Why Tracking Law Firm Marketing ROI Is Important

Date: March 12, 2024

Many firms invest thousands of dollars into marketing spend, whether that be through digital marketing efforts or more traditional efforts. Still, a majority of those firms have no idea what their marketing dollars are generating for them in terms of new revenue for the firm. That is where ROI, or return on investment, comes into play. 

Why Tracking ROI Is Essential For Law Firm Marketers and Firm Leaders 

Calculating and keeping track of marketing return on Investment is a critical metric that all law firms should be tracking for a variety of reasons some of which include the following: 

  • Understanding What Marketing Campaigns Are Driving Revenue – By closely tracking ROI and keeping tabs on the performance of your marketing campaigns, you’ll be able to have a clear understanding of what marketing campaigns are driving revenue for your firm. Once you can understand which marketing campaigns are driving the most qualified leads and actually converting into revenue for the firm, you can face the next steps.
  • Make Data-Driven Decisions – Once you understand what marketing campaigns are working most effectively, you can use that information to make data-driven marketing decisions that will make the best use of your marketing dollars. 
  • Better Allocate Marketing Spend – Once you’ve acquired all of the data for your marketing campaigns, you can better allocate your marketing spend. For example, if you noticed that your SEO efforts showed a 5x return for your Elder Law practice, you may consider putting additional budget towards further bolstering that practice area or even begin investing in another. On the other hand, if you notice the social media advertising you were investing in was not generating the revenue you initially thought, you would now know to make an educated decision on how to best allocate that spend whether it be to lower it or put that budget toward higher-performing marketing campaigns. 

Top Three Challenges Law Firms Face When Tracking ROI 

ROI is a metric all law firms hope to track but often struggle to do so. Let’s dive into the top challenges that we’ve noticed law firms face when trying to track ROI on their marketing spend. 

Inaccurate Tracking 

The first and most frequent challenge we’ve seen is having inaccurate or no tracking in place. The best free tool to use for tracking your leads is Google Analytics (GA4). If you don’t have an analytics property set up for your law firm that would be a great first step. Next, you want to determine what it is you want to track – Phone calls? Contact Form submissions? Chatbot interactions? The world is your oyster. It is best to identify the main conversion actions you feel are most likely to indicate a new potential client. Some of the most common ones we see and encourage all of our clients to track include contact forms and phone calls. 

Long Sales Cycles 

Long sales cycles can pose a difficulty for many law firms when it comes to tracking ROI. That is because someone may fill out a contact form by finding the website in January but then may not retain an attorney until June. For example, this is prevalent with firms that concentrate on Family Law, more specifically Divorce. This can make the tracking process difficult to keep a good grip on and takes close tracking of each lead to properly determine ROI. 

Difficulties With Attribution 

Attribution can be hard to determine, especially if you are investing in multi-channel marketing. Even if you have accurate tracking set up, this can still be complicated to nail down. This is why we often recommend our clients use a call tracking software such as CallRail, especially if they are investing in SEO, Paid Ads, and any other channels. A call tracking software can provide additional in-depth insights that Google Analytics may not be able to provide to you, such as what landing page a specific caller called from and what traffic channel they came to your website from. 

Overcoming ROI Tracking Issues With ROO 

Tracking ROI on marketing campaigns can sometimes be difficult to accurately measure, given how nebulous some aspects of digital marketing can be. This is why ROO, or return on objective, is a great alternative if you are unable to closely track the metrics needed for ROI. This type of tracking allows your firm to prove the impact of specific marketing campaigns when it is not possible or feasible to tie them directly to revenue. With ROO tracking, you can still see the impact of your marketing campaigns and make data-driven decisions; you just don’t have to have all of the nitty-gritty details to do so. 

Looking to Get Your Law Firms Tracking Organized? 

If you are looking to get your law firm’s tracking organized and under control you’ve come to the right blog article. At 9Sail, we work with our clients to ensure proper tracking is in place and work together to help determine the impact of their marketing efforts in terms of new potential clients and increasing profit. If you are looking for an SEO partner that is invested in the success of your firm then contact us today to get a conversation started.