Optimizing Google Ads for retained clients, not just consultations?
I’m running Google Ads for a law firm and currently optimizing toward free consultation bookings using Maximize Conversions. Tracking is working well with GCLID and Enhanced Conversions. We use Clio, and I’m also in the beta for the Clio Grow scheduler, so…
I’m running Google Ads for a law firm and currently optimizing toward free consultation bookings using Maximize Conversions. Tracking is working well with GCLID and Enhanced Conversions. We use Clio, and I’m also in the beta for the Clio Grow scheduler, so consultation bookings are being tracked properly. The next step I’m trying to figure out is how to optimize beyond just booked consultations. Ideally, I’d like Google Ads to also know which leads actually end up paying a retainer and becoming clients. A booked consultation is great, but obviously a retained client is a much stronger signal. Has anyone set this up with Clio, either natively or through a custom integration? My ideal setup would be: Google Ads click → consultation booked → consultation happens → client pays retainer Then I’d want Google Ads to receive that final retained-client conversion, tied back to the original GCLID, so the campaign can optimize toward people who are more likely to actually retain the firm - not just book a free consultation. Is this possible with Clio? Would this typically be done through offline conversion imports, Zapier/Make, the Clio API, or another setup? Curious to hear how others are handling this for law firms or other lead-gen businesses with long sales cycles.
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Technically, as long as Clio can preserve the GCLID with the client record and output that to Google in some way when the client signs then it's fairly straightforward. But, I've seen poor results when trying to optimise for sales (retained clients in your case), especially if the lag between them seeing your ad and signing the retainer is more than a week or so. I think it comes down to: - The lag. The shorter the feedback cycle the better the algorithm works. - Low volume. You'd probably need 50+ new clients a month, more if the lag is long. From our brief interaction in the chat I don't think that's likely. (Let me know if I'm wrong.) - Inconsistent sales process. A good lead might not buy because the intake person was having a bad day. - Good leads not signing for reasons unrelated to lead quality. Personally, I'd probably optimise for booked consultations and use retained clients for more manual adjustments.
So not even tracking as secondary? I see your points, but if we don’t optimize at all there is also a downside which is that the algorithm is optimizing for people booking a free consultation and not necessarily people out of those who actually end up paying a retainer. Pros and cons to both of course. Thoughts?
Definitely track retained clients as a secondary conversion. In my mind hoping the algorithm can identify people more likely to pay, correct for inconsistencies in the sales process and deal with the conversion lag without significant volume is stretching it. But, as always, you can see if this works by testing it. Do people book themselves in for a free consult or do they speak to an intake team/person first?
Yes, this is usually done with offline conversion imports: capture the GCLID on the lead, store it in/with Clio, then send a “retained client” conversion back to Google Ads. I’d still optimize for consults until retained-client volume is strong, but use retained clients as the higher-value quality signal.
the retained client signal is genuinely way more useful than consultation bookings, ran into this exact thing where good CPA on consultations looked great until cohort data showed half of them never converted to paying clients. storing the gclid at form fill and importing it back when they sign the retainer is the move, just takes some discipline on the CRM side to not lose that gclid mapping.
Mechanically, it’s just offline conversion imports. The problem comes if your conversion takes more than 30 days it’ll be outside the attribution window.
I agree with the other answers. At your volume and with the probable lag, don't make retainers the bid target or you'll upset the algorithm. I'd keep optimizing on booked consultations, import the retainer data as a secondary signal. If sign rate is the real issue, a quick lead-quality score at intake is a better mid-point than waiting on the full retainer.
The offline conversions set up would be better. As long as Clio can give you a GCLID and that is connected via zapier or even manually uploaded via a spreadsheet, then it's fine.
We've helped many law firms optimize intake and integrate with systems such as Clio. I'd recommend a Zapier integration but you'd have to pull the data according to your current compliance levels and targets. As others have indicated, your best be to improve Google Ads performance is to work alongside the intake to identify trends and pinpoint the most common client issues and pain points. This will help you get ahead of attribution issues when trying to tie Google Ads campaigns to lead targets.