How much should a law firm spend on marketing?
Forget percentage-of-revenue benchmarks. Take what an average case is worth, work out how many consultations it takes to sign one, and you get the most you can afford to pay for a consultation. That single number tells you which channels are making you money and which are losing it.
Every answer you'll find online is a percentage of revenue. Spend 2%, spend 10%, spend whatever the benchmark says. None of it tells you whether the money comes back. Here's the number that actually decides it.
The short answer
Don't start from a percentage. Start from what one case is worth to you. Once you know that, you know what you can afford to pay to win one, and every marketing decision stops being a guess.
It's three numbers and two equations.
The math that actually decides it
Real numbers below — swap in your own.
Step 1 — What's an average case worth?
Not your biggest case ever. The average fee you collect on the work you want more of.
Step 2 — How many consultations turn into clients?
Of everyone who takes a consultation, on the phone or in person, how many hire you? If it's one in four, that's 25%.
If you don't know this number, that's fairly common. Start a tally this month: a mark for every consultation, a mark for every one that signs.
Step 3 — So what is one consultation worth?
Multiply the two. A one-in-four chance at a $4,000 case makes each consultation worth a quarter of $4,000.
Every consultation you take is worth $1,000 to you, on average — whether or not that particular person signs.
Step 4 — What will you pay to win a case?
A judgement call, not a calculation. Plenty of firms land between a quarter and a third of what the case is worth — higher if you've got extra capacity and want to grow, lower if you're protecting profit. Pick a number; everything below depends on it.
That's 25% of the $4,000 case value.
Step 5 — So what can you pay for one consultation?
Four consultations to sign one case, so the budget stretches across four of them.
You can pay up to $250 to book one consultation and still hit your target.
What that number does for you
$250 is your scoreboard. Any channel booking consultations for less is making you money; anything above it is losing you money, however good the traffic looks. So the answer to "how much should I spend?" is: as much as you can under $250 a consultation, and nothing above.
This is the bit that trips most people up. You pick a monthly number that feels comfortable — three grand, five grand — then split it across everything. The channel beating your $250 gets a slice instead of the whole thing, while money keeps flowing to the ones that aren't working. Feed what's under your number, cut the rest. What should stop you is running out of room to take the work, not the invoice.
What things actually cost
Two lanes, and they behave differently. Paid is fast and stops the day you stop paying. Earned is slow and keeps working. Most firms need both, in that order.
Your website and the system around it. Pay a freelancer once and that's the end of it — no updates after launch, nothing following up on leads, nothing collecting reviews. Or pay monthly for something that keeps running. The Refine System is one flat price for all of it, site included.
Paid search. The fast lane, and among the most expensive categories in Google Ads — every firm in your city bids on the same handful of phrases. Budget is separate from management: you pay Google, and you pay whoever runs it. PPC management is an add-on on top of ad spend.
Pay-per-call campaigns. Google Ads runs these as Performance Max, where you pay per call instead of per click. Managed through the same add-on.
SEO and content. The slow lane, and the only one that stops costing per lead once it works. Content marketing and off-page SEO are separate add-ons.
The traditional legal agency retainer. Most agencies don't put a price on their website — you have to get on a call and ask. Expect a twelve-month contract and ad spend billed on top of their fee. Get both numbers in writing before you compare anything.
Where most firms should start
Before you add a channel, fix the leak. Most firms don't have a spending problem — they have a conversion problem, and buying more traffic just makes it more expensive.
Someone types "dui lawyer near me" at 11 PM on a Saturday, taps the first three results, and hires whoever picks up. No ad budget wins that if nobody answers — and when researchers secret-shopped 500 law firms in 2024, only 40% did. More on that in law firm intake. It's the cheapest fix on this page.
So: a fast site that says what you do, reviews arriving steadily, and something that answers or texts back while you're in court. That baseline is what The Refine System is — one flat price, no contract, everything included. Where most firms start, and where most stay.
Add a channel once the baseline works and you know your number. One at a time, each judged against that $250.
Bring your average case value and how many consultations turn into clients. We'll run the math on a call and tell you straight whether a channel is worth adding — or whether to fix intake first and spend nothing.
Or use the chat bubble in the corner. Free 20-minute demo, no contract, cancel anytime.
When the standard system isn't the right fit
Some firms need more than the standard system covers. A few offices each doing different work. A rebrand after a partner change. A practice where clients take months to decide, or a city where every competitor already does the obvious things well.
For those we build custom marketing around the firm instead of fitting the firm to the product, scoped on the demo call against your actual situation.
Most businesses start on the base system and stay there, and that's how it's meant to work. Custom exists because a few firms need it, not because the base system is a trial run.
The honest version
Some firms should spend nothing on marketing right now.
If you're at capacity and turning work away, more leads make your life worse. If referrals fill your calendar and you like the cases they bring, that's a working system — don't break it because a blog told you to build a funnel.
And if you can't answer the phone consistently, ads are the worst place to start — you'll be paying for clicks that turn into phone calls nobody answers. Fix the answering first. It costs almost nothing and makes every dollar after it work harder.
If you've got room to take on work, a case value that justifies the cost, and someone at the other end who picks up — spend.
Where our system fits
Website, on-page SEO, review funnel, missed call text back, automated follow-up, one inbox. No contract, so if the math doesn't work for you it costs you a month.
Then you read the numbers each month: keep what produced consultations under your $250, cut what didn't, refine it again. That's the whole job after month one — not a bigger budget, a better-aimed one. Full picture for legal on the law firm digital marketing page.
Questions firms ask about marketing budget
How much should a law firm spend on marketing?
Work backwards from one signed case, not from a percentage of revenue. Average case value times the share of consultations that turn into clients tells you what a consultation is worth; what you'll pay to win a case, divided across the consultations it takes, gives you your ceiling. Spend as much as you can under that number and nothing above it.
How do I work out what a consultation is worth?
Multiply your average case value by the share of consultations that sign. If the average case is worth $4,000 and one in four hires you, each consultation is worth $1,000 on average.
Why is legal PPC so expensive?
Because every firm in your city bids on the same small set of phrases, and one signed case can justify a high click price. That's exactly why cost per signed case matters more than cost per click — a cheap click that never signs is the expensive one.
What's the cheapest way for a law firm to get more clients?
Usually fixing what you already have: answering the phone, following up fast, collecting reviews. Those cost little and improve the return on every channel you add later.
What if my firm needs something more custom?
We build custom marketing around a firm when the standard system isn't enough — a few offices doing different work, or a rebrand after a partner change. It's scoped on the demo call. Most businesses start on the base system and stay there.
