Marketing plan for a law firm: splitting the year's budget
A firm-level marketing plan is an annual document with 4 parts: one owner, a fixed budget split across channels, a written definition of what each channel is judged on, and 4 quarterly decision points where money is released or stopped. Everything else in it is commentary.
Last updated: 5 August 2026
What should an effective law firm marketing plan include?
Four things. Anything beyond them is a document nobody opens in March.
| Part | What it fixes | What goes wrong without it |
|---|---|---|
| One named owner | Who is answerable in the quarterly review | Three partners each assume another one is watching it |
| A budget split by line | What each channel gets for the year, in dollars | Money moves to whichever channel complained most recently |
| A judgement rule per line | What each channel is measured on, written before it starts | Every line is judged on matters won, which most cannot produce |
| Four decision points | The dates money is released or withdrawn | Nothing is ever stopped, and next year's plan is this year's plus inflation |
The third row is the one firms skip and the one that causes the arguments. A paid campaign can be judged in six weeks. Search work cannot be judged before month six. A sponsorship cannot be judged at all in any honest sense, which is a reason to buy it deliberately or not at all rather than a reason to pretend. Writing the rule down in January is what prevents a partner in April from asking search work to produce a number it structurally cannot produce yet.
The damaging admission: month one of the search line reports nothing. Not a small number — nothing measurable. A plan that does not say so in advance loses that budget line in the first review, at the point it is working and cannot yet show it.
How should the annual budget be split across channels?
By what a click costs where your firm is, not by a percentage anyone publishes.
This is the part most templates get wrong. A national percentage split assumes every firm buys attention at the same price, and the measured spread says otherwise. Across 20 US cities on 3 August 2026: family and divorce searches in Chicago cost $34.89 a click, while personal injury searches in Atlanta cost $149.13. That is 4.3 times the price for one click, arithmetic on the two measured figures, not a forecast of anything.
A firm in the second position cannot run the same split as a firm in the first. Here is the same annual plan priced both ways.
| Line | What sets the number | Chicago family and divorce | Atlanta personal injury |
|---|---|---|---|
| Site build | Our published build tier, one-off | $2,900 | $2,900 |
| Search and pages | Practice Sprint, published fee | $1,450 | $1,450 |
| Paid search test, 500 clicks | Measured cost per click × 500 | $17,445 | $74,565 |
| What the paid line buys | The same 500 clicks either way | 500 | 500 |
Both paid figures are arithmetic on the measured cost per click — 500 × $34.89 and 500 × $149.13 — and neither is a prediction of what a campaign would produce. What they show is structural: in Atlanta personal injury the paid line dominates the plan and everything else is a rounding difference, while in Chicago family law the fixed-fee lines are a real share of the year. The same template applied to both firms would be wrong for one of them.
Chicago has 11,000 family and divorce searches a month; Atlanta has 12,100 personal injury searches a month. Comparable demand, entirely different economics. The split follows the price, and the price is a local fact.
Our own lines are fixed and published: Practice Sprint $1,450, build tier $2,900, no minimum term. Of the 40 legal-marketing suppliers we read in full on 3 August 2026, twelve published a price at all, five showed only a "from" figure, and one offered work with no minimum term — which is why a firm building a budget from supplier websites usually cannot fill in most of the rows.
We never charge per inquiry, per case or per matter. US lawyer advertising runs through ABA Model Rule 7.2(b), adopted differently in each state.
What are the four decision points, and what stops at each?
One per quarter, each with a different question.
- Q1 — release the build money. The build is a one-off with a handover date. The decision is whether it is scoped and starting, not whether it is working. Nothing else is judged this quarter.
- Q2 — the first honest paid read. Six weeks of a paid line is enough to know whether the inquiries arriving are the kind the firm wants. This is the earliest point in the year where a line can be stopped on evidence.
- Q3 — the first fair read on search. Months six to nine. Before this, the search line shows rising impressions with flat clicks, which is what moving from position 30 toward 11 looks like and reads exactly like failure.
- Q4 — renew, cut, or move. The only quarter where the following year's split is allowed to change. Moving money in any other quarter is how a plan turns into a series of reactions.
The point of naming the quarters in January is that it removes the argument in April. A line that is protected until Q3 by written agreement survives the meeting where somebody asks why it has not produced anything.
Who owns the plan inside the firm?
One person, with a partner who can approve within 5 working days.
Two roles, not one. The owner is whoever holds the document, books the four reviews, and reports against the judgement rules. The sponsor is a partner with the authority to approve spending and copy without a committee. Firms that appoint the first without the second produce plans that stall on approvals, and the delay is invisible in every report because nothing failed — things simply did not happen.
Neither role needs to be a marketing specialist. At 6 fee earners and above it is usually a coordinator; below that it is a partner with the plan in a folder. What the role cannot be is unassigned.
What does the plan deliberately leave out?
Three things, stated so nobody discovers them in Q2.
- Ad management. We do not run paid campaigns. The paid line above is priced from Google's own measured click costs so a firm can budget it honestly, and then it goes to somebody who does that work.
- Intake. Whoever answers the phone decides whether the money in every line above was worth spending. At $73.14 a click in New York personal injury, measured 3 August 2026, an inquiry that reaches a voicemail has consumed the acquisition cost and returned nothing. That is operational and sits inside the firm.
- Fee-earner capacity. A plan that works produces more inquiries. A firm already at capacity does not need this document; it needs a hire, and no supplier should sell it a marketing plan instead.
What this is worth where you are
In New York, 14,800 people a month search for personal injury, and Google charges around $73.14 for one of those clicks. We hold the same figures for 52 cities.
The free report gives you yours, plus which pages are missing from your site, and what 40 suppliers charge.
Where should I read next?
On the intake line the plan leaves out: law firm client intake procedures and sample client intake form law firm.
On what the build line actually produces: law firm website content and law firm branding examples.
For a practice area where the click economics are extreme: mesothelioma law firm blog.
Frequently asked questions
What should an effective law firm marketing plan include?
Four parts: one named owner, a budget split by line in dollars, a written rule for what each line is judged on, and four quarterly decision points where money is released or withdrawn. Everything beyond those four is commentary.
How should a law firm split its marketing budget across channels?
By what a click costs in its own city and practice area rather than by a published percentage. Chicago family and divorce clicks cost $34.89 and Atlanta personal injury clicks cost $149.13, measured 3 August 2026 — 4.3 times the price for the same click.
What does a paid line actually cost to budget?
Five hundred clicks is $17,445 in Chicago family and divorce and $74,565 in Atlanta personal injury, arithmetic on the measured cost per click. Neither figure predicts what a campaign returns; they show why one template cannot fit both firms.
When can each budget line first be judged?
A paid line at six weeks, the search line at months six to nine, a build at its handover date. Writing those dates down in January is what stops a line being cut in April for failing to produce a number it structurally cannot produce yet.
Who should own a law firm's marketing plan?
One named person who holds the document and books the reviews, plus a partner sponsor who can approve spending and copy within five working days. Appointing the first without the second produces plans that stall invisibly on approvals.
What does a marketing plan not cover?
Ad management, intake and fee-earner capacity. We do not run paid campaigns, intake is operational and sits inside the firm, and a firm already at capacity needs a hire rather than a plan.
What are your prices, and do you charge per case?
Practice Sprint $1,450 and build tier $2,900, fixed and published, with no minimum term. We never charge per inquiry, per case or per matter; US lawyer advertising runs through ABA Model Rule 7.2(b), adopted differently by state.