Paid search is the fastest way for a law firm to show up on Google. An ad can appear above the regular results the day a campaign goes live, which is why firms use it to launch a new practice area, cover the months while SEO builds, or compete for high-value cases. It's also the easiest place in legal marketing to waste money. This page covers how Google Ads and Microsoft Ads work for Canadian law firms, what our management includes, what it costs, and how we keep your ads inside your law society's rules.
Table of Contents
- How Do Google Ads and Microsoft Ads Work for Law Firms?
- What's Included in Our Ads Management
- How Much Does Google Ads Management Cost?
- Who Owns the Ad Account?
- How Do Law Society Rules Apply to Google Ads?
- How Do You Track Calls and Inquiries From Ads?
- Google Ads for Personal Injury Firms
- Ready to Talk About Your Ads?
- Frequently Asked Questions
How Do Google Ads and Microsoft Ads Work for Law Firms?
Both platforms run on the same model. You choose the searches you want to appear for, write ads for them, and set a daily budget. When someone searches "car accident lawyer Hamilton" and your ad shows, you pay only if they click. Your position depends on your bid and on how relevant the platform judges your ad and landing page to be, so a well-built campaign can pay less per click than a competitor with a bigger budget.
Google Ads reaches the largest share of searches in Canada, and it's where most firms start.
Microsoft Ads shows your ads on Bing, Yahoo and DuckDuckGo, and in Microsoft Copilot. Its audience is smaller, and campaigns can be imported from Google Ads instead of built from scratch, which keeps setup short. We usually recommend adding it once the Google campaigns are producing inquiries at a cost per inquiry you're happy with.
Google Local Services Ads, the "Google Screened" ads US firms use that charge per lead, aren't offered to lawyers in Canada, so Canadian firms compete in standard search ads.
ChatGPT ads aren't available to lawyers in Canada yet either. OpenAI's ad policies don't allow ads for legal services outside the United States.
What's Included in Our Ads Management
Setup is a one-time project for each practice area. It covers:
- Keyword research for the practice area and the cities you serve
- Competitive analysis: which firms bid on your searches and what their ads say
- The campaign build: ad groups, ads, negative keywords, locations and an ad schedule that matches when your office can answer the phone
- Conversion tracking for calls, contact form submissions and booked consultations, tested before launch
- A review of the page each ad sends people to, with suggested changes to help it convert, since that page affects both your cost per click and how many visitors get in touch. We'll work with your web team on the changes, and if we host your website, we build the landing pages ourselves as part of setup
Monthly management keeps the campaigns improving:
- Search term reviews and new negative keywords, so you stop paying for searches from people who aren't looking for a lawyer
- Bid, budget and schedule adjustments
- Ad copy testing
- A monthly report on spend, clicks, cost per click, calls, form inquiries and cost per inquiry, plus results by keyword, device and time of day, the search terms we added or blocked, and what we changed
How Much Does Google Ads Management Cost?
We publish our starting prices so you know where you stand before the first call. You'll get the exact price in a written proposal before any work begins.
Management: from $550 per month + HST per platform
That covers one platform, either Google Ads or Microsoft Ads. The fee is $550 or 15% of that platform's monthly ad spend, whichever is higher. If you want both, each platform is priced separately, and we may offer a discount for running both.
Setup: from $500 + HST per practice area
Setup covers the keyword research and competitive analysis the campaigns are built on, the campaign build and the conversion tracking.
Ad spend: paid directly to Google or Microsoft
Our fee doesn't include your ad spend. Google or Microsoft bills it directly to your firm's card, so you see every dollar you spend and we never handle or mark it up.
Contract terms
Ads management is month-to-month, with 30 days' notice to cancel. We offer discounts for longer commitments.
Who Owns the Ad Account?
Your firm does. We create the account under our Google Ads manager account and make your firm its owner and administrator. The account, its history and its conversion data stay with your firm if you ever stop working with us. If you already have an account, we work inside it rather than starting a new one, so you keep everything it has learned.
How Do Law Society Rules Apply to Google Ads?
Your province's rules of professional conduct apply to a search ad the same way they apply to your website. Claims must be true and verifiable. In Ontario, only lawyers certified by the Law Society can call themselves specialists, and marketing can't suggest your firm is better than others in ways you can't prove. Ads have very little room for text, which makes words like "best" and "top-rated" tempting, and those are the words that cause problems.
We write every ad to your province's rules before it goes live. Our guide to law society rules for Google Ads in Ontario and BC covers the details, and our lawyer advertising rules hub covers every province.
Your phone number goes in a call asset, never in the ad text. Google doesn't allow phone numbers in ad text, and a call asset is the only way to track every call an ad produces.
How Do You Track Calls and Inquiries From Ads?
Before a campaign launches, we set up conversion tracking for the actions that matter to a law firm:
- Calls placed straight from the ad
- Calls from your website after someone clicks an ad, using Google's forwarding numbers
- Contact form submissions
- Booked consultations
This uses the call tracking built into Google Ads, so there's no separate tracking tool for your firm to pay for. If you tell us which inquiries became clients, the monthly report can also show cost per signed case by practice area. That's the number that tells you whether the spend is paying off.
Google Ads for Personal Injury Firms
Personal injury keywords are among the most expensive searches in Canada, and clicks routinely exceed $50 in major markets. At that price, a few hundred wasted clicks a month is a serious cost. Most of the waste comes from searches that look relevant and aren't: people looking for jobs at law firms, paralegal programs, legal aid, or information about an accident with no intention of hiring a lawyer. Negative keyword work is where a PI campaign saves the most money.
PI campaigns also work better when they're split by case type. A separate ad group for motor vehicle accidents, long-term disability denials and slip and fall injuries lets each ad match what the person searched for and send them to the page about their type of case. In Ontario, accident benefits searches get their own group, with ads written about the benefits claim.
Someone who's just been hurt usually calls the first firm that answers, so the ad schedule should match the hours someone can pick up the phone, or calls should go to an answering service after hours.
Ready to Talk About Your Ads?
If you're running ads now, we'll review your account and show you where the spend is going. If you aren't, we'll show you what a starting campaign for your practice area and city would involve and what budget it needs.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much do Google Ads cost for a law firm in Canada?
There are two costs: the ad spend you pay Google, and the management fee you pay an agency. Ad spend depends on your practice area, your city and how many firms bid on the same searches, and personal injury in a large city sits at the top of the range. We recommend a starting budget once keyword research shows what clicks cost in your market. Our management starts at $550 per month plus HST per platform.
How much does Google Ads management cost?
LawOnline manages Google Ads or Microsoft Ads from $550 per month plus HST per platform, or 15% of that platform's monthly ad spend if that's higher, with a one-time setup fee starting at $500 plus HST for a single practice area. Your ad spend is billed by Google or Microsoft directly to your firm. Management is month-to-month with 30 days' notice.
Do Google Ads work for lawyers?
They work when the campaign targets searches from people who need a lawyer now, the landing page makes it easy to call or book, and someone answers when they do. Campaigns fail when they target broad searches, skip negative keywords, or have no conversion tracking, because nobody can tell which clicks turn into clients. Tracking calls and inquiries from day one is what lets you judge the spend on results.
Should my firm use Microsoft Ads as well as Google Ads?
Start with Google Ads, which reaches most searches in Canada. Once those campaigns are producing inquiries at a cost you're happy with, Microsoft Ads adds searches from Bing, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo and Copilot, and the Google campaigns can be imported to keep setup short. Each platform is managed and priced separately.
What can Canadian lawyers say in a Google Ad?
The same things your law society allows in any other marketing. Claims must be true and verifiable, "specialist" is reserved for certified specialists in Ontario, and you can't claim to be better than other firms in ways you can't prove. Rules differ by province, so we write each ad to the rules where your firm practises. We check every ad against your law society's rules, but as the licensee, you approve the final copy.
Can Canadian law firms use Google Local Services Ads?
No. Google Local Services Ads for lawyers are only available in the United States. Canadian firms advertise through standard Google Ads search campaigns, which give you more control over keywords, budget and ad text.
Do we own our Google Ads account?
Yes. We create the account under our manager account with your firm as the owner and administrator, and Google bills your firm directly. If you stop working with us, the account, its history and its conversion data stay with you.
Is there a minimum ad budget?
No. We'll recommend a budget once keyword research shows what clicks cost for your practice area and city, but you decide what to spend. A smaller budget simply means the ads show for fewer searches each day.
Do you build landing pages for the ads?
Usually the ads send people to pages already on your website. We review each one and suggest changes that help it convert, and we'll work with your web team to make them. If we host your website, we build the landing pages ourselves as part of setup.
How do you track calls from the ads?
We use the call tracking built into Google Ads, so there's no separate tracking tool for your firm to pay for. It records calls from the ad and from your website, and we count only calls long enough to be a real inquiry. Contact forms and booked consultations are tracked too.
What's in the monthly Ads report?
Spend, clicks, cost per click, click-through rate, calls, form inquiries and cost per inquiry, plus how often your ads showed for the searches you're targeting. It also covers results by keyword, device and time of day, the search terms that brought in inquiries and the ones we blocked, what we changed, and what's next. If your team tells us which inquiries became clients, it shows cost per signed case too.
Do you guarantee leads from Google Ads?
No. We can't control who searches or who calls, so nobody can honestly promise a number of leads. What we commit to is tracking every call and inquiry from day one, so you can see exactly what the spend is producing and decide whether it's paying off.