--- title: "Lawyer search-ad costs by practice and state (data)" url: https://probativegrowth.com/data/ad-costs/ lang: en-US alternate: https://probativegrowth.com/es/datos/costo-de-anuncios/ source: the same page, converted from its HTML at build time --- 1. [Home](https://probativegrowth.com/) 2. [Data](https://probativegrowth.com/data/) 3. Ad costs Data · Ad costs # What a lawyer search ad costs, practice by practice What advertisers bid to appear at the top of Google for lawyer searches in every practice area and niche we track, for the English and the Spanish search, in the whole US, all 50 states and DC, from Google Ads Keyword Planner. Each family shows the bid band and how crowded the auction is. Checked October 30, 2026 · CC BY 4.0 · Not legal advice ## What is in this dataset? {#what-h} What advertisers bid to show at the top of Google for lawyer searches, practice by practice. For 86 query families (English and Spanish) in the whole US, all 50 states and DC, the file gives the top-of-page bid band of each family's English and Spanish head query (Google Keyword Planner's low and high top-of-page bid estimates: the range advertisers have historically bid to show above the results), the competition level and index, plus the family's median low and high bids across its queries. Figures come from Google Ads Keyword Planner (October 2025 to September 2026) and are shown as bands with that period; for the US and 27 states, a DataForSEO pull of the same Google Ads data agrees on every bid band it shares. For the US, families are grouped into demand tiers by searches a month with the median high bid of each tier. Our own anonymized benchmark of what law-firm clicks actually cost is linked as a separate measure and never mixed into these figures. Use it to budget search ads before launch: the band says what a click at the top of the page has cost in a state, the Spanish head shows whether Spanish searches are cheaper, and competition says how many advertisers bid. A bid band is the auction's history for the 12 months before the as-of date, not a quote: your own cost depends on quality, match type, hours and place. For what law firms really paid per click on live campaigns, see Probative benchmarks, 2025–2026 (figures are approximate and shown as ranges). **Records** 2,725 **Look up by** 52 US, state or DC **Primary-source records** 2,725 The letters are explained in [what P, S, D and U mean](https://probativegrowth.com/data/#status-codes). ## Where does the data come from? {#from-h} Google Ads Keyword Planner for the whole US, all 50 states and DC (12 months): each family's head query in English and Spanish (the query with the most searches in the place) gives the top-of-page bid band (low and high) and the competition level and index; medians run over the family's queries with a bid; US demand tiers group families by searches a month; a DataForSEO pull of the same data is compared where it overlaps. **Period covered** October 2025 to September 2026 **Places** The whole US, all 50 states and DC **How often we refresh it** Once a year **The source's next release** October 2027 **Records read** October 30, 2026 ### The sources the records cite most - [Google Ads Keyword Planner, Oct 2025–Sep 2026 (monthly searches and top-of-page bids; export of 2026-10-30)](https://ads.google.com/home/tools/keyword-planner/): 2,725 records ## What does a record look like? {#sample-h} United States, Personal injury: English head "personal injury attorney near me": top-of-page bids $66.23 to $340 a click, competition low; Spanish head "abogado de lesiones personales": $35.76 to $276, competition low. Google Ads Keyword Planner, Oct 2025–Sep 2026. Status P · checked October 30, 2026 · source: [Google Ads Keyword Planner, Oct 2025–Sep 2026 (monthly searches and top-of-page bids; export of 2026-10-30)](https://ads.google.com/home/tools/keyword-planner/) Florida, Personal injury: English head "personal injury attorney near me": top-of-page bids $67.02 to $402 a click, competition low; Spanish head "abogado de lesiones personales": $38.34 to $291, competition low. Google Ads Keyword Planner, Oct 2025–Sep 2026. Status P · checked October 30, 2026 · source: [Google Ads Keyword Planner, Oct 2025–Sep 2026 (monthly searches and top-of-page bids; export of 2026-10-30)](https://ads.google.com/home/tools/keyword-planner/) The full records add the dates, the quoted source text and every field in the CSV and JSON files below. **What each of the 17 main columns means** **`level`** family (one query family in one place) or tier (US: families grouped by searches a month) **`head_en`** The family's English query with the most searches in the place **`bid_low_en`** Top-of-page bid, low end, USD per click (Google Ads) **`bid_high_en`** Top-of-page bid, high end, USD per click **`competition_en`** LOW, MEDIUM or HIGH: how many advertisers bid, relative to all keywords **`competition_index_en`** 0-100 version of the same **`head_es`** The family's Spanish query with the most searches in the place; the _es columns repeat the measures for it **`family_bid_low_median`** Median low bid over the family's queries with a bid **`family_bid_high_median`** Median high bid over the same queries **`queries_with_bid`** How many of the family's queries have a bid **`head_searches`** Searches a month of the head query (English, else Spanish) **`tier`** tier: searches-a-month band of the families in it **`families`** tier: query families in the tier **`benchmark`** US rows of practices our benchmarks measure: a link to Probative benchmarks, 2025–2026 (a separate measure, never mixed) **`asOf`** Date of the Keyword Planner export the figures come from **`jurisdiction`** US for the whole country, else the two-letter code of a state or DC; together the records cover the whole US, all 50 states and DC **`stateName`** The place's name: United States, or the name of the state or DC ## How do I use it in my own tools? {#api-h} Ask an AI assistant: add `https://probativegrowth.com/mcp/ad-costs` as an MCP connector (no sign-in), or the main server `https://probativegrowth.com/mcp` for every dataset. Setup for each app is on [the API and MCP page](https://probativegrowth.com/resources/rules-api/). **`adcosts_lookup`** For US or a two-letter state code: top-of-page bid bands and competition of the English and Spanish head query of 86 practice query families, with the period and export date. **`adcosts_search`** Records whose text matches the words given, such as a practice ("truck accidents"), a query or a state name. Or read the static files, with no key and no usage cap: - [Index and endpoints](https://probativegrowth.com/data/v1/ad-costs/index.json) `/data/v1/ad-costs/index.json` - [One US, state or DC (AK shown)](https://probativegrowth.com/data/v1/ad-costs/jurisdictions/AK.json) `/data/v1/ad-costs/jurisdictions/{jurisdiction}.json` - [Confirmed changes](https://probativegrowth.com/data/v1/ad-costs/changes.json) `/data/v1/ad-costs/changes.json` - [OpenAPI description](https://probativegrowth.com/data/v1/ad-costs/openapi.json) `/data/v1/ad-costs/openapi.json` - [API reference, every file](https://probativegrowth.com/resources/rules-api/reference/) `/resources/rules-api/reference/` ## How to cite this dataset {#cite-h} You can reuse, adapt and republish this data, including commercially, under the [Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license (CC BY 4.0)](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The only condition is that you credit Probative and link to the source. **Version** 1.0.0, released November 1, 2026 **DOI** [10.5281/zenodo.23851278](https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23851278) **Every version** [10.5281/zenodo.23851277](https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23851277) (always points to the newest) **License** [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) Download the data - [CSV: ad-costs.csv](https://probativegrowth.com/data/v1/ad-costs/ad-costs.csv) 1444 KB · one row per record (columns in README.txt) - [JSON: ad-costs.json](https://probativegrowth.com/data/v1/ad-costs/ad-costs.json) 3160 KB · every record with its sources Free, no email or login. The files are hosted on this site and [Zenodo](https://zenodo.org/records/23851278), a public research archive. Suggested citation Probative. (2026). Google search-ad costs for lawyer searches by practice area and state: top-of-page bid bands and competition (Google Ads Keyword Planner) (Version 1.0.0) [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23851278 Credit line for a chart, table or article Source: Probative, Google search-ad costs for lawyer searches by practice area and state: top-of-page bid bands and competition (Google Ads Keyword Planner), version 1.0.0, https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23851278, licensed CC BY 4.0. Add to a reference manager (Zotero, Mendeley, EndNote) - [RIS (EndNote, Zotero, Mendeley)](https://probativegrowth.com/data/v1/ad-costs/cite.ris) - [BibTeX (LaTeX)](https://probativegrowth.com/data/v1/ad-costs/cite.bib) - [CITATION.cff (GitHub, Zenodo)](https://probativegrowth.com/data/v1/ad-costs/CITATION.cff) - [codemeta.json](https://probativegrowth.com/data/v1/ad-costs/codemeta.json) - [SVG badge with the DOI](https://probativegrowth.com/data/badge/ad-costs.svg) Not legal advice. These are bid bands and competition levels from Google's keyword data on the date shown, kept for research and marketing planning. They are not a price quote, and the cost of any campaign depends on its own settings. ## What changed recently? {#chg-h} - **2026-10-31** · First release: top-of-page bid bands and competition for 86 practice query families (English and Spanish heads), for the United States, the 50 states and DC (Google Ads Keyword Planner, Oct 2025–Sep 2026). ([source](https://probativegrowth.com/data/ad-costs/)) The full log is in [changes.json](https://probativegrowth.com/data/v1/ad-costs/changes.json). ## Where is this data used? {#mkt-h} AI assistants read these bid bands, practice by practice and state by state, with the get_practice_market tool of our markets MCP server. A separate measure, never mixed into these figures: [what law-firm search-ad clicks actually cost](https://probativegrowth.com/research/benchmarks/search-click-costs/) (Probative benchmarks, 2025–2026; figures are approximate and shown as ranges). ### Marketing by practice area - [Personal injury](https://probativegrowth.com/practice-areas/personal-injury/) - [Criminal defense](https://probativegrowth.com/practice-areas/criminal-defense/) - [Family law](https://probativegrowth.com/practice-areas/family-law/) - [Estate planning](https://probativegrowth.com/practice-areas/estate-planning/) - [Employment law](https://probativegrowth.com/practice-areas/employment-law/) - [Lemon law](https://probativegrowth.com/practice-areas/lemon-law/) - [Immigration](https://probativegrowth.com/practice-areas/immigration/) - [Workers' compensation](https://probativegrowth.com/practice-areas/workers-compensation/) - [Medical malpractice](https://probativegrowth.com/practice-areas/medical-malpractice/) - [Social Security disability](https://probativegrowth.com/practice-areas/ssdi/) - [VA disability](https://probativegrowth.com/practice-areas/va-disability/) - [Mass tort](https://probativegrowth.com/practice-areas/mass-tort/) - [Bankruptcy](https://probativegrowth.com/practice-areas/bankruptcy/) - [Business and commercial law](https://probativegrowth.com/practice-areas/business-law/) ## What are the limits? {#limits-h} - Bid bands are Google Ads Keyword Planner figures for October 2025 to September 2026. They describe the auction, not a quote for your campaign. - The band is Keyword Planner's low and high top-of-page bid estimate (the range advertisers have historically bid to show at the top of the page) for the family's head query (the query with the most searches in the place). The family medians run over every query of the family that has a bid. - Competition is Google's measure of how many advertisers bid on the query compared with all keywords; it is not the number of law firms. - Our own benchmark of what law-firm clicks actually cost on live campaigns is a separate measure (Probative benchmarks, 2025–2026); it is linked, never mixed into these figures. - Records older than 400 days since their last check are marked `stale` in the files until we re-check them. Every confirmed error we fix is listed in the [data corrections log](https://probativegrowth.com/data/corrections/). **Not legal advice.** These are bid bands and competition levels from Google's keyword data on the date shown, kept for research and marketing planning. They are not a price quote, and the cost of any campaign depends on its own settings. Probative is a marketing firm, not a law firm. Found a wrong value? [Report an error](https://probativegrowth.com/data/corrections/#report) with the record id and the source that shows the right value. Other open datasets: [Legal-marketing ethics opinions, 2004 to 2026 (data)](https://probativegrowth.com/data/opinions/), [Ad-platform policies for law firms: tracker data](https://probativegrowth.com/data/platforms/), [Spanish-speaking clients per Spanish-speaking lawyer (data)](https://probativegrowth.com/data/language/), [California court filing data by county: dataset and API](https://probativegrowth.com/data/ca-courts/), [Lawyers by county in seven states (data)](https://probativegrowth.com/data/attorneys/), [Aviation accidents by state (data)](https://probativegrowth.com/data/aviation-accidents/), [New lawyers admitted and bar pass rates, by state (data)](https://probativegrowth.com/data/bar-pipeline/), [Boating accidents by state (data)](https://probativegrowth.com/data/boating-accidents/), [New business applications by county (data)](https://probativegrowth.com/data/business-applications/), [Board-certified lawyers by state (data)](https://probativegrowth.com/data/certified-specialists/), [Employment-discrimination charge deadlines (data)](https://probativegrowth.com/data/charge-deadlines/), [FTC fraud report data by state: dataset, CSV and API](https://probativegrowth.com/data/consumer-sentinel/), [County income and migration from IRS returns (data)](https://probativegrowth.com/data/county-income/), [Small-claims dollar limits by state (data)](https://probativegrowth.com/data/court-fees/), [Crime and DUI arrests by county (data)](https://probativegrowth.com/data/crime-data/), [Federal criminal cases by offense and district (data)](https://probativegrowth.com/data/criminal-filings/), [Practice areas, federal court districts and counties (data)](https://probativegrowth.com/data/crosswalks/), [Demand per law office, by state (data)](https://probativegrowth.com/data/demand-per-law-office/), [Medical device adverse event reports by product code (data)](https://probativegrowth.com/data/device-events/), [Social Security disability hearing waits by office (data)](https://probativegrowth.com/data/disability-hearings/), [Drug adverse event reports by ingredient (data)](https://probativegrowth.com/data/drug-events/), [EEOC charge data by state: dataset, CSV and API](https://probativegrowth.com/data/eeoc-charges/), [Eviction laws by state (data)](https://probativegrowth.com/data/eviction-laws/), [Eviction filings by county (data)](https://probativegrowth.com/data/evictions/), [Fair housing complaints by county (data)](https://probativegrowth.com/data/fair-housing/), [Federal civil cases filed, county by county (data)](https://probativegrowth.com/data/federal-filings-county/), [US law firm websites by county and practice (data)](https://probativegrowth.com/data/firm-web-census/), [Flood insurance claims by county (data)](https://probativegrowth.com/data/flood-claims/), [New green cards by county (data)](https://probativegrowth.com/data/green-cards/), [Hospital patient safety by state (data)](https://probativegrowth.com/data/hospital-safety/), [Immigration court data: EOIR dataset, CSV and API](https://probativegrowth.com/data/immigration-courts/), [IRS Data Book by state (data)](https://probativegrowth.com/data/irs-databook/), [US law-firm website census (data)](https://probativegrowth.com/data/law-firm-websites/), [Lawyer and paralegal pay data: BLS dataset, CSV and API](https://probativegrowth.com/data/lawyer-wages/), [Legal-aid nonprofits by county (data)](https://probativegrowth.com/data/legal-aid-orgs/), [Legal marketing hiring demand and pay (data)](https://probativegrowth.com/data/legal-hiring-demand/), [Who may need a lawyer, county by county (data)](https://probativegrowth.com/data/legal-need/), [Legal prices and jobs data: BLS dataset, CSV and API](https://probativegrowth.com/data/legal-prices/), [Legal profession figures (data)](https://probativegrowth.com/data/legal-profession-figures/), [Divorce and marriage rates by state (data)](https://probativegrowth.com/data/marriage-divorce/), [Mine accidents by county (data)](https://probativegrowth.com/data/mine-accidents/), [Mortgage delinquency by county (data)](https://probativegrowth.com/data/mortgage-delinquency/), [Mortgage applications and denials by county (data)](https://probativegrowth.com/data/mortgage-lending/), [Noncitizen population by county: Census data and API](https://probativegrowth.com/data/noncitizen-population/), [Nursing home fines and harm citations by county (data)](https://probativegrowth.com/data/nursing-homes/), [New York lawyers by county (data)](https://probativegrowth.com/data/ny-attorneys/), [New York workers' compensation claims by county (data)](https://probativegrowth.com/data/ny-workers-comp/), [OSHA penalties by state and industry: DOL data](https://probativegrowth.com/data/osha-enforcement/), [Deaths and migration by county (data)](https://probativegrowth.com/data/population-change/), [Official practice statistics by state (data)](https://probativegrowth.com/data/practice-official/), [Product recalls by year and hazard (data)](https://probativegrowth.com/data/product-recalls/), [Railroad casualties by county (data)](https://probativegrowth.com/data/rail-casualties/), [Robocall and text complaint data: FCC dataset and API](https://probativegrowth.com/data/robocall-complaints/), [Lawyer search volume by practice and state (data)](https://probativegrowth.com/data/search-demand/), [Google search landscape for legal searches (data)](https://probativegrowth.com/data/serp-landscape/), [State civil-rights complaints (data)](https://probativegrowth.com/data/state-civil-rights/), [State court case filings by county and case type (data)](https://probativegrowth.com/data/state-courts/), [State wage claims (data)](https://probativegrowth.com/data/state-wage-claims/), [Toxic chemical releases by county (data)](https://probativegrowth.com/data/toxic-releases/), [Truck and bus crashes by county (data)](https://probativegrowth.com/data/truck-crashes/), [Texas non-subscribers by county (data)](https://probativegrowth.com/data/tx-nonsubscribers/), [Unemployment rate by county (data)](https://probativegrowth.com/data/unemployment/), [Union membership by state (data)](https://probativegrowth.com/data/union-membership/), [USCIS applications by field office (data)](https://probativegrowth.com/data/uscis-offices/), [VA disability compensation by county (data)](https://probativegrowth.com/data/va-compensation/), [VA benefit dollars by county (data)](https://probativegrowth.com/data/va-spending/), [Vehicle safety complaints by state and make (data)](https://probativegrowth.com/data/vehicle-complaints/), [VA-accredited attorneys and agents per veteran by state](https://probativegrowth.com/data/veterans-representation/), [Unpaid wages and OSHA citations by county (data)](https://probativegrowth.com/data/wage-enforcement/), [Layoff notices (WARN) by county (data)](https://probativegrowth.com/data/warn-layoffs/), [Workers' compensation maximum weekly benefit by state (data)](https://probativegrowth.com/data/wc-benefits/), [Workplace injury data by state: BLS dataset and API](https://probativegrowth.com/data/work-injuries/). The full list is in the [data catalog](https://probativegrowth.com/data/). Running a firm? You don’t need the raw data: we handle your state’s ad rules for you. See where your firm stands first. From Probative, the agency Probative is a marketing agency, and we check the search-ad bid bands when we plan a firm's ads and search work. See [how we market personal injury firms](https://probativegrowth.com/practice-areas/personal-injury/), [SEO for injury lawyers](https://probativegrowth.com/practice-areas/personal-injury/seo/) and [how we market mass tort firms](https://probativegrowth.com/practice-areas/mass-tort/). Published by Probative Growth, a marketing agency for law firms. See our [services](https://probativegrowth.com/services/) and [pricing](https://probativegrowth.com/pricing/). Free ## Get your free review. {#end-h} Send us your firm’s website. Probative Growth records a 90-second video of what clients see when they look you up, and emails it with a one-page summary within 2 business days. No logins, no call needed. [Not sure where to start? Answer 7 questions](https://probativegrowth.com/law-firm-marketing-checklist/) [Ready to talk? Talk to us](https://probativegrowth.com/contact/#consult) [Or see what AI says about your firm](https://probativegrowth.com/ai-check/) **Your free review:** It covers your Google listing, website, phone and ads, from public information. [See every price](https://probativegrowth.com/pricing/) Practice areas We file the data on this page under the practice areas [personal injury](https://probativegrowth.com/practice-areas/personal-injury/), [family law](https://probativegrowth.com/practice-areas/family-law/) and [employment law](https://probativegrowth.com/practice-areas/employment-law/). From Probative, the agency Two of our services draw on the search-ad bid bands: [Google Ads for law firms](https://probativegrowth.com/services/google-ads/); [our Microsoft Ads service](https://probativegrowth.com/services/microsoft-ads/).