The Easy Guide to Facebook Ads for Lawyers: Everything You Need to Know
- Brooke Mathieu
Facebook ads for lawyers can be extremely effective in acquiring new clients. But, it can be tricky to know where to start and what you need to do to create successful campaigns. In this article, we will walk you through everything you need to know about Facebook Ads for lawyers. We’ll start with the basics – why you should be using them in the first place – and then move on to more detailed instructions, like setting up your ad and tracking results. By the end of this guide, you’ll be ready to launch your own successful Facebook Ads campaign!
An Intro to Facebook Ads
Let’s start with the basics: what are Facebook Ads? Facebook Ads are a form of paid advertising that allows you to target a specific audience with your law firm’s message. You can control how much you spend on each ad, and you only pay when your selected objective is completed. You can also choose which type of ad you want to run, and test different variations of each ad to see what is resonating with your audience the most. This is an extremely effective way to reach new potential clients!
Not to mention, about 71% of the United States can be found on Facebook and that number is forecasted to continue to grow. One of the most crucial elements of any successful marketing campaign is knowing who your target audience is and how you can most effectively grab their attention. In short, meet your clients where they are at (online). Facebook being the top social media platform in the world, having a variety of all types of users, and having the ability to create ads that are also cost effective, are what make Facebook such a great space to advertise on. However, you still need to have a thoughtful law firm social media strategy.
Why You Should Be Using Facebook Ads
Now that you know what Facebook Ads are, let’s talk about why you should be using them. There are several reasons it’s time for your firm to be using Facebook Advertising:
They’re extremely effective. When done correctly, Facebook Ads can be a powerful tool for acquiring new clients.
They’re relatively inexpensive. You can control how much you spend on each ad, so you can create a campaign that fits your budget.
They’re targeted. You can target your ads to reach a specific audience, which means you’re more likely to reach potential clients who are interested in your services and are more qualified leads.
You can use your own lists and create new ones. If you have lists of past clients or potential new clients you can upload them into Facebook’s audience manager and create specific campaigns for those lists. You can also create look-a-like audiences from these lists.
You can track your leads. Facebook saves any leads you get from their campaign. You can use these leads to create retargeting lists to use in other campaigns that would resonate with the same audience.
You can use images or videos to grab your audience’s attention. Whether you choose a graphic, photo, or video, you can choose a piece of creative that will stand out to your audience.
You get a better idea of who your audience is. One of the benefits of using Facebook is you can get an insight on your audience’s demographics. This will allow you to see if you are reaching the target audience and you can see what is resonating with them.
Setting Up Your Facebook Ad
Before you even setup your ad in Facebook, make sure you know who your audience is, what your objective is, and how you went to get your message across. Once you have an answer to these things you can begin setting up your ad by following this step-by-step process.
1. Make sure your ads manager account is setup and click create.
 2. Choose which type of campaign you want to run. For divorce & family law firms we recommend either going with a traffic campaign or lead generation type of campaign.
3. After you’ve completed this step choose a name for your campaign and set your budget as well as how long you’d like for it to run. You can also decide to turn on budget optimization. This can help save money if you have multiple ads in the same campaign. Facebook will allocate money from the total budget to the best performing campaigns.
4. Once your campaign is setup you will start setting up the ad set. You will first choose a name and then setup your budget and length of the ad if you did not choose to turn on campaign optimization, your targeting options, where you want your ad to be placed, and how you want Facebook to optimize and track your performance.
5. The final step is setting up the ad itself. Here you will name your ad, choose the type of creative you want, the body copy, headline, and choose your link.
Pro Tip: Use dedicated landing pages. They are focused on one goal and tend to have better conversion rates.
Once you have followed all of these steps you can go ahead and publish your campaign!
Know Which Key Performance Indicators You Should Be Tracking
Now that your ad is setup it’s important to know which key performance indicators (KPIs) you should be tracking in order to know how well your ad is actually performing. Through ads manager you can view your ad report.
Here are the metrics I like to look at and why:
- Reach —This lets you know how many people your advertisement has been delivered to.
- Impressions —Similar to reach, but Facebook provides the total number of times your ads were on screen.
- Frequency — This is one many people overlook. You want to keep this under a 3.5. Frequency is the average amount of times each person has seen the same ad. Once your frequency surpasses 3.5 you’ll want to make some adjustments to your ad whether it’s a creative refresh or making updates to your targeting.
- Results — It pretty much speaks for itself, but this lets you know how many people clicked on your ad or filled out your form depending on your ad’s objective.
- CPC (cost-per-click) — The average CPC for legal services is about $1.32. This will vary based on targeting, location, and audience size. The average CPC across all industries is about $1.72 and again this varies. Although you want to be as close to either of these numbers as possible, if you are a little over it is okay. However, if you start hitting a CPC of over $3.50 on Facebook it’s time to start making some adjustments.
- CTR (link click-through-rate) — Probably one of, if not the most important metrics to track. This let’s you know the percentage of people that saw your ad and clicked on it. An average CTR across all industries is about 0.90%. Like CPC, CTR can be objective, but if your CTR is significantly lower you’ll want to make some changes to your ad.
It’s very important that you are tracking all of these metrics when evaluating your ad performance. Facebook makes recommendations, but remember, they are just recommendations (that typically result in you spending more money). For example, one of our campaigns that is one of our top-performing campaigns has a frequency of 3.79 which in Facebook’s eyes is not good. When I look at the same ad’s CPC it is $0.98, CTR is 0.96%, and the results are 247 landing page views. This lets me know that while the frequency may be higher than what is recommended, according to the CPC, CTR, and results this ad is still performing well. So no changes need to be made at this moment, but this campaign may need a little extra monitoring and some creative updates will be needed once these other metrics start changing.
Make Adjustments as Needed
Now that you know which KPIs to track it’s important to make adjustments as needed. The best way to evaluate if changes need to be made is by constantly monitoring your ad performance and making note of any changes in your KPIs. If you start to see a decline in performance, that’s when you’ll want to make some changes.
Final Takeaways
Advertising on Facebook is a great way to increase your firm’s visibility and attract potential new clients at a lower cost. Another perk is being able to tap into a more targeted audience and get key demographic insights to your audience. One of the best places to showcase your services and meet your audience where they’re at is on social media. Take the time to familiarize yourself with the platform and set up your ads correctly. It will make a world of difference. This may seem like a lot to digest, but Facebook has proved to be a great space for advertising for all law firms we work with across the country. If you’re thinking about advertising on Facebook, but aren’t sure were to start, contact us today and we’d be happy to help.
