How To Win With LSAs For Law Firms – The Complete Playbook

Local Services Ads look easy on the surface. Turn it on, set a budget, wait for calls. In reality, LSA results come from five levers that you can control every week: proximity, reviews, responsiveness, availability, and smart geography.

Before we dive in, let’s talk about what LSAs are and what they mean for your law firm.

What Are Local Services Ads?

Local Services Ads are Google’s lead product for local providers. For law firms, they show in a boxed unit at the very top of the results page, above PPC ads, the map pack, and organic listings.

Each card pulls from your Google Business Profile and LSA settings, so searchers see your rating, practice area, hours, and a call or message button.

Here’s an example:

LSAs do not use the keyword lists you know from PPC. Google matches a user’s intent to your declared services and service area, then weighs proximity, reviews, responsiveness, and availability to decide who shows.

You influence targeting by selecting job types, languages, and where you accept clients, not by building keyword groups.

Billing is pay per lead, not pay per click. You are charged when the ad produces a phone call or message that meets Google’s “lead” rules, and there is a dispute process for spam, wrong categories, or out-of-area contacts.

Legal categories display a “Google Screened” badge (this is changing, see note below) after license and business checks. That badge is not a paid sticker. It depends on ongoing compliance, current licensing, and acceptable review quality.

In summary:

• Sits above every other result and routes calls or messages directly to intake
• Targeting is driven by services and geography, not your own keyword list
• Ranking is driven by proximity, reviews, responsiveness, and coverage
• You pay for valid leads and can dispute the bad ones
• “Google Screened” reflects verification and compliance, not ad spend

That is the product you are trying to win. The rest of the article shows how to tune it for actual signed cases.

Geography that protects ROI

Own your backyard before you chase an entire metro. Use ZIP rings around the Google Business Profile that powers the ad. Concentrate impressions where proximity already favors you, then expand only after the numbers support it.

Why ZIPs beat counties in cities

• Counties are coarse. You cannot exclude weak pockets inside them.
• ZIPs let you keep high-value neighborhoods and cut low-yield edges.
• Out-of-area disputes are easier when your service area list is tight.
• Budget efficiency improves because you are not paying to test half the map at once.
  This is how you keep cost per lead and signed rate on target.

When counties make sense

• Rural or low-density regions where a county matches a practical radius.
• You have surplus budget and want discovery quickly.
• No overlapping profiles will compete in the same metro.
  Use counties only when that geography mirrors real operations.

Statewide without cannibalization

Strong brands can run a statewide “catcher” profile from one hub. The trick is to carve out metros where your other active LSA profiles should win.

How to structure it

• Keep the whole state included on the hub profile.
• Exclude counties for every metro covered by a local profile.
• Mirror those exclusions on the local profiles so two accounts never bid for the same county.
• Route calls by caller ZIP to measure signed rate by market.
  This keeps the hub profitable while local offices win their backyards.

Job types that actually pay

Start with accident categories that usually sign. Add the rest only if the economics hold.

Turn on first

• Auto, truck, motorcycle, pedestrian, bicycle.
• Rideshare.
• Catastrophic injury and wrongful death.
  These categories typically clear at a fair CPL and convert at intake.

Hold until proven

• Slip and fall.
• Dog bite.
• Low-severity premises.
  Start focused. You can always broaden later.

Business highlights that help

• Free consultation.
• No fee unless we win.
• Bilingual team if you truly cover it.
• Statewide virtual signings if you offer them.
  Skip home-services phrasing that lowers trust. Keep it legal-specific and clear.

Bidding and budget with guardrails

Budget does not create volume if you sit under the clearing price. Price discovery beats guessing.

A short ladder that works

• Start manual with a realistic max per lead for your category.
• If impressions stay thin after forty-eight hours, raise the cap in measured steps.
• If volume still lags, run automated bidding for seventy-two hours with a tight weekly cap.
• Set your manual cap near the upper band of the CPL you observed on that test.
  This gives control informed by real market data.

Reference ranges to sanity-check

• Personal injury often clears between 200 and 450 per lead.
• New or weak review profiles usually need the upper half of that range.
• Strong local moats often clear mid range.
  Ranges are not promises, so track your numbers and adjust.

Right-size spend while you test

• Keep weekly budgets conservative until answer rate, signed rate, and cost per signed case hold for more than a week.
• Increase only when intake has proved it can keep up.
  Budget follows eligibility and operations, not the other way around.

Hours and responsiveness

Availability and speed are ranking multipliers. They also lift conversion.

Targets worth enforcing

• Answer within two rings.
• Call back missed calls inside five minutes.
• Respond to messages inside ten minutes.
• Escalate severe injuries to an attorney call the same day.
  If you cannot run all night with real humans, use extended hours you can honor every day.

Intake that closes the gap

The first minute often decides whether LSA money was well spent. Keep it empathetic, fast, and structured.

First-minute script

• Confirm safety and injuries.
• Confirm incident date and venue.
• Confirm medical treatment so far.
• Confirm liability facts in plain language.
• Set the next step before the call ends.
  Simple beats clever when the caller is in pain and the clock is ticking.

Routing and tracking

• Give LSA a dedicated number with a whisper prompt so the team knows the source.
• Tag every call by ZIP and job type.
• Log signed or rejected with a reason code.
  This data powers keep-or-pause decisions on ZIPs and job types.

Reviews that move rank

Reviews are the daily lever you control.

Practical targets

• Fifteen to twenty new reviews per month on the correct profile.
• Rating at or above 4.8.
• Ask clients to mention the city naturally.
• Respond to every review quickly.
  Do the basics well and eligibility expands.

Disputes and cleanup

Treat disputes like a daily habit, not a chore.

Process that sticks

• Dispute out-of-area, spam, and non-covered matters within forty-eight hours.
• Keep dispute rate under ten percent and win rate high.
• Use your ZIP list as evidence for out-of-area calls.
  Clean data protects budget and ranking.

Expansion gates you can defend

Do not add geography until the current ring proves itself.

Add a ZIP when all three are true for two straight weeks

• Cost per lead at or below target.
• Answer rate at ninety percent or better.
• Signed rate at or above the profile average.
  Clear gates prevent sprawl and preserve unit economics.

Pause a ZIP when any of these show up

• Ten leads with a signed rate less than half of your average.
• Answer rate below eighty-five percent for a week.
• CPL more than one and a half times your auto injury CPL for three weeks.
  Pruning is focus, not failure.

Multi-profile architecture

One office rarely wins an entire metro. Spread the load with intent.

How to scale cleanly

• Build profiles by metro and give each a dedicated footprint.
• Local profiles own the ZIPs nearest their addresses.
• The statewide hub covers the rest and excludes the counties that locals own.
• Never let two profiles pursue the same county at the same time.
  This avoids auction collisions and improves attribution.

Troubleshooting in order

Chase causes, not symptoms.

Thin impressions or zero leads

• Raise the cap in steps.
• Tighten to the core ring only.
• Push fresh reviews and confirm licenses and insurance in LSA.
• Run a short automated test to learn the true price.
  Follow data, not UI popups.

Many leads but few signings

• Listen to recordings for speed and empathy.
• Narrow job types back to auto injury.
• Remove distant ZIPs with poor signed rates.
• Confirm routing during nights and weekends.
  Fix intake before you crank spend.

Strong local results, weak at distance

• Add county exclusions for metros with local offices.
• Stand up a new GBP in that corridor and let that profile own its ZIP rings.
  Metros reward proximity, so architect for it.

Quick checklist

• Clean the service area to a tight core ring.
• Enable high-value accident types first.
• Set a realistic manual cap or run a short automated test with a hard weekly limit.
• Staff extended hours with a five-minute callback goal.
• Enable messages and monitor replies.
• Start a steady review push.
• Route to a dedicated number with a whisper prompt.
• Track signed outcomes by ZIP and job type.
• Publish a weekly report with CPL, signed rate, cost per signed case, and answer rate by ZIP and by county.

Complete this list and your LSA program runs with clarity instead of hope.