Digital Advertising for Lawyers, Part 1
By Robert J. Hoglund President and Founder of Hoglund Advertising & Analytics General Partner and Owner of Hoglund, Chwialkowski & Mrozik, P. L. L. C. Roseville, Minnesota
When done right, digital advertising can be a lucrative investment. It reaches people who are searching for your product or service. It can be affordable and effective, and it can produce highly measurable results. It can be a machine that churns out quality leads.
However, done wrong, digital advertising can make you pull your hair out. It can make you feel like you just walked over to your kitchen sink and started pushing $ 100 bills down your garbage disposal( along with your time, hope and belief in human nature).
I speak from personal experience. When I first started hiring companies to set up digital advertising for my Bankruptcy and Social Security Disability practice, I got ripped off more times than I can remember. Companies promised me the moon, but only delivered vapor. It was frustrating. I’ m still smarting from the significant waste of money.
But my colleagues and I couldn’ t give up on digital advertising. It is the future of marketing. With digital ads, you can deliver your message to people who are actively looking for your type of service. They are buyers. You can target certain geographic areas. And depending on the subject matter, you can deliver these ads for a surprisingly reasonable rate. The Internet is where people go for answers. Our law firm knew there must be a way to reach people effectively.
So my law firm colleagues and I decided to tackle digital ads ourselves. We studied cost-per-click and fine-tuned our strategy. Several million dollars in R & D and several years later, we got our digital advertising running like a well-oiled machine.
So far, my Google AdWords campaign is the backbone of my law firm’ s growth and profitability. And has been for many years. In an ironic twist, we started a digital advertising agency. We knew we could pass our investment along to other firms and help them take market share.
It’ s our privilege to publish a series of articles about digital advertising. We don’ t pretend to know everything about Internet marketing( who does?). What we do know is that in most circumstances Google AdWords can be a fact-based marketing medium that delivers Return on Marketing Investment( ROMI). We’ ll share some of what we’ ve learned, in the hopes that it will help other firms avoid money-wasting quagmires – and find an effective, convincing advertising strategy.
These are not magic answers: No one strategy will help everyone. Depending on your practice area and location, some approaches may work better than others. But here are some observations we’ ve made over the years, that may be beneficial for you, too.
First let’ s take a look at what to avoid when approached by a digital advertising agency.
Digital advertising warning signs
Now, I don’ t dwell on the negative. However, if you see your ad agency exhibiting these symptoms, it may be wise to raise an eyebrow.
1. They will not let you see their Google AdWords dashboard. A dashboard is a chart or table that lists off key campaign data. It could have information such as clicks, calls, dollars spent, or other variables. You need this information to tell if your campaigns are working. If an agency won’ t let you see your Google AdWords dashboard, ask why.
32 CONSUMER BANKRUPTCY JOURNAL Spring 2017 National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys