Signed cases, not just phone calls.
You're paying $50–$150 per click on "personal injury lawyer" keywords, and most of the calls are people without real claims, shopping for a quick settlement, or already represented. We run case-intake campaigns for personal injury firms - with call tracking, intake scoring, and lead qualification that separates valid auto-accident and premises liability claims from tire-kickers before your intake team wastes an hour on the phone.
You don't have a lead problem. You have a case-quality problem.
Most personal injury firms we meet aren't under-spending on ads - they're over-paying for calls that never become cases. Here's what that looks like day to day.
Paying $50–$150 per click for tire-kickers
Personal injury keywords are among the most expensive in Google Ads - and most of the calls they produce are people without real claims, shopping for a quick settlement, or already represented by another firm. You're paying premium CPCs for leads your intake team screens out in five minutes.
No way to tell which cases actually signed
A signed auto-accident case can be worth $10k–$100k+ in contingency fees, but it may take weeks to evaluate and months to resolve. By the time a case signs, you've lost the thread between the original click and the signed retainer. You can't optimize spend when you don't know which campaigns produce signed cases vs. wasted calls.
Competing against firms with bigger intake teams
The firms that win aren't necessarily the ones with the best lawyers - they're the ones with the fastest, most disciplined intake. If you can't answer the phone at 11pm on a Saturday after a crash, that case goes to the firm that can. Most agencies don't understand that intake speed is the leverage point.
Agencies that don't understand contingency economics
Your last agency reported cost per lead like every lead was equal. They didn't factor in that a fender-bender with no injury is worth $0, a soft-tissue case might be worth $5k, and a catastrophic injury case could be worth $500k. You can't optimize for cost per lead when leads vary by 100x in value.
Four disciplines, aimed at signed cases.
We don't just run your ads and hope. The same team that manages your Google campaigns also owns the tracking that measures them and the landing pages that convert them - so there's no finger-pointing when case quality moves.
Paid advertising - Google Search
Google Search campaigns structured around your actual case types - not a generic "personal injury lawyer" bucket.
Explore serviceLocal SEO - map pack & Google Business Profile
Show up in the map pack when someone searches "car accident lawyer near me" from the side of the road.
Explore serviceConversion tracking - call tracking & intake scoring
Call tracking that ties every call back to the campaign that produced it - and closes the loop with your case management system for signed-retainer attribution.
Explore serviceLanding page design & CRO
Case-intake landing pages that remove the friction between "I just got hurt" and "I called a lawyer."
Explore serviceWe also run social media and marketing strategy - but for personal injury firms, these four are where the fastest, most measurable impact lives. We'll tell you honestly if your situation warrants more.
The engagement - in four plain steps.
You're silently asking: 'okay, but what actually happens if I click this?' Here's the real process - not an idealized version. The first step is small and free, so you can evaluate us before committing to anything.
Free case-intake audit
We review your Google Ads account, your Google Business Profile, your call tracking setup (if any), your intake scoring process, and one landing page. You get a written diagnosis of where case quality is leaking - which keywords are producing tire-kickers, which campaigns actually produce signed cases, and what to fix first - whether or not you work with us. No sales deck.
Custom case-intake strategy
If the audit shows we can help, we build a case-type-specific strategy: which campaigns to restructure around auto vs. truck vs. premises, what negative keywords and exclusions to layer in, what call tracking and intake scoring to implement, and which landing pages to ship for after-hours accident-scene traffic. Scoped around the case types you want to sign and the market you're competing in.
Launch
We restructure campaigns around your case types, implement call tracking with intake scoring and case-management integration for signed-retainer attribution, and ship case-type-specific landing pages optimized for mobile accident-scene traffic. The same team that manages your ads owns the tracking and the pages - no finger-pointing.
Transparent reporting
Monthly reporting tied to signed cases - not clicks and cost per lead. You see cost per qualified intake, cost per signed case, contingency-fee-weighted ROAS by campaign, and exactly what we changed and why. Quarterly business review to recalibrate case-type targeting and intake capacity.
All engagements start with the free audit. If we can't help, we'll tell you in the audit - not after you've signed.
A representative result, not a law firm guarantee.
We don't publish named-client case studies - most personal injury firms don't want their competitors to see what's working. Here's a representative composite based on typical results, with a plain note on how the approach transfers to your situation.
Hartwell & Associates · Personal injury law firm
Challenge
A mid-market personal injury firm in a competitive metro was paying $90+ per click on generic 'personal injury lawyer' keywords and screening out roughly 80% of the calls those clicks produced - tire-kickers, shoppers for a quick settlement, and claimants already represented by another firm. No call tracking meant no way to tell which campaigns produced signed retainers vs. wasted calls, and intake coverage died after business hours - exactly when crashes happen.
Strategy
Restructure campaigns around case types - auto accidents, truck accidents, premises liability, wrongful death - instead of a generic 'personal injury lawyer' bucket. Layer negative-keyword and audience-exclusion filtering to suppress already-represented and low-value claimants before they see an ad. Implement call tracking with intake scoring tied to the case-management system for signed-retainer attribution. Activate after-hours and weekend campaign coverage for the windows when crashes actually happen.
Execution
Case-type-specific Google Search campaigns with negative-keyword and audience-exclusion filtering. Dynamic call tracking with call recording and intake scoring (valid claim, tire-kicker, already represented), integrated with the firm's case-management system for signed-retainer attribution. Case-type-specific landing pages (auto, truck, premises) optimized for mobile after-hours traffic with click-to-call and a short intake form. After-hours and weekend campaign activation with elevated bids when crashes are most likely.
Results
Note: Hartwell & Associates is a representative composite based on typical results from our personal-injury clients, not a single named account. Individual results vary based on case mix, intake capacity, market, and starting spend - we'll discuss your specific situation in the audit.
The case-intake audit checklist.
A 24-point checklist you can use to self-assess your current case-intake engine - Google Ads structure, negative-keyword coverage, call tracking, intake scoring, signed-retainer attribution, and after-hours landing-page behavior. Genuinely useful whether or not you ever talk to us. No email gate beyond delivery.
- The 7 case-type-specific campaign structures that out-perform a generic 'personal injury lawyer' bucket
- The 3 negative-keyword categories that filter out already-represented and non-qualifying claimants
- The call-tracking + case-management integration that closes the loop on signed-retainer attribution
- The after-hours landing-page elements that convert mobile accident-scene traffic into calls
The honest answers to what you're weighing.
Shouldn't I just use the lead-gen service that promises exclusive injury leads?
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Lead-gen services sell the same "exclusive" lead to three firms, charge you whether the case signs or not, and give you no data about the patient, the accident, or the claim strength. When you stop paying, the leads stop. We build your own intake engine - your ads, your landing pages, your tracking, your case data - so the leads are genuinely exclusive, the attribution is yours, and the pipeline compounds instead of renting every month.
What about a local marketing generalist or the company that does my website?
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A generalist can set up campaigns. But the three things that break personal injury marketing - no case-quality filtering (paying $150/click for tire-kickers), no signed-case attribution (can't tell which ads produce $100k cases), and landing pages that don't convert mobile accident-scene traffic - are exactly what a generalist can't cover. We run paid, tracking, and CRO as one team, so there's no gap between what's measured and what's optimized.
Another agency says they only do legal SEO. Why do I need paid ads and tracking too?
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Because SEO is a six-to-twelve-month play, and you need cases this month - especially when a competitor's TV ad drives a spike in local injury searches. SEO gets you into the map pack; paid ads get you the cases today. And without call tracking and signed-case attribution, neither one tells you which clicks actually became signed retainers. Agencies that only do SEO optimize for rankings; we optimize for signed cases across every channel that produces them.
Can I afford to compete with the big firms on Google Ads?
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You can't outspend the firms running billboards and TV - but you can out-target them. Big firms run generic "personal injury lawyer" campaigns across an entire metro. A case-type-specific campaign targeting "truck accident attorney" or "slip and fall lawyer" reaches the people with real, specific claims - and those are the cases worth taking. We help you win the searches that produce signed cases, not all the searches.
Start with one question.
No form yet - just tell us what's most on your mind. We'll point you to the right next step based on your answer.
What's your biggest case-intake challenge right now?
Book a free case-intake audit.
We'll look at your Google campaigns, your call tracking setup, your intake process, and one landing page. You'll get a written diagnosis of where your case quality is leaking and what to fix first - whether or not you work with us. No sales deck, no pressure.
The audit is a 30-minute call plus a written follow-up. We reply within two business days.
No risk to start.
The audit is free and comes with no obligation. If we propose an engagement, it starts month-to-month after the first quarter - no long-term lock-in. You own every ad account, every creative asset, and every piece of tracking we set up. If we part ways, you keep all of it and we hand over cleanly. All ad copy is reviewed against your state's attorney-advertising rules before launch - nothing ships without your approval.