Legal clicks are among the most expensive in UK search. Published 2026 estimates put many legal searches at roughly £5 to £12 a click, with personal injury often £15 to £30 or more, and London higher again. Google Ads still works well for many solicitors, because a single instructed matter can be worth thousands of pounds. The figure to manage isn’t cost per click but cost per instructed matter, and legal campaigns have to be built around the SRA’s rules and Google’s limits on sensitive practice areas from the start.
This guide covers what legal clicks cost, how to set a budget, the rules that shape legal ads, and what makes campaigns work.
What legal clicks cost: UK estimates for 2026
Google doesn’t publish costs by sector, so these figures come from UK agencies’ own published estimates. They vary widely, so treat them as rough ranges and check your own keywords in Google’s Keyword Planner:
| Practice area | Published UK estimates | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Conveyancing | About £5 to £12 a click | Steady demand, many firms and online conveyancers bidding |
| Family and divorce | About £3.50 to £18 a click, with some estimates higher | High-value, emotional searches with heavy local competition |
| Personal injury | About £15 to £30 a click, sometimes more | Very high case values and national claims firms bidding |
| Legal services overall | About £5 to £12 a click | Most practice areas sit somewhere in this range |
Location matters. One agency estimates a conveyancing click at about £12 in central London against about £7 in Leeds, and London campaigns generally cost more. For costs in other sectors, see how much Google Ads cost in the UK.
How to work out your budget
Work back from the matters you want, not a round number:
- How many new matters you want each month in a practice area.
- Your enquiry rate: the share of clicks that become an enquiry.
- Your instruction rate: the share of enquiries that become instructed matters.
- Your cost per click for that practice area.
An illustrative example (not a client result): a firm wants 8 new conveyancing instructions a month. If 8% of clicks enquire and a third of enquiries instruct, it needs about 300 clicks. At £7 a click that’s about £2,100 a month, or about £260 per instruction. Whether that works depends on the fee and margin of a typical matter. Our CPA calculator does this sum for you.
Spreading a small budget across every practice area is the most common mistake. Start with the one or two areas where you have capacity and the best margins, and add others once those are profitable.
From experience
When a firm tells me Google Ads doesn't work for them, the usual fix is to narrow the focus. Instead of spreading budget across every practice area, pick the one or two with the best margins and capacity and do them properly. A focused campaign can work where a scattered one never will.
Measure instructed matters, not enquiries
Many legal enquiries are wrong-fit: the wrong practice area, legal aid when you don’t offer it, or no realistic case. If Google only counts form fills and calls, it will find you more of the cheapest ones. Track calls with call tracking, record which enquiries become instructions, and where Google’s policies allow, send those outcomes back as offline conversions so bidding favours the searches that produce clients.
From experience
The main reason legal campaigns lose money is that they're optimised to enquiries, not instructed matters. Count every form and call as a success and Google will happily find more cheap, wrong-fit enquiries. Feed back which ones became clients, and the campaign starts finding more like them.
The SRA rules that shape legal ads
Publicity must be accurate and not misleading. The SRA Code of Conduct requires any publicity about your practice, including about your charges, to be accurate and not misleading. Ad claims about outcomes, fees and “no win, no fee” arrangements need to be clear and true, and the ASA’s CAP Code applies too.
No unsolicited approaches. Paragraph 8.9 of the Code (and 7.1(c) of the Code for Firms) bars unsolicited approaches to members of the public to advertise your services. The SRA’s guidance is clear that this isn’t a ban on advertising: ads online, on social media, on the radio or in newspapers are fine if they’re non-intrusive and non-targeted. Search ads, which appear because someone is already looking for help, sit comfortably within that. Contacting individuals directly because you know they’ve had an accident or a dispute does not. The SRA has also warned that firms are responsible if a lead generator they use wins clients in a way that breaks the rules.
Publish prices for certain services. Under the SRA Transparency Rules, firms that advertise certain services must publish cost and service information on their website. For individuals, that includes residential conveyancing, uncontested probate, immigration applications (excluding asylum), summary-only motoring offences and employment tribunal claims for unfair or wrongful dismissal. There are equivalent requirements for some business services. Ads for these areas should point to pages where that information is easy to find, which tends to help them convert as well.
Google’s limits on sensitive practice areas
Google restricts personalised advertising around personal hardships. Its policies name divorce services and criminal defence as sensitive categories. For ads in these areas:
- your own remarketing lists, Customer Match and lookalike audiences can’t be used;
- Google’s own predefined audiences, location targeting and normal search keywords are still available;
- Google’s customer data policies also restrict using conversion data tied to sensitive categories, so check how this applies before uploading client data for these practice areas.
In practice, family and criminal campaigns work best as search-led campaigns for people already looking for a solicitor, with careful, non-judgemental ad copy. Other practice areas, such as conveyancing, wills or commercial work, have more targeting options.
What makes legal Google Ads cost more or less
- Practice area and keywords. Specific searches such as “contested will solicitor Bristol” usually convert better than broad terms such as “solicitor”.
- Negative keywords. Exclude searches you can’t help with, such as “free legal advice”, “legal aid” (if you don’t offer it), “jobs”, “training contract” and “salary”.
- Location. Target the areas you can realistically serve, or the whole country for remote services such as conveyancing.
- Ad schedule. Show call-focused ads when someone can answer, as many legal enquiries are urgent.
- Practice area landing pages. A page per area, with prices where required, your SRA details, reviews and a clear way to get in touch, converts far better than your homepage.
- Local Services Ads. Some legal services are eligible for Google’s pay-per-lead Local Services Ads in Greater London. See our guide to Local Services Ads.
What Brightpace charges
Our fee is a monthly fee agreed up front, scaled to your ad spend and scope, no setup fee and a 30-day rolling contract, with ad spend paid directly to Google. We’re not your compliance officer, but we build campaigns that make that job easy. See how we work with solicitors and law firms.
FAQs
Can solicitors advertise on Google?
Yes. The SRA allows advertising, including online and on social media, as long as it’s accurate, not misleading and doesn’t involve unsolicited, targeted approaches to individuals. Search ads shown to people already looking for a solicitor fit those rules well.
Can law firms use remarketing?
It depends on the practice area. Google doesn’t allow your own remarketing lists, Customer Match or lookalikes for sensitive categories such as divorce and criminal defence. For areas such as conveyancing or commercial law, remarketing is usually available.
Do our landing pages need prices?
For services covered by the SRA Transparency Rules, such as residential conveyancing and uncontested probate, your website must publish cost information, and ads for those services should point to it. Clear prices also tend to improve conversion rates for other services.
How much should a law firm spend on Google Ads?
Work back from the matters you want, your enquiry and instruction rates and your cost per click. For one or two practice areas, that’s often £1,500 a month or more in ad spend, and more for personal injury or central London.
Is Google Ads worth it for personal injury?
It can be, but it’s the most competitive legal area, with clicks often £15 to £30 or more and national claims firms bidding. It only pays with careful tracking from click to signed client, and a budget big enough to compete.
In short
Google Ads for solicitors means some of the highest click prices in UK search, so judge it on cost per instructed matter, not cost per click. Keep ads accurate under the SRA Code, point them at pages with the prices the Transparency Rules require, plan family and criminal campaigns around Google’s limits on sensitive categories, and start with the practice areas that have the best margins.
Sources
The rules, platform documentation and published estimates this guide is checked against. Cost figures are agencies’ own estimates and vary widely. Last checked October 2026.
- Unsolicited approaches (advertising) to members of the public, Solicitors Regulation Authority
- SRA Transparency Rules, Solicitors Regulation Authority
- Transparency in price and service, Solicitors Regulation Authority
- Relationship hardships in personalised advertising, Google Advertising Policies Help
- Commission of a crime in personalised advertising, Google Advertising Policies Help
- Customer data policies, Google Advertising Policies Help
- Law firm Google Ads and PPC guide, Whitehat SEO
- UK solicitor marketing costs, Whito
Want to know what Google Ads could cost and return for your firm? See how we work with solicitors and law firms, or let’s chat.
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