Law Firm Marketing Audit — Find Out Exactly Where Your Budget Is Being Wasted

The average law firm spending $20,000 per month on marketing is wasting $6,000-$8,000 of it. Not because they're careless. Because nobody has actually looked at where the money is going and traced it back to signed cases.

A law firm marketing audit fixes that.

The audit is not a traffic report. It's not a website grader tool or an automated scan. It's a senior-level, independent review of your entire marketing program - every channel you're investing in, how your tracking is set up, how your intake converts the leads that arrive, how you compare to the top competitors in your market - all evaluated against a single north star metric: cost per signed case.

That number - cost per signed case, not cost per click, not cost per lead - is the only metric that actually tells you whether your marketing is working. I introduce it in the first conversation and every finding in the audit is measured against it.

If you're spending real money on marketing and you can't answer the question "what is my cost per signed case by channel," this audit tells you. Starting at $5,000.

Request Your Law Firm Marketing Audit — Starting at $5,000 →

What a Law Firm Marketing Audit Actually Covers

Most marketing audits miss most of what matters. They look at your website. Maybe they pull some keyword rankings. They hand you a list of things to fix and call it a review.

A real law firm marketing audit covers six distinct areas, all connected to cost per signed case. Here's what each one covers and what the data shows about why it matters.

1. Website and Conversion Audit

The average law firm website converts at just 2.07%. That means 98 out of every 100 visitors leave without contacting the firm. At any significant traffic volume, that's a massive amount of paid and earned traffic going to waste.

This section reviews: page load speed, mobile performance (nearly 60% of all searches are on mobile), CTA placement and clarity, form functionality, trust signals like reviews and attorney bios, and whether the site provides enough information for visitors to make a decision. 76% of people leave a law firm website that doesn't provide enough information. 69% abandon a site that loads slowly.

The deliverable from this section is a prioritized list of website issues ranked by their conversion impact - not a generic checklist of "best practices," but a specific ordered list of what to fix first and why.

2. SEO and Organic Traffic Audit

The 3-year SEO ROI for the average law firm is approximately 526%. That's a strong return - but only if the strategy is built correctly. Most law firms ranking well for branded searches - their own firm name - but poorly for the practice area and city combinations that actually drive new client volume.

This section reviews: keyword rankings by practice area and location, organic traffic trends, on-page optimization quality, content gaps, backlink profile health, and technical site performance. I look at where you're winning, where you're invisible, and what the path from invisible to competitive looks like.

For firms that need a deeper review of their organic search performance specifically, the local SEO for lawyers guide provides a more detailed breakdown of that single channel.

3. Paid Search (Google Ads) Audit

78% of law firms use paid search advertising. 82% don't think the ROI is worth it. That gap isn't because Google Ads doesn't work for law firms - it absolutely does. It's because most law firm Google Ads accounts are poorly structured, poorly tracked, and bleeding budget to irrelevant clicks.

This section reviews: campaign structure, keyword match type settings, negative keyword lists, landing page relevance and conversion rate, quality score performance, and - most critically - whether conversion tracking is actually capturing the right events. In major metro markets, PI keywords run $150-$300 per click. Every click that doesn't convert due to a preventable campaign flaw is a real dollar lost, not a rounding error.

The most common finding: ad spend going to broad match keywords that trigger irrelevant searches, combined with no negative keyword list and no accurate conversion tracking. That combination can easily burn $4,000-$8,000 per month in unproductive spend.

4. Marketing Attribution and Tracking Audit

41% of lawyers have no access to marketing analytics. Another 21% don't know if they do. 26% of law firms don't track their leads at all. Only 18% use multi-touch attribution - yet 46% of budget goes to remarketing, which means almost no one knows whether their remarketing is actually contributing to signed cases.

This section reviews: Google Analytics setup, call tracking configuration, form submission tracking, CRM integration, and what attribution model is in use. The standard last-click attribution model most firms default to systematically overvalues PPC and undervalues SEO - because it credits the final click before conversion, not the full research path that led the client to contact the firm.

The goal of this section is straightforward: establish a complete, accurate picture of where every signed case actually came from. That's the foundation for every other strategic decision. For firms that want to go deeper on analytics infrastructure, law firm marketing strategy covers the build-out of a proper tracking setup.

5. Intake Process Audit

This is the section most audit providers skip. It's also often where the biggest money is being lost.

Your marketing program can be generating high-quality leads at a reasonable cost per lead. If your intake process is converting them poorly, the marketing investment is still failing. 65% of lawyers don't know which metrics to measure and track in their intake process. Most don't know their lead-to-signed-client conversion rate. Many don't know their missed call rate.

This section reviews: response time to new inquiries (the standard is under 5 minutes - most law firms are responding in hours or not at all), intake script quality, missed call rate and follow-up cadence, intake staff capacity vs. lead volume, and CRM use for lead tracking.

This is directly connected to law firm marketing consultant - the process of improving the conversion rate from lead to signed client after the marketing has done its job.

6. Competitive Position Analysis

Where does your firm rank relative to the top three competitors in each of your target markets? Not just in organic search - in the full digital picture: local pack presence, Google Business Profile completeness, review volume and velocity, and paid search visibility.

Firms with complete Google Business Profiles - with 20+ photos, regular updates, and consistent review acquisition - see 3.2x higher client inquiry rates than firms with incomplete profiles. Most law firms have significant room to improve here, and competitive analysis identifies exactly what the gap is and what closing it requires.

This section delivers a market-by-market comparison of your firm vs. your key competitors across every meaningful signal. It's not abstract - it names specific competitors and specific gaps.

What You Get at the End - The Audit Deliverable

You're not paying for my time spent looking at your analytics. You're paying for a document that tells you exactly what's working, exactly what's wasted, and exactly what to do about it - in priority order.

The deliverable is a written report (typically 30-50 pages depending on firm complexity) plus a live presentation and Q&A session. The report structure:

• Executive Summary - readable in 10 minutes, covers the biggest findings and the top 5 recommendations
• Findings by Section - detailed analysis of each of the six audit areas, with data, screenshots, and specific observations
• Prioritized Recommendation List - every recommendation scored on impact vs. effort, divided into Quick Wins (under 30 days), 30-60 Day Projects, and 90-Day Strategic Initiatives
• Budget Reallocation Analysis - where your current spend should be shifted and why
• Competitive Gap Summary - specific actions to close the gaps identified in the competitive analysis

Here's an example of what a real finding looks like: "Google Ads account is spending $18,000/month with a 3.2% conversion rate and no call tracking configured. Estimated $4,200/month in untracked conversions - meaning the account appears to perform worse than it does. Simultaneously, $6,000-$8,000/month is likely wasted on broad match keywords triggering irrelevant searches with no negative keyword suppression. Recommended: implement call tracking immediately, restructure to exact and phrase match, and shift $6,000 in saved budget to the top-performing practice area campaigns."

That level of specificity is what makes an audit worth paying for. Not a list of general best practices. Not a score out of 100. A clear picture of what's happening and what to do about it.

The deliverable is owned by you. You can implement the recommendations with your current vendors, with a different agency, with an in-house team, or with ongoing support from me. There's no lock-in. The audit stands on its own.

Why Most Law Firm Marketing Audits Miss the Point

I'm going to be direct about something because it matters to your decision.

A "free audit" is a sales tool wearing a diagnostic costume. I ran a legal marketing agency for 15 years. I know exactly how free audits work: an automated tool generates a report, a salesperson packages it, and the "findings" conveniently align with the services the agency sells. The goal is not to tell you the truth about your marketing. The goal is to get you to sign a contract.

The agency audit problem is similar but slightly different. When an agency audits your marketing, they're partially auditing themselves. There's an inherent conflict of interest in asking a vendor to evaluate the quality of their own work. Even with the best intentions, that review is shaped by what the agency wants to be true.

Real audits cost money because they require real work. Senior expertise, applied time, independent analysis with no vested interest in any particular outcome. That's what you're paying for when you pay for a marketing audit.

The other problem with most audits: they focus on vanity metrics. Traffic, impressions, clicks, rankings. These metrics look good in reports. They don't tell you whether marketing is producing revenue. Cost per signed case is the only metric that does - and most audit providers aren't even looking at it, because it requires connecting marketing data to your intake data to your signed client data. That connection is where the truth lives, and it's where most audits stop short.

My audit evaluates channels AND intake AND attribution AND competitive position. The complete picture, evaluated against cost per signed case. That's the difference.

Who Should Get a Law Firm Marketing Audit?

This audit is right for your firm if:

• You're spending $10,000+ per month on marketing and can't answer "what's my cost per signed case by channel?"
• You've recently hired a new agency and want an independent baseline before they start claiming credit for results
• You've been with the same agency for 12+ months and results feel stagnant - but you're not sure whether the problem is the agency, the strategy, or the market
• You're planning to grow (new location, new practice area) and need to understand what your current foundation looks like before scaling spending
• You're considering building an in-house marketing team and need to understand what you'd need to replicate or replace
• You've been told your marketing is fine but you don't trust that assessment because it came from the person running your marketing

This audit is NOT right for you if:

• Your total marketing spend is under $3,000/month - not enough complexity to justify the audit cost at this stage
• You want validation for a decision you've already made, not an independent assessment
• You're not willing to act on findings that might be uncomfortable - the audit will tell you the truth about your program, including when the problem is internal

How Much Does a Law Firm Marketing Audit Cost?

My law firm marketing audit starts at $5,000 and runs up to $10,000 depending on complexity.

What drives the range: number of offices, number of practice areas under active marketing, number of active marketing channels, number of vendors to evaluate, and depth of existing data available for analysis.

The ROI math is straightforward. A single additional signed PI case carries an average case value of approximately $55,056 (Brown & Crouppen data across 5,861 cases from 2021-2024). One additional signed case per year covers the entire audit cost and then some. Most audits identify $10,000-$30,000 in annual marketing waste that can be eliminated or redirected immediately.

The audit is paid upfront as a fixed project fee. There's no ongoing commitment. After the audit, you choose your path: implement the findings independently, hire me for an ongoing fractional CMO engagement, work with a law firm marketing consultant on a strategic retainer, or take the deliverable to any other advisor or agency you choose.

Frequently Asked Questions About Law Firm Marketing Audits

What information do you need from us to complete the audit?

Access to: Google Analytics (or GA4), Google Ads accounts if applicable, call tracking platform data, intake software or CRM, and any active agency reporting. I handle the full analysis - the law firm's time commitment is typically 2-3 hours total across a kickoff call, a mid-point check-in, and the final presentation. You don't need to pull the data or build reports. That's my job.

Is this the same as the "free audit" offered by marketing agencies?

No. Free audits are automated scans run by agencies to generate sales conversations. They identify problems only that agency can solve, and they're designed to end with a proposal - not with truth about your marketing program.

A paid audit is a senior-level independent review of your entire marketing operation. I have no vested interest in what you continue or stop spending money on. The report tells you what's actually happening, including when your current vendors are doing good work worth keeping.

Can you audit our current marketing agency's performance?

Yes - that's one of the most common use cases. The audit benchmarks their work against industry standards for cost per lead, cost per signed case, and attribution accuracy. It tells you specifically whether they're performing at the level they're billing you for. The evaluation is data-based, not opinion.

What happens after the audit?

You own the deliverable. No lock-in, no contractual obligation to continue working with me. Your options after receiving the report: implement the recommendations with your current team or vendors, engage me for ongoing fractional CMO work, or take the findings to any other consultant or agency. The audit is complete either way.

How is the audit deliverable structured?

An executive summary readable in under 10 minutes, a full findings section organized by the six audit areas, a prioritized action list with each recommendation scored on impact vs. effort, and a live presentation session where you can ask questions and discuss trade-offs with me directly. You leave the final session with a clear picture of what to do first, second, and third - and why.

Stop Guessing What Your Marketing Is Producing

Every month you don't know your cost per signed case by channel is another month of spend that might be working perfectly or might be 40% waste - and you can't tell which.

The audit tells you.

Request Your Law Firm Marketing Audit — Starting at $5,000 →

Not ready to commit to the full audit yet? Start with a free 30-minute strategy call. We'll look at your current marketing setup, identify the most likely areas of concern, and determine whether the audit is the right next step for your firm.

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