Law Firm Billboard Advertising

Traditional ads, like print advertising, radio ads, and TV ads, remain effective for law firms to reach their target market. You can also include billboard advertising in the mix, as it can provide many lawyers with repeated exposure and increased brand recognition, which could result in new clients.

But is billboard advertising something your law firm should pursue? This post answers this question by identifying the different billboard ads you can use to promote your business, discussing their advantages and disadvantages, and examples of law firm billboard ads to give you ideas on leveraging them in your law firm marketing strategy. Let’s begin.

Types of Billboard Ads

Law firms can use three prominent billboards to promote their legal services. Each delivers its message in different ways and varies in cost. Here they are:

• Static – This traditional billboard type has your printed ad that remains unchanged over time. Due to this reason, static billboards are the lowest monthly rate for marketing your legal business among the three.
• Digital – These billboards display rotating ads on an electronic screen. They can host six to eight ad slots, each lasting six to ten seconds. Expect your digital ad to appear 400-1,200 times daily, assuming the billboard runs 24/7. Billboard companies charge between $5,000 and $20,000 a month for renting an ad space for digital billboards, depending on the billboard’s size and location.
• Mobile – These billboards are attached to vehicles like trucks that follow strategic routes during the day to maximize the visibility of the ads they carry and reach their target audiences, resulting in higher engagement from people. These vehicles can have static and digital billboards. Mobile static billboard ads cost $24,000, while prices for mobile digital billboards begin at $50,000 and can go as high as $100,000. You can also rent a vehicle for at least six hours to display your ad, which can cost between $150 and $250.

Pros and Cons of Billboard Advertising for Law Firms

Knowing the different billboard types and their costs, should you include outdoor advertising in your law firm marketing plan?

On one hand, nothing beats continuous exposure of your ads to drivers and passersby traveling the same route twice a day every day. They will always see your ads and be reminded of your business.

Conversely, only some people who see your ads on the road will be your potential clients. In this case, you must be wary of the geographic location and the type of people driving and walking past your ad to maximize your investment in this marketing tactic. Researching these factors could also take tons of resources away from your marketing efforts.

Another reason to incorporate billboard advertising in your marketing strategy is for brand exposure. Having your law firm ad up in a high-traffic area 24/7 increases the chances that it will stay in people’s minds, allowing them to spread the word about your legal services.

This point is very important for law firms since people may not have a pressing need for your legal solutions right now, but they’d be glad they would remember your billboard ads when the time comes.

Unfortunately, the biggest factor against billboards is scalability. Compared to digital advertising methods, where analytics are readily available and in real-time, it is difficult to measure the direct impact of billboard advertising on client acquisition and track the return on investment (ROI).

And we’re not even discussing the advertising budget to run marketing campaigns using billboards compared to digital marketing tactics. It’s easier to justify having a budget for billboard advertising if you have the data to back up your claims of its effectiveness.

Nonetheless, there is no right or wrong answer regarding billboard advertising. But if you have a lawyer advertising budget and are already marketing legal services using online means, you should consider adding billboards to the mix only then.

Top Billboard Design and Advertising Tips for Lawyers

If you decide to run a billboard ad campaign to attract prospective clients, below are examples of the better law firm billboards you can use for ideas and inspiration.

Carpenter Divorce

This divorce law firm communicates its messages by saying the fewest words and showing the biggest image. The two wedding rings beside each other with the letter P at the end spell “OOPS,” which a couple would say when realizing they made a mistake by marriage.

There’s nothing wrong with getting into a dysfunctional marriage, so Carpenter Divorce got it right by keeping the message short and sweet. Considering that it’s a static ad that people see on the road while driving, they can glance at the billboard and quickly understand what it’s trying to tell them.

BaldDivorceLawyer.com

There are different types of humor; if you know the right kind to tell your audience, you can quickly disarm them and get them to do your bidding. Take BaldDivorceLawyer.com, which uses its baldness to convey its message. The copy “Getting divorced? Don’t pull your hair out!” is very witty, but the acronym B.A.L.D., “best affordable lawyer for divorce,” drives the point home even further to comedic effect.

The lawyer leaned into his physical appearance and ability to play with words to achieve a humorous yet effective ad. However, while it worked for BaldDivorceLawyer.com, it doesn’t mean it’ll work for your law firm if you do the same. Most of the time, humor may not be the best advertising method if you want people to take you seriously as a lawyer or attorney, so tread carefully.

Davis Law Firm

What works with digital and traditional advertising 100% of the time is having a clear and memorable call to action (CTA). And Davis Law Firm’s billboard ad CTA (telephone number 444-4444) can’t get any clearer. Not only is it featured using big fonts (making it hard to miss), but the copy (Call the 4’s) and the image (the lawyer holding up four fingers) all point back to the CTA.

Whether you want people to call you on the phone or visit your website, you must ensure that people will easily see either on the billboard. Another CTA to consider is QR codes, which people must scan using their smartphones to visit the page URL. This lets you track the visitors that the billboard brought to the page, but the billboard must be located in places like pedestrian areas and public transportation hubs where they can safely scan the code.

Felicetti Law Form P.C.

An image can mean different things to different people. So, while it’s not wrong to employ imagery in your billboard, you don’t want to overload it with photos that may confuse people. If that’s the case, it may be better not to use images in your ad and communicate your message through clear and simple words.

This concept billboard from DesignCrowd is not an actual billboard, but it shows the possibility of using text for your billboard to great effect. The large font size and color colors make the ad easy to read for people. The emphasis on the rhyming copy (“It’s Time Call 9” inside a white dialogue bubble behind an orange background) directs your eyes to the CTA.

Al Goodman

“Better Call Saul” is a popular Netflix show prequel to “Breaking Bad,” one of the most critically acclaimed TV shows ever. So it only makes sense for brands and, in this case, lawyers to latch onto its popularity and create an ad that borrows elements from the show.

Take Al Goodman, for instance, who uses the show’s name and color palette in his billboard ad. On one hand, this advertising method may feel like it’s leeching off from someone else’s popularity to stay relevant. But if done correctly, it’s an excellent way to make your law firm much easier to remember. In this case, Saul’s surname is Goodman, so replacing “Saul” with his name in the title is justified.

Trantolo & Trantolo Personal Injury Law Firm and Goff Law Group

The image above is a tale of two competing lawyers. Trantolo & Trantolo Personal Injury Law Firm shows in its mobile billboard that it understands what it takes to ride a bike, making the firm the ideal choice in case people get into a bicycle accident. Goff Law Group puts up a response billboard, essentially saying that biking experience doesn’t matter; results do.

Both personal injury lawyers used their stance about biking to tap into their audience. Trantolo and Trantolo targeted bikers, while Goff Law Group cast a wider net and engaged with non-bikers. Both ads have a point, but the second had the foresight to develop an intelligent and reasoned response to its competitor, allowing it to raise its profile and build brand awareness.

Gordon McKernan Injury Attorneys

Like Al Goodman, Gordon McKernan Injury Attorneys uses popular culture to get its audience’s attention. In this case, it references Top Gun in the image (the lawyer in the jet’s cockpit while wearing shades like Tom Cruise in the film) and the copy (“Insurance company taking your breath away” is a reference to the song “Take My Breath Away” by Berlin, which was used in the movie’s soundtrack).

Unlike Al Goodman’s ad, the personal injury lawyer could improve its billboard ad. In particular, so much space is dedicated to the ad’s pop culture references that people can barely see the CTA at the bottom—you’ll have to look closely to read it. Emphasizing why this ad exists instead of focusing on what makes it fun would have made it more effective.

Charbonnet Law Firm

The billboard observes the best design practices, but context makes it different from the rest on this list. Desirée M. Charbonnet ran for Mayor in New Orleans back in 2017 but lost to LaToyta Cantrell. Instead of wallowing in defeat, she put up this billboard and returned to work as an attorney in Louisiana the following.

She used her loss as fuel for her ad, as evidenced by the copy (“I’m NOT your mayor, but I CAN be your attorney.”) The ad generated a lot of buzz about her legal practice as well, showing the effectiveness of her approach.

Becker Law

Becker Law’s billboard ad is a perfect example of the adage “less is more.” The copy (“Car Wreck?”) won’t captivate anyone. But when paired with the broken foot in a cast, the ad sends a compelling message about the physical toll of recovering from a car crash.

Aside from the phone number and website URL at the bottom, there’s nothing else going on for the billboard. However, the simple 1-2 combination of text and image communicates what the ad is trying to say without adding more words.

Morgan and Morgan

One thing that your billboard ad, or any advertisement for that matter, should be is memorable. Morgan and Morgan may have achieved this with this abrasive ad. The copy (America’s largest injury law firm, is that your best offer?) seems innocuous enough. But the accompanying image (a lawyer with his middle finger up) helps the ad stand out from the pack if not wholly drive the message home.

This example above is an extreme approach to getting people’s attention. At the same time, you have to define what “memorable” means to you. Does designing an in-your-face ad like Morgan and Morgan’s align with your brand, or is it not part of your identity? It’s possible to create a memorable ad without using edgy imagery.

Let On The Map Marketing Lead Your Law Firm’s Digital Advertising Strategy!

Billboard advertising is just one of the many marketing strategies you can execute for your law firm. There’s also the digital approach where you can run Google ads promoting your services, rank your web pages on top of Google search results, and redesign your website to match your brand.

Regarding the latter, On The Map Marketing is here to help. With years of helping businesses in the legal industry effectively reach their target audience and develop lead generation campaigns by running various online marketing activities, we can help your law firm rise above the pack. Contact us to discuss the campaign you want to run for your legal practice that fits your marketing budget.