DUI defense in a $27-a-click market: 357 inquiries in eight months.

Challenge

The Martinez Firm has defended DUI/OVI and state and federal criminal cases from Willoughby, Ohio since 2004. The buyer is someone charged this week who needs a lawyer before the first hearing. That makes the search market urgent, high intent, and expensive: the firm's core terms average $27 a click.

Volume comes in bursts. A handful of retained cases carry a month, so the program has to be judged on the quality and cost of calls, not on form-fill counts, and the ads cannot switch off in a slow week.

Approach

Local Services Ads carry the calls: a lead is a phone call from someone in Cuyahoga or Lake County. Google Ads search covers DUI/OVI, criminal defense, and personal injury terms with dedicated landing pages for each practice area.

Every call is recorded and reviewed, so the firm can hear what a $170 inquiry sounds like. Monthly spend moves between roughly $4,200 and $10,900 as demand moves, with local SEO and review management running alongside to hold the firm's position in the map results.

Outcome

From February to September 2026 the program produced 357 tracked inquiries on $60,608, $170 per inquiry. Over the twelve months to September 2026, Google Ads alone delivered 467 tracked inquiries on $81,974, and the ads showed at the top of the page 82% of the time.

Since July 1, 2026 we have also read every call summary and form. In the three months to September 30: 345 calls and 21 forms reached the firm, and 99 were new consultation requests, a prospective client describing a criminal, OVI, or protection order matter and asking for the attorney to call back. 71 of the 99 came through Local Services Ads and Google Ads. Intake happens on that callback, so a consultation request is the last step the tracking can see.

An inquiry is a tracked call or form, not a retained case. Nothing here is a claim about case outcomes, and the firm makes none.