For Lawyers: 3 Things You Should Consider Before Implementing Facebook Ads In Your Marketing

Are Facebook ads really worth the money for law firms? You may have had a marketing company tell you that you must incorporate social media in your marketing strategy, and that includes investing in Facebook advertising.

But after years of working with law firms of all sizes in a wide range of practice areas, I can tell you that Facebook ads may not be right for your firm. Here are three things to consider before putting up the money.

1. Consider Your Target Audience

You can think of Facebook ads as highly-targeted digital billboards. Showing them to the wrong people accomplishes nothing.

That means to get a decent return on your investment, you need an extremely clear sense of the audience you are targeting with each particular ad. Are you trying to reach people of a certain age? Does gender matter? Does your target audience share a specific interest? Do they live in a particular neighborhood?

You must have an exceptionally clear and concise client profile to use Facebook ads to your best advantage. Or any advantage.

2. Consider Your Message

You catch—at best—only a brief moment of someone’s attention on Facebook. People scroll through quickly looking for cute cat videos or something entertaining. When they come across your message, it needs to be clear and compelling. It needs to inspire them to act right away, even if that action is just to take five seconds to read your entire ad. If you are not able to share a short, compelling message in a Facebook ad, then it is a waste of money.

Let’s use an ad for a divorce lawyer as an example. An ad with the message “I’m a divorce lawyer on Main Street” is not compelling. It does not capture the attention or inspire anyone to read on.

However, if the message is not about you but about a problem faced by your target audience, you have a more compelling message. A better message might start out with the question, “Are you divorcing a narcissist?” That gets attention, and it gets attention from people who need your help because they are divorcing bullies or people who are otherwise generally unpleasant. Your ad can then promise “five tips for managing a narcissist in divorce” and lead your target audience straight to your website.

The same is true for virtually any area of law. Tax lawyers can try, “Did you get a notice from the IRS?” Elder law or estate planning attorneys might start out with “Are you afraid you’ll lose everything to a nursing home?” A clear and compelling message makes all the difference when it comes to Facebook ads.

3. Consider Your Ability to Track Results

If you’re just planning to set up some ads and hope they work, then you’re wasting your money. You need to be able to track the results of campaigns. You need to know what people are responding to.

You will need to set up a system that provides precise metrics so that you can evaluate the effectiveness of your campaign. That might include establishing custom landing pages or specific phone numbers. This aspect of online advertising can be complicated, so many firms find it helpful to have an experienced marketing firm manage their social media ad campaigns.

The Bottom Line

Facebook ads can be powerful marketing tools but they can also be useless if you don’t understand how to target your audience, create a compelling message, and track results. To find out whether Facebook ads could be part of the right marketing strategy for your firm, contact us at lagrandemarketing.com.

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