Does Facebook Work For Law Firm Advertising? A Cold Case Cracked!

In the world of social media marketing, law firms probably feel like the “wallflower” at the dance where businesses like cutting edge restaurants and apparel lines are the ones getting all the “dances” on Instagram and Facebook.

I mean, most law firms are nothing like Jack McCoy’s on Law & Order. Most lawyers spend their time sitting in offices reviewing documents. So, how do you truly make social media marketing “appeal” for a service that is all about paperwork, suits and briefcases?

Well, the verdict is just in: Law firms can find success on Facebook social advertising platforms!

When it comes to social advertising, many law firms overlook the importance of social media but, in today’s social media-fixated world, law firms can’t afford to turn their shoulders on social. If firms invest correctly,  Facebook and social advertising can give your firm a voice, amplify your professional reputation, and help drive new business and employees.

So, if your firm is setting up your Facebook page for the first time or trying to decide if it is all worth it, read this article! Below we will discuss the many benefits law firms can find in Facebook advertising and how to get started! (something we do at Disruptive for loads of our legal clients).

Why Facebook Advertising for Law Firms?

When it comes down to it, everything starts with people—your target audience.

Law firms are social by nature. Attorneys form business relationships with their potential clients, community and other lawyers. In fact, most lawyers rely on referrals for a significant part of their business and the social aspect of the job translates well into social media.

Since you are a service-based business, you need to be where people are and that is where Facebook drives the most value for law firms. Facebook has an exceptionally large and diverse user base. Even better, this enormous user base is incredibly active on the platform with more than 1.4 billion daily active users.

To sweeten the deal, a good portion of these users happily use Facebook as a search engine when researching businesses in addition to or instead of Google. So, when some potential clients are using Facebook for research into firms and lawyers, you’ll be missing a huge opportunity to not be on the platform. This is a valuable potential first touchpoint you do not want to lose.

Even if they find you on Google, these users will likely be partial to firms they could find on social media, especially since lawyers aren’t overwhelmingly trusted in general and social media has an air of transparency.

As these are just the obvious reasons you need to be on Facebook, having a basic Facebook page also allows you to:

• Build social proof through engagement, which can help build trust
• Demonstrate expertise
• Provide live-chat access through Messenger
• Run Facebook and Instagram Ads

If those are not enough to get you ready to invest time and effort into Facebook advertising for your law firm, let’s take a deep dive into the benefits Facebook can bring to law firms!

8 Benefits to Facebook Advertising for Law Firms

Court is in session, and if you are trying to see if Facebook advertising is worth your time as a legal firm, let’s get down to some conclusions looking at benefits:

1. Facebook Advertising Builds Trust

Many law firms get stuck on the fact that they don’t know what to promote.

I mean, law firms are self-explanatory and if you just build content around your services, no wonder you feel discouraged and bored! Luckily, Facebook and Facebook ads create a place for you to share meaningful content that can sell your services in a different way beyond “Let Us Win Your Case.”

Instead of marketing services, many law firms have found success sharing educational and meaningful content like blog posts and quizzes. This provides value because it’s a unique, engaging and fun way to promote your firm without “pushing a stagnant ad.”

When you use content marketing with Facebook advertising, you are educating and entertaining your target audience, while making yourself the authority in your field. By taking this approach, you’re giving the people what they want to see on Facebook which will help your firm stand out!

For example, Colorado Legal Group did an awesome job promoting their firm on Facebook in an interesting way resulting in a shared and highly read article promoting their services in family law:

Like them, once potential customers read your meaningful content, they not only get introduced to your firm brand, but they also begin to develop trust in your firm’s expertise and view you as an authority in the field. That’s the essence of content marketing on Facebook: target an audience and build trust and authority with them.

2. Facebook Advertising Can Help You Save Money

As many law firms know, Google advertising or PPC is ruthlessly competitive due to campaigns being complicated, high in quantity and having expensive keywords. So, how can you possibly save some dollars in the social and digital marketing fight?

Facebook advertising!

The average cost of a click generated from a Facebook advertisement is a mere $2.15. Compare this with Google search ads, where the average keyword for the legal industry clocks in at $40 a click and the most competitive keywords can easily exceed $100.

So, what I am saying is, you can get a lot more bang for your buck using Facebook advertising!

3. Facebook Advertising is Quick

It is pretty common to see most legal advertising being done on T.V and billboards, but those two platforms can take a long time to get up and running. If you’ve ever run an ad on TV, you know that from start to finish it can take weeks to prepare your ad and book your run times.

So, if you are wanting quick results and engagement from your advertising, Facebook allows your law firm to boost your ads and it takes minutes to set up! Even if you are shooting a video for your Facebook ad, one form of advertising that performs well on social, Facebook is still much quicker than the typical advertising platforms of law firms.

Be quick to expose, reply and engage your potential clients with Facebook advertising!

4. Facebook Advertising is a Great Recruitment Tool

In April of last year, Kim Kardashian revealed she was studying to become a lawyer, with plans to take the bar in 2022. Kardashian’s action to become a lawyer comes at an interesting time, as the legal field has become more appealing and accessible to a broader cross section of the American people.

“Law is now perceived as less fusty than it once was,” says Hannah Cottam, group director at Manchester recruitment specialists The Sellick Partnership. “Young people are becoming more attracted to the concept of justice and it really appeals to those who want to give something back to society.”

Since this is true, if you are a law firm who is trying to stay on top of its recruitment efforts, wanting to appear more modern and appealing to the rising generation of lawyers, Facebook advertising can be a great option when promoting your firm to graduating law students, etc.

Need to promote a recruitment event you have planned? Facebook has event advertising! Need to promote a job position open to your firm? Facebook has job posting ads!

Whatever your recruitment needs are, Facebook has a modern and creative way to reach potential and legal professionals that might be of interest to you!

5. Facebook Advertising is an Incredible Way to Target People

Whether you like it or not, Facebook has a lot of data on its users—every post you’ve shared, every photo you’ve uploaded, and every page you’ve liked—they know it all! All of these data points are then passed on to advertisers and are precisely what gives the Facebook ad platform so much power.

This is where you can use data to your benefit as a law firm!

Facebook has identified thousands of popular interests, demographics, and behaviors, which can be targeted towards your ideal clients depending on your type of practiced law.

Looking for divorced or separated parents? Facebook can help you there!

Trying to find entrepreneurs with an interest in intellectual property? Consider it patented! 

Compared to television or billboard advertising, Facebook gives you much greater control of your ad’s target. Here are some of the ways you can target your ads:

• Age, Gender, and Language
• Location: Countries, states, provinces, cities, congressional districts, zip codes, or any combination.
• Education
• Interests: You can choose specific interests (such as law, divorce, criminal justice, etc.) that are important to your audience.
• Behaviors: You can select people based on purchase behaviors or intents, device usage etc.
• Connections: You can select your audience based on whether they’re connected to your Page. Anyone who has a friend connected to what you’re advertising will see their friend included in your ad!

If you want your digital advertising to be targeted towards people who need to connect with your law firm services, Facebook allows you do to so with ease!

6. Facebook Has Client-Friendly Forms

Lawyers already have enough to do, so to create quality landing pages for each of their ad campaigns can sound like a nightmare for people who are “less creative.”

The good news? With Facebook advertising you don’t have to, they have forms for that!

Facebook allows law firms to forgo landing pages and allows you to collect potential client information straight from the ad using Lead ads. With Facebook lead ads, you can build a form within the ad itself which can be customizable to what data points you need to qualify your new client potential.

From a user experience perspective, these types of ads are flawless and easy to engage with. Once a ad is seen on a feed, a call to action button will take potential clients to a pop up form. From there, all of their details will be pre-populated from their Facebook profile, and they can overwrite to update old email addresses or phone numbers or click to submit the information as is.

While this is great for newer firms that have yet to build a website and established firms with a less-than-ideal site, it’s worth testing and something we, at Disruptive, can help you set up!

7. Facebook Advertising Helps Tons Of Firm Objectives

As you build or have built out a business plan for your legal firm, you might have a few objectives to fill. Whether it is to build brand awareness about your firm or to encourage people to book a consultation, Facebook advertising can help!

Facebook Ads is divided into 3 main objectives you can take advantage of:

1. Awareness. Use this objective to create interest in your law firm.
2. Consideration. Use this objective with blog and meaningful content to get people thinking about you and get more information.
3. Conversion. Use this objective to encourage people to contact your law firm.
   

The goal of your advertising campaign will be different depending on what you are trying to achieve but regardless of the WHAT, Facebook has solutions perfectly suited for your advertising needs!

8. Facebook Advertising Has Powerful Remarketing

Last but not least, Facebook makes remarketing your potential clients a walk in the park!

Remarketing is the practice of advertising to people who have recently visited your firm’s website. The strategy works for law firms, as it’s best used for long sales cycles and research-heavy decision processes. Since finding the right lawyer to handle personal dilemmas is one of the most researched decisions, remarketing can be a great option for your advertising on social!

Facebook provides advertisers with a proprietary pixel that they can install on their websites to track and retarget visitors from a customizable time window, typically the past 30 days. Once set up, you can add this pixel to your campaign’s audience and nurture them over time with display advertisements, and subtle reminders of why they should go with your firm—such as recent awards, press, client testimonials, and settlements.

A reminder on why you are the best for the job is always a helpful push!

So Do Facebook Ads Work for Lawyers? Yes!

So, is the case closed? I hope so!

If you are a law firm who is looking for innovative and creative ways to push their services out into the world, Facebook advertising can be a great option for you! As long as you’ve made full use of Facebook’s targeting and put in the work to adapt to a market creation strategy, you’ll likely see a strong return on your Facebook legal advertising campaigns.

If you are interested in learning more about Facebook advertising and creative strategies for the legal field, I recommend reading this article as well as this one and this one! If you need additional help, Disruptive does a fantastic job helping lawyers and law firms alike with this Facebook and paid social advertising! (Heck, we have a whole team for that!).

To let us know that you’d like our help, reach out here or in the comments!

Together with us, or being best informed creating content yourself, legal fields can find a lot of success through social advertising. Hopefully, the benefits above and our content on Disruptive’s blog can help you get started!

Case closed, and good luck!