The competition for mass tort leads can be fierce, so if you’re starting a mass torts practice, you need to understand lead generation. Even firms with years of experience can find mass tort lead generation to be difficult. But without it, you’re not going to have many clients to represent.

Generating Mass Tort Leads

Fortunately, there are a number of channels your firm can use to generate mass tort leads, like AdWords (now Google Ads) and Facebook Ads.

Mass Tort Advertising

Jessica Hoerman, Marketing Director at TorHoerman Law and the founder of TruLaw, has tested a number of different marketing channels to generate mass tort leads for her firm. “Mass tort marketing requires a deep understanding of the legal intricacies involved in bringing a case to court,” she said. The criteria that define a good lead are very specific.”

Advertising Costs

Lindsey Andrews, the Marketing Manager at TorHoerman, says the firm handles thousands of cases across the country, from toxic torts to bad drug lawsuits. Andrews says the cost of mass tort leads fluctuates.

“The advertising costs vary based on the stage of the litigation,” Andrews said. “For new litigation, like Mirena IUD, the cost is lower.”

Hoerman explained that as the litigation continues and settlements begin to roll in, taking on new clients becomes less risky. The decrease in risk increases the competition to find new clients, which drives up the advertising costs.

The range can vary between a few hundred dollars to a few thousand dollars. Hoerman has seen mass tort leads go for as high as $3,000 a pop!

Advertising Channels

When you’re trying to choose the ad networks to focus your budget on, Hoerman says “the ad networks you choose are driven by the litigation.” For instance, with the Mirena IUD litigation, since they’re largely targeting women, they may choose to focus more on Facebook. But typically AdWords and Bing are their first choice, with platforms like Facebook supplementing their paid search efforts if it makes sense.

Targeting

Targeting can be tricky because, depending on the litigation, you might actually be targeting children or other family members instead of the potential client themselves. Hoerman has targeted audiences by geographic area, age, and gender. Rarely does she use interest targeting, and she wasn’t happy with the results produced by Facebook’s Lookalike Audiences.

Legal Advertising Rules

Karen Ellis, Director of Marketing and Communications for Jonathan W. Johnson, has advertised in every industry from entertainment to technology to home improvement and more. She’s even worked with the NFL. But she says “the hardest I’ve ever done is for lawyers because there are so many rules governing how they reach people.”

You have to be innovative, but also careful.

-Karen Ellis

So when trying to generate mass tort leads through digital advertising, it’s important to remember that lawyers are governed by very strict rules regarding advertising. You also need to stay on top of the latest rules, regulations, and changes being considered at the federal level.

Ellis says “you continually have to find new ways to get people’s attention while keeping up with all the rules at the same time.” Her basic rule of thumb is that you can’t proposition clients through advertising. You have to get them to come to you.

Mass Tort Lead Generation Companies

The difficulties of lead generation lead many firms to seek out partnerships with other firms or lead generation companies. When working with other firms, the firm that brings in the client will get a percentage of the settlement. But with lead generation companies, the firm that tries the case pays for the leads upfront. That means it doesn’t have to share its cut of the settlement.

Hoerman has experience working with mass tort lead generation companies, and there’s a big drawback. “These companies don’t understand the specifics of the law, so you may get a lot of leads, but very few that have any chance of going to court,” she said.

“With mass tort litigation, you’re looking for large pools of people very quickly, and everything changes all the time. I know who we need to speak to because I actually speak to them. The lead generation companies don’t have that advantage.”

So be careful when choosing a mass tort ad agency or lead generation company.

Converting Leads

Perhaps more important than generating the leads is actually getting them to sign a contract. Hoerman says “lawyers and law firms fail miserably in terms of client conversion so lawyers end up taking the bait from lead generation companies that send them tons of non-relevant leads for cheap but then become overwhelmed and often end up missing the great clients in the chaos.”

To solve this problem, Hoerman put together the team that built TruLaw, an automated client conversion, classification, and lead ranking platform. It identifies cases that are likely to be successful and gives the potential client an immediate to answer to their question (“Do I have a case?”).

TruLaw

TruLaw uses smart forms and marketing automation to give leads a free “Instant Case Evaluation” on the spot. Then the leads can use that information as guidance for hiring a lawyer. And, if they do qualify for a lawsuit, an immediate online contract is sent to them.

According to Hoerman, 42% of signed clients signed as soon as they received a contract without ever speaking to a lawyer.

She reports that after a two-year beta, firms using TruLaw have seen a 64% decrease in time spent on “unqualified leads” by instantly rejecting cases. And, in one recent settlement, a firm saw a 100% increase in clients qualified for settlement over their traditional methods.

Need a Hand?

If you need more information, shoot me an email at [email protected]. I’d be happy to point you in the right direction. Or send your question through the form below.