Case Study  /  Law Firm

Local Services Ads Lead Tracking for a Law Firm

A law firm was paying for Local Services Ads leads in two accounts, one for traffic and DUI defense and one for family law. It wanted every lead matched to what happened next in its intake software and case manager, and the outcome sent back to Google. We built a lead feedback loop that connects Google, Intaker and Clio, labels each case that came from Local Services Ads, and reports what it can confirm.

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54
Traffic and DUI leads tracked in 30 days
45
Leads with a recorded firm contact
32
Ratings reported back to Google
25
Family law leads in the first 10 days
Credits: Google credits back roughly $300 a month per account on rated leads.
Early results. The traffic and DUI numbers cover September 21 to October 20. The family law account launched on October 19, and its numbers cover October 20 to October 29. Both windows are short, and a lead is linked to a case only once a matter opens. Results are specific to this firm and these windows and do not predict future results.
Anonymized, early results, results vary, no guarantee.
The Challenge

Leads arrived, and outcomes had to be matched to each one

The firm runs two Local Services Ads accounts. Calls and messages arrived every week, and Google charged for most of them. What happened after each lead lived in two other systems: Intaker, where the intake team logs every contact, and Clio, where a signed client becomes a matter.

Google accepts ratings and bookings from the advertiser, and it can credit back leads it judges to be poor. Without a routine that connects the three systems, that feedback never gets sent, and the firm cannot see which ad leads became cases.

Two Accounts

Traffic and DUI, then family law

The same loop ran on both accounts.

Traffic and DUI

54 leads in 30 days

48 calls and 6 messages between September 21 and October 20. The firm had a recorded contact on 45 of the 54 leads, and 32 ratings were reported back to Google. 10 leads arrived in the last 7 days of the window.

Family law

25 leads in the first 10 days

The family law account launched on October 19. From October 20 to October 29 it produced 25 leads, 22 calls and 3 messages, more than two dozen in the first 10 days. The first rating went to Google on day 8, and by then one of those leads was already linked to an opened matter in Clio.

The Method

Five steps from lead to feedback

Each lead is followed from Google to Intaker and Clio and back again.

1Capture2Match3Classify4Score5Report
Step 1

Capture

Save every lead from the Google Local Services Ads account on a regular schedule, before contact details are removed.

Step 2

Match

Tie each lead to a person in Intaker, the intake system, and to a matter in Clio, the case manager.

Step 3

Classify

Record whether the firm touched the lead and how far it went, from a brief contact to a signed matter.

Step 4

Score

Apply fixed written rating rules that turn the evidence into a rating, a wait, or a hold.

Step 5

Report

Send the ratings the firm approves to Google, label each matter that came from Local Services Ads in Clio, and put the counts in a monthly report.

Rating rules

How a lead is rated

  • Very satisfied: the firm recorded an opened case for the lead.
  • Satisfied: a consultation was booked, the waiting period passed, and no case opened.
  • Dissatisfied: a consultation was booked, then a no-show was noted.
  • Very dissatisfied: the lead was contacted and never booked, or has no recorded follow up after the waiting period.

Google's own survey labels are used for these ratings. Rules like these also hold back a rating when the match is weak, so a person reviews it first. The ratings describe what happened to the lead after it arrived, as recorded by the firm, not whether the person was a genuine prospect.

What We Found

Better feedback, and gaps in the follow up

Credits

Roughly $300 a month per account

Google credits back roughly $300 a month per account on rated leads. On October 29, the traffic and DUI account's dashboard showed an expected credit of $306.61, and the family law account was on pace for a similar amount in its first partial month. That is around 7 to 8 percent of ad spend. Google decides every credit, so the amount varies by month and is not guaranteed.

Feedback

32 ratings reported to Google

Google gets a clear signal about which leads were useful and which were not. How Google uses that signal is not published, and we do not promise better lead delivery. The firm gets a clean record either way.

Messages

5 of 6 message leads had no recorded reply

Message leads had the biggest gap. 45 of 54 leads had a recorded firm contact, and messages were the leads most often left without one.

Cases

Matters labeled in Clio

When a lead became a matter, the loop labeled the matter as a Local Services Ads case in Clio, so the firm can see which cases the ads produced. Contact is inferred from logged activity and call length, so callbacks that were not logged count as no contact.

Confidentiality: the system reads the firm's records with read-only access, unless the firm approves an optional matter label in writing. Each rating tells Google a lead's outcome category, such as booked or signed, and that may be confidential client information under state bar rules. Ethics review comes first.
This is an anonymized case. Results vary, nothing here is a guarantee, and attorney advertising rules differ by state. These are early results. Results are specific to this firm and these windows and do not predict future results.
Read the blog post: Local Services Ads for Law Firms: Track Each Lead Outcome.

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