Law firm PPC marketing: fee models, and what each rewards

We do not manage ad spend, so this page is about choosing somebody who does. There are 3 fee models in this market and the difference between them decides who is incentivised to spend your budget well. Of 40 legal-marketing suppliers we read, 12 published a price.

Last updated: 4 August 2026

What are the three fee models?

Each one puts the supplier's interest in a different place, and only one of them is aligned with yours by default.

The percentage model is the most common and the most misunderstood. It is not dishonest, but it means the supplier earns more when your budget rises, and nothing in the arrangement rewards them for reducing it.

The flat fee removes that pull and introduces a milder one: once the campaign is stable, additional effort earns nothing. Ask what the fee covers in month six, not month one.

Why should a law firm never buy on a per-lead basis?

Because in parts of this profession it is prohibited, and the prohibition binds the firm buying as well as the party selling.

Referral fees are restricted in prescribed legal business, and personal injury sits inside that restriction. A firm purchasing representation inquiries at a price each is exposed, and so is the arrangement it sits inside. In the United States, lawyer advertising runs through ABA Model Rule 7.2(b), adopted differently in every state, so a model that is unremarkable in one jurisdiction can be a problem in the next one.

Most suppliers pitching law firms do not know this rule exists. Asking about it early tells you a great deal about who you are dealing with, whatever they answer.

That is also why we charge fixed fees by scope and time for the work we do sell. Never by outcome, never by volume, never per inquiry.

Which suppliers publish a price?

Four named, from the 40 we read in full on 3 August 2026.

⚠ We record whether a price appeared, not what it was. The figures our tooling collected mixed genuine fees with case values and fragments, and attributing a number to a named business on that basis would publish something unverified.

Across the full 40:

15 of the 62 questions buyers ask on these searches are price questions. In a market where the fee model determines whose interest is being served, 70% of suppliers decline to state theirs before a call.

What should you ask a PPC supplier before signing?

Seven questions. The fourth and the seventh are the ones that separate suppliers.

1. Which fee model, and what happens to it if the budget changes.
2. Whose account is it? The Google Ads account should be in the firm's name with the firm's billing.
3. What happens to the campaign history if we leave? Years of conversion data has real value.
4. What will you do when a keyword is not converting? A supplier who has never turned off a keyword is not managing.
5. What is the minimum spend, and why that number.
6. Who writes the ads, and does a lawyer review them before they run.
7. Would you decline this account? A supplier who takes every firm in every practice area is selling capacity, not judgement.

Question six matters more in this profession than in most. Advertising rules vary by state and the firm carries the responsibility for what runs, not the agency.

When is paid search the right answer at all?

When the firm needs instructions this quarter and has the capacity to service them.

Paid produces inquiries in days. Organic produces nothing measurable in month one and cannot be judged fairly before month six. A firm with a cash-flow problem now should be buying clicks, not waiting on a content build, and a supplier who tells them otherwise is selling the thing they happen to sell.

Where it is the wrong answer: when the constraint is fee-earner capacity rather than inquiries, when the site the clicks land on does not answer the fee question, and when the budget is small enough that management fees consume most of it.

That last one is a real limit. Below a certain monthly spend the fee is a large share of the total, and the campaign has too little data to optimize against either way.

Before you shortlist anyone

We read 40 legal-marketing suppliers in full in August 2026 — including several on this page. Twelve published a price. One offered work with no minimum term.

The free report gives you the full count, named, so you can repeat it rather than take ours. It also shows how many people search for your practice areas in your town, and what those clicks cost to buy at Google's own prices.

Get the report — five questions, about two minutes →

No call required. Our own prices are on that page.

Where should I read next?

What we do sell, since it is not this: law firm SEO expert covers the search side, and law firm website design templates covers the page the clicks land on — which decides whether paid spend converts regardless of who manages it.

For the wider channel picture, law firm marketing techniques and law firm content marketing.

City-specific, where click prices differ sharply: law firm marketing NYC.

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