What are the best practices for PPC campaign structure?

Introduction

Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, when strategically structured, can yield immediate traffic, high-quality leads, and measurable return on investment for law firms. However, the success of a PPC campaign hinges heavily on its structure. A well-organised campaign not only improves performance but also allows for greater control, better budget allocation, and more effective optimisation. Below, we examine the best practices for structuring a PPC campaign tailored to the legal sector.

Understand Your Objectives

The starting point for any PPC campaign should be a clear understanding of your business objectives. Whether your aim is to generate leads for personal injury cases, increase visibility for family law services, or drive enquiries to a legal blog, your campaign structure must be aligned with these goals. Treat each legal service as a distinct offering and consider segmenting your campaigns accordingly. This clarity ensures accurate targeting, relevant ad copy and landing pages, and reliable data tracking.

Segment Campaigns by Practice Area

Organising your campaigns by specific practice areas is considered a best practice in the legal field. For instance, separate campaigns could exist for criminal defence, family law, conveyancing, or commercial litigation. This separation allows for improved relevance in keyword targeting, ad messaging, and landing pages. It also facilitates more granular budget allocation, ensuring higher-priority services receive the investment they deserve.

Use Ad Groups to Reflect Specific Services or Case Types

Within each campaign, create ad groups that align with specific services or case types. For example, within a family law campaign, ad groups might include divorce, child custody, and prenuptial agreements. This level of granularity increases the relevance of your keywords and ad copy, improving click-through rates (CTR) and Quality Scores. Tailoring each ad group ensures prospects see the most relevant message based on their specific legal need.

Keyword Targeting: Precision Over Volume

In the legal industry, competition for keywords can be intense and costly. It is essential to focus on targeted, intent-driven keywords as part of your structure. Use a combination of exact and phrase match types to maintain control over search queries and minimise wasteful spend. Avoid broad match keywords unless they are tightly monitored and paired with effective negative keyword lists. Include location-specific terms where relevant, especially for firms serving particular regions or cities.

Create Dedicated Landing Pages

Driving traffic to a law firm’s homepage can dilute the message and reduce conversions. Each ad group should lead to a dedicated landing page that matches the user’s intent and offers clear information related to the specific legal service. Landing pages should have strong calls to action, trust signals like client testimonials or accreditations, and concise content outlining your expertise. This not only improves Quality Scores but also significantly enhances conversion rates.

Implement Robust Ad Copy Strategies

Your ad copy must speak directly to the legal concerns of your potential clients. Highlighting unique value propositions, such as free initial consultations, experienced solicitors, or 24/7 availability, can differentiate your firm from competitors. Ensure each ad closely aligns with the keywords and intent of the corresponding ad group to improve relevance. Utilise ad extensions, such as callouts, sitelinks, and structured snippets, to add more context and increase visibility.

Location and Device Targeting

Given the localised nature of many legal services, it is important to structure campaigns with geo-targeting in mind. Set geographic parameters around your actual service areas to reduce irrelevant clicks and maximise budget efficiency. Similarly, analyse device performance and consider segmenting campaigns or adjusting bids based on device type. For instance, users seeking urgent legal help may be more likely to click and call on a mobile device.

Use Conversion Tracking to Inform Optimisation

Ensure that every campaign is set up with accurate conversion tracking. This allows you to identify which campaigns, ad groups, keywords, and ads drive actual client enquiries. For law firms, a conversion might be a completed contact form, a phone call, or a booked consultation. With clear tracking data, you can make informed bidding decisions and refine underperforming segments of your campaign structure.

Employ a Test-and-Learn Approach

PPC campaigns should not remain static. A structured approach includes regular A/B testing of ad copy, landing pages, and offers. Testing improves campaign effectiveness over time and uncovers new opportunities for optimisation. Use this ongoing learning to refine your structure, reallocate budgets, and test new keyword themes aligned with emerging client needs.

Maintain Proactive Negative Keyword Lists

Ongoing addition of negative keywords is essential to maintaining structure and cost-efficiency. The legal industry can attract irrelevant or low-intent traffic due to broad search terms. By proactively managing a negative keyword list, you prevent wasted spend and ensure your campaigns remain focused on users genuinely seeking your expertise.

Conclusion

A well-structured PPC campaign is not simply organised for the sake of neatness; it is a strategic asset that enables precise targeting, improves ad relevance, and maximises return on investment. For law firms, where each client represents substantial value, getting your campaign structure right can be the determining factor between steady lead generation and unnecessary expenditure. By aligning your campaign with practice areas, refining keyword targeting, and continually optimising through data-driven decisions, your firm can outperform competitors and consistently attract high-quality client enquiries.