Quick answer: Find a PPC advertising agency experienced with Google Ads for personal injury lawyers. Don’t do it yourself, don’t use Google to manage your ads, and don’t use a social media marketer or marketing person unless it’s a company that has a Google Ads manager.

Managing a Google Ad Campaign Requires a Lot of Time, Knowledge & Experience

Managing a Google Ad Words (now called Google Ads) campaign is a time-consuming and difficult task requiring much knowledge and experience. I know this because I am overseeing our Google Ads campaign manager. (I am not a Google Ads or PPC campaign manager).

I am already an expert in branding, advertising, and search engine optimization, which is a big help. To prepare for our online campaign, I spent several days reading many articles and tutorials about Google Ads.

I found that the knowledge necessary to become proficient at managing a Google Ads campaign will take a few months of studying and experience. Then, you must stay on top of it because Google constantly changes things.

It’s a good idea to have a rudimentary knowledge of how Google Ads works so you can at least understand what your campaign manager is doing and recognize when your manager is doing a good job or not.

Should You Use a Google Ad Manager Who Represents Other Personal Injury Lawyers?

Yes, definitely. We retained a Google Ad agency specifically because they represent other personal injury lawyers.

We retained a new personal injury client on the first day of advertising with Google Ads, but there were a large number of clicks and calls completely unrelated to accidents.

Before we started, our campaign manager uploaded several large lists of negative keywords to prevent unwanted clicks. He used a very good negative keyword list developed from his experience with advertising for other personal injury lawyers.

Negative keywords prevent ads from showing to people you don’t want to hear from. For instance, a personal injury lawyer would use “bankruptcy” as a negative keyword. There are several different methods of using negative keywords, which require knowledge because the wrong way can cause problems.

After a week, I created and uploaded my own list of negative keywords, which eliminated all of the unrelated clicks but also substantially reduced impressions. My experience with search engine optimization, especially being a personal injury lawyer, was helpful in finding additional negative keywords.

A good negative keyword list is imperative to prevent blowing your ad budget in five minutes. A Google Ad manager who represents other personal injury lawyers will have the experience to develop a good negative keyword list.

What Happens When You Don’t Use a Knowledgeable Google Ad Manager?

In a Site Pro News article (the article was taken down) about how a Google Ad campaign was ruined when the daily ad budget was used up in the first 20 minutes, the author, a social media marketer who was tasked with running the Google Ad campaign, knew nothing about Google Ads.

She relied on Google’s rep to set up and manage the campaign without knowing how that should be done. She blamed Google for screwing up and blamed her client when the fault was her own. This is a real-world example of why you need a real Google Ad Manager, not someone who will farm it out to Google.

While our campaign has been going on, I spoke with several people on different levels at Google. While they have been very helpful, I found they don’t always know what they are talking about and are often wrong.

My Google Ad rep has at least been very honest and tells me when he doesn’t know the answer because he has learned not to steer people wrong. A higher-level Google Tech who called me, however, was flat-out wrong on several points and didn’t know what to say when I proved he was wrong.

My Google Ad rep was convinced that his team could set up a better keyword campaign, but after his team looked at what our manager set up, he said our manager did a great job.

Even though I now have substantial knowledge about Google Ads, keywords, and negative keywords, I still don’t have the knowledge necessary to manage the campaign, and I certainly don’t have the time. Fortunately, we use a Google Ad Manager who knows what he’s doing.

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