LAW FIRM MARKETING · COLLECTION
Twelve things lawyers say about their marketing agency
The twelve complaints partners make about SEO and marketing agencies — reports without cases, junk leads, lock-in contracts, junior account managers — and a guide for each one.
We read a lot of complaints. Bar forums, BBB files, review sites, and the calls we get from partners who've just fired their second agency. Different firms, different cities, different practice areas — and the same twelve sentences, over and over.
Underneath all of them is one: "I'm tired of paying for clicks, traffic and reports. I want to know how many qualified leads, signed cases and actual revenue my marketing is producing."
Each complaint below links to a guide that explains why it happens, what it costs a law firm specifically, and what to do about it — usually with something you can use tonight: a report format, a scoring sheet, a checklist, a contract clause. None of it requires hiring us.
The twelve
- "I get reports, but I couldn't tell you how many clients we signed."
→ How many cases did my SEO agency actually sign? — the chain from search to signature, and the monthly report that starts with cases.
- "The leads are junk."
→ Why your leads are bad — six kinds of bad lead, the targeting decision behind each, and the fix.
- "I pay every month and don't know what they actually did."
→ What is my SEO agency actually doing? — the one-page work log to require, with a template.
- "They treat every practice area the same."
→ Five different businesses, one lazy plan — how PI, criminal, family, immigration and estate differ on Google, and the five questions that prove a plan was built for you.
- "They promised results, then said SEO takes time."
→ "SEO takes time." What should be moving in month two? — the month-by-month leading indicators, with a red flag for each.
- "The founder sold me. Then I got a junior account manager."
→ The founder sold you. Then you got Tyler. — why it happens, what it costs, four questions for the sales call.
- "Traffic is up. My phone isn't ringing."
→ How to read a law firm SEO report — the three numbers that matter and a five-minute check in Search Console.
- "I'm locked in, and I don't even own my own stuff."
→ Who owns your website? — the nine-item lock-in checklist and the contract language to require.
- "The content sounds like a robot. It doesn't sound like us."
→ Robot content costs a law firm twice — E-E-A-T for lawyers, the five tells, and how a page gets written by the firm without the partner writing it.
- "They work for my competitor too."
→ Does your agency work for the firm across the street? — what exclusivity costs you when it's missing, and what it has to say in the contract.
- "Nobody helps me understand why leads aren't closing."
→ The agency blames intake; intake blames the leads — the 20-minute call review with a scoring sheet.
- "Every month I'm the one bringing the ideas."
→ You hired a partner. You got an order-taker. — the 18-month plan, the monthly next-move memo, and how to test for it before you sign.
Where we stand on each
Our answers to all twelve are on the home page, side by side with the complaints. Short version: we report in signed cases and revenue, send a work log every month, build the plan for your practice area, tell you what should move each month, put a senior name on your account, target commercial intent only, leave everything in your name, write pages with your intake and your attorney, take one firm per practice area per metro, listen to the calls, and bring the next move before you have to ask.
None of that is a guarantee of results — nobody honest can offer one in search. It's a description of how the work gets done, which is the thing most of the twelve complaints are actually about.
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Attorney advertising services. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.