“More leads.”
When I talk to law firm leaders, too many seem to believe their growth primarily results from “generating more leads.” Unfortunately, this leads to various unwanted outcomes, including a large volume of unqualified leads, qualified leads that aren’t profitable, and cash flow issues.
Sustainable growth requires profitably attracting the right clients. Yet, many firms treat marketing and finances as separate silos, missing opportunities to align strategies for sustainable success. This article explores how law firms can track marketing performance, budget more effectively, and invest in the tactics that lead to profitable, long-term growth.
Traditionally, we think of marketing and finance as entirely separate business functions. Marketing is often seen as a creative, cost-driving function, while finance focuses on budgeting and performance metrics. In my experience, this mindset is why so many firms fail to meet their growth objectives.
Marketing and finance must collaborate to build a thriving firm. When marketing is viewed as an investment with measurable returns, it becomes easier to justify spending, track impact, and make informed decisions that fuel growth.
If I asked a hundred law firm leaders about measuring marketing, most would probably say, “ROI.” If I then asked them to define ROI, or how to calculate it, many wouldn’t be able to articulate a helpful answer. Even those who could would struggle to understand why ROI might not be the one metric to rule them all.
You must measure the right metrics to align your marketing with your financial goals and growth stage. Here are a few worth considering:
What about ROI? Return on investment (ROI) or return on ad spend (ROAS) might be helpful in your firm. After all, marketing is an investment, and we want a return on our investments, right? However, relying too heavily on ROI as a marketing metric can be antithetical to hitting growth objectives. Here’s a simple example: Want to maximize your ROI? Cut all marketing investments.
Maximize ROI for each new client. But are you adding sufficient new clients to hit your growth goals?
Another challenge of measuring ROI is marketing attribution. Attribution is a fancy way of deciding what marketing activities get credit for what. Historically, many firms have relied on last-click attribution. In short, that means that whatever the last click the client made before contacting you gets credit. While this might work for linear, nonbrand, direct response marketing, it usually paints an insufficient picture of how clients find you. Here’s a quick example: A former client refers a friend to you. The friend searches for your name on Google and clicks a paid ad. A last-click attribution model will give all the credit to the paid search ad and no credit to the referral.
In my experience, many legal services consumers embark on a multi-touch journey to become clients. In other words, they will “touch” your brand across various channels and media.
Evaluate your attribution modeling and how marketing data flows through your firm. At a minimum, you should capture qualitative and quantitative attribution data for comparison. Using our example above, a multi-touch attribution model with both qualitative and quantitative data will reveal the referral and give credit to various touchpoints across the client journey. Now you will be able to make data-informed marketing decisions.
Finally, contextualize your growth metrics with your growth stage. Here are some commonly accepted business growth stages:
One of the most critical mistakes firm owners make is undercapitalizing their growth at later stages. It’s tough to push past startup mode without a significant growth budget.
Where do you want to grow? Too many firms engage in random acts of marketing or ride in the marketing cab to nowhere. Before you create a budget, you must define what growth looks like for your firm.
But what’s a good growth number? According to Hinge’s “High Growth Study 2025” report, high-growth law firms experienced a median growth rate of 41.7%. This contrasts significantly with the 9.5% median growth increase that average growth firms saw.
These are just benchmarks. Determining your growth goals should consider the type of firm you want to build. Once you’ve established where you are trying to go, you can plan how to get there.
The most important aspect of aligning marketing and finances is managing resources to a budget. Instead of guessing or basing your marketing budget on last year’s spend, align it with your revenue and growth goals. A good rule of thumb is to allocate 10%-20% of gross revenue to marketing, with higher investments for firms in later growth stages.
Diversify your budget across channels like search engine optimization (SEO), paid search, social media, and referral-building efforts. Focus on testing and scaling what works, and avoid overcommitting to underperforming tactics.
If you’re effectively tracking your marketing metrics to business outcomes, you will now have the data to decide where to allocate resources.
Not all clients are created equal. Firms that attract higher-value clients see better margins and longer-term sustainable growth.
Define your ideal client based on your vision, values, case type, fee structure, and expected lifetime value. Then, tailor your marketing messaging, targeting, and content to attract those clients specifically.
Firms chasing lead volume at all costs often burn resources on low-value clients. Instead, align your campaigns with financial objectives to build a healthier, more profitable client base.
Your marketing activities should be designed to attract and convert target clients. That means:
An underperforming intake process can tank even the most effective marketing strategy. Make sure your intake and marketing teams are aligned.
Growth isn’t a set-it-and-forget-it process. Conduct monthly and quarterly reporting rhythms to evaluate marketing performance against financial goals. In addition to business metrics, monitor leading marketing performance indicators (i.e., qualified website traffic, target audience reach, etc.).
Create a shared dashboard with key metrics, including cost per qualified lead, cost per client, client lifetime value, and segmented brand vs. nonbrand acquisition. Use this data to make informed decisions about where to cut, where to invest, and when to pivot.
Aligning marketing and finance is essential for law firms looking to grow sustainably. By connecting performance data with financial outcomes, you can invest more confidently, attract more profitable clients, and build a firm that doesn’t just grow but thrives. This connection between marketing performance data and financial outcomes enables confident investments, attracts profitable clients, and fosters a thriving firm.
