How to Assess the ROI of a Law Firm Marketing Campaign

April 28, 2023
Spotlight Branding

Dan Brian is Digital Marketing Director for Riddle & Brantley, a mid-size personal injury law firm in North Carolina. In his spare time, he runs Marketing for Justice, a membership group providing digital marketing know-how to law firm marketers.

In online marketing, there’s a saying you’ve probably heard: “Content is king.” Well, if that’s the case, then data is God. Not really, but you understand the point. In any case, when it comes to assessing the return on investment (ROI) of a marketing channel or strategy, it’s all about data. Based on 5 years of experience managing digital marketing for a mid-size personal injury firm, here are 4 tips for evaluating the ROI of a law firm marketing campaign:

1. Set Clear and Measurable Goals

You can’t assess marketing performance without a point of comparison. That’s why before launching any online marketing campaign, it’s important to establish specific goals that are measurable and tied to key performance indicators (KPIs). For example, if your goal is to increase leads, then you might set a KPI of leads generated per month. If your goal is to generate new signed cases, signed cases are your KPI. By setting clear goals and KPIs, you can evaluate the success of each campaign and determine which strategies are most effective. If you’re not hitting your KPIs consistently, you can either A) scrap that channel or strategy; or B) adapt and modify your tactics (more on the importance of this in a moment).

2. Give It Time

There’s a tendency among marketers and, often, firm owners, to make snap judgments about new marketing campaigns. I’ve got news for you: a week’s worth of data isn’t worth a whole lot. To effectively assess the ROI of a law firm marketing campaign, you’ve got to give it time. Facebook ads, for example, take at least a couple of weeks — often more — to start generating results at a consistent cost per lead (CPL). Before you jump to conclusions, make sure you’re generating enough data to make informed decisions. In general, I don’t assess ROI or make a decision on continuing a marketing campaign until I have at least three months of data. 

Evaluating a marketing campaign is like cooking chicken: you’ve got to let it marinate.

3. Track and Analyze Data

To evaluate the ROI of your online marketing campaigns, you need to track and analyze data on a regular basis. This includes metrics such as website traffic, conversion rates, cost per lead, and customer acquisition cost. By analyzing this data, you can identify which campaigns and channels are delivering the highest ROI and make informed decisions about where to allocate your marketing budget.

4. Test and Optimize

Never assume that a new campaign is optimized perfectly at the outset. Most of the time, that’s just not the case. Before snapping to judgment, make sure you’ve given the campaign the opportunity to perform by evaluating and optimizing accordingly. Rinse and repeat. This might involve A/B testing different ad copy or landing pages, experimenting with different channels and targeting options, or adjusting your bidding strategy to improve ROI. By testing and optimizing your campaigns, you can improve their performance over time and give yourself a true picture of ROI before making a decision on whether to continue or invest further time, budget, and resources.

You can’t “set it and forget it” and expect to get an accurate picture of your performance.

The Bottom Line

Evaluating the ROI of a marketing campaign is essential to ensure that your marketing efforts are delivering the desired results and that you’re making smart investments. By setting clear goals, giving it time, tracking and analyzing data, and adapting and optimizing, you can make informed decisions about which channels and strategies to prioritize and allocate your firm’s marketing budget accordingly. Remember that evaluating the ROI of your marketing campaigns is an ongoing process, and at the end of the day, it’s all about data. Make sure you have enough of it before jumping to conclusions.

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Spotlight Branding

Spotlight Branding is a content marketing and branding firm for lawyers and other professionals. Our goal is to help you create an online presence that positions you as a credible expert in your field, keeps you connected with your network in order to stay top of mind and increase referrals, and to become more visible online so prospects can find you!