Are there hidden fees when hiring a law firm marketing company? Frequently — and they cluster in eight predictable places. Ask for one all-in monthly total for the first six months and most of them surface immediately.
The question that flushes them out is not 'are there hidden fees'. It is 'what will my total invoice be in month four'.
- Published pricing — $2,500, $3,500 and $4,500 a month, on the site.
- Month to month. No contract is holding you anywhere.
- A former attorney of 17 years who filed 5,000+ cases works your account.
- You see your rankings move for 14 days before you are billed a dollar.
- Law firms only — no other industries, ever.
| Attorney Pro Marketing | Scorpion | FindLaw | Typical legal agency | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing published on the website | Yes — $2,500 / $3,500 / $4,500 per month | Not published | Not published | Rarely published |
| Contract term | Month to month, 30 days’ notice | Not published | Not published | Commonly 12 months |
| Who works on your account | A former attorney of 17 years, in every account | Assigned account team | Assigned account team | Account manager, often across industries |
| Your website is built on | Standard, portable code | Proprietary platform | FirmSite platform | Varies — ask before signing |
| See results before you are billed | Yes — 14 days, then you decide | No | No | No |
| Ad spend billed by Google directly to you | Yes, no markup | Ask | Ask | Often passes through the agency |
“Not published” means the figure does not appear on that company’s own website as of October 2026 — check for yourself before you sign anything, with them or with us.
The Eight Places Costs Hide
- Advertising spend. The biggest and most common. A $3,500 fee plus a $3,500 ad budget is a $7,000 month, and plenty of firms learn this at the first Google invoice.
- Media markup. Where the agency buys the advertising, some add a percentage on top of the platform cost. Ask whether you are billed Google's actual spend or a marked-up figure.
- Third-party subscriptions. Call tracking, rank tracking, review software, hosting, premium plugins, stock imagery. Individually small, together a few hundred a month, usually passed through.
- Content and page overages. The fee covers four pages; page five is billed. Reasonable, but only if you knew the limit.
- Change orders. Anything outside the scope schedule, priced at the agency's hourly rate rather than against the fee.
- Rush and after-hours work. A premium on urgent requests, which for a litigation practice may mean most requests.
- Renewal escalators. A fee that rises on the anniversary, often by a stated percentage nobody reads at signing.
- Exit costs. Site migration, data export, account transfer. The ones that arrive when you have least leverage.
The Question That Flushes Them Out
Asking “are there any hidden fees” produces a reassurance, because the honest answer from the agency's side is no — everything is in the document somewhere.
Ask this instead: “What will my total invoice be in month four, including everything I will be billed by you and by anyone else because of this engagement?”
It is a specific, answerable question about a month far enough out that build costs have cleared and the steady state applies. An organised agency answers with a figure. An agency that cannot, or that answers with a range and a caveat, has told you the total is not something it tracks on your behalf.
Then ask the follow-up: “Put that figure in writing as an estimate attached to the agreement.” Nobody is being asked to guarantee it. The request simply tests whether the number was real.
The Ones That Appear When You Leave
Exit costs deserve separate attention because they are invisible during the sales process and arrive at the worst possible moment.
- Site migration or export fees. If the site sits on the agency's platform, moving it may be chargeable — or impossible, which is worse than chargeable.
- Ad account transfer. If the Google Ads account is in the agency's name, you may lose the conversion history entirely, which costs you months of performance with the next agency.
- Content licensing. Occasionally content is licensed rather than assigned, meaning the pages you paid for come down when you leave.
- Google Business Profile ownership. If the agency's Google account holds ownership, recovering it can take weeks and a verification process.
Ask about each of these four as a separate question, before signing, in writing. A blanket assurance on a sales call is not an answer to any of them.
Structures With Nowhere to Hide
Some arrangements make most of this list structurally impossible, which is a better protection than vigilance.
Ours is one of them. The fee is published — $2,500, $3,500 or $4,500 a month — so there is no quote to drift from. Advertising is billed to your firm directly by Google, which means no markup is possible: you see Google's own invoice. There is no setup fee and no renewal escalator. Your domain, website files, content, Google Ads account and Google Business Profile are registered in your firm's name from day one, so there is nothing to transfer, migrate, export or license back on the way out. Month to month with 30 days' notice and no termination fee.
And the day 14 report comes before the first bill for that period, which means the first thing you see is the work rather than an invoice.
See it before you pay for it.
We snapshot your rankings on day 0, build and launch your site within three days, and show you the movement on day 14. If it has not moved enough to be worth continuing, you owe nothing for that period and you keep the Google Business Profile work.
Related Questions
Eight recurring ones: advertising spend on top of the fee, media markups where the agency buys the ads, third-party subscriptions for tracking and review software, content or page overages, change orders priced hourly, rush and after-hours premiums, renewal escalators, and exit costs such as site migration or data export.
Ask what your total invoice will be in month four, including everything billed by the agency and by anyone else because of the engagement — month four is far enough out that build costs have cleared. Then ask for that figure in writing as an estimate attached to the agreement, which tests whether the number was real.
Four to ask about separately and in writing before signing: site migration or export fees, which may be chargeable or impossible if the site sits on the agency's platform; ad account transfer, where losing conversion history costs months with the next agency; content licensed rather than assigned; and Google Business Profile ownership held by the agency's Google account.
Yes, by having the platform bill your firm directly. When Google invoices your firm's card, you see the actual spend and no percentage can be added on top. Markups are only possible where the agency buys the media and re-bills you, which is also the arrangement where the fee-versus-media split is hardest to audit.