Our Process
The Law Firm Marketing Process We Run on Every Account
Our law firm marketing process has two starting points and one winning pattern. If your ad account is brand new, we start with research and creative. If you are already spending and it is not working, we start with an audit and a gap analysis. From there both firms follow the same path: build, launch, optimize and scale.
Law firms only · Serving law firms nationwide
2 ways in
New account or an account that stalled
1 pattern
The same build, launch and scale for both
Daily
Hands-on account management
Monthly
One report, every channel
The law firm marketing process Caseload Marketing runs on a law firm ad account. Timings vary by firm; the order of the work does not.
What is the Caseload Marketing law firm marketing process?
It is a fixed order of work that every account follows, from research to scale, run by the same team and reported the same way every month.
Where the law firm marketing process begins depends on what you already have. A firm opening a new ad account needs research and creative before anything else. A firm with months of spend and nothing to show for it needs to know what went wrong first, or the same mistakes get rebuilt at a higher budget.
After that first step the two paths are the same, and they do not end. Optimizing and scaling is ongoing work for as long as we run the account.
- Research before creative. We look at what is working in your market before we write a word.
- Your attorneys on camera. We write the scripts, your team films them, we do the rest.
- The account is prepared first. Everything is set up to best practice before budget goes live.
- Scaling is ongoing. Not a launch and a handover — an ongoing rhythm.
Which starting point is your firm?
Two situations, two first steps. Everything after that is the same law firm marketing process for both.
Starting point A
A brand new ad account
You have never run paid social, or the account exists but has never spent. There is no history to learn from, so we build the picture from the market instead.
We start with: competitor, market and audience research.
Starting point B
An account that is spending but not working
You have been running ads, the cost per lead has climbed, or the leads are not turning into cases. There is history here, and it is worth reading before touching anything.
We start with: an audit, a competitor analysis and a gap analysis.
Starting point A
How do we start a brand new ad account?
With no spend history to read, we build the plan from the market: who else is advertising to people who need a lawyer in your area, what they are saying, and what is already getting attention.
Nothing in this half of the law firm marketing process is guesswork, and none of it is a template. Two firms in the same city get two different plans because their markets, their competitors and their attorneys are different.
- Market and competitor research. Who is advertising against you, what they are running and where the gaps are.
- Target market analysis. Who we need to reach, where they are, and what makes someone who needs a lawyer pick up the phone.
- Creative planning. Ideas built for your firm, your case types and your market.
- Scripts written for your attorneys. Our team writes them. They are yours, written for your case types and your voice, ready to shoot.
- Your team films, we edit. You shoot the scripts and send the footage back. We cut it into the formats that perform on Meta.
- Campaign build. Everything set up to best practice and checked against your state’s advertising rules before anything is submitted.
- Account preparation. The account is readied before the lead campaigns go live.
- Lead generation goes live. The main campaigns launch with creative and copy that were chosen, not guessed.
What you get at the end: an ad account that is live and running creative built specifically for your firm — not a recycled campaign with your logo on it.
Starting point B
How do we fix an account that is spending but not working?
Before we change anything we find out what went wrong, because rebuilding a campaign on top of the same problem just makes the problem more expensive.
This half of the law firm marketing process is free and you keep the findings. Some of the accounts we review do not need an agency, they need one thing fixed. When that is the case we say so.
- Account audit. Structure, budgets, creative and what the account has actually been producing, month by month, inside Meta Ads Manager.
- Competitor analysis. What the firms winning in your market are running right now, and how your ads compare beside them.
- Gap analysis. The difference between the two, in plain language: what is missing, what is working against you, and what is fine and should be left alone.
- Findings, in writing. A prioritized list of what is costing you cases today, including anything running that would not pass ABA Model Rule 7.2 — yours to keep whether or not you work with us.
- Then the same winning pattern. New scripts, your attorneys on camera, fresh creative, rebuilt ad copy and a relaunch into an account that has been cleaned up first.
What you get at the end: a straight answer about why the account is underperforming, and a rebuild that follows the same pattern as a brand new account rather than a patch over the old one.
What happens once both paths meet?
Launch, optimize, scale. From launch onward there is no difference between the two starting points. This is the part of the law firm marketing process that never finishes.
01
Launch
Lead campaigns go live with the ad copy and creative we built. Every lead is routed to your CRM with the campaign attached and alerted to your team the moment it lands.
02
Optimize
Managed every working day. Creative is reviewed and improved, so the account keeps improving month after month.
03
Scale
Budget grows as performance holds, and new creative is always in the queue.
Optimizing and scaling is ongoing for as long as we run the account. It is not a launch and a handover.
What does a law firm get from us every month?
The law firm marketing process ends every month the same way: the same report, in the same format, whether the month was good or bad. We would rather explain a soft month than dress one up.
Spend, leads and cost per lead
Per campaign and per channel, with the previous month beside it so the direction is obvious at a glance.
What intake did with them
Leads called, leads reached, consultations booked and, where your CRM tracks it, cases signed. This is the number that decides where budget goes next.
Creative performance
Which creative and which case types are producing, which are tiring, and what is being tested to replace them.
What we changed
Every meaningful change we made during the month and why, so nothing that happens to your account is a surprise.
What we are changing next
The plan for the coming month, agreed with you rather than announced to you.
The honest part
If something did not work, it is in the report with what we think went wrong. Nobody learns anything from a report that only contains good news.
Our published results come from the same reporting. You can read them in the law firm marketing case studies, account by account.
The process in practice
What does the process look like in practice?
Mid-Atlantic Law Firm came to us with an account that was spending but could not say what it was producing — starting point B of the law firm marketing process. Monthly leads went from about 31 to 237 in the first month after the rebuild, the account has delivered more than 7,600 leads, and the reporting has not had a gap since.
Which legal cases does this process run for?
We work with law firms across the United States. The case types below are some of the most popular we run this process for, not an exhaustive list; our expertise is not limited to them. The process is identical for every firm; what changes is the research and the creative.
Car and auto accidents
Car crash leads for injury firms nationwide, from the highest-volume case type in personal injury.
Truck and commercial vehicle
Truck and commercial vehicle cases for firms nationwide, where one signed case can carry real value.
Motorcycle accidents
Motorcycle accident leads for firms that want more rider cases nationwide.
Slip, trip and fall
Premises liability leads for firms taking slip, trip and fall cases nationwide.
Rideshare, pedestrian and bicycle
Uber, Lyft, pedestrian and bicycle crash leads for firms nationwide.
Wrongful death and catastrophic injury
Serious injury and wrongful death cases for firms nationwide, handled with the care families expect.
Workers’ compensation
Workers’ compensation leads for firms nationwide.
Nursing home abuse and neglect
Nursing home abuse and neglect cases for firms nationwide.
Dog bites, medical malpractice, mass torts and other case types run through the same process. Popular case types are covered in our law firm marketing guide.
Which channel does the process start with?
The law firm marketing process almost always starts with paid social, because it is the fastest way to find out what your market responds to. Email follow-up and newsletters come on once the leads are flowing.
01
Meta ads
Facebook and Instagram lead generation. Where nearly every firm starts, and where the research and creative work pays off fastest.
02
Email & newsletters
The monthly newsletter that keeps your firm in front of everyone who inquired and did not sign.
03
Everything together
One agency, one report, one law firm marketing process across every channel your firm runs.
Law firm marketing process: FAQs
The questions attorneys ask us most about the law firm marketing process and how we work.
What is your law firm marketing process?
Our law firm marketing process has two starting points. A firm with a brand new ad account starts with competitor, market and audience research, then scripts written by our team and filmed by your attorneys, edited creative, ad copy and the lead campaign launch. A firm already spending without results starts with an audit, a competitor analysis and a gap analysis, and then follows exactly the same pattern. After launch both are the same: test, optimize and scale, ongoing.
We have never run ads before. Where do we start?
With research. Because there is no spend history to read, we build the plan from your market instead: who else is advertising to people who need a lawyer in your area, what they are running, who we need to reach and what it takes to stand out. Everything after that is built on what the research found.
We are already spending and it is not working. What happens first?
An audit, a competitor analysis and a gap analysis, before anything is changed. We look at what the account has actually produced month by month, what the firms winning in your market are running, and the difference between the two. You get the findings in writing and you keep them either way.
Who writes the video scripts?
We do. Our team writes every script for your firm and your case types. They are written for your attorneys to say in their own voice, not read off a card.
Who films the videos?
Your attorneys do. You shoot the scripts we send and give us the footage back, and we edit it into the formats that perform on Meta. It is the one part of the process your firm has to do.
Who approves the ads before they go live?
Your firm does, always. Scripts, ad copy and creative come to you before anything is published. We also check every claim and comparison against the ABA Model Rules on lawyer advertising and your state bar’s rules first, but the final approval is yours because the advertising is yours.
How do you decide when to increase budget?
By results. Budget grows as performance holds, and every increase is agreed with your firm first.
Does the process ever end?
No. Optimizing and scaling is ongoing for as long as we run the account: new scripts, new creative, budget moving toward what is signing cases, and a monthly report for your team. The build is a project, the rest is a rhythm.
What happens if the campaign does not work?
We say so in the monthly report, with what we think went wrong.
Do you work with firms outside personal injury?
Yes. Personal injury is where we have run the most campaigns, but the process works for any practice area where people need a lawyer, and the case types on this page are not an exhaustive list. Tell us what your firm handles and we will tell you honestly whether we are a fit.
Start with a free account review
Tell us whether your ad account is brand new or already spending, and we will show you what the first step of our law firm marketing process looks like for your firm. If you are already running ads, you keep the findings whether or not we work together.