How many new clients should a law firm marketing agency generate? However many your market's search volume, your budget and your close rate can produce — which is a number you can calculate yourself in ten minutes, and should, before anyone quotes you a target.
There is no industry answer. There is an arithmetic answer, and it is specific to your city, practice area and phone.
- 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 Calculation
Four numbers, multiplied. Each one is either knowable or estimable within a reasonable range.
- Monthly searches for your practice area in your market. Free keyword tools give a usable range; it is the one number most firms have never looked up.
- × your click share. Realistically 5 to 15 percent of searches for a well-placed firm across organic, Map Pack and ads combined. Position one in the Map Pack earns more; page two earns almost nothing.
- × contact rate. The share of visitors who call or submit a form. Two to six percent is normal for a competent legal site; above that is unusual and usually means very high intent traffic.
- × close rate. The share of contacts you sign. Twenty to fifty percent depending on practice area, matter fit and how fast you respond.
A Worked Example
Take a family law practice in a mid-sized metro. The relevant terms draw roughly 1,200 searches a month combined.
1,200 searches × 10% click share = 120 visits. That is what good placement looks like — not all 1,200, which is the number agencies like to quote as “search volume” in a pitch deck.
120 visits × 4% contact rate = roughly 5 contacts. This is where most firms are surprised. The traffic number sounds substantial and the contact number does not.
5 contacts × 35% close rate = approximately 2 signed cases a month. At a $6,500 average fee, that is $13,000 in monthly revenue, which comfortably supports a $3,500 fee plus advertising.
Now notice which number has the most leverage. Doubling your click share from 10 to 20 percent is a long, expensive fight against competitors. Doubling your contact rate from 4 to 8 percent is often a week of work on the page. And raising your close rate from 35 to 50 percent is answering the phone faster. Two of the three cheapest improvements are not marketing.
Why the Market Sets the Ceiling
An agency cannot create demand that is not being searched for. If 200 people a month search for estate planning in your area, no budget turns that into 400 searches. The ceiling is fixed before anyone is hired, and the agency's job is to take a larger share of a fixed pool.
Three consequences worth holding on to:
Small markets cap out. In a small city, capturing nearly everything available may still be five cases a month. That is success, and it will look like failure against an imported benchmark.
Big markets cost more per case. Large metros have the volume and also the competition, so the share is harder and the clicks cost more.
Adjacent demand matters. People who do not search your practice-area term but have the problem — searching symptoms, situations, consequences — are reachable through content and widen the pool. This is the main way a programme exceeds the naive ceiling.
Setting a Target With an Agency
- Run the calculation before the first call. Walking in with your own number changes the conversation entirely.
- Ask the agency for its version and compare. A much higher number needs an explanation you can follow.
- Target contacts, not clients. Contacts are the last step the agency influences meaningfully. Signed cases depend on your intake, and a target you partly control is not a fair measure of someone else.
- Agree a review point. Ninety days for paid channels, 180 for organic, with the baseline recorded first.
Attorney Pro Marketing records your rankings on day 0 and reports movement on day 14, before billing for that period — so the first evidence arrives before the first invoice rather than at a quarterly review. Call tracking with recordings and lead attribution from the Growth tier makes the contact and close numbers in the calculation above visible instead of estimated. Published pricing at $2,500, $3,500 and $4,500 a month, month to month with 30 days' notice.
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
Multiply four numbers: monthly searches for your practice area in your market, a realistic click share of 5 to 15 percent for a well-placed firm, a contact rate of 2 to 6 percent of visitors, and your close rate of 20 to 50 percent. The result is your realistic monthly signed-case range.
No. If 200 people a month search for your practice area in your area, no budget turns that into 400 searches. The ceiling is set by your market before anyone is hired. The exception is adjacent demand — people searching symptoms, situations and consequences rather than the practice-area term — which content can reach and which widens the pool.
Usually not click share. Doubling click share is a long expensive fight with competitors; doubling your contact rate from 4 to 8 percent is often a week of work on the page; and raising your close rate by answering the phone faster costs nothing in media. Two of the three cheapest improvements are not marketing.
Contacts, mostly. Contacts are the last step the agency meaningfully influences; signed cases depend on who answers your phone, how fast and what they say. Track signed cases as your own number and share it with the agency so targeting can improve, but judge the agency primarily on what it can affect.