From Zero Income to $250,000 with Google’s Local Services Ads for Clio
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2021
Year Founded
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Solo
Number of Staff
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2021
Started Using Clio
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Rocklin, California, USA
Location
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Flat Fee
Hourly
Fee Types
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Criminal Defence
Practice Areas
Building a business on Google’s Local Services Ads
Joe Runkle is a seasoned law firm entrepreneur and the current owner and lead trial attorney at Runkle Law Firm. He started Runkle Law when moving closer to family in Rocklin, California—a town where he knew nearly nobody—when his daughter was born.
From the start, Joe knew he needed a solution to manage his practice, and Clio came highly recommended from his closest peers. Very quickly, Joe also started to use Google’s Local Services Ads for Clio, which rapidly accelerated his business.
How Local Services Ads quickly accelerated Joe’s revenue
Having been in the industry for so long, Joe had a natural skepticism to third-party advertising.
“I don’t know all the right things to do as far as a business is concerned, but having been an attorney for 13 years, at this juncture I know a lot of what not to do—and sometimes that’s more important.”
“Without Google’s Local Services Ads, advertising is an absolute nightmare. There are people who are going to tell you they are going to do all these great things for you. I’ve worked with many, many companies on lead generation, organic search marketing, and paid search marketing, and very few have been worth their salt.”
“I’ve tried so many failed advertising campaigns over the last 15 years, and I’ve been taken for so much money, I was almost at the point of giving up on this.”
1. Bankable, results-driven advertising
Joe used Google’s Local Services Ads for Clio to advertise his services to potential clients in his locale. They were easy to set up and manage in Clio’s client intake tool, Clio Grow, and they only cost money if and when a potential client reaches out through the ad.
“I was thinking of overhauling my website. I was thinking about putting hours into creating blogs. I was thinking about having to physically go to a bunch of networking events. I don’t do any of that now. I use Local Services Ads through Clio, and I spend my spare time with my family.”
2. Predictable revenue with full control over spending
Joe has tailored his Local Services Ads to show up for people in his area when they are searching for the types of legal services that he offers (for example “criminal defense attorney in Rocklin California”). This ensures that his ads are reaching the right types of clients, and that he doesn’t pay for clicks from people who aren’t likely to become actual clients.
Local Services Ads give Joe a steady baseline for new business that’s reliable—which he can adjust based on his current workload.
“If you rely solely on referrals, your business becomes a roller coaster with no stable income. One month you could make a ton of money, and then you don’t get a phone call or hear from anybody. Google’s Local Services Ads for Clio allows me to stabilize and accurately predict the amount of income that I’m going to make.”
“With the click of a button, I can cut my advertising campaign off. I can turn it on. I can increase it if I need more business. Right now, I have my campaigns turned off, because I’m in the process of preparing for four trials. As soon as those trials are over, I’m going to turn the advertising back on, and it’s going to rain money for my firm—and I’m going to help a lot of people.”
3. Seamless ad-management with Clio
Google’s Local Services Ads is built directly into Clio Grow, which means that any potential client that reaches out through an ad gets tracked directly in Clio. This helps Joe keep all of his contacts organized—and he’s able to see which campaigns are bringing in the most clients. He can seamlessly attract potential clients, manage his ads, set budget limits, intake clients and get helpful reports all in Clio Grow.
“You’re not just practicing law, you’re running a business. As a solo practitioner, I have to wear many hats. Clio Grow dramatically decreases the amount of time it takes to get these clients onboarded and perform all of the administrative processes involved. It cuts that process in half.”
4. A platform to build reputation
Using Local Services Ads has helped Joe reach more clients—and working with Clio has helped keep him organized so that he can deliver better, more responsive service to his clients. The results show in the reviews he gets from his clients.
On his Google Business Profile, his clients can leave reviews, which show up on his ads to reinforce the quality of his services to future clients.
“Right now, I have so many five-star reviews on Google. Part of that is because I’m pretty damn good at what I do. But the other part is that I would never have the opportunity to get those reviews, or those clients, had it not been for Local Services Ads.”
5. Local Services Ads are easy to set up and manage in Clio
Getting started with Local Services Ads through Clio is fast and easy, which allowed Joe to quickly see the benefit to his business.
“The process for getting up and running with Google’s Local Services Ads was completely painless, and incredibly financially lucrative.”
“It’s so easy to use. It’s so intuitive. The user interface in Clio Grow is so friendly. I can quickly move cases from my sales funnel to my client files.”
Success for Joe means helping those who need it—and having more time for family
“I’m super proud of all the opportunities that I have had to help people. Sometimes you have good people who make mistakes, and Clio has given me the opportunity to help those folks. They wouldn’t have found me without Clio and Google’s Local Services Ads. Whether or not they’re thankful for Clio, I know I am.”
“Clio also allows me to spend more time with my daughter. That’s amazing.”
“Clio is amazing. That’s why I’m sitting here right now. I’m happy to give this testimony. I would recommend Clio to anybody.”
Building his law firm from the ground up with Clio
Not only does Joe use Clio Grow to bring on new clients but he also uses Clio Manage to manage his case load, streamline processes and run his firm. He strategically built is firm around Clio and it has paid off.
“Clio saves me three to four hours a day in administrative tasks. It allows me to focus on what’s important, which is doing the best job I can do for my clients.”
“I came here by myself and through sheer force of will I was going to start another successful law firm. I knew I could do it, but I also knew that I could save a ton of time if I were to automate all of my systems from the get go, so I built my law firm around Clio.”
“I knew from running a law firm before that I was doing it the hard way, and I knew I could automate my systems to make life easier.”
“I wanted to streamline my process. I wanted to eliminate having to chase down all of my billing. I wanted to streamline everything so that I could keep all of my files in one space. It’s given me the ability to pull up anything that I need from my phone. It automates my billing. It automates my contracts. I could not be happier. I’ve saved so much time, simply by using Clio.”
“At my last firm, I didn’t have Clio. I had to draft each and every contract. I had to take the time to sit down with each individual client face-to-face to have them sign that contract. I had to deal with all of the billing and chase clients down for payments. Clio can automate all of that, and it allows me to focus on what’s important, which is doing the best job I can for my clients.”
“Clio isn’t just a simple solution. As far as administrative work is concerned, Clio is a complete solution.”
“Clio Manage is great for organizing documents, keeping track of your calendar, keeping track of what’s happening in the cases that you’re working on. But for that machine to work, you have to be able to feed that machine new cases. That’s why Clio Grow is just as important as Clio Manage from a business owner’s perspective.”
“All of my closest confidants and friends who practice law have long-used Clio. It was highly recommended to me by the people I trust.”