How do I find a reliable marketing agency for my law firm? Run a four-step process rather than collecting referrals — shortlist on published facts, interview the person who will do the work, demand a baseline, and start with the shortest commitment available.
Most firms hire on instinct after one good meeting. The meeting is conducted by the best communicator at the company, which is precisely why it predicts nothing.
- 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.
Why a Referral From Another Lawyer Underperforms Here
Referrals are how attorneys buy almost everything, and in most categories they work. Marketing is the exception, for a reason worth understanding.
When a colleague tells you an agency worked for them, what they are reporting is the interaction of that agency with their practice area, their market, their case values and their intake process. Change any one of those and the result changes. A bankruptcy firm in a mid-size market and a PI firm in a major metro can hire the same competent agency and have opposite experiences, and neither of them is wrong about what happened.
Use referrals to build a shortlist. Do not use them to skip the process.
Step 1: Shortlist on Facts You Can Verify Without Talking to Anyone
Before any calls, open each candidate's website and record four things:
- Is pricing published? Most will not put a number on a page.
- Is the contract term published? Same silence, usually.
- Do they work in other industries? Thirty seconds to check, and it tells you whether bar rules are in the room.
- Do they say anywhere who they are a bad fit for? Almost nobody does. The ones who do are worth the call.
This takes ten minutes per agency and eliminates most of them without a single conversation — which matters, because every sales call you take is an hour spent being persuaded by someone who does that professionally.
Step 2: Interview the Person Who Will Do the Work
The single highest-yield question in agency selection: “Will the person I am speaking with be working on my account, and how many other accounts do they handle?”
Ask it in the first ten minutes. If the answer is no, ask to meet the person who will. An agency that will not put them on a call is telling you something about how your account will be handled after the contract is signed.
Then ask that person three things: name a bar advertising rule that has changed your ad copy; walk me through what you would do in my first thirty days; and what would make you tell me this is not working. Someone who does the work answers all three concretely. Someone who sells it answers the first two smoothly and struggles with the third.
Step 3: Demand a Documented Baseline Before Anything Starts
This is the step almost every firm skips, and it is the one that makes everything afterwards arguable.
Before work begins, you want on record: where you rank today for which specific terms, in which parts of your market; how many inquiries you currently receive per month and through which channels; and your current conversion rate from inquiry to signed case. Without that, six months later nobody can distinguish “this worked” from “this coincided with your busy season.”
An agency that resists recording a baseline is protecting its future ability to claim credit. An agency that insists on one is making itself measurable.
Step 4: Start With the Shortest Commitment They Will Accept
Long contracts are common in legal marketing and they are not automatically disqualifying, but they transfer risk to you at exactly the moment you have the least information. The first ninety days are when you learn whether the agency is what it appeared to be, and that is when you most want the ability to leave.
If an agency will only work on twelve months, ask what happens at month three if nothing has moved, and get the answer in writing. If the answer is “SEO takes time,” they may be right — organic does take months — but then ask what would be visible at month three, and hold them to that instead.
For what it is worth: we work month to month with 30 days' notice, and the first 14 days after your site launches are free, because we would rather show you movement than argue about timelines. If a different agency is a better fit for your firm, that structure still costs you nothing to use as a comparison.
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
Use the referral to build a shortlist, not to skip the process. What your colleague experienced was that agency interacting with their practice area, market, case values and intake process. Change any one of those and the result changes, which is why two firms can hire the same competent agency and have opposite experiences.
“Will the person I am speaking with be working on my account, and how many other accounts do they handle?” Ask it in the first ten minutes. If the answer is no, ask to meet whoever will — and treat a refusal as information about how the account will be handled once the contract is signed.
Where you rank today for which specific terms and in which parts of your market; how many inquiries you currently receive per month and through which channels; and your current conversion rate from inquiry to signed case. Without that baseline, nobody can later distinguish genuine improvement from seasonality.
Common, but not necessary. Nothing in search marketing requires a twelve-month commitment, and a long term transfers risk to you at the moment you have the least information. If an agency will only work on twelve months, ask what would be visible at month three and get that answer in writing.