Agency
Why Smart Law Firms Are Willing to Lose Leads to Win Better Cases
If you’re a law firm spending $10,000+ per month on Google Ads, there’s a good chance you’re getting plenty of leads.
And there’s also a good chance you’re frustrated with lead quality.
- Your phone rings constantly.
- Your intake team is overwhelmed.
- Your cost per lead looks “fine” on paper.
But the cases you actually want? They’re inconsistent, low quality, or buried under junk.
Here’s the hot take most agencies won’t tell you:
Lead Generation for Law Firms is about higher lead quality not lead volume.
At Two Trees, in many cases, we reduce lead volume for law firm accounts. Our process prioritizes intent over volume,. leading to more booked cases, lower wasted ad spend, and a healthier intake process.
This isn't a theory. It’s a proven method on how the platform actually works when it’s set up correctly and fed the correct data.
Converting Signed Cases is the Goal, not leads
Most law firm marketing is optimized for one thing: form fills and phone calls.
On the surface, that makes sense. Leads are easy to track, easy to report, and easy to scale. But leads are not outcomes, they’re inputs. And when lead volume becomes the primary KPI, quality almost always suffers.
That’s when firms start seeing:
- Calls outside their practice area
- Leads outside their service geography
- Cases with no damages
- Intake teams burning out on unqualified conversations
The issue isn’t Google Ads itself. The issue is what you’re asking Google to optimize for.
Why Lead Volume Drops When Campaigns Actually Improve
When we take over a law firm account, one of the first things we do is shift the focus from “more leads” to better cases.
That means working with the firm to define what actually matters. Things like:
What counts as a qualified lead?
What turns into a signed case?
What should never have been a lead in the first place?
We work together to set up their CRM to manage lead quality data for all incoming leads and we connect it back to Google Ads. From there, Google can do what it does best: analyze millions of signals and let the algorithm prioritize showing ads to people with similar search intent and behavior patterns to those who became real cases.
The result is predictable:
Lead volume goes down.
Lead quality improves.
Booked cases goes up.
This is where many firms get nervous, but it’s also where the biggest gains happen.
Why Fewer Leads Can Mean More Revenue
When campaigns are optimized for signed cases instead of raw lead volume, several things improve at once.
First, ad spend is no longer wasted on people who were never going to hire an attorney.
Second, intake teams spend more time talking to real prospects and less time filtering noise.
Third, firms get clearer visibility into what’s actually driving revenue, not just activity.
We routinely see firms realize they weren’t struggling with “marketing performance” at all , they were struggling with measurement and optimization.
If you’ve ever felt like you’re paying for leads that had no chance of becoming cases, you’re not alone. Most firms are.
“But We Can’t Afford Fewer Leads”
This is the most common objection we hear, and it’s understandable.
What most firms really mean is:
“We can’t afford fewer good cases.”
The reality is that chasing volume often creates the illusion of growth while quietly draining budget through wasted ad spend, missed opportunities, and overwhelmed staff.
When firms shift their mindset from lead count to outcome quality, they usually find they can scale more sustainably and predictably.
Google Ads Can Optimize for Quality, If You Let It
Google already tracks millions of signals across user behavior, search intent, and context. What it doesn’t know is which of your leads were worth anything.
When you feed Google accurate, consistent data from your CRM, you give the algorithm clarity. Over time, that clarity compounds.
This is how firms stop blaming platforms and start using them strategically.
How to Tell If Your Firm Is Wasting Ad Spend
Most law firms don’t realize how much of their ad budget is going toward leads that never had a chance of becoming cases.
That’s why we built a simple Wasted Ad Spend Calculator to help firms quickly estimate how much budget is being lost to low-quality leads.
It’s fast, it’s straightforward, and it often confirms what firms already suspect.
If the number surprises you, that’s a sign your campaigns may be optimized for volume, not outcomes.
Winning means Thinking Differently about lead generation for law firms
The most successful law firms don’t ask, “How do we get more leads?”
They ask, “How do we get better cases, consistently?”
That shift changes everything:
- How campaigns are structured
- How success is measured
- How intake teams operate
- How marketing and revenue finally align
If you’re spending serious money on PPC and still unhappy with lead quality, this isn’t a traffic problem. It’s a strategy problem.
If you want help diagnosing where things are breaking, or figuring out whether your campaigns are actually working for your firm, we’re happy to take a look.
Sometimes the fastest way to grow isn’t more leads.
It’s better ones.
