What is included in a legal marketing agency's monthly fee? Typically strategy, site maintenance, local search work, content and reporting — and typically not ad spend, call tracking subscriptions, photography or intake. Get the exclusions in writing.
The fastest way to understand a proposal is to ask what it excludes. Inclusion lists are marketing documents; exclusion lists are not.
- 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.
What a Monthly Fee Usually Covers
Across most small-firm engagements, the recurring fee buys some combination of the following.
- Strategy and account management. Deciding what to do and in what order. Real work, invisible on a deliverables list, and the first thing to disappear at low price points.
- Website maintenance and updates. Page edits, new pages, technical fixes, speed and security. Ask how many pages or hours a month, because “ongoing updates” is not a quantity.
- Local search and Google Business Profile. Posts, service and category maintenance, photographs, citation consistency, review response. For most small firms this is where the fee does its heaviest lifting.
- Content production. Practice-area pages, articles, FAQ sections. Ask for a monthly count and who writes it, because the range runs from a former attorney to a template with your city dropped in.
- Campaign management. Running Google Ads or Local Services Ads — the labour, not the media.
- Reporting. Should be the smallest line. A dashboard is not a deliverable; it is a description of deliverables.
What Is Usually Not Included
- Advertising spend. The largest single omission. A $3,500 fee with a $3,000 ad budget is a $6,500 month, and firms discover this at the first Google invoice.
- Third-party subscriptions. Call tracking, rank tracking, review software, hosting, premium plugins. Individually small, collectively a few hundred dollars a month, and frequently passed through.
- Photography and video. Real photographs of your office and attorneys outperform stock, and almost no monthly fee includes a photographer.
- Intake. No agency answers your phone. The programme increases call volume; converting those calls is yours, and it is where more marketing budgets are wasted than anywhere else.
None of these exclusions is improper. The problem is that they usually surface after signing, as a series of small surprises that erode trust in an engagement that may be working.
The Question Behind Every Line
Inclusion lists are written to look generous, and the way they do it is by omitting quantities. “Content creation” could be eight pages a month or one paragraph a quarter. “Ongoing SEO” could be twenty hours or twenty minutes.
So for every line on a proposal, ask the same three questions: how much, how often, and who does it. A proposal that survives those questions with specifics is a plan. One that does not is a brochure.
Getting It Documented Before You Sign
- Ask for a one-page scope with quantities. Pages per month, hours per channel, named owner for each line.
- Ask explicitly for the exclusion list. “What is not included that I will end up paying for?” An honest answer here is one of the best signals available.
- Ask for the all-in monthly total for the first six months — fee, media, subscriptions, everything. One number.
- Attach it to the agreement. A scope that lives in a proposal deck is not enforceable; one attached as a schedule is.
Ours is set out on the site rather than in a proposal: three tiers at $2,500, $3,500 and $4,500 a month with the scope of each stated. Advertising is billed to your firm directly by Google, so the media line is visible and controlled by you rather than bundled. The website is built within three days with no setup fee, and the content and strategy are produced by Alon Darvish, a former attorney of 17 years who filed over 5,000 cases. Month to month, 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
Strategy and account management, website maintenance and updates, Google Business Profile and local search work, some content production, campaign management for paid channels, and reporting. The critical follow-up for each line is how much, how often and who does it — inclusion lists look generous largely by omitting quantities.
Four things firms routinely assume are included: advertising spend, which is the largest omission and often as large as the fee itself; third-party subscriptions for call tracking, rank tracking and review software; professional photography and video; and anything to do with intake, since no agency answers your phone.
Ask how much, how often and who does it, for every line. “Content creation” could mean eight pages a month or one paragraph a quarter. A proposal that survives those three questions with specific numbers and named people is a plan; one that does not is a brochure.
Yes. A scope that lives only in a proposal deck is not enforceable, while one attached to the agreement as a schedule is. Ask for a one-page version with quantities, named owners per line, an explicit exclusion list, and the all-in monthly total for the first six months as a single number.