Author: kung.xiong@hoglundanalytics.com

Hoglund Advertising Approach to Attorneys and Legal Services Google Ads Campaigns bucks the trend.

As seen in a recent article posted in Wordstream and Search Engine Land, a year over year study showed that he Attorney and Legal Services sector saw a 33% increase in cost per lead from 2021 to 2022.  When we look at our legal accounts, we saw a 15% decrease in cost per lead from 2021 to 2022.

What led to a complete opposite result in performance from their study can be attributed to the hands-on manual work by Hoglund Advertising vs reliance on automated bidding and optimization. We have tested various automated bidding strategies from utilizing Automated Recommendations, Target CPA, Maximize Clicks and even Maximize Conversions.  However, at Hoglund Advertising we have a human/hand on approach of analyzing the data and optimization that has proven to perform better than the AI strategies available in Google Ads.

Oftentimes we see higher cost / click, irrelevant search queries and in the end higher cost per valid lead when utilizing the automated strategies in Google Ads.  When utilizing automated strategies, there is an extensive learning period that these campaigns must run before the systems really start to take effect.  The time that that AI needs to “optimize” can often take months and ad spend is wasted on the learning period Googles systems.

In essence we are not in the business of experimenting with our client’s money for extended periods of time.  The accounts need to perform as fast and optimal as possible.  By crowdsourcing the learnings from all our accounts, we continuously apply those learnings across our accounts to the benefit of each clients’ accounts we work with at a quicker pace without the lengthy and costly experimental time.

Our approach to campaign management encompasses some of the items below:

Granular Tracking of Leads Utilizing an in-house secret sauce technique, we track to the micro level of campaigns helps us know what to take off the table and appropriate funds to the parts that perform better.  Utilizing Call Tracking Metrics, our method of tracking only valid leads not just clicks, visits to a landing page, spam calls, wrong number calls etc. is what enables us to attain better conclusions from the test results including:

• What locations perform better than others

• What hours of the day are more profitable

• What days of the week are more profitable

• Which keyword convert better than others

• Adding new keywords
• Adding negative keywords blocking unwanted less relevant traffic
  

• Mobile vs. Desktop performance

• Testing out various unique selling propositions

A/B Testing • Ad copy • Landing page design • Landing page copy Click Fraud Implementation • Monitoring and blocking suspicious IP Address and bot traffic • Analyzing multi click conversion data and implementing the proper thresholds to block after a certain number of clicks from a searcher

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This video features President of Hoglund Analytics, Art Armani, Director of Search, Stephen Vail, and Senior Manager of Creative Projects, Rebekah Kelly. This introduction serves to create a jumping off point to what we hope will be an informative and valuable resource for anyone looking to either learn more about us or pick up some marketing tips of their own. We hope you enjoy the video and stick around for exciting new additions to the series.

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Unprecedented Times

In these unprecedented times, we’re all struggling to find normalcy. While many of us are simply hunkering down, others are out of work or clinging on to stay afloat, namely bars, restaurants and the like. Luckily we’re in the position to do our part and ease some of that financial pain. Many restaurants have converted fully to take out offerings, so whenever possible, please consider ordering meals from your local favorites to keep them supported. Another option is purchasing gift cards for those restaurants who’ve decided to fully close during this time. That way, the money is their’s immediately and you can reap the benefits at a later, calmer date. Most businesses offer gift purchasing online, meaning the certificate live in your email which, if you ask me, is the best way to keep track of them long term. We’re all in need of support right now. Reach out to your loved ones and keep your community in mind and soon enough, we’ll all breathe easy again.

SIX KEY INSIGHTS ABOUT LAW FIRMS AND DIGITAL ADVERTISING

By Robert J. Hoglund President and Founder of Hoglund Advertising & Analytics General Partner and Owner of Hoglund, Chwialkowski & Mrozik, P.L.L.C.

Getting started using digital advertising is a piece of cake. The real question is, how do you get digital ads to work? How do you make more money from your ads than they cost you – and how can they become a driving force behind your firm’s growth? A few key insights can mean the difference between ads that create expenses and ads that create leads. Art Armani is our Director of Advertising and Analytics at Hoglund Advertising & Analytics. When asked a series of questions about how law firms can get results from digital advertising, here is how he responded.

1. For a law firm, what are the advantages of digital advertising?

“Digital advertising allows three things: tracking, targeting and easy changes. With digital ads, you can track behavior in detail. You can track where and when people are responding to your ads. You can see which ads and keywords attract the most web traffic. With effective tracking, you can see what you’re getting per dollar spent. Tracking tells you where you should spend your advertising dollars. And targeting allows you to follow this advice. You can target a specific audience, such as a particular zip code. If you’re getting a better return on your investment in a certain city, you can concentrate your resources there. And when you want to make changes to your campaigns, digital advertising makes it easy. With a few clicks you can change both your message and your budget. With traditional advertising such as television and radio, any changes to your message need to go through several steps and a long process. Or with print ads, once an ad is published, it’s published. But with digital advertising, you can change your ads with a few clicks. The same goes for your budget.”

2. What are some common mistakes you see lawyers making with their digital advertising?

“One common mistake I see is the lack of tracking. For example, firms might send all of their digital advertising traffic to the same web address, without any tracking mechanisms in place to see how the traffic got there. Or, firms might not take advantage of the ability to see how much traffic is coming from mobile devices or certain search engines. Further, sometimes I see firms not taking advantage of tools to target potential clients. There are detailed location settings available, and it’s important to use them. Make sure to deliver your ads to the geographic area you really want. Another common mistake is when advertisers don’t take steps to screen out people not interested in their service. With pay-per-click, you are often being charged each time someone clicks on your advertising. So you don’t want your ads to show up in irrelevant searches. In Google AdWords, you can specify that you do not want your ads to appear when people search for certain terms. For example, you can keep your digital ads from showing up when a search contains the words ‘free’ or ‘classes’. Your advertising agency needs to take advantage of tools like this. If not, you could be missing your chance to hone in on your target audience. And you could be getting a lower return on your advertising investment.”

3. What do you wish more lawyers knew about digital advertising?

“First of all, targeting – and how effective it can be. Zero in on the specific audience you’re seeking. Also, I recommend a well-diversified marketing portfolio. You’ve heard of a well-diversified financial portfolio: Advertising works the same way. Digital by itself is great. TV or radio by itself is great. But you should have a well-diversified marketing portfolio: Radio, print and digital support each other. But of these channels, digital is a must. Why is digital a must? Think about the number of eyes that seem to be magnetically drawn to their cellphones and laptop computers. Digital is a must because of volume, visibility, search and return on investment. With radio or TV advertising, people happen to hear your message while they’re cleaning out the garage or going to the kitchen for snacks. On the other hand, when you use paid search ads, you are reaching people who are actively searching for your service or product. You’re not just delivering your ad to a broad group of people. You’re reaching people who typed in a search containing certain keywords. These people are further along in the sales process. They consciously made a decision to search for your topic. Paid search ads can help deliver your message to these actively interested prospects.”

4. Once people run a relevant search and your ad appears, what does it take to get them to contact you?

“After web users have run a search and your ad appears, it becomes a matter of messaging and ad text. Your ad needs to be relevant to your service. It needs to incent people to visit your website. Then, it comes down to your landing page. A landing page is one specific web page designed to receive traffic. In most cases, you don’t want your digital ads to simply bring people to your regular homepage. If people find themselves on your homepage, they may click from page to page around your website without being driven to contact you. Instead, you want your digital ads to bring visitors to one carefully designed landing page. This page should provide compelling information and then encourage people to get in touch with you right away. And, your landing page needs to match what your digital ad states. If visitors are looking for a bankruptcy attorney, don’t send them to a personal injury landing page. Continue the same messaging on your landing page that you began in your ad. Otherwise people will not find what they want, and they’ll leave your site.”

5. How would you summarize an effective campaign strategy?

“Call tracking, down to the campaign level. In other words, have separate campaigns for different cities and subject matters. Track what success you have for each one. If you’re having more success in one campaign, put more dollars into it. If you’re not getting a return on another campaign, stop putting money into it. And don’t track success by clicks and calls – look at the quality of the calls, and the end result.”

6. What other advice do you have, for a successful digital ad campaign?

“Differentiate yourself from your competition, in your market. Use convincing ads that take advantage of the options and capabilities that are available in Google AdWords. Attract attention, take up space on the screen and show readers why they should choose you. Have a system for tracking, in detail, where leads came from. Understand the difference between organic search and paid search. Organic search is when people run a search online and your website comes up in the listings, through the regular search engine. Paid search is when people run a search and your website comes up in the text ads that appear. And finally, have a willingness to learn from your campaigns. Don’t assume what will work or what people want. Let the data speak for itself.” — To discuss digital advertising further, contact Jody Nelson at 612.483.0600 or jody@hoglundanalytics.com

One of the most common questions we hear from business owners is, “What’s the difference between Pay-Per-Click and SEO?” This is a vital question. The distinction between PPC and SEO can mean the difference between appearing right under a customer’s nose or being buried in a list of search results.

SEO

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It refers to helping your website appear higher in the “organic results” – the regular search results when people run an Internet search. But it is unpredictable just how well paying money to an SEO company will help your website’s ranking. And even if your website is high in the organic results, it will still most likely be below the PPC ads that appear.

Pay-Per-Click (PPC)

Pay-Per-Click, sometimes referred to as PPC, refers to the paid ads that appear when you run a search on Google or Bing. These ads often appear as the first few results in a search result list. Check out this example …

Pay-Per-Click ads can appear right at the top of search results. As Rachelle Riess-Scoles says, “When properly managed, PPC is the most predictable, measurable and responsive form of Internet marketing. It’s an effective way to quickly place your organization in front of your targeted audience by paying for your ads to appear.”

Certain factors do affect how high your ads will show up. Keywords, landing page quality, and bids all play a role. But an effective ad agency can help your ads appear at an optimal position. Pay-Per-Click can help your message appear where customers look first.

Interested in learning more? Contact Rachelle Riess-Scoles at (269) 209-2201 or Jody Nelson at (612) 483-0600. We are passionate about helping you use accountable, trackable digital marketing to reach your customers.

SIX KEY INSIGHTS ABOUT LAW FIRMS AND DIGITAL ADVERTISING

Jody Nelson has seen advertising evolve before her eyes. As a top print and digital senior account manager for 18 years, she saw customer usage shift from print ads to Internet marketing. She also witnessed another significant change: the ability to measure digital ads’ success by the number of appointments set, clients retained or services sold. The “old way” to measure digital ads’ success was to look at the number of clicks or calls generated. But Hoglund Advertising & Analytics (HAA) has developed an innovative way to help clients see the return on their digital advertising investment by way of measuring revenues generated. Jody says, “It’s a game changer.”

After selling Yellow Pages ads for years, Jody started selling digital ads when they were relatively new. She received her Google AdWords certificate in 2006. Then in 2015, she started working for HAA. She had seen something in HAA’s approach she knew clients would value for their business.

She has this advice for companies who are looking for a digital advertising agency:.

1. Look for more than calls and clicks. You don’t have to measure the effectiveness of your ads by how many people click on the ads or call. Not all calls or clicks end up being a client who purchases. Look for an agency that can tell you how many appointments or sales your digital ads have brought you. “In our campaigns, we measure appointments or sales.”

2. Look for an agency that will offer exclusivity in a geographic area. Jody explains, “As an advertising agency, you want your client’s ads to appear at the top on a mobile search. So how can you work with two clients in the same field in the same geographic area? You can’t make a company successful if you’re also working for their competition.”

3. Look for an agency that spends time on your keywords. Know exactly what you’re getting. Find out how frequently a company monitors – and adjusts – its clients’ keyword lists. “We constantly track keywords for clients and clean them up.”

4. Look for an agency that will show you your Google dashboard. Some companies have their own dashboard showing calls and clicks. Ask, do they know every click is valid? Google AdWords tries to screen out invalid clicks. Look for a company that will at least show you screenshots of your own campaigns from Google AdWords.

5. If you’re having a website built, look for an agency that will allow you to own your site and its URL and content. You should be given the opportunity for your company to make changes to your site on your own, without asking permission.

6. Look for an agency that offers transparency. Jody explains, “With the Internet, how do you know who to trust? As Rob Hoglund says, it’s the Wild West out there. With our programs, people trust us because we’re transparent. We show them reports and we immediately contact our clients when we recognize issues in their sales flow – we’re very hands-on.”

She explains further, “We don’t guarantee that a program is going to work. Some geographic areas aren’t going to be good for AdWords. But we’ll give them the best program out there. We’ll know within one to three months if it’s the right fit.”

Knowing how many appointments or sales your digital ads are bringing in – and being able to see detailed analytics – is absolutely critical to determining the return on your digital advertising investment. Anything less than that, such as counting clicks and calls, is futile at best.

Wondering if HAA’s method would be a good fit for your business? Jody is happy to discuss fact-driven digital marketing further. You can reach her at 612.483.0600 or jody@hoglundanalytics.com..

SIX KEY INSIGHTS ABOUT LAW FIRMS AND DIGITAL ADVERTISING

… Greetings and best wishes for a really super 2017.

I feel like I got a real head-start on my 2017 and wanted to share this with you – it can’t wait until the group gets together again.

We’ve all been screwed by various AdWords gurus. I don’t even want to go back and try to calculate the money I’ve wasted. Most recently with … – allegedly the guy responsible for … ’s success, turned out so bad that even … the owner agreed their service in my case was ******.

Anyway, enough whining. Here’s what I want to share from Tim … (who continues to do a great job for me, by the way) – this is part of his December website performance report:

Hi Rick,

Attached is the campaign summary for December.

We somehow managed to show an increase in Google organic traffic in December, which is almost unheard of since December is always by far the lowest traffic month of the year for bankruptcy attorneys – most of everyone else is down by double digits. That is also on top of the 14% increase we saw in November and the 30% increase we had in October, which I think is a great trend to close the year out.

(I’ve attached the report for you to see) So, what’s the cause of this? Not me.

I’ve been continuing to work on the site but nothing that would cause this kind of result.

The answer is the new AdWords campaign I have been running since last October.

That’s what I want to share with you. I met Robert Hoglund last fall and he told me he, too, had been screwed by too many AdWords charlatans and he did something about it. He figured out how to get fantastic results from very specifically and carefully written landing pages, and then sends them to a particular page on my site. He measures it carefully and provides a monthly report. For the first time I am crushing the competitor who “ate my lunch” and threw me into a depression I have never forgotten (you may recall how beat-up and down I was at the Utah meeting a few years ago). Well, I am kicking his *** and everyone else’s too.

Check this out:

What a way to start the new year! This is filed case data in … where my Hoglund PPC ads are running from Jan. 1 to Jan. 21st. So, I want to share the success I have been having with his AdWords campaign with you. Here’s Robert’s short bio. I’ll copy him on this and ask him to contact you to see if there’s anything he can do for you, like he did for me.

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Robert is the largest Bankruptcy filer in Minnesota. He has practiced Bankruptcy Law for over 26 years. He has developed a proprietary system for his Google AdWords programs. This system generates huge revenues. Now Robert has developed similar Google AdWords digital advertising programs for Bankruptcy attorneys throughout the country.

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I was about done with PPC. NOT NOW!

I have seen first-hand the revenue and return on marketing investment he is delivering: It is very impressive. I’ll let you two take it from here.

If you want to call Robert directly, his cell is 612-791-1382. …