Key facts
- State bar associations regulate attorney advertising, and rules commonly restrict guarantees of outcome, require certain disclaimers on testimonials, and in some states require ads to be filed or retained for review, so a marketing vendor unfamiliar with the specific state's rules can put a firm's license at risk with a single ad line.
- A personal injury or family law case can take months to resolve and pay out at a scale entirely different from a simple traffic ticket or an uncontested matter, so a single cost-per-lead target across every practice area misreads which leads are actually worth pursuing.
- Referrals from other attorneys and past clients remain a major source of new matters for most firms, and a marketing plan that ignores this channel entirely, treating paid search and SEO as the whole strategy, is competing against a channel it never accounts for.
- Search behavior splits by urgency and stakes: someone searching "DUI lawyer near me" at 11pm is in a different moment than someone researching "how long does a divorce take", and a firm's website needs both an urgent-contact path and a slower-consideration path.
- Confidentiality rules mean case results and client stories used in marketing generally require the client's informed consent and often need identifying details removed or altered, which changes how a testimonial or case study section of a website has to be built compared to most other industries.
Scope boundaries
Name the practice areas in scope and whether each gets its own page and campaign, since a general practice firm and a firm concentrated in one area, such as personal injury, need very different structures. State the channels: website, local SEO, Google Ads, or a combination.
Out of scope unless separately priced: any advertising requiring a specific state bar filing or pre-approval process the vendor has not budgeted time for, and any content implying a guaranteed outcome, which most bar rules prohibit outright. Require the vendor to name which state or provincial bar rules apply and confirm they have reviewed them for this specific engagement.
What the vendor must be given
Manager-level access to the firm's Google Business Profile, Google Ads account, and analytics, with ownership staying in the firm's name. A list of practice areas ranked by the firm's actual capacity and appetite for new matters, since driving a flood of leads in an area the firm cannot staff wastes spend and frustrates the intake team.
Any existing bar advertising compliance guidelines the firm follows, or a plan to establish them before campaigns launch. A named intake contact who can confirm which leads actually became retained clients, since that is the number that matters more than raw lead volume.
Ownership and exit clauses
State that the firm owns its Google Business Profile, Google Ads account, website, and domain outright, with the vendor added as a manager. This matters particularly at firms where partners change over time, since the marketing accounts should survive a partnership change without a scramble to recover access.
On exit, require full handover within a set number of days, including any client testimonial consent records used in marketing, since those need to stay with the firm, not disappear with a departing vendor.
Milestones and acceptance tests
Compliance review of all planned ad copy against the relevant bar's advertising rules before anything launches. Campaign structure separated by practice area within 30 days, each with its own intake tracking. A defined path for urgent, time-sensitive searches, such as a criminal matter, distinct from the path for a slower-consideration matter like estate planning.
Acceptance test at 90 days: can the vendor show, by practice area, how many leads became actual retained clients or booked consultations, tied back to the firm's intake process, not just form submissions counted as success on their own.
Scoring rubric
Weight bidders toward compliance and category fit first.
Demonstrated understanding of the relevant bar's advertising rules, 25 percent.
Ability to structure and report by practice area, 20 percent.
Intake integration and lead-to-client tracking, 20 percent.
Price and contract terms, 20 percent.
References from other law firms, called directly, 15 percent.
A bidder who cannot name the relevant bar rules when asked should not advance regardless of how strong the rest of their pitch sounds.
Questions every bidder must answer
Require written answers.
Which state or provincial bar advertising rules have you reviewed for this engagement, and how do they affect our ad copy?
How do you structure campaigns across multiple practice areas with very different case values?
What is your process for tracking a lead through to a retained client, not just a form submission?
How do you handle testimonials or case results given client confidentiality obligations?
Once we sign, who legally owns the Google Ads account, the Business Profile, and the website?
What happens to our accounts and any consent records if we switch agencies?
Related questions
Yes. State bar associations regulate attorney advertising, commonly restricting outcome guarantees, requiring specific disclaimers on testimonials, and in some states requiring ads to be filed or kept on record. These rules vary by state and province, so any marketing vendor should confirm which rules apply to your jurisdiction before writing a single ad.
Usually not. Different practice areas carry very different case values and different urgency levels, a personal injury matter is not comparable to a simple uncontested filing, so the budget and the cost-per-lead target should reflect that difference rather than treating every practice area the same.
Generally yes, but with the client's informed consent and often with identifying details removed or altered to respect confidentiality obligations, on top of whatever disclaimer the relevant bar rules require for testimonials. This needs a documented consent process, not an assumption that a happy client's quote is automatically fine to publish.
Track leads through to retained clients by practice area, not just form submissions or calls. A campaign can generate plenty of leads that never become paying matters, so tying marketing reporting to the firm's intake process is what tells you whether the spend is producing real business.
It should be accounted for, since referrals from other attorneys and past clients remain a significant source of new matters for many firms. A marketing plan built as though paid search and SEO are the entire pipeline is measuring itself against a smaller share of new business than the firm actually generates.
SearchPod is a vendor for this kind of work and would answer this RFP; the acceptance tests here are the ones we agree to.
Want this scoped and priced for your business?
Get a free, no-obligation proposal within one business day. We look at your site and your market and tell you plainly what we would do, and what we would not.
Get your free proposal