“Is this working?” is the question underlying every marketing conversation. Measuring ROI starts with understanding your law firm advertising budget and requires the right metrics, realistic timelines, and honest acknowledgment of attribution challenges.
The ROI Formula
At its simplest:
ROI = (Net profit from cases attributable to marketing) / (Marketing investment)
To calculate this, you need:
- Revenue from cases originated through marketing
- Costs associated with those cases
- Total marketing investment (including all costs, not just media)
The challenge is attribution: knowing which cases came from which marketing.
Metrics That Matter
Lead-Level Metrics
Cost Per Lead (CPL): What you pay for each inquiry.
Benchmarks by channel:
| Channel | Average CPL |
|---|---|
| SEO | $183 |
| $286 | |
| YouTube | $319 |
| LSAs | $378 |
| Google Search | $442 |
Lead Quality: Not all leads become cases. Track which sources produce qualified leads, not just volume.
Case-Level Metrics
Cost Per Signed Case: The metric that actually matters.
CPL × (1 / Conversion Rate) = Cost Per Case
At $400 CPL and 10% conversion: $4,000 per case At $400 CPL and 15% conversion: $2,667 per case
Benchmark: ~$2,700 cost per signed case in competitive PI markets.
Case Value by Source: Different sources may produce different case values. Track which channels bring higher-value cases.
ROI Benchmarks
SEO: Average law firm spends $150,000 annually, breaks even around 14 months, achieves 526% three-year ROI.
PPC: Immediate lead flow, but ROI depends heavily on campaign optimization and intake efficiency.
TV/CTV: Harder to attribute directly, but brand lift improves ROI across all channels.
Referrals: Near-infinite ROI (minimal acquisition cost), but limited scalability.
Attribution Challenges
Why Attribution Is Hard
Legal marketing attribution faces unique challenges:
Multi-touch journeys: Someone sees your TV ad, later searches your name on Google, clicks your ad, visits your website, then calls. Which touchpoint gets credit?
Long sales cycles: Weeks or months can pass between first impression and signed case.
Offline conversions: Phone calls, consultations, and retainer signings happen offline, not tracked by default in digital analytics.
Brand effects: Brand advertising drives branded search, which often gets credited to Google Ads in last-click models.
Last-Click Limitations
Default analytics (Google Analytics, ad platform reporting) use last-click attribution, crediting the final touchpoint before conversion.
This systematically:
- Overcredits search (often the last click)
- Undercredits TV/CTV/awareness (rarely the last click)
- Misses the full picture of how marketing works together
Better Approaches
Multi-touch attribution: Distributes credit across touchpoints based on various models (linear, time-decay, position-based).
Brand lift studies: Survey-based measurement of awareness and consideration changes.
Incrementality testing: Holdout tests that measure what would have happened without specific marketing.
Blended metrics: Track overall cost per case and marketing efficiency ratios rather than channel-specific attribution.
Time to ROI
Different channels produce ROI on different timelines:
Immediate (Weeks)
Google Ads/LSAs: Leads flow within days of launch. ROI visible within weeks if tracking is solid.
Medium-Term (Months)
Facebook/Social: Similar timeline to search, though often lower intent.
Display/Retargeting: Quick to launch, but often supporting role rather than direct conversion.
Long-Term (6-18 Months)
SEO: Takes 14 months on average to break even. ROI compounds after that.
TV/CTV Brand Campaigns: May take 6-12 months to see clear attribution, but improves all other channels.
Referral Development: Relationships take time to build; payoff extends over years.
The Patience Problem
Firms often judge TV or SEO on 30-day windows and conclude “it doesn’t work.” But these channels require longer evaluation periods.
The right approach: set realistic expectations per channel, track leading indicators, and evaluate on appropriate timelines.
Improving Marketing ROI
Optimize Intake First
Improving conversion from 10% to 12% increases ROI by 20% without spending more on marketing. Intake is often the highest-leverage improvement.
Track to Signed Cases
Don’t optimize for leads. Track cost per signed case by channel. Cheap leads that don’t convert have negative ROI.
Build Brand to Reduce Acquisition Costs
Brand awareness makes all marketing more efficient. When people know your name:
- Branded search converts better at lower CPC
- Ads get higher click-through rates
- Referrals increase
Brand investment pays dividends across channels.
Test and Learn
Marketing isn’t set-and-forget. Continuously test:
- Creative messaging
- Audience targeting
- Channel allocation
- Landing page optimization
Small improvements compound over time.
Accept Attribution Imperfection
Perfect attribution is impossible in legal. Accept that and focus on:
- Overall marketing efficiency (total cost / total cases)
- Directional channel comparison
- Continuous improvement
Common Mistakes
Judging long-term channels on short-term results: SEO and brand campaigns need appropriate timelines.
Ignoring intake: Marketing can be efficient but still unprofitable if intake is broken.
Last-click tunnel vision: Cutting TV because “Google gets all the credit” often increases Google CPCs and reduces overall efficiency.
Optimizing for vanity metrics: Clicks, impressions, and even leads aren’t the goal. Cases are.
Not tracking to cases: Without closed-loop tracking to signed cases, ROI is guesswork.