How to Target and Test Your Law Firm Display Advertising Campaigns

Display advertising is a type of online advertising, such as banner ads, that appear on websites and applications. The ads put your message in front of potential clients on the web and can include text, images, and other media. Consider adding it to your law firm marketing mix.

In order to ensure you are running effective display advertising campaigns, there are really two core elements that you need to pay attention to: targeting and testing. Both do better when you approach your advertising with an agile perspective. Here are some pointers on how to continually adjust your campaigns to make sure you are getting the most out of your law firm marketing dollars.

Targeting

There are several ways you can aim or focus your targeting initially. Depending on the areas of your practice you plan on growing, one method or a combination of methods may work best. Some common examples include the following.

By Specific Site – Choose your site individually, based on experience or research. For example, if you’re a family law practitioner, a great place to start might be your city’s local online newspaper. Facebook and other related social media platforms also have easy to use advertising platforms that may work well tailored to your business. The key here is to go with an educated theory and test it out.

By Site Context – This involves targeting your ads by topic or theme. Targeting contextually can be powerful because you are looking for site content with closely related keywords and topics. If your audience is into the content on those sites, chances are good, if you are aligned properly, they will be interested in your services.

Geo Targeting – This method works well for firms and practice areas that are more limited to local and regional areas. For example, you may want to serve your ads to only your home city of Raleigh, North Carolina. Or, you may want to increase the scope of the campaign to include other cities and towns that are in your target population. This is a great way to test new areas and to begin expanding your reach.

Testing

Dialing in your ads with proper targeting is really the first step in launching an effective campaign. Being able to pause, stop and change that targeting methodology when needed falls under the testing category. The combinations of different sites, ads, geographic regions and audiences are endless.

Your job is to keep testing intelligent combinations, identify winners and pause or discontinue non-performers. Here are a few tips:

Create two or three versions of the same basic ad, using different visuals or verbiage. Make sure the ads are run with identical budgets for an identical time frame. Compare.

Choose different areas and test by geography. Maybe your ad does well in Miami, but not in nearby Ft. Lauderdale. It’s important to note here that many times the same ad will perform differently in different marketplaces.

Test site against site. For the same allotted budget, you can potentially experience wide variance in overall performance. This is true for both quantity and quality of leads and visitors.

In the end, the goal is to target your campaigns intelligently, based on research and experience. Once they’re up and running, the key is to test them against each other continuously and consistently track results.
It’s only through consistent testing and experimentation that meaningful data can be compiled and decisions made. In display advertising, there truly is no one-size-fits-all solution for your firm.

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