Solved: Airtight PPC for PI space

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out! I can definitely appreciate the frustration of working with agencies that don't deliver, especially in a space as competitive as personal injury law. It's a common story, unfortunately.

I'm happy to give you some initial thoughts and guidance based on my experience. A lot of firms burn through cash on PPC because their agencies focus on the wrong things. An "airtight" strategy isn't about finding a few magic keywords; it's about building a robust client acquisition system from the ground up, starting with how you think about your clients and your own business metrics. It's a completely different approach to the usual 'set and forget' campaigns I see all the time.

We'll need to look at why most PI law firm advertising is a complete waste of money...

Let's be brutally honest. The PI space on platforms like Google Ads is a bloodbath. You're competing against massive national firms with eye-watering budgets. CPCs for high-value keywords can easily hit £50, £100, or even more. When you're paying that much for a single click, there is absolutely no margin for error.

The number one reason agencies fail in this environment is that they optimise for the wrong metric. They get obsessed with Cost Per Lead (CPL). They present you with a report showing they got you 50 'leads' for £80 each, and they pat themselves on the back. The problem? 49 of those leads are tyre-kickers, people looking for free advice with no real case, or just plain low-quality enquiries that waste your intake team's time. The agency looks good because the CPL is 'low', but your actual Cost Per Acquired Case is through the roof, or worse, non-existent.

An airtight strategy ignores CPL as a primary metric. The only number that matters is your Cost Per Signed Case. Who cares if a lead costs £300 if it's from someone with a catastrophic injury, clear liability, and they sign with you within 48 hours? That's a hugely profitable lead. Conversely, a £50 lead from a vague keyword that never even returns your call is a complete loss. You are not in the business of collecting leads; you are in the business of signing profitable cases.

This is a fundamental mindset shift. You have to be willing to pay a premium for quality. Chasing cheap leads in the PI space is a race to the bottom that you will always lose. It means your entire strategy, from the keywords you bid on to the copy on your landing page, must be geared towards filtering out the rubbish and attracting only the most serious, high-intent prospects.

I'd say you need to define your 'Nightmare', not your 'demographic'...

The next place agencies get it wrong is targeting. They'll create a generic persona like "Male, aged 30-55, lives in Manchester, interested in cars." This is utterly useless. It tells you nothing of value and leads to bland, ineffective ads that speak to no one.

To stop burning cash, you have to define your ideal client by their pain. You need to become an expert in their specific, urgent, and expensive nightmare. Your ideal client isn't just a job title or an age range; they are a person in a state of crisis. Their problem is real, it's keeping them up at night, and it's threatening their financial stability, their health, or their family's future.

Your ICP (Ideal Customer Profile) isn't a person; it's a problem state. Let's get specific:

• The Nightmare: A self-employed scaffolder just fell two stories. He's broken his leg in three places and can't work for at least six months. His mortgage payment is due, and the contractor he was working for is ignoring his calls. He's terrified of losing his house.
• The Nightmare: A mother was T-boned at a junction by someone who ran a red light. She has severe whiplash and can't pick up her toddler without searing pain. The other driver's insurance is offering a pathetically low settlement that won't even cover her physiotherapy.
• The Nightmare: An office worker has developed debilitating carpal tunnel syndrome from years of improper workstation setup. HR has dismissed her complaints, and she's afraid she'll be fired if she makes a fuss, but the pain is making it impossible to do her job.

Do you see the difference? When you understand the *nightmare*, you can write ad copy that speaks directly to their fear and desperation. You can target keywords that reflect their exact situation. You stop being a generic "Personal Injury Solicitor" and become the specific solution to their specific, urgent problem. Every part of your campaign, from ad to landing page, needs to reflect this deep understanding of their pain.

You probably should scrap 'Free Consultation' and build a real offer...

Now we get to the most common failure point of all: the offer. "Request a Free Consultation" is the legal industry's version of "Request a Demo". It is lazy, arrogant, and completely uninspired. It presumes your prospect, who is in the middle of a crisis, wants to book a meeting to be sold to. It's a high-friction, low-value Call to Action that every single one of your competitors is also using.

It's the primary reason you get so many low-quality leads. It attracts people looking for free legal advice with no intention of signing. Your offer’s only job is to deliver a moment of undeniable value—an "aha!" moment that pre-qualifies the prospect and makes them sell *themselves* on hiring you.

You must replace your generic CTA with a high-value tool, asset, or assessment that solves a small, real problem for them, right now. This does two things: it forces them to provide specific information about their case (pre-qualifying them), and it demonstrates your expertise, building trust before you even speak.

Here are some ideas for offers that actually work:

• Instant Online Compensation Calculator: A simple form where they input the type of injury, estimated medical bills, and lost wages. It gives them an *illustrative* estimate of what their claim could be worth. To get the result, they provide their email and phone number. This is an incredible lead magnet.
• Free 5-Point Case Strength Assessment: Instead of a vague consultation, you offer a specific, tangible outcome. They fill out a detailed form about their accident, and you promise a free, no-obligation report outlining the potential strengths and weaknesses of their case within 24 hours.
• "The 7 Documents You MUST Collect After a Car Accident" Guide: A downloadable PDF checklist. This provides immediate value, positions you as an authority, and gives you a lead you can nurture via email.

These offers work because they shift the dynamic. You are no longer asking for their time; you are *giving* them something of value. In exchange, they are giving you the qualified information you need to determine if they're a good fit. It's the single best way to filter out the time-wasters.

You'll need to understand the only metric that actually matters: your LTV...

This is where everything comes together. The real question isn't "How low can my CPL go?" but "How much can I afford to spend to acquire a great case?" The answer lies in your client Lifetime Value (LTV), or more accurately for a PI firm, your Average Gross Profit Per Case.

If you don't know this number, you are flying blind. You have no way of knowing if your advertising is profitable. Most firms I talk to have never calculated this, which is frankly terrifying given how much they spend on marketing.

Let's do the maths. It's simpler than you think:

1. Average Settlement Value: What's the average final value of a case you close? Let's say it's £40,000.
2. Your Contingency Fee %: What's your typical cut? Let's say 25%. So your average fee is £10,000.
3. Average Case Expenses: What do you spend on average for expert reports, court fees, etc.? Let's say £2,000 per case.
4. Gross Profit Per Case (Your 'LTV'): This is your fee minus your expenses. So, £10,000 - £2,000 = £8,000.

In this example, each signed case is worth £8,000 in gross profit to your firm. This single number changes everything.

A healthy business model aims for at least a 3:1 LTV to Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) ratio. This means for every £1 you spend on marketing to acquire a case, you should get at least £3 back in gross profit. With an £8,000 LTV, this means you can afford to spend up to £2,666 to acquire a single signed case and still have a very healthy, scalable business.

Now, let's work backwards. If your intake team and solicitors convert 1 in 10 *qualified leads* into a signed case (a 10% conversion rate), you can afford to pay up to £266 per qualified lead (£2,666 / 10). Suddenly, that £100 CPC for the keyword "catastrophic injury solicitor" doesn't look so expensive, does it? It looks like a bargain, provided it generates a truly qualified lead. This is the maths that unlocks aggressive, intelligent growth and frees you from the tyranny of cheap, useless leads.

This is the main advice I have for you:

Putting it all together, an "airtight" PPC strategy for a PI firm is a completely different machine to what most agencies build. It's a system designed for profitability and quality, not just volume. I've detailed my main recommendations for you below as a comparison between the common (failing) approach and the one I'd advocate for.

As you can see, this is a much more involved and strategic process than simply throwing some keywords into a Google Ads account. It's likely why you've had poor experiences in the past. Your previous agencies were probably stuck on the left side of that table, pulling levers and chasing vanity metrics without ever building a proper client acquisition system that's aligned with your business goals.

This kind of work requires deep expertise not just in paid advertising, but in understanding the specific economics and client psychology of the personal injury sector. It's about building a machine where every component—from the keyword to the ad copy to the landing page offer—works together to attract high-value cases and repel the low-quality enquiries that drain your resources.

I hope this initial breakdown has been helpful and gives you a clearer framework for what to look for. It's the kind of strategic thinking we bring to every client engagement.

If you'd like to have a more detailed chat about your specific situation and see how this approach could be applied to your firm, we offer a free, no-obligation initial consultation where we can review your current strategy and identify the biggest opportunities for improvement. Feel free to book a time that works for you.

Regards,

Team @ Lukas Holschuh