When it comes to your PPC campaign, optimizing the funnel for mobile users should be a major consideration.
However, optimizing PPC campaigns for mobile requires a nuanced approach. From crafting compelling ad copy to designing mobile-friendly landing pages, there are several factors to consider to ensure maximum impact and return on investment. Whether you’re a solo practitioner or part of a large firm, optimizing your PPC for mobile users will empower you to reach and engage with your target audience effectively on their devices.
The Challenges and Opportunities of Mobile PPC Advertising
Mobile PPC advertising presents both challenges and opportunities for lawyers looking to expand their digital reach. However, the importance of mobile PPC optimization couldn’t be clearer from the data. Here’s just one example from one of our personal injury clients. Around 64% of their site visits over the past 28 days are from users with a phone or other mobile device. It also accounted for nearly a third of their conversions.
So what do you do with this mobile audience? How do you ensure that your PPC campaign and its accompanying landing page are just as effective for them as it is for desktop users?
Well, there are a couple of issues you need to resolve. First, the general availability of screen space is smaller on mobile devices. This means that you have less space to convince the user to contact your firm. Second, not all mobile devices have the same connection or processing capability, which means you have to use an optimized design that loads quickly.
7 Steps You Can Take to Optimize Your Mobile PPC Campaigns Today
Despite the challenges, there are a few things you can do right now to help optimize your campaign and its landing page for mobile users. This includes making overall design improvements to your landing page, employing strong headlines, relying on location-based targeting, using voice search keywords, and more. Let’s dive into some of the specifics.
1. Craft Concise Copy for Your Headlines
Many people waste a lot of time trying to come up with the perfect headline for their PPC ad. Don’t try to reinvent the wheel. Instead, make a headline that uses actionable phrases and highlights the benefits of choosing your firm. For example, you can highlight the amount of money you’ve recovered for car accident victims or any industry awards. Alternatively, you can encourage the user to contact your firm. Here’s one firm’s PPC ad that highlights their contingency fee structure as a value proposition. They even use the location extension to add more relevant links under their ad copy.
2. Optimize Your Landing Page for Mobile Friendliness
Let’s talk about landing pages for mobile. Generally, many firms think they can get away with just linking their mobile ad to their website without any other considerations. However, if their page isn’t already designed to be mobile-friendly, it’s unlikely to get any conversions. In fact, Google found that when page load time on mobile goes from one second to 10 seconds, a user is 123% more likely to bounce.
Related: Why Landing Page Optimization Is an Essential Part of PPC for Attorneys
Thankfully, there are a few different ways to avoid this problem and ensure your landing page is loading as fast as possible:
- Compress the file size of images/videos. Large images and videos take a much longer time to load depending on the resolution. You can either scale down the resolution or use an image/video compression software. However, there is a sweet spot, and compressing visual media can reduce the quality. To check how images and other media are affecting the speed of your site on mobile, use a free tool like Google PageSpeed Insights.
- Use static design elements. Although moving elements and animations can make a visually appealing site, they don’t load that quickly on mobile devices. The excess Javascript used for animations can also lengthen loading times. To avoid this, use simple, static elements on your page. Remember, you can still tailor them to your branding.
- Keep your page short. Another good way to optimize your landing page is to keep it short. Generally, the mobile version of your landing page won’t be organized the same way visually as a desktop version. Having large sections can quickly get out of hand on a mobile device because the viewport is smaller. This means there is overall less real estate for your content, so you have to make it count. Here’s an example comparing content lengths on both desktop and mobile.
Thankfully, most modern website builders, whether you’re using WordPress or another builder, allow you to build your site to be responsive. In other words, it adapts the layout to the size of the viewport it’s being viewed on, so you don’t have to build a separate page for mobile. So to make sure your content doesn’t break on smaller screens, create your content in your website builder’s block editor.
3. Use Geo-Targeting
When setting up PPC for lawyers, remember that location is key. If you have a practice in California, target the areas that you serve. For example, if you have offices in Los Angeles, San Diego, and Bakersfield, make sure your headline and its associated landing page match those locations. You should also make sure to use location-based keywords and target the same audience within the campaign itself on Google Ads. Here’s an example of an ad that appears for the search “car accident attorneys in houston” and meets this criteria.
4. Adapt for Voice Search and Long-Tail Keywords
The rise of voice search presents an opportunity for lawyers to optimize their PPC campaigns for conversational searches. According to Google, 27% of the world’s online users are using voice search on their platform. This means you should provide relevant information and solutions to users’ searches in a more natural and conversational manner. A good way to do this is to use different keywords for your PPC campaigns. Typically, it’s best to use and bid on long-tail keywords that begin with the following:
- The Five Ws and H (Who, What, When, Where, Why, How); or
- Yes/No or Choice Question Words (Which, Should, Could, Would, Do, Does, Can, Is, Are).
Generally, when someone uses voice search, they ask a question. That question is then interpreted by the search engine as a keyword. So to optimize for voice search in a PPC campaign, use long-tail keywords that involve a question. Here are some legal examples:
- Who are the best personal injury lawyers in New York?
- What is the statute of limitations for medical malpractice in Colorado?
- How do you file for divorce in Texas?
These question-based keywords are essential to capturing some potential leads from voice search. Try to incorporate them into your content on your landing page in a natural way.
5. Implement Call Tracking
Call tracking allows you to figure out which campaigns, keywords, and ads are driving the most phone leads. This makes it easier to allocate your budget more effectively and measure the performance of your ads without noisy data. Additionally, it helps provide valuable information about the behavior of your leads, such as their call duration, call times, and general location. However, the greatest benefit of call tracking is that it allows you to optimize your PPC ads further. With call tracking data, it’s easy to figure out which ads and keywords are driving the most phone calls and conversions. This allows you to allocate your budget to high-performing ads and keywords, while pausing or adjusting underperforming ones.
6. Set a (Small) Custom Budget
In Google Ads, you can set a custom budget and even create a maximum CPC or CPA bid. However, when optimizing PPC, it’s best to start small. Ideally, you want to figure out which of your ads is performing best before you commit a large amount of your budget. Otherwise, you’re just throwing money away at an ad that might not stick.
7. Choose Negative Keywords
Ever wonder why sometimes you get an irrelevant lead through your PPC campaign? It might be because the campaign is appearing on tangentially related searches. In other words, the user’s search might be similar to your targeted keywords but not have the exact same intent. By implementing negative keywords, you can prevent your ad from being wasted on clicks that won’t lead to conversions. For example, if you’re a law firm that doesn’t handle personal injury cases, then you can add “personal injury” to your negative keyword list. All searches including this word won’t trigger your ads. This is usually a good idea in the legal space since CPC is high for broad keywords.
Optimizing Mobile PPC Marketing for Lawyers Can Help Improve ROI
In the legal marketing space, optimizing mobile PPC for lawyers isn’t just advantageous—it’s essential for maximizing your return on investment. A seamless transition from your ad to your landing page, as well as thoughtful ad targeting, is paramount to your success. If your landing page fails to deliver on the promises made in your ad, or if your ad doesn’t target the right leads, you will end up with lost conversion opportunities and wasted ad spend. By optimizing your PPC campaign with mobile users in mind, you not only enhance the user experience but also increase the likelihood of conversion.
Remember, in the realm of PPC for lawyers, every click counts. By focusing on mobile optimization and providing a seamless user experience, you pave the way for improved ROI and greater success with your ads.
