Keep Law Firm Lead Costs Down With Pay Per Lead

Keep Law Firm Lead Costs Down With Pay Per Lead

When you think about low cost per lead, pay-per-lead models
are probably not the first thing that comes to mind. Here at Legal Locator,
though, we work with clients to keep the best balance overall — lowering cost
per lead and increasing performance. Here are the key points from this article:

● Different sources of leads represent different ways clients
look for attorneys.

● Each of these sources typically has its own market (its own
pool of attorneys interested in buying leads) online associated with it.

● Exposing your firm to all these markets in the correct
ratio helps you maximize the efficiency of and minimize the cost of your leads.

All types of lead generation models are slightly different and all deserve discussion, but this article will focus on pay per lead. We will go into the following topics:

● What Is Pay Per Lead?

● What Are the Types of PPL?

● How Does PPL Differ From Other Online Marketing?

● How Do You Combine Different Techniques?


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Let's take a deeper dive into those points. We'll explain the following topics

in this article


● What Is PPC?

● A Look at Pay Per Call

● How Pay Per Call Benefits Your Firm

● Why It's Hard to Manage a PPC Campaign

● Pay Per Call Leads as a Results-First Approach

● How To Make the Most of Pay Per Call

● Balancing Different Advertising Tools



What Is Pay Per Lead?

Pay per lead is a lead generation technique becoming popular among attorneys. It is, as the name suggests, a way for attorneys (and other types of businesses) to buy leads.


These leads might come in the form of contact information, a phone call, or even a text message. The lead generation services might
automatically redirect from the client, as is often the case with phone calls, or it might act as a go-between.

This is fundamentally different from many other types of advertising and marketing, for reasons that we will go into later in this
article. Suffice it to say at this point that pay per lead is precisely what it sounds like — you pay a market rate for the leads that your business needs.


What Are the Types of PPL?

PPL is a diverse range of services. That said, the current marketplace can be roughly divided into two dominant categories.


The first category contains services such as Legal Locator. We operate by aggregating leads through our partners at work and our
independent web properties. Thanks to the economy of scale, we are then able to sell these leads at a competitive price to law offices across the country.


The second category involves large advertising platforms that generate their own leads and resell them to participants in advertising
programs. An example of this is Google's service which allows local businesses to buy leads in the geographical areas in which they operate.

Other types of lead generation business models do exist. However, they are not currently as popular as the two we just described. There is also some variation within each of these categories — be sure to look for reputable agencies that sell unique leads.


How Does PPL Differ From Other Online Marketing?

Aside from the fact (or stemming from the fact) that you are buying leads, PPL differs from other types of online marketing strategies and some important ways. Here are some examples:

PPL vs PPC: Pay-per-lead marketing is most often compared with the other dominant form of online advertising, pay per click. PPC typically has a lower cost per unit (a click, in the case of PPC), but a comparable or higher cost per lead.

PPL vs SEO: Search engine optimization is sometimes compared with pay per lead, but the two are quite different. SEO is a way of building your website so that it gets the best possible place in Google search results.

PPL vs email marketing: Although it is on its way out in terms of a lead generation technique, the email newsletter still generates
leads for some offices. PPL is typically more reliable as a lead source.


As you can see, pay per lead is different from other types of marketing. Because of this, it can probably have a special place in your
overall marketing strategy.


How Do You Combine Different Techniques?


One of the best ways to use pay per lead for most law offices is to combine it with other types of advertising and marketing. Only
rarely do firms focus entirely on pay per lead, and then usually only during the initial growth period of the business.


Pay per lead is a good complement for something slow-paced and relatively low maintenance, such as SEO. SEO builds up your website over time and increases your rank in organic search results while doing so. This gives you a platform for your brand online and doesn't require a large upfront investment, but it often takes a while to become a lead generation powerhouse. Because the relatively high cost upfront of PPL and the fact that your brand is not always part of the lead generation system, these two techniques are a natural pair.


PPL also works well with PPC — you don't have to choose. One way that many firms do this is by targeting different sections of their
markets with the different techniques. For example, a family law attorney might run an online PPC ad that targets a highly specific geographic location and practice area. This could keep the cost low for the campaign as well as increase conversion by specific targeting. For a more general level of exposure, the same attorney might buy leads for potential local clients in the generic family law category. While such a campaign might be prohibitively expensive in PPC, buying the leads individually could be more accessible.


Contact a Lead Agency Today


Although it may sound strange coming from a lead provider, we believe that paying individually for every lead is not typically the best model. However, we believe that PPL works well in a large variety of business development plans. Feel free to reach out for a personal consultation to talk about what's right for your business.

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