If your agency is running a Google Ads campaign for your law firm but you aren’t sure where your money is really going — you’re not alone. Many agencies send reports filled with clicks, impressions, and cost-per-click metrics but fail to answer the question that matters most:
Are these ads actually helping you sign more cases?
A proper Google Ads audit should do more than show activity. It should reveal waste, identify missed opportunities, and connect performance directly to signed cases. Here’s what a real audit should uncover — and what most agencies miss.
Wasted Spend on Irrelevant Clicks
The first place to look is at your search terms report to see where your budget is being burned. Broad match keywords, irrelevant search terms, and poorly managed negative keyword lists can drain your ad spend with no return.
If you’re bidding on “car accident lawyer” with phrase match or broad match and showing up for searches like “car accident lawyer salary” or “car accident lawyer jokes,” you’re paying for clicks from people who will never hire you.
The Takeaway: An audit should show exactly which search terms triggered your ads and how much was spent on irrelevant clicks.
Performance by Match Type
A good audit breaks down how much of your budget is being spent on broad, phrase, and exact match keywords—and whether those clicks are turning into leads. We regularly see firms spending over 50% of their budget on broad match keywords without realizing it—and that almost never delivers efficient results. Understanding this distribution is crucial because too much reliance on broad match often leads to irrelevant clicks, wasted ad spend, and diluted targeting effectiveness.
A thorough audit should highlight the distribution of spend by match type and recommend adjustments.
We regularly see firms spending over 50% of their budget on broad match keywords without realizing it — and that almost never delivers efficient results. This is why working with a specialized law firm marketing agency is so important.
The Takeaway: An audit should highlight the distribution of spend by match type and recommend adjustments.
Geographic Waste
If your campaigns are targeting too wide an area, you’ll inevitably attract leads from places you don’t serve or that rarely convert. Even if you technically handle cases statewide, paying for leads from regions that historically don’t convert into actual cases means your marketing dollars aren’t being used effectively. An audit should pinpoint precisely where your clicks originate, compare that data against your historical signed cases, and clearly recommend geographic adjustments to improve targeting efficiency and ROI.
The Takeaway: By narrowing your geographic targeting, you’ll reduce wasted spend, improve lead quality, and ensure your budget is focused on locations that consistently produce profitable cases.
Ad Schedule Efficiency
Your ads may be running 24/7, but are you converting leads after hours and on weekends? If your intake team isn’t answering calls promptly during those times, your budget is being wasted.
We’ve found that law firms can cut 10 to 20% of wasted spend by using ad scheduling — also called dayparting —to pause campaigns during low-conversion hours or ensure after-hours coverage is in place.
The Takeaway: An audit should show performance by time of day and day of week and make recommendations for schedule adjustments.
Network Settings That Dilute Lead Quality
Many law firms aren’t aware that by default, Google Ads campaigns often include placements on the Search Partners network and the Display Network, unless these are manually unchecked.
Search Partners are third-party websites that show Google ads, but don’t perform nearly as well in terms of lead quality. The Display Network, meanwhile, shows visual ads on blogs, apps, and news sites — often to people who aren’t actively searching for legal help.
We often find these networks bring in high impressions and clicks, but lead to poor engagement, low conversion rates, and unqualified leads. See here other common errors law firms make (and how to avoid them).
The Takeaway: An audit should reveal what percentage of your spend is going toward Search Partners or the Display Network — and whether those placements are producing signed cases. In most cases, law firms should focus their budget on Google’s core Search Network.
Landing Page Performance
If your ads are driving clicks to landing pages that aren’t converting, that’s another layer of waste. Generic pages, slow load times, and unclear calls to action are all common culprits.
For instance, we’ve audited campaigns where bounce rates on landing pages exceeded 70%, meaning most people left without taking any action. Addressing this requires detailed scrutiny of your landing page design, user experience, and relevance to ad messaging.
Improving these elements—such as creating tailored pages that speak directly to visitor intent, streamlining load speeds, and clarifying next steps—can dramatically boost conversions. An audit should provide actionable recommendations to enhance landing page effectiveness.
The Takeaway: An audit should include landing page performance data and recommendations for improvement.
Lead Quality Feedback Loop
Most agencies stop at reporting on leads generated — but not all leads are created equal. A proper audit connects PPC activity to actual signed cases.
If your agency doesn’t listen to intake call recordings or track form leads through to case signings, they’re optimizing in the dark.
The Takeaway: A comprehensive audit should identify not only where leads are coming from, but which campaigns and keywords are generating quality leads that become paying clients.
Stop Guessing, Start Optimizing
If your current agency’s Google Ads audit is just a spreadsheet of numbers without context or actionable recommendations, you’re missing the full picture. A real audit goes beyond clicks and impressions — it uncovers waste, refines strategy, and directly ties performance to your bottom line.
Curious if your Google Ads campaigns should be bringing you more cases? Request a complimentary audit and we’ll show you exactly what most agencies miss. Call Neon Ambition today at 866-624-1365 or fill out our form to request a consultation.
