4 Questions to Ask Your Legal Marketing Agency

In the competitive landscape of legal services, having a reliable marketing agency is not just an asset, but a necessity. However, ensuring that your agency delivers optimal results requires regular monitoring and accountability. As an attorney, developing a solid understanding of basic metrics can help you hold your agency accountable and push them to improve your results. This blog will guide you through these metrics, helping you keep your legal marketing agency accountable and ensuring your marketing efforts are not just an expense but an investment.

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Here are 4 important questions you should ask your agency:

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How Is Our Cost-Per-Lead Trending?

Cost per lead (CPL) is a critical metric in evaluating the efficiency of your marketing campaigns. It represents the cost incurred to acquire each lead and is calculated by dividing the total marketing expenses by the number of leads generated. Keeping track of CPL helps in identifying the effectiveness of different marketing channels and strategies. Ask your agency to provide a monthly breakdown of CPL. This data helps in understanding which campaigns are yielding the best results and where adjustments are necessary. A consistent increase in CPL without a proportional rise in lead quality or quantity may signal inefficiencies that need addressing.

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Moreover, keeping lead quality constant, a competent agency will, over time, find ways to improve your cost-per-lead metric, meaning that you pay less in marketing spend for each new lead your firm acquires. 

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What Is Our CAC Looking Like Over the Past Few Months?

Client Acquisition Cost (CAC) is a vital metric that quantifies the total expense incurred in acquiring a new client. This figure includes not just marketing expenses, but also the salaries of your sales and marketing team, along with any related operational costs. Conducting a thorough analysis of CAC provides valuable insights into the effectiveness of your marketing and sales strategies. It's essential to receive regular updates from your agency on CAC trends, as these can inform critical decisions and aid in strategizing for sustainable growth.

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The significance of this metric lies in its ability to reveal the true Return on Investment (ROI) of your marketing efforts. Consider a hypothetical scenario where you run a personal injury firm. If your CAC is $3,000, this means, on average, your firm spends $3,000 to acquire each new client. Suppose the average settlement or verdict for your firm historically stands at $90,000, from which your firm retains a third, amounting to $30,000. This situation translates to a 10x ROI, implying that for every $1 spent on marketing, you earn $10 in gross revenue. Such an analysis offers a crystal-clear picture of your investment's return, potentially boosting your confidence in further investing in your firm's growth. A common obstacle for many firms is a lack of clear understanding of their ROI, leading to hesitancy in investing more into a proven, lucrative pipeline.

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What Are the Conversion Rates for Our Top Landing Pages?

Conversion rates on landing pages are a direct reflection of the effectiveness of your online presence. High conversion rates indicate that your landing pages are well-designed, with compelling content and a clear call-to-action. Because no landing page is perfect, and the conversion rate of each page can be improved through testing, monthly assessments of conversion rates, especially for top-performing landing pages, are critical. Ask your agency to make a list of your top landing pages by the amount of traffic and conversion they get, and to report any changes or optimizations made to improve these rates. Look for consistent improvements or explanations for any fluctuations. Over an extended period, the conversion rates for your top landing pages should improve regardless of external factors such as seasonality. If you don’t see an improvement, or even worse, observe a decline in conversion rates, your agency is likely not doing any optimization work on landing pages. This means that you are wasting valuable time and resources when you could be paying less for each lead and each new client.

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Is Our Non-Branded Organic Search Traffic Increasing?

Non-branded organic search volume is a measure of your website's visibility and relevance in search results unrelated to your brand name. It's an indicator of how well your content resonates with the target audience and ranks for relevant keywords. A growing trend in non-branded organic search volume suggests effective SEO strategies and content relevance. Request regular reports from your agency on this metric. Look for steady growth or understand the reasons behind any decline. This insight helps in fine-tuning SEO strategies and content creation to align better with audience needs and search trends.

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Keeping your legal marketing agency accountable is not just about monitoring their performance but also about understanding the metrics that drive successful marketing campaigns. Regularly discussing cost per lead, CAC, conversion rates, and non-branded organic search trends with your agency ensures transparency and fosters a collaborative environment for continual improvement. By focusing on these key metrics, you can ensure that your legal marketing efforts are not just expenditures but strategic investments in your firm’s growth and success.