Most law firms choose a marketing agency the way they’d choose a vendor of anything: a good meeting, a confident deck, a reference or two. Then they find out what was in the contract. The firms that sued their vendors in 2026 weren’t naive; they were sold on promises that lived in the pitch and nowhere else. So the test is simple: ask six questions any good agency can answer in writing, including us, and refuse to sign anything that says less than the answers did.
What buyers actually complain about
We read 110 public data points from 2023 to 2026 (reviews, court coverage, podcasts with in-house marketers, and industry surveys) to see what goes wrong between law firms and their agencies. The pattern is consistent: firms rarely say an agency couldn’t run ads. They say they paid for activity while carrying all the risk.
Probative's review of public evidence, October 2026
The five complaints law firms make most about marketing vendors
| Complaint | Data points | What buyers describe |
|---|---|---|
| Leads that never sign | 27 | Prepaid lead packages that don’t arrive; most leads rejected; spam and wrong numbers |
| Lock-in and billing after cancellation | 18 | 12-month terms, buyouts, invoices after a confirmed cancellation |
| Hostage assets | 13 | Sites switched off; profiles kept by former vendors; platforms that can’t be moved |
| Vanity or misleading reports | 12 | Calls that weren’t calls; rankings for terms nobody searches |
| Hollow guarantees | 12 | Guaranteed lead counts not delivered |
The examples are vivid. A personal injury marketing director described an agency reporting about 600 calls a month when about 570 lasted under two seconds (PIMM #75). A New York injury firm alleges it paid a vendor about $5,000 a lead and rejected 204 of 265 leads (Rankings.io, secondary). Six Florida injury firms allege they prepaid for guaranteed leads and received almost none (Boca Post). The suits are allegations, not findings. The pattern behind them is the point.
Question 1: who owns every account, from day one?
Good answer: “Your firm. The ad accounts, the Business Profile, the domain, the hosting, Search Console, analytics and the call-tracking numbers are in your name, on your payment methods. We work through access you can remove.”
Why it matters: ownership is what firms fear losing at exit. Google’s own community guide lists agency-created Business Profiles the owner never controlled as a typical problem (Google community guide), and one vendor’s exit guide lists proprietary site code, missing domain credentials and vendor-held directory logins as the usual traps (Precision Legal Marketing).
Check it: log in yourself. If you can’t, you don’t own it.
Question 2: what counts as a lead, and who counts signed cases?
Good answer: a written definition (a real conversation past a minimum length, about a new matter, in scope, not junk) and signed cases counted from your CRM, reconciled weekly, with platform numbers shown only as a comparison.
Why it matters: in a survey of more than 4,800 firms, only 37% had systems to track marketing ROI (Best Law Firms). Only 6% of 50 agency case studies reviewed in 2026 disclosed a cost per signed case (Silver Atlas). Older ABA data found only 17% of firms using an outside agency got regular performance reports (CallRail, citing the ABA).
Check it: ask for a sample report with fake data. Does it end with signed cases and cost per signed case, by channel? Does it refuse to show cost per signed case on fewer than 5 cases? See our cost per signed case guide for what good looks like.
Question 3: what does it cost, all in, and how does the fee move?
Good answer: a published, flat monthly fee by spend band, the setup fee in writing, and a clear statement that media is billed by the platforms to your firm, with no markup.
Why it matters: a fee that is a percentage of spend pays the agency more when you spend more, whatever that spend signs. A fee per lead pays for volume. Pricing per signed case or as a share of legal fees runs into the bar rules: ABA Model Rule 5.4 bars sharing legal fees with nonlawyers (ABA), and Texas’s ethics committee has said a nonlawyer vendor may not be paid a share of the firm’s revenue (Opinion 706). Lawyers may pay for advertising, but not for recommendations (ABA Model Rule 7.2).
Check it: ask what they would recommend if the honest answer were to spend less. Our law firm marketing costs guide compares the fee models at five spend levels.
Question 4: how do we leave?
Good answer: a first term of about 90 days, then month to month on 30 days’ notice; exports of everything within a few business days; no buyout; billing ends on the notice date.
Why it matters: lock-in and billing after cancellation were the second most common complaint in our review, and the most emotional one.
Check it: read the termination clause before the scope of work. If leaving costs money, that is the price of the relationship.
Question 5: who does the work, and who do we talk to?
Good answer: named people, their roles, what is done in-house and what is subcontracted, how often you’ll meet, and response times in writing.
Why it matters: a named, responsive senior contact is the most common reason for five-star reviews of legal marketing vendors, and account-manager turnover is a steady source of complaints. Also ask who approves ads: your attorney should approve every version, and in filing states the agency should prepare filings for your attorney to submit.
Check it: ask to meet the person who will run your account, not only the person selling it.
Question 6: what won’t you promise?
Good answer: “We won’t guarantee rankings, lead counts, cases or AI mentions, because we don’t control them. We guarantee the work, the reporting, response times, your ownership and your right to leave.”
Why it matters: guaranteed-lead contracts sit behind both of the 2026 suits above. Google itself warns site owners to be wary of SEO firms that guarantee rankings (Google). And a “guarantee” of reviews or testimonials can drag a firm into the FTC’s rule against fake and bought reviews (FTC).
Check it: ask what the agency does when a channel fails. A good one shows you a test that said “no” and the budget it cut.
Agency types, compared honestly
| Type | Usually good at | Watch for |
|---|---|---|
| Generalist digital agency | Execution across channels; price | Little knowledge of bar rules, intake or signed-case measurement |
| Legal-specialist agency | Practice knowledge; content; legal ad rules | Long terms; reports that stop at leads; proprietary platforms |
| Website or CMS platform vendor | Fast sites and bundled tools | Sites and content that can’t leave the platform |
| Lead vendor or directory | Volume on demand | Shared or unusable leads; guaranteed-lead contracts |
| In-house team | Control and accountability | Cost and hiring time; needs senior measurement skills |
| Independent measurement | Checking any of the above against your CRM | Only useful if you act on what it finds |
There is no single right type. In an agency-run survey, attorneys put intake working every lead near the top of their goals while marketers put lead volume there (Rankings.io). Whatever you hire, make sure it is aimed at the partners’ goal, not the vendor’s.
The checklist to bring to every pitch
Free to copy
Six questions to ask any agency, us included: the one-page sheet
| # | Ask | A good answer includes | Yes / No |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Who owns every account and asset? | Firm-owned ad accounts, Business Profile, domain, hosting, analytics, Search Console, call-tracking numbers, content copyright | |
| 2 | How are leads and signed cases counted? | A written lead definition; signed cases from our CRM; weekly reconciliation; no cost per signed case on fewer than 5 cases | |
| 3 | What does it cost, all in? | Flat published fee; setup in writing; no media markup; no per-lead, per-case or fee-share pricing | |
| 4 | How do we leave? | About 90 days, then monthly on 30 days’ notice; exports within days; no buyout | |
| 5 | Who does the work? | Named people; subcontractors disclosed; response times in writing; our attorney approves every ad | |
| 6 | What won’t you promise? | No guarantees of rankings, leads, cases or AI mentions; guarantees on ownership, exit, reporting and response | |
| + | What have you tested, and what did you cut? | An example of a test with a “no” result and the decision that followed | |
| + | Will you follow our state’s ad rules and prepare filings? | State-by-state knowledge; filings prepared for our attorney to submit |
Contract clauses your counsel can adapt
Promises belong in the contract. These clauses are starting points for your own counsel, not legal advice.
The reporting clause references The Probative Standard, our free rulebook for counting signed cases. Anyone may follow it and say so; nobody needs our permission, and we certify no one.
What this means for your firm
- Bring the sheet to every pitch, ours included, and score the answers.
- Read the exit clause first. It tells you what the relationship really costs.
- Log in to everything you think you own, this week.
- Ask for signed cases from your CRM, by channel, in the sample report.
- Walk away from guarantees of things nobody controls.
Probative is AI-first SEO and ads for law firms. Our answers to all six questions are public: see how we work, our terms in plain English and the pricing page. If you already have an agency, Independent Measurement checks its numbers against your CRM without replacing it.
Marketing information, not legal advice. Have your own counsel review any marketing contract and the ethics rules in your state.