Law firm marketing agency for the intake problem behind your lead problem.
Most firms don't have a lead problem. They have an intake problem — the call that goes to voicemail after 5pm, the form that asks someone in crisis to type out their own case narrative, the caller who doesn't speak English and gets nobody. Apex builds bar-compliant paid media, case-type intake qualification, and the CRM pipeline underneath it as one system, so the case doesn't die between the click and the retainer.
Why do law firm ads generate calls that never turn into signed cases?
Because the leak usually isn't in the ad account. A firm can run a flawless campaign and still lose the case at intake: the call that arrives after the office closes, the online form that asks for a narrative a person in crisis won't write, the caller who doesn't speak English and hangs up, and the inquiry nobody calls back because it didn't convert on the first try. Fix the ads and the leak stays exactly where it was.
After-hours calls go to voicemail
A homeowner with a leak calls the roofer who answers; a person deciding on a lawyer does the same thing. When the office closes at 5 and the call goes to a machine, the next search result gets the case instead.
The form asks for too much, too soon
A generic contact form asks someone in the middle of a crisis to summarize their case in a text box. Most won't. The people most worth calling back are often the ones who wrote the least.
Non-English callers hang up
A firm's website and phone tree default to English. A caller who isn't fluent in it doesn't fight through a menu — they hang up and call the next name on the list.
The "not now" never gets a second call
Not every inquiry is ready to book on the first call — some are gathering information, some are comparing firms. Without a follow-up system, that inquiry just goes cold instead of getting a second and third touch.
Paid media is one of the six disciplines Apex runs, and on its own it only buys the click. For a law firm specifically, it's the intake and follow-up layer underneath that decides whether the click turns into a case.
How fast do you need to respond to a new legal lead?
Faster than feels reasonable. A widely cited Harvard Business Review study of web leads — not law-specific, but the mechanism transfers — found firms contacting a new lead within an hour were roughly seven times more likely to qualify it than firms that waited longer, and more than sixty times more likely than firms that took a day or more. Someone searching for a lawyer at 9pm is usually calling more than one firm.
Legal intake doesn't get to opt out of that clock just because the office is closed. The person calling is often calling on the worst day of their year, and they won't wait until 9am to find out if anyone will pick up.
Missed-call text-back
A call that goes unanswered triggers an instant text instead of silence, so a missed call still opens a conversation rather than ending one.
An intake assistant that answers at any hour
Nights, weekends, the gap between when the office closes and when someone finally checks voicemail — the assistant asks the case-type questions and keeps the conversation moving.
Booked straight into the calendar
A qualified inquiry lands directly on the consultation calendar — no re-entry, no lost message, no waiting for a human to transcribe it the next morning.
How does case-type qualification before booking actually work?
Before a consultation lands on the calendar, the intake assistant asks the questions that determine whether the firm can take the case at all: what happened, roughly when, whether the person already has a lawyer, and which practice area it falls under. Matters outside what the firm handles get redirected immediately, instead of occupying a consultation slot a real case could have used.
This runs per practice area, because the qualifying questions for a car accident aren't the questions for an immigration filing. Built once per practice area a firm actually takes, the calendar starts filling with matters worth a lawyer's time instead of inquiries that were never going anywhere. These are intake questions, not legal advice — the same triage information a front-desk staffer would ask, just answered at 2am instead of 9am.
Personal injury
What happened, roughly when, whether medical treatment has started, and whether another party or an insurer is already involved.
Immigration
Current status, any existing filings or deadlines, and whether another attorney is already of record on the matter.
Family law
The nature of the matter, whether there's an existing case number, and any time-sensitive court dates already on the calendar.
Workers' compensation
Employer, date of injury, whether a claim has already been filed, and whether the person is still employed there.
Criminal defense
Charge type, whether an arraignment date is already set, and whether the person is in custody — the details that determine how urgent the callback is.
What's the difference between cost per lead and cost per signed case?
Cost per lead counts every call, form, or chat that reaches the intake line, whether or not it turns into anything. Cost per signed case divides total ad spend by retainers actually signed, broken out by practice area and campaign. Most firms track the first number, because ad platforms report it automatically. Almost none track the second, which is the only one that tells you whether the campaign made money.
| Metric | What it counts | What it can hide |
|---|---|---|
| Cost per lead | Every call, form fill, or chat that reaches the intake line | Counts a 2am hang-up and a signed retainer as the same event |
| Cost per consultation booked | Leads that make it onto the calendar | Still counts consultations that no-show or were never a case the firm takes |
| Cost per signed case | Ad spend divided by retainers actually signed, by practice area and campaign | Nothing — it's the number that maps spend to revenue, which is why almost nobody tracks it end to end |
Getting to that third row means tracking the whole path, not just the ad click: server-side conversions tied to consultations booked, and consultations tied to retainers signed, by practice area and by language. That's the same tracking and attribution build Apex runs for every industry, applied to the events that actually matter for a law firm.
Can a law firm's intake work in languages other than English?
Yes. The site, the intake form, and the AI intake assistant can run natively in the languages a firm's client base actually speaks, rather than English text pushed through a browser translate widget. This is a capability Apex builds and can demonstrate directly — a live site and intake flow in the languages a firm needs, shown on a screen-share before anything is signed.
A caller who can't get through in their own language doesn't fight with a menu — they hang up and call the next name on the list, the same way an unanswered after-hours call does. Foundation includes English and Spanish. Growth and Command extend to up to five languages, built into the qualification questions themselves so the case-type questions are actually understood, not just displayed. Which languages are worth building depends entirely on who is calling in a firm's own market — that's a question the free audit call answers before anything gets built, not something we assume in advance.
What legal advertising rules apply to a law firm's marketing?
State bar advertising rules govern how a firm can advertise, and they vary by state, but the common threads repeat: no guarantees about a case's outcome, required disclosures when advertising a contingency fee, and restrictions on testimonials that suggest a likely result. California adds its own statute with real teeth — civil penalties measured per advertisement, not per campaign. Every ad and page Apex builds passes a compliance review against the rules of the state the firm is licensed in before it runs.
California is the clearest example of why this matters. Business and Professions Code section 6157.2 bars any "guarantee or warranty of success" in an ad, and requires any advertisement of a contingency fee to state whether the client will be responsible for costs if there's no recovery. The California Rules of Professional Conduct separately require that communications about a lawyer's services not be false or misleading. And under Senate Bill 37, in effect since 2026, a noncompliant ad can trigger a civil claim of $5,000 to $100,000 per advertisement, brought by any person — not only the State Bar. Writing the ad correctly the first time is considerably cheaper than the alternative.
Outcome language
No promises, guarantees, or language implying a predictable result. The review flags anything that reads as a warranty of success before it ever runs as an ad.
Fee and cost disclosure
If a page or ad references a contingency fee, it states plainly whether the client is responsible for costs if there's no recovery.
Testimonials and endorsements
Client testimonials and endorsements are restricted in many states, particularly where they imply a typical or likely outcome. We build proof without leaning on either.
None of this is legal advice, and Apex is not the firm's attorney. Compliance review means checking every ad and page against the advertising rules of the state where the firm is licensed — the firm's own counsel signs off before anything goes live. Apex is a Sacramento-based agency, which means California's rules aren't an afterthought; they're the default we build to.
What does a law firm marketing engagement cost?
Three tiers, flat monthly retainers, never a percentage of ad spend: Foundation at $4,997 a month, Growth at $9,997 a month, and Command at $12,997 a month. Ad spend is billed separately, direct to the platforms, so the retainer doesn't grow just because the media budget does. Every engagement runs a three-month minimum, then continues month to month.
| What you get | Foundation$4,997 / mo | Growth$9,997 / mo | Command$12,997 / mo |
|---|---|---|---|
| Practice areas covered | One or two | All practice areas | All practice areas |
| Paid channels | Google Search + Local Services Ads | Google + Meta, per case type | Google + Meta + TikTok |
| Intake assistant languages | English + Spanish | Up to five | Up to five, trained per practice area |
| Compliance-checked ad concepts | Included, as needed | 15 per month | 27+ per month |
| CRM pipeline | Legal intake stages + missed-call text-back | Adds referral-source tracking | Adds a firm-specific automation roadmap |
| Strategy cadence | Monthly call | Biweekly calls | Weekly, dedicated account lead |
Ad spend is billed separately, direct to the platforms. Three-month minimum, then month to month. The full deliverable list for every tier is on the pricing page, alongside how the other three industries Apex runs — e-commerce, SaaS, and roofing — are priced.
Questions, answered.
Ready to fix intake before you spend another dollar on ads?
Free 60-minute audit. We look at your ad accounts, your intake path, and your landing pages, and tell you the leaks that are costing you signed cases right now. Engagement terms are public on the pricing page.