The Smart Lawyer’s Guide to Reading a Marketing Report 

Learn to read a legal marketing report the way you read any complex document: critically, strategically and with an eye for what matters.
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Learn how to read legal marketing reports like a lawyer — not a marketer. Chip LaFleur breaks down the metrics that matter (and the ones that don’t). 

Marketing Report Metrics: Your Path to the Truth

You wouldn’t walk into a deposition without reviewing the file. You’d want to know what the witness said, what the case hinges on, and what’s missing. Reading legal marketing reports should feel the same. It doesn’t matter whether you love or hate marketing. If you’re spending money on it, the report is your record. Your evidence. Your path to the truth. 

But if you’ve ever opened one and thought, “This looks like another language,” you’re not alone. Marketing reports — whether for advertising, content marketing, social media or lead generation — are notorious for being data-heavy and insight-light. They’re built to impress, often at the expense of clarity. And when they’re vague or bloated with buzzwords, they can mask weak performance, misguided priorities or just plain fluff. 

Let’s break it down. This is your guide to reading legal marketing reports the way you read any complex document: critically, strategically and with an eye for what matters. 

The Exhibit You Didn’t Know You Needed 

First, not enough lawyers have access to their data or reporting. Of the participants in the 2023 ABA Websites & Marketing Tech Report, 80% say they don’t get regular marketing performance reports. That is unacceptable. 

Second, even if you’re one of the lucky firms that gets consistent reporting, it’s often built by marketers for other marketers. Not for lawyers. You shouldn’t need a marketing degree to understand your marketing analytics. But you need to know what to look for, what questions to ask, and when to push for better answers.

Think of the data as your case file. You’re not trying to learn everything; you’re trying to learn what matters. That starts with understanding the most common metrics you’ll see in a legal marketing report. 

Reading Between the Lines: What Reports Say vs. What They Mean 

Impressions

This is the number of times your ad or content was displayed. Sounds big and important, right? But impressions don’t mean engagement. A high number might just mean your ad showed up on a lot of screens, not that anyone cared.

Reach

Similar to impressions, but slightly more useful: reach measures how many unique people saw your content. Still, it doesn’t mean they interacted with it. 

Click-Through Rate (CTR) 

This is a ratio: how many people clicked your ad or link compared to how many saw it. CTR helps you understand whether your message is resonating. A low CTR could mean the copy or call to action isn’t compelling or the audience is wrong. 

Bounce Rate 

The percentage of visitors who leave your site after viewing just one page. Sometimes that’s bad (they didn’t find what they wanted), but sometimes it’s perfectly fine (they got your phone number and called). 

Time on Page/Session Duration 

These metrics track how long visitors stay on your site. Longer times often suggest interest, but don’t overvalue this stat. Time doesn’t equal intent. 

Conversions

This is where it gets tricky. “Conversion” should mean someone took a meaningful action: filled out a form, made a call, booked a consult. Ask your agency how they define it. Sometimes a “conversion” is just clicking a button. 

Cost per Click (CPC)/Cost per Lead (CPL) 

These metrics tie money to activity. CPC tells you how much you’re paying for a single click. CPL is more important: how much are you paying to generate a potential client? And most importantly: are those clients converting? 

Spotting the Smoke and Mirrors

Here’s the truth: Some reports are more about storytelling than truth-telling. And the worst ones are full of distractions. 

Suppose you’re running a social media ad campaign. The goal was to get people to sign up for an estate planning webinar. Your marketing agency tells you, “We’re getting over 10,000 impressions a month!” But your firm hasn’t gotten a single signup through those efforts in over three months. 

Now, those 10,000 people have seen your brand. Maybe they’ll reach out to you later. But it’s time to dig into why your audience isn’t converting. Did you target the right audience? Is it time to A/B test different messaging, images or calls to action? 

Your agency should be analyzing your data and identifying ways to optimize your marketing efforts and learn new insights. But sometimes, reporting isn’t meant to make your campaigns better, it’s to make you feel better about the agency. 

Watch for:

• Changing definitions of success month to month. 
• Sudden pivots to new metrics when old ones stop looking good. 
• Reports that celebrate activity (impressions, clicks) but ignore outcomes (calls, clients). 

If a report makes you feel better without making things clearer, it’s not doing its job. 

Redefining ‘Conversion’ for Legal Services

What counts as a conversion in legal marketing isn’t always the same as in ecommerce — you aren’t selling shampoo or sneakers. Your intake process, your target audience, and even your practice area shape what matters. 

For a criminal defense firm, a phone call after hours might be the most valuable kind of lead. For an estate planning practice, it might be a completed form with detailed information. A personal injury firm might care most about the number of people who make it through an initial intake call. 

If your agency or platform is talking about “conversions,” you have every right to ask: 

• How do you define a conversion? 
• Does that action align with our actual intake process? 
• Are we tracking real client activity or just micro-engagements? 

Four Questions Every Lawyer Should Ask About Marketing Reports 

You don’t need to know everything about marketing. But you do need to be a good cross-examiner. Here are four questions that can change the way you read your legal marketing reports.

1. What does this metric mean in plain terms?

If someone can’t explain it without jargon, they probably don’t understand it well enough themselves. 

2. Why are we tracking this? 

Good reports align with your business goals. If you’re not aiming for TikTok fame, you probably don’t need to care about viral reach.

3. How do you define a conversion, and how is that tracked? 

Push for clarity. Ask to see the actual path users take. Request call recordings or form fill details. Don’t settle for vague answers. 

4. How does this data influence what we do next?

The report shouldn’t just reflect performance — it should inform strategy. 

The Marketing Report Reader’s Mindset 

The best marketing reports don’t just share numbers, they drive decisions. They’re an argument for what you should keep doing, stop doing or double down on. They give you a foundation to ask better questions. 

And that’s where you have the advantage. Lawyers are trained to analyze, interrogate and synthesize complex information. You already think like a strategist. Reading legal marketing reports requires you to bring that mindset to a new kind of document. 

You don’t have to settle for shallow insights or inflated wins. Instead, you get to demand clarity. You get to challenge assumptions. And most of all, you get to expect results that matter, not just metrics that impress. 

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