Now where I will disagree, is whether this is a worthy ROI on a firm’s advertising dollar. There’s a lot involved here, so I’ll have to comment in more detail within my Slaw article, but the economics of $40,000/month per 1,000 visitors – remember that’s visitors and not clients – is very poor. With a 1-2% conversion rate of visitors to leads, and then only a portion of those leads turning into actual files, it’s simply a tough argument.

With sufficiently specific/targeted keywords, $10 per click would not be unreasonable.

I remember a long time ago (long before getting into law school) looking up the top CPC keyword. I was surprised to discover it was “mesothelioma.” I had no clue what the word meant. It’s a form of cancer resulting from asbestos exposure.

Apparently there were a number of websites representing class action lawsuits all bidding top dollar for the keyword. The law firms running these websites were paying well into the $70/click range!