What should be included in a law firm marketing proposal? Nine elements — and the three routinely absent are the baseline commitment, the asset ownership schedule and the exit terms, which happen to be the three that protect you.
A proposal is a sales document. Judge it by what it commits to, not by how it reads.
- 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 Nine Elements
- 1. Scope with quantities. Pages per month, posts per month, which channels, how many campaigns. Not a capabilities list.
- 2. All-in monthly cost, split. Agency fee and advertising spend as separate lines, plus any third-party subscriptions and one-time costs. One number for month four.
- 3. Who does the work. A named individual, their background, and how many other accounts they carry.
- 4. The first 30 days as a sequence. Week by week, with what gets done and by whom.
- 5. The baseline commitment. What will be recorded before work starts, and when you receive it as a document.
- 6. Measures, and who chooses them. Which search terms are tracked. The right answer is that you choose them.
- 7. Reporting contents and frequency. What is in the monthly report, specifically.
- 8. Asset ownership, asset by asset. Domain, site files, content, ad account, Google Business Profile, analytics — named separately, because they are frequently held differently.
- 9. Term, notice and exit cost. Length, renewal mechanics and notice window, termination fee, and what stops working if you leave.
The Three Always Missing
Items 5, 8 and 9. The pattern is consistent enough to be useful: these are the three that constrain the agency rather than describe it.
The baseline (5). Without a dated record of where you stood, no later claim about improvement is checkable in either direction. Its absence is the reason most performance disputes cannot be resolved, and adding it costs twenty minutes.
Asset ownership (8). Usually addressed, if at all, by one line saying the client owns the work product — which sounds complete and resolves nothing. The site can be on a proprietary platform, the content licensed rather than assigned, and the ad account in the agency's name, all while that sentence is technically true.
Exit terms (9). Proposals describe the beginning. The termination clause describes the relationship when things go badly, which is the only part that ever gets tested.
Ask for all three in writing before signing. An agency that adds them readily has nothing to hide; one that treats the request as unusual has told you how the engagement will feel.
Vagueness to Convert Into Numbers
Proposals are written to look generous, and the mechanism is omitting quantities. Six phrases and what to demand instead:
“Ongoing content creation” → how many pages per month, written by whom.
“Comprehensive SEO” → which specific work, and how many hours or deliverables monthly.
“Campaign management” → how often search terms are reviewed and negatives added.
“Regular reporting” → monthly, containing which items.
“Dedicated support” → a name, a response time, and an account count.
A blanket ownership assurance → is the site on standard portable code, is the domain registered to the firm, is the content assigned or licensed, and in whose name is the ad account? Four separate questions, because they are frequently answered differently.
Comparing Two Proposals
Two documents written by different agencies are not comparable as written, which is the point of the following.
- Build a nine-row table and fill both columns from the documents. Mark anything absent or vague.
- Send both agencies the same short email asking for the gaps, in identical wording. Comparability is the whole purpose.
- Note the response speed and specificity. This predicts month five better than anything in either proposal.
- Compare the all-in month-four figure, not the headline fee. A $2,500 fee with $500 of subscriptions and a bundled media arrangement is not cheaper than a published $3,500 with media billed directly.
- Compare the exit terms side by side. Frequently the clearest difference between two otherwise similar documents.
- Note which claims did not survive the move from proposal to written answer. A surprising number do not.
Attorney Pro Marketing's equivalents to the nine are published rather than proposed, which is the point: scope and quantities per tier on the site, $2,500, $3,500 and $4,500 a month with advertising billed to your firm directly by Google as a separate line, the work done by Alon Darvish — 17 years in practice, over 5,000 cases filed, the first 30 days stated as a sequence, a day 0 baseline delivered to you, up to 30 keywords of your own choosing as the measures, monthly Map Pack and ranking reporting, every asset in your firm's name, and month to month with 30 days' notice, no cancellation fee and no setup fee.
Which means the three usually-missing items are the three you can check before making contact.
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
Nine elements: scope with quantities, all-in monthly cost split into fee and media, a named person doing the work, the first 30 days as a sequence, the baseline commitment, the measures and who chooses them, reporting contents and frequency, asset ownership named asset by asset, and term, notice and exit cost.
Three things, consistently: the baseline commitment, without which no later claim about improvement is checkable; asset ownership named asset by asset, since one line saying you own the work product resolves nothing; and exit terms, because proposals describe the beginning rather than the part that gets tested.
Convert each phrase into a number. “Ongoing content creation” becomes how many pages per month written by whom; “campaign management” becomes how often search terms are reviewed; “dedicated support” becomes a name, a response time and an account count; and a blanket ownership assurance becomes four separate questions about the code, the domain registrant, whether content is assigned or licensed, and whose name the ad account is in.
Build a nine-row table and fill both columns, marking gaps. Email both agencies identical wording asking for the missing items. Note response speed and specificity. Compare the all-in month-four figure rather than the headline fee, and compare the exit terms side by side — often the clearest difference between similar documents.