How much should I budget for a legal marketing company? Budget the agency fee, the advertising spend and the one-time build as three separate lines — then front-load months one to three, because that is when the asset gets built.
Most firms budget a flat monthly figure and then get surprised in month one. The first quarter is structurally heavier than the rest.
- 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.
Three Lines, Not One Number
Firms that budget a single monthly figure get surprised, because the figure is concealing three different kinds of cost with three different behaviours.
- Agency fee. Labour. Predictable, recurring, and the only line an agency controls. This is what is quoted when you ask a price.
- Advertising spend. Media. Paid to Google, Microsoft or Meta, ideally billed to your firm's card directly so you see it. Variable, scalable up and down, and stops producing the day it stops.
- One-time build. Website, photography, tracking setup, profile work. Lands in the first one to three months and does not recur.
Keeping them separate does two things. It lets you compare agencies honestly, because fee-only quotes and bundled quotes are not the same product. And it lets you cut advertising in a slow month without cutting the organic work that takes months to rebuild.
Why the First Quarter Is Structurally Heavier
Almost everything durable gets built early. The site, the tracking, the profile, the campaign structure, the first body of content. Month seven is maintenance and iteration; month one is construction.
This has a practical consequence for budgeting: a firm that sets a flat monthly figure and spends it evenly will under-build at the start, which pushes every result to the right. The programme that front-loads has an asset producing by month four. The one that spreads evenly is still building in month six.
A Twelve-Month Shape for a Small Firm
- Months 1–3. Build. Full agency fee, one-time build costs, and a modest advertising budget — enough to generate data, not enough to carry the firm. Expect this quarter to cost 35 to 40 percent of the year.
- Months 4–6. Organic work starts surfacing. Advertising scales toward its steady level now that you know which terms convert.
- Months 7–9. Steady state. Fee flat, advertising tuned to cost per signed case rather than to a budget ceiling.
- Months 10–12. Reallocation. By now you know which channel produces signed cases, and the budget should move toward it rather than stay spread evenly out of habit.
The Reserve Nobody Budgets
Two costs catch firms out, and both are avoidable with a line item.
Migration protection. If a new site replaces an old one, somebody has to map every existing URL to its replacement. Skipping that redirect map is the single most common cause of a ranking collapse after a redesign, and recovering costs more than the map would have.
Intake capacity. A programme that works increases call volume. If nobody answers at 4pm on a Thursday because you are in a deposition, the marketing budget is funding voicemail. Budget for answering the phone before you budget for making it ring.
Our pricing is built to make this planning possible rather than guesswork: $2,500, $3,500 and $4,500 a month published on the site, advertising billed to your firm directly by Google so the media line is visible and yours to control, and the site built within three days rather than across a first quarter. Month to month with 30 days' notice, so a budget revision does not require escaping a contract.
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
Three separate lines: the agency fee for labour, the advertising spend paid to platforms like Google, and one-time build costs such as the website, tracking setup and photography. Keeping them separate lets you compare agencies honestly and lets you cut media in a slow month without cutting organic work that takes months to rebuild.
Usually, and it should be. Nearly everything durable — the site, tracking, profile work, campaign structure, first content — gets built in the first one to three months. Expect that quarter to represent 35 to 40 percent of the first year. Spreading the budget evenly under-builds at the start and pushes every result later.
Two in particular. A redirect map when a new site replaces an old one — skipping it is the most common cause of ranking collapse after a redesign. And intake capacity, because a programme that works increases call volume, and an unanswered phone turns the entire budget into voicemail.
It is cleaner separated. When advertising is billed to your firm directly by the platform, you see exactly what the media cost, you keep the account and its conversion history, and you can scale spend without renegotiating the fee. Bundled arrangements hide the split, which makes the true cost of the labour impossible to assess.