Marketing. Too Big to Fail?

• Author: Danielle Braff
• Pages: 22-23

MARKETING

Too Big

to Fail?

Facebook’s woes may have driven

big firms away, but small firms and

solo practices still see it as a great

way to advertise

BY DANIELLE BRAFF

Law rms have nally jumped

on the social media band-

wagon, but when it comes to

Facebook advertising, it turns

out that size does matter.

Thanks to privacy issues such as the

Cambridge Analytica scandal, along

with Facebook’s algorithm—which

makes it difcult for rms to reach their

target audience sans paid promotions—

large rms are moving away from the

platform, choosing to focus more on

competitors like LinkedIn and Twitter

and subsidiaries like Instagram, accord-

ing to a recent report by Good2BSocial.

“Facebook wants to make money,

and they want the rms to pay for pro-

moted content,” says Guy Alvarez, chief

engagement ofcer of Good2BSocial,

explaining Facebook’s recent changes.

This decline comes at a time when

the social network is losing users across

the board. According to a study by

Edison Research in March 2019, Face-

book was down 15 million users in the

United States since 2017. Additionally,

analytics rm Mixpanel reported in July

that Facebook use in Great Britain had

decreased by more than a third between

June 2018 and June 2019; eMarketer

reported four months later that Face-

book use had declined in both France

and Germany.

However, Facebook advertising

continues to be a major part of solo

and small rms’ marketing strategies.

According to the American Bar Associ-

ation’s 2019 Legal Technology Survey

Report, Facebook is the most popular

advertising channel for rms with two

to nine lawyers and the second-most

popular channel for solo practitioners.

Overall, nearly half of all solo and

small-rm lawyers use Facebook com-

pared to 26% of attorneys in rms with

10 to 49 lawyers.

Adjusting the marketing plan

Some of these rms are continuing to

use Facebook but changing the way they

use it. Kaylee Anchulis, marketing direc-

tor at Tittle & Perlmuter in Cleveland,

says that although Facebook can seem

discouraging because of its constantly

changing algorithm, it’s still a good way

to market the rm.

Her rm, which has three attorneys

and 10 employees, focuses on medical

malpractice and uses Facebook advertis-

ing to target specic demographics. For

example, when they were marketing an

e-book that they wrote about how to

choose the best nursing home, they used

Facebook’s ability to select and target

specic locations for advertising.

“If we target the locations of nursing

homes who have historically low ratings

and reviews, we might pop up on the

timeline of someone who is unhap-

py with how their loved one is being

treated there, leading them to want to

download our e-book to learn more

and move them through our funnel,”

Anchulis says.

Anchulis says in previous years, the

rm used to boost nearly every post.

While boosting a post increases its reach

for a relatively low price, it’s not the

most effective way to market the rm,

Anchulis says.

“As Facebook algorithms have pro-

gressed, it’s harder and harder for law

rms to reach new quality clients in this

manner,” she says.

“We’ve found that Facebook ads are

much more effective, while still keeping

the cost fairly low.”

Natasha Kendall, digital marketing

executive and social media manag-

er at Gepp Solicitors, a medium-size

law rm based outside London, says

Business of Law | MARKETING

Kaylee Anchulis: “Facebook ads are

much more eective” than boosted

posts.

Photos by Daniel Lozada, Shutterstock

ABA JOURNAL | APRIL–MAY 2020

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