Defend My Biz

The number worth dwelling on is not the spend — that barely moved. It is the conversion-to-client rate. In 2024 the account produced 1,094 conversions and 124 signed clients: roughly one client for every nine conversions. In the first half of 2026 it produced 684 conversions and 113 signed clients — one client per six. Fewer raw leads, more paying clients. Average cost per click roughly doubled over the period, from about $6 to about $12, as we moved off cheap broad traffic. Paying twice as much per click and still cutting cost per signed client by a third is the entire thesis of this account, and it is the part that cannot be faked with a screenshot of a traffic graph.

Most legal advertising is judged on conversions, and conversions are easy to buy. This account had the opposite problem to solve: rising click prices in one of the most expensive paid categories in law, against a client who measures success only at the point a client actually signs. Buying more leads would have looked like progress and cost the firm money.

• 1

  Measured the account against Letters of Engagement — signed clients — rather than form fills, so every optimisation was judged on revenue rather than volume

• 2

  Moved budget away from cheap, broad traffic toward high-intent employer-defense and labor-dispute searches, accepting a higher cost per click for better-qualified enquiries

• 3

  Rebuilt the web-form conversion path, which took first-half form conversions from 84 to 267 year over year

• 4

  Held annual spend roughly flat from 2024 to 2025 while lifting signed clients 31%, proving the gain came from targeting rather than budget

• 5

  Maintained continuous conversion tracking across the account since 2021, giving a four-year like-for-like record rather than a single favourable quarter