Professional services
Law Practice Marketing ROI Calculator
Works marketing return for a practice, where the attribution question is harder than the arithmetic.
Result
Simple payback, with no discounting and no financing cost. For anything large or long, money now is worth more than money later and a lender will want interest, both of which make the real return lower than this.
Get a Free Business AuditHow the calculation works
Margin on collected revenue attributable to the spend, divided by the spend. Using margin rather than revenue is the first correction, since the work has to be done and paid for. Attribution is the harder half, because legal needs arise long after the marketing was seen and the eventual enquiry arrives looking direct.
What moves the number
- Margin on collected revenue, not billings.
- Attribution window, which needs to be long.
- Intake recording of how the client found you.
- Whether advertising complies with applicable conduct rules.
Where this one goes wrong
Asking every caller how they found the practice, and recording it, is cheap and more reliable than tracking systems in a market where the decision cycle is long and the trigger is an unpredictable life event. Without it a practice cuts the spend that was working. The compliance point applies to the content rather than the measurement: lawyer advertising rules in your state restrict claims about results and govern solicitation, and a campaign that performs well commercially and breaches them is a disciplinary matter.
Before you quote
- Ask and record how each client found the practice.
- Use a long attribution window.
- Check content against your state's advertising rules.
Where the rules come from
Questions
About this calculator
How do I attribute legal marketing?
By asking every caller how they found the practice and recording it. The decision cycle is long and the trigger is an unpredictable event, so tracking systems credit a year-old article to nothing and the practice cuts the spend that was working.
Why use margin rather than revenue?
Because the work still has to be done and paid for. Revenue attributed to a campaign overstates the return by the entire cost of delivery, which in a service practice is most of it, and a return that looks excellent on revenue can be marginal on margin.
Do advertising rules affect this?
They affect the content rather than the measurement. Your state's rules restrict claims about results, require certain disclosures and govern solicitation of prospective clients, and a campaign that performs commercially while breaching them is a disciplinary problem.
The formula
payback = cost / (monthly gain - monthly running cost)
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Please keep the attribution line. It is the only thing we ask in return.
How to use this calculator
- Up-front cost ($). Enter your own figure; the page starts at $12,000.
- Extra gross profit per month ($). Enter your own figure; the page starts at $1,400.
- Extra running cost per month ($). Enter your own figure; the page starts at $220.
- Period to judge it over. Enter your own figure; the page starts at 36.
The result updates as you type, so you can try a figure, see what it does to payback period, and change it back. Nothing you enter is sent anywhere or saved.
A worked example
These are the figures the calculator opens with. Every number in the results column below is produced by the same calculation the page runs, so you can follow it through before putting your own figures in.
What goes in
| Input | Value |
|---|---|
| Up-front cost | $12,000 |
| Extra gross profit per month | $1,400 |
| Extra running cost per month | $220 |
| Period to judge it over | 36 |
What comes out
| Result | Value |
|---|---|
| Payback period main result | 10.2 |
| Net gain per month | $1,180 |
| Net return over the period | $30,480 |
| Return on investment | 254% |
It pays for itself in 10.2 months and returns $30,480 over 36 months, a 254% return.
How sensitive the answer is
Holding everything else steady and changing only up-front cost, this is what happens to payback period. It is worth knowing which of your inputs the answer actually hinges on, and which barely move it.
| Up-front cost ($) | Payback period |
|---|---|
| $6,000 | 5.1 |
| $9,000 | 7.6 |
| $12,000 example above | 10.2 |
| $18,000 | 15.3 |
| $24,000 | 20.3 |
Every other input is held at the example value while this one changes, which is not how a real job behaves. Treat it as a guide to which number matters most, not as five separate quotes.
What each figure means
- Up-front cost ($)
- A money amount, starting at $12,000.
- Extra gross profit per month ($)
- A money amount, starting at $1,400.
- Extra running cost per month ($)
- A money amount, starting at $220.
- Period to judge it over
- A number, between 0 and 240, starting at 36.
What the results tell you
| Result | What it is |
|---|---|
| Payback period | The headline result. A decimal figure. |
| Net gain per month | A money figure. |
| Net return over the period | A money figure. |
| Return on investment | A percentage. |
Estimating is the easy part
The jobs you never hear about cost more than the ones you mis-measure. BDEVY builds the marketing, systems and automation that bring them in.