The ad above is run by Rankings.io, an SEO agency that gets leads for law firms.

This agency has gotten some pretty wild results for law firms; like tripling their client volume, increasing traffic by 3,400%, and 400% more cases.

But they don’t display any of that in their initial message….

And there’s a reason why (we reveal this below.)

When you understand the anatomy of this ad, you’re going to have a nice template that sets useful boundaries for the copy and creatives of your next ad campaign. 

And this template can be used for any business, product or service. And really any type of campaign, not just ads.

The “6-Word Promise”

“Get more cases. Grow your firm.”

The hook here is almost offensively simple, but underneath lies an important lesson for all marketers.

Knowing what your audience wants is one thing. But a lot of marketers get distracted by all the other “things” that get in the way.

They want to be clever with how they state their USP, how they describe their service, tell the company’s backstory, etc. etc.

All of those are important, but they come after you promise to get them the one thing they want.

You may be surprised to see that your existing style or process creates marketing that serves your ego rather than makes your target audience (and their needs + desires) the main focus. 

Be the Real Slim Shady

The first thing you might have noticed about the ad above is the visual creatives.

The agency founder is dressed like a lawyer in what looks like a lawyer’s office.

The ad communicates in the audience’s language not just in what it says, but in how it connects emotionally & communicates visually with the intended viewer.

Over 90% of communication happens non-verbally. Humans take more away from what they process visually than from what they hear.

You may also notice that the ad looks like it could actually be from a law firm. From the soft, professional colors to the font—it’s designed to catch the attention of lawyers.

And that’s the magic.

Nobody Cares What You Do

Most lawyers are not marketers so the message needs to match the audience’s understanding.

Notice how Rankings.io altered the messaging from “Search Engine Optimization” (SEO) to “Search Engine Marketing”

SEO can be complicated, technical, and hard to explain. So instead of labelling their service as SEO….

…and putting a barrier in between the prospect and the sale…

Rankings.io just gave their service a simpler name.

They skipped straight to the outcome their market wanted and demonstrated they have the “know how” to deliver that outcome without getting bogged down in the “how”.  

Avoid the “Label Trap”

Agencies often get a bad rep. Even though the failings of other agencies has nothing to do with Rankings.io’s agency….

…they know the market. A lot of lawyers who’ve worked with agencies have gotten bad results and had a negative client experiences.

So instead of saying “we’re an agency” and triggering a potential objection, they left this info out too.

How did they get away with that?

At the start, it doesn’t matter how their service gets quality leads for lawyers.

All that matters is the result.

That’s why the agency kept the explanation to the bare minimum.

“Search engine marketing” is clear enough to know what it’s about without over-explaining unnecessary details like how it works.

And the video?

It’s only 5 seconds long.

The transcript is what’s shown in the thumbnail:

“At the end of the day, it’s how many cases are you bringing in? And we’re bringing in a lot of cases based on search engine marketing.”

The tone, vocabulary and cadence all sound like a lawyer: clear, direct and authoritative.

Because that’s who they’re speaking to!

How to write stupidly simple ads that get leads

The formula is simple:

“Get [RESULT] through [SERVICE]”

This can be adapted for any niche:

• “Get product sales through Instagram story ads”

• “Get course sales through email marketing”

• “Get speaker bookings through automated DM outreach”

When you make a promise this direct and simple, the natural next step is for the prospect to seek to learn more.

Hence, “Learn More” as the CTA for this ad.

The goal of the next step of the funnel is to begin to answer the “What?” and the “How?” questions.

Certainly at some point those need to be answered. In this case, Rankings.io needs to share that they are an SEO agency.

But remember how lawyers have a lot of troubles with SEO agencies?

Well, Rankings.io addresses that in the next step of the funnel.

The headline of its homepage reads:

“The only SEO agency for lawyers with a 94% retention rate.”

At this point, they’ve made a clear & compelling promise first and then overcome the biggest objection the market has with the way they deliver on that promise.

What else is there in between the prospect and the sale?

The keys to the success of this campaign is a deep understanding of the audience and a clear promise.

Once you have these two keys you can unlock the full potential of any marketing campaign.

Hope you enjoyed today’s Deep Dive!

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