior operators from day one. The measurement rebuild starts, we take over day-to-day buying on the channels we can measure, and the first working session lands. Inside two weeks of the call.
Next step
Bring a month of spend and the matters it produced.
Book a free 30-minute profit audit and bring last month's Google Ads spend, your practice areas and a rough count of the matters that came from search. A senior operator will show you where the money went, what each practice area can afford per click, and whether the tracking needs rebuilding before anything else.