How to use location targeting effectively in PPC campaigns?

Understanding Location Targeting in PPC Campaigns

Location targeting is a powerful feature in pay-per-click (PPC) advertising that enables legal professionals to display their ads to users in specific geographic areas. By refining your audience based on location, you can increase relevance, reduce wasted spend, and drive higher-quality leads to your law firm. Done correctly, location targeting enhances the efficiency of your campaigns and improves return on investment (ROI).

Why Location Targeting Matters for Law Firms

Legal services are inherently local. Whether you’re a solicitor dealing with conveyancing, a criminal defence lawyer, or a firm focusing on family law, prospective clients are most often seeking representation within their region. Location targeting facilitates this by ensuring your ads appear only to searchers in areas you serve, and not beyond your jurisdiction or physical reach. This approach not only saves budget but also aligns your messaging with a localised audience, increasing trust and conversion potential.

Setting Up Effective Location Targeting in Google Ads

To maximise the impact of your PPC campaigns, defining your location settings correctly is crucial. When setting up a new campaign in platforms such as Google Ads, you’ll be prompted to choose your target location. Options typically include countries, regions, cities, postal codes, and even a custom radius around a physical location.

For law firms, targeting by city or setting a radius around your office is often the most effective. It ensures that your ads reach individuals most likely to require your services and who are within reasonable travelling distance of your practice.

Utilise Location Exclusions

Equally important as defining who to target is determining who not to. Location exclusions prevent your ads from appearing in areas where you either don’t provide services or where leads tend to be low in quality or unprofitable. For example, if your firm is licensed to operate in England and Wales only, you’d want to exclude locations in Scotland and Northern Ireland from your campaigns.

Create Location-Specific Ad Copy

Tailoring your ad copy to specific regions can significantly improve your click-through and conversion rates. Mentioning a city or area name in your ad headline or description creates a stronger connection with users, enhancing relevance and trust. For instance, instead of a generic ad saying “Experienced Family Solicitor”, you might say “Trusted Leeds Family Solicitor with 20+ Years Experience”.

Segment Campaigns by Location

If your firm serves multiple areas, it’s preferable to create separate campaigns or ad groups for each key location. This segmentation allows for more precise targeting, budget control, and performance analysis. Each campaign can feature location-customised ad copy and use different bidding strategies based on historical performance within that specific area.

Track Location Performance Data

Once your campaigns are live, monitor the performance across different geographic regions. Within your ad platform, the location report will indicate where your traffic and conversions are coming from. This insight allows you to optimise budget allocation, pause underperforming areas, and double down on high-converting locations. Law firms can particularly benefit from tying this data back to client intake tracking to determine which leads turn into paying clients.

Combine Location Targeting with Other Audience Layers

Layering location targeting with other audience filters, such as demographics or user intent signals, enhances specificity. For example, if your firm specialises in high-net-worth divorce cases in London, you can target users not only within specified postcodes but also in certain income brackets, based on Google’s affinity and in-market audience data. This extra depth refines your reach and improves the quality of your leads.

Adapt Bids Based on Location Performance

Google Ads and other PPC platforms allow you to set bid adjustments based on location. With this feature, you can increase your bids in areas that generate stronger leads or have a higher client conversion rate. For example, if clients from central London deliver a higher average case value, it would be prudent to increase bids for that area to ensure you remain competitive in auction rankings.

Be Mindful of Mobile and Travel Behaviour

Users often perform searches on their mobile devices while on the move. Someone residing outside your location might search for your services while visiting your area. In such cases, using advanced location options to include “people in or regularly in your targeted locations” rather than “people interested in your targeted locations” offers better control and avoids showing ads to individuals outside your practicable service area.

Test and Refine Based on Results

PPC campaigns are not static. Review your location targeting regularly and adjust based on case value trends, seasonal fluctuations, and new insights from data. Continual refinement ensures your law firm remains prominent in its core service areas without spending ineffectively in markets that are not yielding results.

Conclusion

Location targeting is a critical component of a successful PPC strategy for law firms. By narrowing your focus to the areas where your services are most relevant—and avoiding regions that do not convert—you increase the cost-effectiveness of your campaigns. Take the time to personalise your approach per location, review performance data diligently, and adapt as necessary, ensuring your firm stays visible to the right clients, at the right time, in the right place.