Lawyer internet marketing: running a supplier selection
Selecting an internet marketing supplier for a law firm is a procurement exercise, not a creative one. Ask eight questions, request four pieces of evidence, and read three contract terms before signing. Of 40 suppliers read on 3 August 2026, 12 published a price and 1 offered work with no minimum term.
Last updated: 5 August 2026
What should a firm ask a supplier before signing?
Eight questions, and the answers matter less than whether they are answered at all.
| Ask this | A good answer sounds like | An answer that should end the conversation |
|---|---|---|
| What is the total cost of the first twelve months? | A figure, and a list of what is inside it | A range, or an offer to scope it after signature |
| What is the minimum term, and the notice period? | A number of months, or none | "Standard twelve months", with no notice clause named |
| Who writes the copy, and have they read a matter file? | A named person you can meet | "Our content team" |
| Which pages will exist in ninety days? | A list of page titles | A description of a methodology |
| Who owns the site, the copy and the analytics at the end? | The firm, in writing | Silence, or "we host it for you" |
| May I see last month's report for another client, redacted? | Yes, here it is | Refusal with no reason given |
| Is any part of the fee tied to enquiries or matters? | No | Any version of yes |
| What will this not do for us? | A specific limitation | "Nothing, it works for everybody" |
The last row is the one that separates suppliers fastest, and it costs nothing to ask. A supplier who cannot name a case where their service is the wrong purchase has either not thought about it or has decided not to tell you.
The sixth row is the one most often refused. A redacted monthly report is the single most informative document in this whole exercise, because it shows what the supplier considers evidence.
What evidence should you ask to see?
Four items, all of which exist already if the supplier is doing the work.
- A live page they wrote, with its address, and the search it was written for. Type that search yourself. You are not checking that it ranks first; you are checking that the page answers the question a client would be asking.
- A redacted monthly report from a current client. Look for query-level data. A report of total visits tells you nothing about which work produced them.
- The named writer's other work. Legal copy written by somebody who has never read a matter file reads as though it was assembled from other websites, and this audience notices within a paragraph.
- A reference from a firm of comparable size in a comparable practice area. A supplier whose experience is all with 60-partner firms is not wrong for a four-partner practice, but the engagement will be shaped for somebody else.
Two checks you can run yourself in ten minutes, before any of the above. Search for the supplier's own price page. Of the 40 legal-marketing suppliers we read in full on 3 August 2026, 12 published a price at all and 5 of those showed a range rather than a figure. Then search one of the queries their own client pages target, and see where those pages actually sit.
15 of the 62 questions buyers ask on these searches are price questions. A supplier selling to a market that is required to publish price information, while publishing none of their own, is worth asking about directly. It is not a disqualification. It is a question with an interesting answer.
Are lawyers allowed to advertise in the UK?
Yes, and two rules shape how, one of which changes what you may agree to pay.
Solicitors in England and Wales may advertise. The SRA Transparency Rules came into force on 6 December 2018 and require firms to publish price and service information for specified types of work; we checked the position again on 3 August 2026. That is a publication obligation rather than an advertising restriction, and its practical effect on marketing is unusual: the pages the rules ask for are also the pages people search for.
LASPO 2012 section 56 prohibits referral fees in prescribed legal business, which includes personal injury, and it binds the firm paying as well as the party being paid. That is the sentence to keep in mind during a selection. A supplier proposing payment per enquiry, per lead or per matter is proposing an arrangement that exposes the firm accepting it, not only the party offering it. Our own pricing is fixed by scope for that reason, including for work the restriction does not reach.
Which of a firm's own services fall within the transparency rules is a question for the firm and its advisers. We build the pages a firm tells us to publish, and we do not judge whether a firm complies — that judgement belongs to the firm and its COLP.
Is Claude or ChatGPT better for lawyers?
It is the wrong question to put to a supplier, and there is a better one.
The useful version is: which tools are used in drafting, who checks the output against a real matter file, and who is accountable if a published page states something inaccurate about the law. Ask for the answer in writing and put it in the engagement, because a factual error on a firm's own website is the firm's problem regardless of who typed it.
There is a second reason to care, and it is a search reason rather than a drafting one. AI Overviews appear on 39 of the 54 money searches we measured on 3 August 2026, and on 863 of 1,235 keywords across the full set — 70%. A generated answer is increasingly what a prospective client reads first, which means the pages a supplier writes are competing to be the passage that gets lifted. Ask how they write for that. A supplier who has not noticed it is optimising for a results page that fewer people now read.
We will put our own answer in the engagement letter rather than assert it here: a named person checks every page before it is published, and the firm approves the copy before it goes live.
Which contract terms decide whether you can leave?
Three, and only three really matter.
| Term | What to look for | Why it decides the selection |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum term and notice | The number of months, and how notice is served | 1 of the 40 suppliers we read stated no minimum term; the rest tie the annual figure, not the monthly one |
| Ownership on exit | Domain, hosting, site files, copy, Search Console and analytics property, any advertising account | The commonest unpleasant surprise. If the supplier owns the analytics property, you lose the history you paid to build |
| What the fee is tied to | Scope and time, never enquiries or matters | LASPO 2012 s.56, above. This is the one to refuse outright |
Two further items worth reading rather than skimming: how the price changes at renewal, and what happens to the published pages if the engagement ends. Pages written for a firm should remain the firm's pages.
Our own terms, so this page is not asking for something it does not offer: £890 for the Price Transparency Pack delivered in 10 working days, £2,400 for the Firm Site, £4,200 for Firm Site+, £6,900 for the Authority Build, retainers at £600, £1,200 or £2,400 a month with no minimum term, and £700 off a build taken with six months of retainer.
Which of these suppliers publish a price you can compare?
One of the four named here, which is roughly the market rate.
| Supplier | Published a price on 3 August 2026 |
|---|---|
| lawfirmambition.co.uk | No |
| thelegalmarketingcompany.com | No |
| contra.agency | No |
| marketinglawyers.co.uk | Yes |
⚠ 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 one to a named business would publish something unverified about a competitor. Across all 40 read that day: 12 published a price, 5 showed a range, 8 claimed a guarantee of some kind, and 1 stated no minimum term.
Two selections we should lose, and a partner running this properly will find them. If the firm needs the campaigns run — account management, bid strategy, keyword lists — we do not manage ad spend and somebody else should have that work. If the firm wants a marketing person inside the practice who can chase fee earners for material, no external supplier reproduces that, and the honest recommendation is the hire.
What this is worth where you are
In London, 2,900 people a month search for immigration help, and Google charges around £18.75 for one of those clicks, measured 3 August 2026. We hold the same figures for 52 cities.
The free report gives you yours, plus which of the pages the rules ask for are missing from your site, and what 40 suppliers charge.
Where should I read next?
If the selection is still at the planning stage: marketing plan for a law firm and lawyer marketing plan.
On the work a supplier would actually do: content marketing for law firm covers the writing, and lawyer marketing tips covers what a firm can do unaided.
If what you are buying is an identity rather than pages: law firm branding agency.
Frequently asked questions
What should I ask a law firm marketing supplier before signing?
Eight things: total first-year cost, minimum term and notice, who writes the copy, which pages exist in ninety days, who owns the assets at the end, whether you can see a redacted client report, whether any fee is tied to enquiries, and what the service will not do.
What evidence should I ask a supplier to produce?
A live page they wrote with the search it targets, a redacted monthly report showing query-level data, the named writer's other work, and a reference from a firm of comparable size and practice area. All four exist already if the work is being done.
Are lawyers allowed to advertise in the UK?
Yes. Solicitors in England and Wales may advertise, and the SRA Transparency Rules, in force since 6 December 2018, additionally require price and service information to be published for specified work types. Which services fall in scope is a question for the firm and its advisers.
Can a marketing supplier be paid per enquiry?
Not in prescribed legal business. LASPO 2012 section 56 prohibits referral fees there, including personal injury, and it binds the firm paying as well as the party being paid, so the supplier proposing it does not carry the exposure alone.
Is Claude or ChatGPT better for lawyers?
It is the wrong question for a selection. Ask which tools are used in drafting, who checks the output against a real matter file, and who is accountable for a factual error on a published page, then put that answer in the engagement.
Which contract terms matter most?
Minimum term and notice, ownership of the domain, copy, analytics and advertising accounts on exit, and what the fee is tied to. Of the 40 suppliers read on 3 August 2026, one stated no minimum term, so the annual figure is usually the real price.
How many suppliers publish a price?
Twelve of the 40 we read in full on 3 August 2026, and five of those showed a range rather than a figure. Of the four named on this page, marketinglawyers.co.uk published a price and the other three did not.
When should the selection go to somebody else?
When the firm needs campaigns run, because we do not manage ad spend, or when it wants a marketing person inside the practice who can chase fee earners for material. No external arrangement reproduces the second, and the honest recommendation there is the hire.