The marketing department a law firm cannot afford, for a tenth of the retainer
Legal clicks are the most expensive on Google, which is why legal marketing agencies charge like it. Brainito runs the whole loop for a firm of one to twenty attorneys: a weekly audit of your site, a monthly strategy, practice-area pages that rank, reviews, email to past clients and referral sources, and one report the managing partner can read in five minutes.
Free to start. Paid actions use credits; most businesses spend $20 to $500 a month.
- Built for solo attorneys to 20-lawyer firms
- Bar advertising rules in every answer
- No retainer, cancel any time
- Plans from $20 a month; most firms spend $20 to $500 a month
What marketing costs a law firm now
Typical US figures for a small to mid-sized firm. Ad spend is on top of every row; legal keywords cost $100 to $300 a click, so the management fee is rarely the biggest number.
| Option | Typical monthly cost | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Legal marketing agency | $3,000 to $8,000 | SEO, content and ads for one or two practice areas, a monthly report, a six to twelve month contract. Tools and junior staff time are inside the fee. |
| PPC and Local Services Ads management | 15% to 20% of spend | A manager for Google Ads and LSAs only. At $5,000 a month of spend that is $750 to $1,000 before a single click. |
| In-house marketing coordinator | $4,500 to $6,500 | One salary fully loaded, plus $800 to $1,500 of tools, for someone who still needs an agency for the technical work. |
| Brainito AI marketing manager | $20 to $500 | Weekly audit, monthly strategy, website builder, SEO, social, email, analytics, tasks and a mini CRM, paid in credits for what you run. Dashboards are free. |
Agency ranges are what firms report paying in 2026 and change by market; the Brainito figure is what firms on the platform typically spend.
What fails on law firm websites
The audit checks 77 factors. These are the ones that fail most often when we scan a law firm, and each one costs matters, not just rankings.
- 1Internal linking and headings
One page lists twelve practice areas and ranks for none
Google ranks pages, not firms. A firm with family, injury and estate law on one services page competes with firms that have a full page per practice area and per city. The fix is a page for each practice area you actually want cases in.
- 2Title tags and meta descriptions
Every page is titled with the firm name
Searchers type the problem, not the firm. A title like "Smith & Partners" on every page tells Google nothing about divorce, DUI or probate. Each page needs the matter type and the city in its title.
- 3Schema markup
No LegalService or Attorney structured data
Structured data is how Google and AI assistants learn what you practice, where, and who the attorneys are. Most firm sites have none, so the listing shows a bare link while competitors show reviews, hours and practice areas.
- 4Testimonials and reviews
Reviews live on Google and never reach the site
The site that wins the call shows recent reviews on the practice-area page the prospect is reading. Bar rules in most states allow this with the right disclaimers; the audit flags where they are missing.
- 5Phone contact and lead capture
The phone number is in the footer and the intake form asks for twelve fields
Legal prospects call. A tap-to-call number above the fold on mobile and a three-field intake form convert far better than a long questionnaire behind a scroll.
- 6Page speed and Core Web Vitals
A full-screen video of the courthouse steps on a 3G connection
Firm sites are heavy: stock video, large partner portraits, slider libraries. They fail Core Web Vitals on mobile, which is where most urgent legal searches happen.
- 7AI crawler access and llms.txt
ChatGPT cannot read the site, so it recommends the firm that it can
A growing share of "best divorce lawyer near me" questions are asked to an AI assistant. If the site blocks AI crawlers or has no llms.txt, the firm is absent from those answers.
- 8Google Search Console and analytics
Nobody knows which page produced the last ten clients
Without Search Console verified and conversion tracking on calls and forms, the firm cannot tell which practice area pages or ads bring matters, so it keeps paying for the wrong ones.
Factor names match the Brainito audit report, so a firm can run the free audit and see which of these apply to its own site.
The channels that bring cases, in order
Ranked for law firms, with the reason. The mix shifts by practice area; the order rarely does.
Google Business Profile and the local pack
Most legal searches are local and most clicks go to the three map results. Categories, practice areas, photos, weekly posts and review replies decide who is in the pack.
Practice-area pages and local SEO
One page per matter type per city, written for the question the client has, is the asset that compounds. It is also what AI assistants quote when asked for a recommendation.
Reviews
Volume, recency and replies. A firm with 60 recent reviews outranks one with 200 old ones. Ask after the matter closes, by text, with a direct link.
Local Services Ads and Google Ads
For urgent matters such as DUI, injury and immigration, paid is the fastest route and the most expensive. Run it with call tracking or you cannot tell whether a $250 click became a client.
Email to past clients and referral sources
Most firms' best channel and the one nobody runs. A monthly note to past clients and the accountants, agents and doctors who refer keeps the firm first in mind.
LinkedIn for business practices
For employment, corporate and IP work the buyer is a business owner or GC, and LinkedIn is where they read. Two posts a week from a named partner is enough.
A sample audit: four-attorney personal injury firm
A representative audit built from the factors that most often fail for firms of this size. Names and figures are illustrative; run the free audit to see your own.
Marketing Health Score
41/100
Four-attorney personal injury firm, Ohio, 14 years in practice, $6,000 a month with an agency
Strong reviews and a long track record, invisible for every practice area except the firm name. The site loads in 6.8 seconds on mobile, has one services page, no structured data and blocks AI crawlers.
Fix 1: Split the services page into six practice-area pages
Highest impactCar accidents, truck accidents, slip and fall, medical malpractice, wrongful death and workers' compensation, each with the city in the title, a three-field intake form and recent reviews.
Fix 2: Add LegalService schema and allow AI crawlers
One afternoonStructured data for the firm, each attorney and each practice area, an llms.txt file, and a robots.txt that no longer blocks GPTBot and PerplexityBot.
Fix 3: Replace the video hero and add call tracking
Two daysA still image and a tap-to-call button bring mobile load time under 2.5 seconds. Call tracking on the number and the form shows which pages and ads produce matters.
What Brainito does for a law firm
Every module, in the language of a practice rather than a marketing department.
Weekly marketing audit
Your site re-checked every week across 77 factors, with the evidence behind each verdict and a fix list sorted by what brings matters.
Monthly marketing strategy
A plan built from the audit and your practice areas: which pages to write, which reviews to ask for, where the ad budget goes this month.
Website builder
A fast site with a page per practice area, intake forms wired to your contacts, published to your own GitHub and Vercel so the firm owns it.
SEO management
On-page fixes, technical fixes, local citations and directories, and a check on whether ChatGPT and Gemini recommend the firm.
Social media management
Drafts for LinkedIn and Facebook, a partner approves on the post, scheduling handles the rest. Nothing goes out unreviewed.
Email automation
A monthly note to past clients and referral sources, a follow-up sequence for intake forms, and review requests after a matter closes.
Analytics and ads reporting
Google Ads, organic and referrals on one page, with calls and forms counted as the outcome. Local Services Ads are set up in Google's own console; the plan tells you when they are worth it.
Contacts, tasks and team chat
A mini CRM for prospects and referral sources, a task board for the paralegal who runs marketing on Fridays, and chat for the partners.
300+ marketing tools
Schema generators, meta tag writers, review response drafts, headline checkers and more, free, for the jobs in between.
The first month
Week 1: audit and plan
Run the free audit, read the findings, generate the strategy. Decide which practice areas you actually want more of.
Week 2: fix the site
Practice-area pages, schema, speed and intake forms. Send the technical fixes to whoever maintains the site, or rebuild it with the builder.
Week 3: reviews and profile
Set up review requests, clean the Google Business Profile, start weekly posts.
Week 4: measure
Connect Search Console, analytics and ads. From here the weekly audit and monthly plan run on their own.
Goes with
- Law firm SEO auditThe audit with the factors that matter for a firm.
- Local SEO auditMap pack, citations and reviews.
- Lawyer directories and citationsWhere a firm should be listed.
- Digital marketing for divorce attorneysA practice-area playbook.
- Schema markup generatorLegalService schema in a minute, free.
- AI marketing agencyHow the offer works for any business.
Run the free audit on your firm's site. It takes two minutes.
You get the score, the evidence and the fix list before you decide anything. If it is useful, start free and the weekly audit and monthly plan follow.