For a long time, Google advertising for law firms mostly meant one thing: Search Ads.
Someone searched for a personal injury lawyer, divorce attorney, criminal defense lawyer, or another legal service, and sponsored ads appeared in the search results.
Google Search Ads are still a major part of law firm advertising. But Google Ads has become a much bigger platform around them.
Law firms now have access to campaign types that can reach potential clients before, during, and after a traditional Google search. AI is becoming more integrated into Search campaigns. Ads can appear within some of Google’s AI experiences. And campaigns like Performance Max and Demand Gen give firms ways to advertise well beyond the traditional search results page.
That doesn’t mean every law firm suddenly needs a complicated mix of Google campaigns.
It does mean that “we run Google Ads” can mean something very different today than it did a few years ago.
Here’s what law firms should know.
Google Search Ads Are Still the Foundation for Many Law Firms
Search remains particularly valuable for law firms because it can reach someone who is actively looking for legal help.
If someone searches for a DUI attorney, divorce lawyer, employment attorney, or personal injury lawyer, there is already intent behind that search.
That’s very different from advertising to someone who isn’t currently looking for an attorney.
And despite all the changes to Google Ads, law firms and their agencies still have meaningful control over how Search campaigns are built and managed.
What has changed is the technology available within those campaigns.
Google now uses more AI to understand the intent behind searches, optimize bidding, match ads with searches, and determine which combination of advertising may be most relevant.
Google has also introduced AI Max for Search campaigns, which adds additional AI-powered capabilities to existing Search campaigns.
AI Max isn’t a replacement for Search Ads or a new campaign type. It’s another set of tools available within Search.
Whether those tools make sense depends on the firm, the practice area, the campaign and the goals.
Google Ads Can Now Appear in AI Search Experiences
This is one of the more interesting recent changes.
Eligible Google Ads can appear in and around AI Overviews, and Google is testing ads within AI Mode in the United States.
You’ll sometimes hear this described as the arrival of “AI advertising.”
That’s true to an extent, but it can also make the change sound bigger and more separate than it currently is.
A law firm can’t simply create a Google AI Overview campaign and decide to advertise only there.
Instead, Google’s AI experiences are becoming additional places where eligible ads may appear.
For law firms, this is worth paying attention to because AI is changing the way some people research legal problems. Someone may ask Google a detailed question about an accident, employment situation, divorce, arrest, or another legal issue before they ever search specifically for an attorney.
Advertising is beginning to follow those searches into Google’s AI experiences.
Google Ads Now Goes Well Beyond Search
The other major change is the number of ways law firms can advertise within Google’s ecosystem.
These campaign types aren’t simply different versions of the same thing. They can serve very different purposes depending on the firm’s practice areas and what it is trying to accomplish.
Performance Max
Rather than focusing only on traditional Search results, Performance Max can advertise across Google’s inventory, including Search, YouTube, Gmail, Maps, Discover and Display.
Demand Gen
Instead of primarily capturing people who are already searching for an attorney, Demand Gen can help a law firm reach people across Google’s more visual properties, including YouTube, Discover and Gmail.
That can be useful when a firm needs to reach a larger audience around a legal issue rather than wait for each person to search for an attorney.
For example, a law firm handling a large product liability or mass tort matter may want to reach people who could have been affected by a particular drug, medical device or defective product.
Those potential clients may not know that litigation exists yet, so waiting for them to search for an attorney may miss part of the opportunity.
That’s a very different use case from a local divorce firm trying to reach someone who already knows they need a lawyer.
YouTube Advertising
YouTube gives law firms another way to reach potential clients through video.
This can work particularly well when education or familiarity matters before someone is ready to contact an attorney.
An estate planning firm, for example, could use video to explain situations that should prompt someone to update a will or create an estate plan.
A personal injury firm could use video to build recognition within a local market so the firm’s name is already familiar when someone eventually needs an attorney.
Law Firms Don’t Need Every Google Campaign Type
As Google Ads expands, it can be tempting to think a modern campaign needs to use everything Google offers.
It doesn’t.
A small family law firm advertising within one metropolitan area has very different needs from a multi-state personal injury firm or a national mass tort practice.
Search may be the primary strategy for one. Another firm may benefit from Search plus YouTube. Another may have a legitimate use case for Demand Gen or Performance Max. And some firms may have no reason to use certain campaign types at all.
The campaign type should follow the strategy, not the other way around.
That’s especially important as Google continues introducing new AI features and recommending more automated campaign options.
New doesn’t automatically mean better.
AI Is Changing Google Ads, Not Replacing the Need for Strategy
Google Ads is unquestionably becoming more AI-driven. That’s not necessarily a bad thing.
AI can help Google understand intent, identify patterns across large amounts of data, make faster bidding decisions, adapt creative, and find opportunities that would be difficult to identify manually.
But the technology still needs direction.
Google doesn’t decide which practice areas your firm wants to grow. It doesn’t determine which cases are most valuable to your attorneys. It doesn’t decide how much of your budget should go toward immediate search demand versus building awareness with a broader audience.
Those are marketing and business decisions.
We’ve managed Google Ads for more than 15 years, and this isn’t the first time the platform has changed significantly.
The tools are different. The number of campaign options has grown. AI is becoming a bigger part of the platform.
The job is still to decide which of those tools actually makes sense for the law firm.
Google Ads Has More Options. That’s the Real Change.
For law firms, the biggest change is that Google Ads now gives us more ways to reach potential clients than traditional Search Ads alone.
Search can capture someone actively looking for an attorney.
Performance Max can extend advertising across Google’s larger ecosystem.
Demand Gen can help reach audiences before they begin actively searching.
YouTube can educate and build familiarity.
And Google’s AI experiences are creating new places where eligible advertising may appear.
The right combination depends on the law firm.
For a broader look at how Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, landing pages, tracking, intake, and other paid advertising channels work together, read our guide to PPC advertising for law firms.
WCN Digital provides Google Ads management for law firms built around the firm’s actual goals, practice areas, markets and definition of a relevant case.
We don’t add a campaign type simply because Google introduced it. We look at what the firm is trying to accomplish and determine which parts of Google Ads can actually help get it there.