Before you sign a legal-marketing contract: 12 questions to ask first
Opening
Brenda Clark, a family lawyer I'd worked with on litigation, asked me to look at her Google ads. She was paying an agency to run them, and the results weren't there. I could see right away how the agency was burning her, and that what they were telling her was blowing smoke. When I started looking at other firms, I found her experience was the rule instead of the exception. After we rebuilt her ads, she was signing new clients at about $200 each.
Most of what goes wrong with a marketing vendor can be seen before you sign, if you know what to ask. Owners who've been burned often describe it this way: on the hook for another year of a contract that isn't working, or breaking the contract to get out.
These are the questions I'd ask an agency, a legal directory, or a lead seller before signing anything. A good vendor will answer them plainly and with specifics. Pay attention to how they answer as much as to what they say. You're an attorney. You read people for a living.
Who will own what
"Will everything be in my firm's name?"
The domain, the hosting, the website, the Google and Meta ad accounts, the Google Business Profile, analytics, call-tracking numbers, and social media logins. Some agencies sell a lawyer a website and keep the domain, the hosting, and the site underneath it. The lawyer is building on rented space, and it's often the same with ad accounts.
A good answer sounds like this: everything is in your name, on your accounts, and you'd have full access tomorrow if you stopped working together. Listen for qualifiers like "well, technically" or "it depends." Either it's in your firm's name or it isn't.
"If we part ways, what do I keep?"
Ask it directly, and ask for the answer in writing. Some firms leave an agency and find the site taken down, with nothing left but a file of the website they paid for.
"In 40 years of practicing law, this is the best way to get more clients that I've ever had."
— Brenda Clark, Family Law Attorney
How you leave, and what it costs
"How long is the term, does it renew on its own, and what does it cost to leave early?"
A long term with automatic renewal and a buyout keeps you paying whether the work helps or not. My own agreements typically run month to month or on 60 days' notice. If the work isn't helping your firm, I don't want to take your money.
"Is there a markup on ad spend, a setup fee, or any charge outside the retainer, and what does the retainer cover in writing?"
You should know how much of what you pay reaches Google or Meta and how much stays with the agency. A written scope keeps "we're continuing to optimize" from becoming the whole service.
Who does the work, and what gets counted
"Who will I talk to after I sign, and who will work on my account each week?"
The senior person who sells you the work is often not the person who does it. Ask for names and roles.
"Will I be able to see what was done on my account?"
Google Ads and Meta both keep a history of the changes made to an ad account. If the account is in your name, you can check it yourself. An agency that's actively working your account has no reason to hide that history.
"Will you report my cost per signed client, and where each lead came from by channel?"
Cost per click is an agency metric. Cost per signed client is a business metric. A vendor who can rattle off your cost per click and stumbles on cost per client is managing the ad platform and leaving your firm's growth to chance. Ask how they'll know which leads became clients, and what they need from your intake records to find out.
Whose side they're on, and what they can prove
"Do you work with other firms in my city and practice area, and are my leads mine alone?"
This one deserves a straight yes or no. If an agency is trying to rank you first and your direct competitor first at the same time, at least one of you is getting shortchanged. If they dodge it, you've learned what you needed to know.
"What would you do for my firm specifically, and how is it different from what you do for other firms?"
Count the specifics. A good answer mentions your practice area, your market, your competitors, and your strengths. If you could swap in another firm's name and the answer would still make sense, you're hearing a template.
"How would you show me that AI answers are sending me cases?"
GEO, short for generative engine optimization, is the name for work aimed at getting a firm named when people ask ChatGPT, Gemini, or Google's AI about their situation. There's real work to be done there, and plenty of pitches that lean on the term. On the paid side, I ran the first family-law ad on ChatGPT, before the platform allowed legal-services ads, so ask anyone pitching you ChatGPT ads what they've actually run. Then ask what they'd measure, how they'd know a signed client came from an AI answer, and what any growth figure they quote is measured against.
"Who checks the law in what you write?"
One firm says it paid an agency $90,000 for a project that came back with inaccurate legal information. Whatever a vendor writes goes out under your name, so your own attorneys should review every piece for accuracy before it's published. Ask how that review fits into their process, and how long they'll give you for it.
For directories and lead sellers
"Are your leads shared with other firms, and what does a signed case cost once the leads that fall away are counted?"
A directory or lead seller will quote you a price per lead. What you need to know is the price per signed client, after the leads that were shared, unreachable, or never real are taken out. A lead that looks like gold can turn out to be fool's gold. The cost-per-signed-case calculator does the math.
If you run a personal-injury firm
Lead sellers are part of life for many PI firms, and many owners resent paying a vendor that also sells to the firms they compete with. Before you sign, ask question 12 in detail: how many other firms receive the same lead, and how quickly. And because GEO comes up in so many pitches to PI firms, give question 10 extra weight.
If you run a medical-malpractice firm
Ask an agency what your clicks will cost, then compare its figure with what Google's own planning tools show for the same searches. And before you put most of your budget into ads, look at where your signed cases come from today. Many med-mal firms live on referrals from other lawyers, and they need to know who referred each potential client before anything else happens.
What to do with the answers
If the answers are clear and specific, you've probably found a vendor worth working with. Get the important ones in writing.
If the answers worry you about a vendor you already have, that's what agency oversight is for: someone on your side of the table who checks ownership, contracts, the work done, and what it produced.
If you'd like someone senior on your side before you sign anything, that's part of what I do as a Fractional CMO. Whatever any vendor produces, mine included, you'll be able to see it.
Owners' questions, answered
Is a one-year contract ever fine?
It can be, if everything is in your firm's name, you can leave if the work isn't delivered, and you know exactly what the retainer covers.
Should I leave my agency now?
Not before you've asked these questions and seen the answers. Start with ownership. If your website and ad accounts are already in your name, you have time to decide calmly.
Are legal directories worth it?
For some firms they produce clients. The only way to know for yours is to measure what a signed client from the directory costs, compared with your other sources.
What if they won't give me my accounts?
List every asset and who holds it, ask in writing for owner-level access to each one, and set up new accounts in your firm's name where the old ones can't be recovered. Then make sure the next vendor sets everything up in your name from day one.
Joshua David Little is a Fractional CMO for law-firm owners and the founder of Aquila Law Firm Marketing. He has run his own consulting firm since 2004, and has done hands-on work helping attorneys prepare complex litigation for trial in family law, medical malpractice, personal injury, and unjust enrichment cases. He ran the first family-law ad on ChatGPT, before the platform allowed legal-services ads.