Marketing budgets · Practical guides
Law Firm Marketing Budgets: Guides by SBD Marketing
Most defense lawyers are asked to pick a marketing budget with no way to check it. These guides show how to set one from what your cases are worth, what you should get for the money, and how to tell if it’s paying off.
Start here: how much to spend on SEO
Marketing Budget Guides
How Much Should a Criminal Defense Law Firm Spend on SEO?
Our main guide shows how to work backward from your average fee and intake numbers to a break-even point, what an SEO budget actually pays for, why costs differ between markets, which pricing models can run into fee-sharing rules, and how to measure cost per signed case.
At a glance
- Who it’s for: Defense firm owners setting or reviewing a marketing budget
- Covers: Case value math, deliverables, pricing models, ethics, measurement
- Time to read: About 9 minutes
- Updated: October 2026
For criminal defense firms
How SBD Marketing helps defense firms spend with a plan
SBD Marketing works only with criminal defense law firms, and only with one firm per city. We’d rather show you where your budget goes than ask you to take it on faith.
- An SEO audit before any big commitment
A review of your site, Google profile and competitors that shows what work your market actually needs, so you can size a budget from facts. - Defined monthly work for the charges you defend
Charge pages, technical fixes and Google Business Profile work listed out each month, aimed at the cases you most want more of. - Reporting tied to calls and cases
Rankings for the searches that matter alongside calls and form submissions from search, so you can work out cost per signed case.
Talk to SBD Marketing about your firm’s marketing budget
Run a criminal defense practice and want a second opinion on what you’re spending or being quoted? Here’s how to reach the team.
BUSINESS
SBD Marketing
info@sbdmarketing.agency
BOOK A CALL
sbdmarketing.agency/scheduling
SERVING
Criminal defense firms, USA
WEB
sbdmarketing.agency
Five budget checks you can run this week
None of these needs outside help. They give you the numbers to judge any proposal.
Find your average fee by case type
Pull a year of billing records and work out what a new DUI, drug or felony case is worth to the firm on average.
Count your intake funnel
Track how many calls become consultations and how many consultations sign. Those two rates set what a search visitor is worth.
List what you’re paying for now
Write down every marketing cost each month, including directories and ads, next to the calls each one produced.
Ask how new clients found you
Add the question to your intake form and record the answer every time.
Check who owns your website
Confirm the domain, hosting account and content are in the firm’s name, whoever manages them.
Guides in this series
We’re building this series one topic at a time.
Splitting a defense firm budget between SEO and paid ads
Coming soon
How to compare two SEO proposals line by line
Coming soon
Tracking cost per signed case without expensive software
Coming soon
How we put these guides together
Each guide draws on Google’s own published documentation for Search and Business Profiles, the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct, state ethics opinions on lawyer marketing, and what SBD Marketing sees working with defense firms day to day. Any dollar figures we use are labeled as examples, not benchmarks. Law Firm Marketing Budgets is researched and published by SBD Marketing.
Explore the SBD Marketing network
Law Firm Marketing Budgets is one of 28 guides published by SBD Marketing. Each one looks at a different side of marketing a criminal defense law firm.
Criminal Defense Visual Branding · Criminal Defense Firm Growth · DUI Attorney Marketing · Technical SEO for Law Firms · Legal Marketing Analytics · Law Firm Website Design · How Families Find Defense Lawyers · Attorney Image and Personal Branding · Local SEO Lessons from Fitness Businesses · Local SEO Lessons from Restaurants · Game Design and Law Firm UX · Healthcare Fraud Defense Content · Local SEO Lessons from Home Services · Criminal Defense SEO · Courtroom Storytelling and Legal Branding · Music Industry Branding Lessons for Law Firms · Legal SEO News · Photography for Law Firm Websites · Legal Copywriting and Storytelling · Criminal Justice Policy and Search Trends · Criminal Defense SEO 101 · Law Firm Conversion Science · Defense Marketing for Athlete Cases · AI and Legal Marketing Technology · Out-of-State DUI and Location Search · Video Marketing for Defense Attorneys · Environmental Crime Defense Content
