Personal injury has the most expensive clicks in Google Ads — $50-300 for the big case-type terms — which spawned an entire industry of lead vendors promising a shortcut. Some are worth it, most are a speed contest you haven't built the intake to win. Here's the honest map of PI lead economics in 2026.
The one number that governs everything
Not cost per lead. Not even cost per click. Cost per signed case. A $600 exclusive lead that signs at 25% costs $2,400 per case; a $150 shared lead that signs at 4% costs $3,750 — plus the intake staffing to lose the other 96 ring-battles. Every decision below feeds that number, and you can't manage it without tracking through to the signed retainer, not the form fill.
Bought leads: the real taxonomy
- Shared single-event leads ($100-300): sold to 2-4 firms. Won by whoever calls first with a competent intake. Viable only with sub-minute, 24/7 response — otherwise you're subsidizing faster firms.
- Exclusive leads ($300-600+): no ring-battle, but quality varies enormously by vendor. Audit on signed-case rate monthly; drop any vendor who talks delivery volume instead.
- Mass tort retainers ($500-3,000+ per signed): a different business — inventory acquisition for settlements years out. Cashflow math, not marketing math.
None of these build an asset. The day you stop paying, the pipeline stops.
The owned stack for PI
- Local Services Ads — PI is a flagship Google Screened category: pay-per-lead pricing in a vertical where clicks cost $50-300, a license-verified badge above every competitor ad, and ranking earned by reviews and responsiveness. Volume is limited; cost per case is usually the account's best. First channel on, always.
- Search by case type — auto, truck, slip-and-fall, catastrophic each get their own campaign, landing page, and economics; blended "injury lawyer" campaigns average away the profit. Bid to signed-case values imported from your CRM.
- Intake as a marketing channel — in PI, the intake desk is conversion rate. Answer time, empathy scripting, and e-sign retainers move cost per case more than any bid strategy. Measure answer time weekly like you measure CPC.
- Reviews — PI clients in crisis read reviews like juries read evidence. They also rank your LSA.
The blend that wins
Mature PI accounts run owned-first, bought-as-overflow: LSAs maxed, Search scaled to target cost per case, and bought leads only where intake capacity exceeds owned flow — cut vendor by vendor as owned channels fill the calendar. The legal vertical playbook covers the compliance layer (bar advertising rules by state) and the full campaign structure.
If you want the numbers run on your firm — what your current lead sources really cost per signed case, and where LSAs plus case-type Search would land — book a free audit. A senior strategist will map it against your intake capacity, which is where PI marketing actually wins or loses.