Lead vendor, marketing agency or in-house team: how the three compare

Law firms buy new clients in three main ways. Each one is a fair choice for some firms. This page puts them side by side on the things a managing partner can check, so you can decide with the facts in front of you. It names no company, and it gives no legal advice.

The short version

• A lead vendor sells you contacts or cases it found in its own marketing. You pay as it delivers or on a contract. The ads, pages and data stay with the vendor.
• A marketing agency runs search, map, AI-answer and ad marketing for your firm. The work lives in accounts your firm should own, so it stays when the contract ends.
• An in-house team does the same work with salaried staff. You control everything, and you carry the hiring, tools and management.

Side by side

What the rules ask you to check

Rules differ by state, and your own counsel decides what runs. Two places to start:

• The American Bar Association’s model rule on advertising lists what a lawyer may pay for. See the model rule on advertising and its comments for how paying for advertising differs from paying for a recommendation.
• The model rule on professional independence (read it here) is the starting point for questions about splitting fees with a company that is not a law firm.

Each state adds its own wording. Our state rules library shows what we track for your state, with sources.

Where each one fits

A lead vendor may fit if you want contacts soon, your intake team answers every transfer within minutes, and you are comfortable with the contract terms and your state’s rules on paying for leads.

An agency may fit if you want marketing you keep, in accounts under your firm’s name, with a price you can read before the first call and a report on signed cases from your own records.

An in-house team may fit if you can hire, manage and replace specialists, and you want every account and decision under one roof.

None of these is right for every firm. Many firms mix them.

Eight things to find in any paperwork

Whichever route you take, find these eight items in writing before you sign:

1. What you are buying: leads, cases, or marketing work.
2. Whether the amount is fixed or paid as delivered.
3. How the term renews, and the notice needed to stop it.
4. The cost of leaving early.
5. How refunds or replacements work, and the window to ask.
6. Who decides whether a lead qualifies.
7. Who owns the ad accounts, pages, call recordings and data.
8. Where and how disputes are settled.

Our lead-vendor questions and agency contract checklist go through each one in detail.

How to compare them fairly

Use one measure for all three: the cost of each new client who signs, from your own records, over the same period. The Probative Standard sets out how we count it. Do not compare a cost per lead with a cost per signed case, because they measure different things.

Free tools help: the secret-shop worksheet tests your own intake, and the agency report decoder lists twelve questions to ask of any marketing report.

What this means for your firm

• Pick one measure first, cost per signed case, and ask every source to report it.
• Ask who owns the accounts before you ask about price.
• Keep sources separate in your records, so each one is judged on its own results.
• Check your state’s rules before you pay for leads or share fees, and ask your own counsel.
• Fix intake before you buy more, because any source performs worse when calls go unanswered.

Probative is the agency model: we run SEO, AI search and ads in accounts your firm owns. See our prices and our terms in plain English. We are a marketing firm, not a law firm and not a lawyer referral service.

Marketing information, not legal advice.