Another month is in the books for the personal injury Google Ads program at Rothman PPC.
June came in at a $6,135 cost per case.
That is higher than the goal. The goal is to get these cases in the $4,000 to $5,000 range, and $6,135 is obviously above that. I don’t think the personal injury law firms I work with are losing money at that number, but the goal is the goal, and the goal is to get the cost per case down. But it was nice to see the cost per case down from last month. So we’re moving in the right direction.
In personal injury Google Ads, you can’t just say, “Well, the cases are valuable, so whatever.” That kind of thinking can get you in trouble. The cases can be very valuable, but the clicks are expensive, the competition is aggressive, and if you let cost per case creep up month after month, you can take a great lead source and make it a lot less profitable than it should be.
So June was not on the $5,000 goal, but the cost per case came down and there were some other wins as well.
The June Cost Per Case
The system-wide cost per case in June was $6,135.
Again, the goal is $4,000 to $5,000. We’ve been used to seeing numbers more in that range, so $6,135 stands out. It is not where I want the accounts to be.
The big reason the number was up is pretty simple.
We were bidding too aggressively.
That’s not the whole story of the month, but it is the main story. The bids were too high for the cost per case goal we were trying to hit.
Why were the bids too high?
Because there was pressure from clients across the system to get more volume and more cases.
That is a very normal pressure in personal injury. Personal injury lawyers want cases. They have fixed costs. They have intake staff. They have attorneys. They have growth goals. They want the phone ringing and they want signed cases coming in.
That all makes sense. I get it.
But the problem is that pressure for more volume can lead to bad decisions if you let it.
The plan going into the month was to keep the bidding at a disciplined, profitable level and focus on the cost per case goal. I did not do that as well as I should have. The pressure to get more volume pushed things too aggressive, and the cost per case ended up too high.
Volume Is Not The First Priority
One of the biggest tensions in personal injury Google Ads is volume versus profitability.
Everyone wants more cases. I want more cases for my clients. The clients want more cases. Everyone is happy when the case volume is strong.
But the case volume has to come in at a cost that makes sense.
If the cost per case goal is $4,000 to $5,000, then that has to be the goal. Not “get as many cases as possible and then hope the math works out later.” That is not how I want to run these accounts.
The better way to run this kind of program is to bid at the right level, let the cost per case guide the decisions, and treat volume as secondary until the cost per case is back where it needs to be.
That is the plan for July.
We had the conversations we needed to have at the end of June, and the plan is very clear now. We are going to stick to the disciplined, profitable level of bidding for 30 days. We are going to put the cost per case first. We are going to look at volume as secondary. And then we’ll see where the numbers land.
That does not mean volume does not matter. It matters a lot.
But it only matters after profitability has been taken care of.
Discipline Over Volume
The theme for July is discipline over volume.
That’s not just a nice phrase that sounds good for a blog post. That is the actual strategy for July.
The goal is to get back into the $4,000 to $5,000 cost per case range. If we can do that and still get strong volume, great. That is the perfect outcome.
But I’m not going to chase volume at the expense of the cost per case goal.
There are times when it makes sense to be more aggressive. If the cost per case is running under goal and we have room to push, I’ll push. I like pushing from a place of strength. That’s when the risk/reward can make sense.
But when the cost per case is already too high, the first move is not to keep pushing. The first move is to get the account back under control.
That is what July is going to be all about.
Slip And Falls And Dog Bites Improved The Case Mix
One thing I did like about June was the case mix.
Slip and falls were 11% of cases across the system. Dog bites were also 11% of cases across the system. Pedestrians hit by vehicles were 5% of cases. Car accidents fell from 78% last month to 73% this month.
Car accidents are still the main focus. That is what the personal injury lawyers I work with prioritize, and that makes sense given the average value of those cases. But my clients also want a healthy mix of other case types that they are advertising for, including dog bites, slip and falls, pedestrians hit by cars, and if the volume is there, truck wrecks and motorcycle accidents.
When you can add more of those case types into the overall case mix without hurting the cost per case, that helps build up the overall case volume in a good way.
The key phrase there is “without hurting the cost per case.”
I don’t want more volume just to have more volume. I want more signed cases that fit the law firm’s goals and come in at numbers that make financial sense.
A Useful Bidding Insight
June was also a useful month because I came across a very good insight related to bidding.
I can’t share the specific insight, but the general lesson is worth talking about.
The lesson is that you have to keep learning.
You can manage Google Ads accounts for years and still find new insights if you keep studying the product, reviewing the documentation, and combining that core level of product knowledge with what you’re seeing day to day inside the Google Ads accounts.
That combination of knowledge, continuing to learn, and experience can be very powerful when applied consistently.
Documentation by itself is not enough. Experience by itself can make you stale if you stop learning. But when you combine real account experience with a continued effort to understand how the product works, you can occasionally get extremely useful insights.
That happened in June.
And that insight is going to help me manage these personal injury accounts better going forward.
Intake Still Matters A Lot
The other big theme from June was intake.
Some of the leads coming in from Google Ads are extremely high-intent. We’re talking about people searching for a car accident attorney when they are still on the scene of the accident.
That is about as high-intent as it gets.
But those calls are not always easy to get signed.
Sometimes the caller has to get off the phone. They have to talk to the police. They have to deal with a tow truck. They have to take a family member to the hospital. They have something urgent happening right in front of them.
So even if our advertising system does its job perfectly and gets the law firm in front of the right person at the right time, the case is not automatically signed.
That is where intake comes in.
You need real follow-up.
Not casual follow-up. Not “we called once and left a voicemail” follow-up. Real follow-up. Skilled follow-up. Organized follow-up. Follow-up that understands which leads need another call, when they need another call, and how important that opportunity is.
This is one of the most important things personal injury lawyers need to understand about Google Ads.
Good Google Ads campaigns can generate perfect leads. It can get you in front of someone searching for a car accident lawyer with very high intent. But the intake process still has to turn that lead into a signed case.
The best Google Ads campaign in the world can only do so much if the intake process is weak.
The combined system matters, great advertising campaigns along with great intake. That’s what it takes to get profitable cases from digital marketing campaigns.
Intake Improvements Are Coming
I’m also optimistic because there are intake improvements coming to our system in the next few months.
If we can combine a more disciplined cost per case focus with better intake performance, that could create a much better July and a great second half of the year.
That is the kind of improvement I like.
Not just one lever.
Multiple levers.
Better bidding discipline. Better cost per case control. Better intake. Better follow-up. Better case mix.
That is how you improve a personal injury Google Ads program over time.
The Main Takeaway
June finished at a $6,135 cost per case.
That is too high compared to the $4,000 to $5,000 goal. And the plan for July is to get the number back down.
The main reason the cost per case was too high is that the bidding got too aggressive. The pressure for more volume pushed things too far, and the cost per case moved above where I want it.
So July is going to be about discipline.
We are going to put the cost per case first. We are going to treat volume as secondary. We are going to stick with the plan for 30 days and then look at the results.
At the same time, there were good things that happened in June. Slip and falls and dog bites both made up 11% of cases, which is a good sign for the case mix. We had useful learning on the bidding side. And the continued focus on intake improvements should help turn more of these strong Google Ads leads into signed cases.
Some months are smooth. Some months are more expensive. And some months teach you something.
June taught us something.
Now July is about applying the lesson.
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