Google Ads / Search strategy
Finding the right calls.
A legal services account was producing calls, but too many callers wanted a government office instead of representation.
The account was getting calls from people seeking a government office, not legal representation.
Paid search strategy and ongoing management
A Search account rebuilt around hiring intent
This is one anonymous Ontario account. The results below are historical and measured on inbound calls, not signed clients or revenue.
Volume was hiding the wrong intent.
The account was running Performance Max. It was reaching people, but call tracking showed that many callers were trying to reach the Landlord and Tenant Board. A call count on its own was not a useful measure of demand for representation.
The work started with a narrower question: which searches suggested someone wanted to hire legal help, and which searches showed they were looking for public information or a government office?
- 01Observe
Call tracking showed many people were looking for the Landlord and Tenant Board.
- 02Focus
Rebuild as standard Search campaigns around searches for representation.
- 03Refine
Review search terms and exclude government-body and information-seeking queries.
This diagram explains the method. It is not a live account screenshot.
Make intent visible and manageable.
I rebuilt the account as standard Search campaigns organized around hiring intent. Negative keywords excluded government-body and information-seeking searches. That reduced the chance of paying for calls that the firm could not serve.
Call tracking remained the main conversion action. Search term reviews provided a way to keep refining the boundary as new queries appeared.
A clearer signal from the calls.
Measured on inbound calls only
Observed for this account
12 or more months of continuous management at the time the case study was written. One anonymous Ontario legal services account. These are historical observations, not a forecast.
The trade-off was deliberate.
Moving to Search and excluding queries meant giving up some reach. It also made the account easier to steer toward people looking for representation. The client increased its budget substantially during the period of management, but the figures above describe this account only.
A call conversion is not the same as a signed client. The source does not establish revenue or what another account would achieve. The lesson is to align the campaign's measurement with the actual kind of inquiry the business can use.