The marketing that works for every law firm is mostly free: a complete Google Business Profile with reviews, referrals from past clients and other lawyers, a page for each practice that answers what clients search, and staying in touch with the people you've helped. The rest depends on the practice. An estate planner can fill a room with a workshop; a defense firm has to be the number that answers at 2am; an injury firm pays many times what an estate planner pays for the same ad click (the table below). Below: the ideas for every firm, then three for each kind of practice, with what its clicks cost.
Ideas that work for every firm
Roughly in the order to do them: the free ones first.
Complete your Google Business ProfileFree
The map results come from it. Choose the right categories, add every office, keep the hours true, and post your practice areas. Google says local results depend mainly on relevance, distance and how well known the business is.4
Ask for reviews when a matter closesFree
Google says "more reviews and positive ratings can help your business's local ranking". Ask when the client is happiest, at the end, and answer every review; check your bar's rules before you quote reviews on your own site.4
Build referrals from other lawyersTime
The lawyers who don't do what you do are your best source of cases: tell them what you take and refer back what you don't. You can't pay for a recommendation; a reciprocal referral agreement is allowed only if it isn't exclusive and the client is told about it.1
Join a lawyer referral serviceMoney
Your state or local bar's referral service sends callers who already want a lawyer. Paying the usual charges of a not-for-profit or qualified lawyer referral service is one of the exceptions to the rule against paying for recommendations.1
A page for each practice, and guidesTime
The searches clients make are specific ("probate attorney", "wrongful termination lawyer"), and so are the questions before them. A page per practice and a guide per question is the marketing that keeps working after you stop paying for it.
List the firm where clients lookFree
Avvo, Justia, FindLaw and Best Lawyers all rank on page one for "attorney websites" and "best lawyer websites". A complete, consistent listing on each is a link to your site and a second place to be found.
Stay in touch with past clientsTime
Most repeat work and referrals come from people who already used you. A short note a few times a year (a change in the law, a reminder to update a will, the firm's news) keeps the firm the one they think of.
Teach: talks, classes and workshopsTime
A talk at the library, a chamber lunch, a class for other professionals. Explaining the law to a room is how a lawyer becomes the one people remember, and it's not solicitation: the audience came to you.2
Ideas by kind of practice
What changes with the practice: who refers your clients, when they need you, and what a click costs. Each idea names the page in the kit for that practice that already does it.
Injury
Contingency-fee injury firms with intake around the clock.
A click on “personal injury lawyer” costs $170.62; the most expensive search in the practice, “uber accident lawyer”, $594.45.
Publish results, with their context
Injury clients choose on record. Show settlements and verdicts with the kind of case and the year, and the disclaimer beside them, not in a footer.3
Accidents happen at night and on weekends, and the firm that answers first is often the one hired. Say on every page that intake is around the clock, and staff it.
The town's general practice: most of what comes through the door, hourly and flat fees.
A click on “lawyer near me” costs $21.60; the most expensive search in the practice, “contingency fee lawyer”, $60.26.
Be the town's lawyer
A general practice is hired for being known: the chamber, the rotary, the school board, the local paper's legal column. Put the town on every page, and the years you've been in it.
Publish what things cost
"How much does a lawyer cost?" is a search of its own. A fee card for wills, deeds, small business work and small claims answers it, and few firms in town will have one.
“how much does a lawyer cost” 4,400 a month, $11.08 a click
A town practice sends specialist work to specialists; tell them what you keep, and agree to refer back. A reciprocal agreement must be non-exclusive and the client told.1
Family and divorce firms: consultation-led, mediation offered, flat fees where they can.
A click on “divorce lawyer” costs $29.97; the most expensive search in the practice, “child custody lawyer”, $36.60.
Offer mediation, and say so
Many people looking for a divorce lawyer want to avoid a fight. A page for mediation, with what it costs, meets them before they hire someone else to go to court.
“divorce mediation” 22,200 a month, $13.36 a click
Estate planning, probate and elder law boutiques: flat-fee plans, a free first meeting, workshops.
A click on “estate planning attorney” costs $7.58; the most expensive search in the practice, “conservatorship lawyer”, $25.91.
Run workshops
Estate planning is a practice people will come to a room to learn about: wills, trusts and avoiding probate, in person or online. A workshop page with the next date is the call to action.
They see the need first: a new grandchild, a sale, a death in the family. Be the lawyer they send clients to, and send back; no payment for the referral.1
Publish the packages
Estate planning sells as a package, and "how much does a will cost" is a search of its own. Put the documents and the flat fee on one card.
“how much does a will cost” 3,600 a month, $2.99 a click
They meet owners at the moment of forming, buying, selling or borrowing. A short talk at the chamber or a lunch with a bank's small business team does more than an ad; the people in the room came to hear it.2
Guides for owners
Trademarks, LLCs and leases are searched as questions before they're searched as lawyers.
“how to trademark a name” 9,900 a month, $15.91 a click
Employee-side employment firms on contingency: wrongful termination, discrimination, unpaid wages, leave and severance, with a free case review.
A click on “employment lawyer” costs $35.66; the most expensive search in the practice, “severance agreement review”, $48.06.
Start from what happened
Workers don't know the legal name for it. A first screen that asks "were you fired, unpaid or harassed?" in their words, and routes each answer to its page, is the intake.
What an advertiser pays for one click on each practice's head search, and on the most expensive search in the practice. Price the channel before you open an account; the free ideas above cost time instead.
Practice
Head search
Per click
Most expensive in the practice
Injury
personal injury lawyer
$170.62
$594.45uber accident lawyer
General practice
lawyer near me
$21.60
$60.26contingency fee lawyer
Family law
divorce lawyer
$29.97
$36.60child custody lawyer
Estate planning
estate planning attorney
$7.58
$25.91conservatorship lawyer
Criminal defense
criminal defense lawyer
$61.33
$87.09dui lawyer
Business and real estate
business lawyer
$27.56
$75.67partnership dispute lawyer
Employment
employment lawyer
$35.66
$48.06severance agreement review
Google Ads search volume and CPC via DataForSEO (OpenSEO), United States, monthly, September 2026. Cost per click is what advertisers bid on average; yours depends on your town and your ads.
What the bar's rules rule out
The ABA's Model Rules, which most states' rules follow; your state's version applies and can be stricter.
No live solicitation for gain
Don't solicit a specific person you know needs a lawyer by live person-to-person contact (in person, by phone, by real-time video) when a significant motive is the fee, unless they're a lawyer, someone you already have a close personal or professional relationship with, or someone who routinely uses that kind of legal service for business.2
No paying for recommendations
Don't give anything of value for a referral. The exceptions: the reasonable cost of advertising, the usual charges of a legal service plan or a not-for-profit or qualified lawyer referral service, a non-exclusive reciprocal referral agreement the client is told about, and nominal thank-you gifts.1
"Specialist" needs a certifier
Don't say or imply a lawyer is a certified specialist unless an approved or ABA-accredited organization certified them, and name it.1
Results and comparisons need context
A true result can mislead if it suggests the reader will get the same; an unsubstantiated comparison with other firms can mislead too. A disclaimer may prevent it.3
A summary, not legal advice. Check your state bar's rules before you advertise. The rules for your website: the law firm website guide.
The pages these ideas send people to
Every idea above ends on a page: a practice page, a guide, a cost page, a workshop. Each law firm kit ships them for its kind of practice.
The free kind first: a complete Google Business Profile, reviews from every closed matter, referrals from other lawyers, and a page for each practice that answers what clients search. Then the idea that fits your practice: workshops for estate planning, a 24-hour line for criminal defense, a published fee card for a general practice.
How much should a law firm spend on marketing?
There's no rule that fits every firm. Price the channel first: in our data a click on "personal injury lawyer" costs far more than one on "estate planning attorney", so the same budget buys very different amounts of attention. The free ideas cost time, not money.
Do lawyers need social media?
It helps people who already know your name check that you're real and current. It rarely brings a stranger with a case; a Google Business Profile and practice pages do that. Post what you'd say in a talk, and follow your bar's advertising rules there too.
Can lawyers pay for referrals?
Not under the ABA's Model Rules, with exceptions: the reasonable cost of advertising, the usual charges of a not-for-profit or qualified lawyer referral service, a non-exclusive reciprocal referral agreement the client is told about, and nominal thank-you gifts. Check your state's version.
Is TV advertising worth it for a law firm?
For the few practices where one case can pay for a campaign, some firms think so; for most, the free and local ideas above come first. Whatever the medium, the bar's advertising rules apply, and results need their context.
How do I get more clients without ads?
Reviews, referrals from other lawyers and professionals, a page for each practice, guides that answer the questions clients search, staying in touch with past clients, and teaching. Every one of them keeps working after you stop.
Sources
Search data: Google Ads search volume and CPC via DataForSEO (OpenSEO), United States, monthly, September 2026. Every other source read on its own page, October 2026.