Worked example, not a client
A Birmingham personal injury firm's search terms, triaged: client, claims farm or candidate
A four-partner personal injury firm in the city had run Google Ads for two years and could not say which clicks had become clients. This page is the search terms report for ninety days, triaged the way we do it before anything is changed: each row marked as a client, a claims farm, a candidate or the curious, with the spend beside it and the negatives that followed. The firm is a composite and the rows are illustrative.
Written by Daniel Stoychev. The firm and the figures are illustrative. The triage categories and the negatives are the ones in the solicitor guide linked below, and the triage is the first thing done on any firm's account.
Worked example. The firm and its search terms are invented to show the triage in the form it is done. The categories are real and the negatives are the ones we apply.
The triage
Ninety days of search terms, by what the searcher was
| Category | Example searches | Share of spend | Clients instructed | What was done |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Client | injury solicitor birmingham, car accident claim solicitor, accident at work solicitor | 38% | 14 | Kept, split into three ad groups by matter |
| Claims farm and calculator | how much compensation for whiplash, injury claim calculator, am I entitled | 31% | 1 | Negatives for calculator, how much, entitled; one kept ad group for the few that instruct, landing on an assessment page |
| Candidate | personal injury paralegal jobs, trainee solicitor birmingham, salary | 12% | 0 | Negatives for jobs, trainee, paralegal, salary, vacancies, training contract |
| Curious and students | what does a personal injury solicitor do, how long does a claim take, no win no fee meaning | 11% | 0 | Negatives for what is, how to, meaning; two questions answered on the site instead |
| Other firms' names | The names of three Birmingham firms | 8% | 0 | Removed; we do not bid on other firms' names |
Sixty-two percent of the spend was buying people who would never instruct. The firm had read its click-through rate, which was good, and never its search terms, which said this in plain English.
What the ad said afterwards
Within the rules, and to the client
- The matter and the city in the headline, a named solicitor in the description, and a free first assessment, with no outcome promised and no figure.
- No win no fee stated with the terms on the page, and nothing to pay nowhere in the ad.
- The page carrying the price information the transparency rules require where the matter needs it, the regulator's link and the complaints information in the footer.
What the next ninety days measure
Instructed clients per pound, by matter
The firm's reception keeps the log that turns enquiries into instructions, and the report reads that log against the spend by ad group. The conversion actions are a call over ninety seconds and the enquiry form with the matter type; downloads and chat opens are not counted, because bidding that learns from them finds students. If the claims-farm ad group's instructed clients do not cover its spend by day ninety, it is switched off and the budget goes to the three client groups.
Where this leads
The pages that do this work
Send the account ID. Within 72 hours you know where last month's money went.
The free check needs your ten-digit Google Ads customer ID and nothing else. Daniel Stoychev reads the account himself and writes back within 72 hours. If you would rather talk first, the phone is answered in office hours by the same person.