Business Strategy & Development, Digital Marketing, Email Marketing, SEO
Written By: Klara Morgan
Behavior across search platforms, for both paid and organic listings, is shifting beneath our feet. Law firm marketers are seeing familiar patterns undone.
Frequently, impressions are rising, yet clicks are falling. Lead quality varies more than ever before. And the channels that once felt steady and predictable are now evolving so quickly that what worked last month may no longer hold up. This is the new reality of digital marketing in the age of AI, and it’s forcing marketers and agencies alike to rethink their reliance on individual channels.
What is Holding Your Law Firm Back?
At Postali, we’re seeing these changes unfold across hundreds of firms nationwide. If your strategy hinges on just one or two primary marketing channels, now is the time to diversify. Not reactively, but proactively. A multi-channel strategy doesn’t just give you more exposure—it protects your pipeline from disruption.
An Important Distinction: Visibility vs Traffic
One of the clearest challenges today is the growing gap between visibility and traffic. Thanks in no small part to Google’s AI Overviews, users are increasingly getting answers directly in the search results without clicking through to law firm websites. Even content that ranks well often goes unseen in favor of Google’s summarizations.
Study after study shows that AIOs have a negative impact on all results, even the Local 3-Pack. This shift can impact firms that have invested heavily in SEO and rely on consistent organic traffic to drive leads.
At the same time, Google continues to test and tweak its search engine results pages (SERPs). New ad injections, rich result placements, and map locations, along with fluctuating layouts, make it difficult to predict performance.
What gets strong visibility one week may disappear the next, even without a drop in ranking. These fluctuations mean that marketers need to stay hyper-aware of real-time data and be ready to shift focus, quickly and confidently.
Not Immune to Change in The Age of AI: Google Ads and Google Local Service Ads
Traditional paid search Pay-Per-Click (PPC) campaigns through platforms like Google Ads haven’t been immune to change, either. Phrase and Exact match types are no longer as precise as they once were, often triggering ads for queries that are tangential or irrelevant.
This reduced control is particularly problematic in legal marketing, where lead quality and intent can vary drastically by keyword and, of course, have an inflationary effect on Cost Per Click and Cost Per Lead.
Even Google’s Local Services Ads (LSAs), once a bright spot for law firms, have started to show some signs of degradation. Since the removal of the lead dispute option, many firms have experienced a decline in lead quality. The inability to contest unqualified or irrelevant contacts has caused frustration, and some firms are seeing patterns that resemble the keyword drift now common in paid search.
AI-Fueled Content Saturation
Another emerging issue is AI-fueled content saturation. The sheer volume of content being published by firms, agencies, and AI tools is growing rapidly. Much of it is repetitive and lacking in real value. That makes it harder for your firm’s voice to stand out. It also means the bar for originality, expertise, and trust is rising. Firms that publish high-volume but low-value content may find themselves lost in the noise.
Rising Advertising Costs for Law Firms
As advertising costs rise across nearly every platform, law firms also face the challenge of doing more with less. Advertising platforms are increasingly automated, but that automation too often comes at the cost of transparency (or, at times, reliable functionality). Understanding which campaigns are driving results has become harder, not easier.
Most law firms are still “renting” access to an audience through platforms like Google, Facebook, and even lead-matching services. These platforms control the visibility, the rules, and the cost of access. Relying entirely on rented attention places too much reliance on the platforms themselves for the success of your marketing efforts.
It’s Time To Diversify Your Law Firm’s Digital Marketing Strategy
What ties all of these challenges together is a shared vulnerability: over-reliance on formerly predictable channels. Whether it’s organic search, LSA, or PPC, the truth is that the owners of these platforms have made fundamental changes to their operations. That doesn’t mean they should be abandoned, but it does mean they shouldn’t be your only sources of visibility and leads.
So What Does a Diversified Marketing Strategy Look Like?
It begins with strategically broadening your presence across different channels and touchpoints. While SEO remains foundational, and influential in AI results, firms should consider expanding into paid search, display, and even direct, local media buys when appropriate. For example, if you’ve relied heavily on LSA, you might explore toggling advertising budget between LSA and PPC based on lead quality and conversion performance.
Diversity Your Firm’s Presence Beyond Its Website
It is critical to diversify your off-page presence. Building citations, backlinks, and securing brand mentions—even nofollow links—can support your presence in new AI-powered search features. These signals contribute to how Google perceives your brand’s authority and relevance, even when traditional backlinks are more difficult to obtain.
Own Your Data by with a Strategy That Builds Your Email List
Owning your data is another critical step forward. By creating lead magnets and “gated content” that allow you to build an email list, you establish a direct communication channel with potential clients and referral sources. That list is unaffected by algorithm changes, and it gives you an owned platform to promote content, share insights, and stay top of mind.
More Ways To Diversify Your Legal Marketing
Some additional ways to ensure your marketing is diversified include, but are not limited to:
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO) remains fundamental, and correlations with AI responses are well-documented. Diversifying does not mean “throwing out the baby with the bathwater.”
- Manage your PPC, LSA, and other digital ad budgets with flexibility at the forefront. If Google makes a change that affects the performance of one channel, reallocate your budget accordingly.
- Lead With Value: E-Books, Webinars, and “Ask Me Anything” sessions are all proven effective Lead Magnets that will help you grow a direct marketing list that you own.
- While Organic Social is frequently throttled by the platforms, a well-targeted Paid Social campaign is a proven channel for driving traffic to those same lead magnets and growing your list faster.
- Start that email campaign!
- Similarly, while professionals, including us, have rightfully prioritized Google Reviews for local search results, diversifying to other platforms, including Facebook and Avvo, can both have an influence on AI Overviews and be featured on your Google Business Profile.
- Scholarships have long been a method for building PR and backlinks, but you don’t have to start with that level of financial commitment. You can build in your community with backpack drives, the right local sponsorship, and clever contests, e.g., “PI Firm Gives Away a Defensive Driving Class”.
- Digital PR, or seeking opportunities to contribute, comment, or build relationships with journalists in your area of expertise, is invaluable. At Postali, we help our clients foster these relationships and respond to the media’s swift deadlines.
How Technology Can Help You Diversify, Accelerate, and Grow
AI should play a role in your content marketing strategy, but not at the cost of your voice. Tools like ChatGPT can be valuable for ideation, outlining, and even generating rough drafts.
But AI should never be a substitute for your firm’s experience, perspective, or authority. Content needs to be shaped by people who understand the legal landscape, the mindset of your ideal clients, and the ethical standards of the legal marketing industry.
You can also use AI well beyond your website. It’s highly effective for generating content ideas for social media, drafting variations for email campaigns, and repurposing existing content of all types into bite-sized formats. These uses help scale your output without compromising quality.
Most importantly, every firm needs to be tuned into its data. Visualization tools that integrate performance across SEO, paid media, reviews, visibility, and lead tracking make it easier to spot trends. Law firm marketers should expect to adjust priorities and reallocate their budget dynamically, based on real-time performance, rather than plans or assumptions.
Does Your Firm Need a Smarter, More Responsive Digital Marketing Strategy?
The digital landscape has always been dynamic, but the pace of change is only accelerating. The most successful law firm marketers in 2025 won’t be those who found one “silver bullet” channel. They’ll be the ones who built resilient, multi-channel strategies that adapt, evolve, and thrive—no matter what rolls out next.
If your firm is ready to move beyond guesswork and build a truly integrated strategy, Postali can help. We specialize in law firm marketing that prioritizes responsiveness and results. Let’s talk.