Acquiring new clients is essential for most law firms. One of the nuances of law firm advertising that many people overlook is tracking where and where their clients come from. For example, knowing the zip code of a law firm client’s location is becoming increasingly important in online advertising.
Targeting ads to specific zip codes makes sense for many law firms, but most law firms and marketing agencies don’t even think about this online marketing strategy. Instead, most marketing companies advertise law firms broadly throughout cities, states, counties, or metropolitan areas.
Why Zip Codes Matter
Many may ask why it is important to know the zip code of the customer’s hometown. The reality is that with online advertising, law firms often have a choice in how they target their online ads geographically.
For example, consider a law firm located in a large city or metropolitan area. Law firms can target Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter, or other paid advertising in metropolitan areas (often called DMAs) or city, county, or statewide. However, when law firms target their online ads so broadly, they can quickly become very expensive to execute. Cost considerations can rise to the point that the cases obtained may not generate sufficient revenue.
On the other hand, if a law firm tracks most of their clients’ zip codes, the law firm can target ads only in those zip codes instead. Placing ads for these zip codes online may give you more control over the cost of placing these ads. Advertisements may also reach individuals who are likely to become clients.
What zip code does the law firm use to advertise?
If a law firm decides to target zip codes, it’s important to have a good strategy for knowing which zip codes to target. There are various ways to do this. There is no one right or wrong way to do this.
However, it makes sense to target the zip code where your office is located and the zip code that is very close to your office. Depending on the law firm, it may be wise to target zip codes that have individuals who have access to the law firm’s services. It might also be worth looking at the zip code or previous clients and then targeting the zip code where most of the previous clients were.
What postal codes does law firms not want advertised in?
Conversely, a law firm may not want to blacklist a particular code to prevent ads from appearing in that location. Your postal code may be too far from your law firm’s location. It could be a zip code that previous clients don’t commonly come to. It could also be a postal code where the individual is unlikely to be able to pay the charges. Regardless of your thought process, most online advertising platforms allow law firms to choose zip codes where they don’t want their ads to appear.
Think About Postal Code Targeting Today
The reality is that targeting online advertising by zip code is becoming more and more important. If this is not something law firms have carefully considered and considered online advertising, it could be a big mistake. I haven’t thought about it or discussed it with my clients. Therefore, it is imperative for most law firms to initiate discussions with the person managing online advertising if they do not run it in-house.
