Criminal Defense Marketing. Built For The Hardest Call Of Their Life.
We build intake systems that answer at 2 AM, ad campaigns that reach the right charge type at the right moment, and SEO that outranks the volume shops. Because the moment your client's life changes, you need to be the first firm they find — and the first one that picks up.
Criminal Defense Plays By Different Rules.
Not just legally — digitally. Here's what makes CD marketing a different animal.
38% of CD searches happen at night.
Between 9 PM and 6 AM, search intent for charges, bail, and DUI spikes. If your intake sleeps, your lead list shrinks.
First call back wins 72% of the time.
In criminal defense, the second lawyer they speak to is usually just confirming a choice already made. Being first isn't an edge — it's the whole game.
Jurisdiction-specific keywords dominate.
"DUI lawyer Tampa," "federal criminal attorney Miami-Dade," "drug charge Broward" — clients search by exact courthouse. Generic state-level SEO loses.
No outcome guarantees. Ever.
Florida Bar Rule 4-7.13 bans predictive or past-result claims without heavy disclaimer. We build campaigns that convert without crossing that line.
Boutique Criminal Firms Have The Advantage. Most Don't Use It.
Big firms win on brand recall. Boutique firms win on fit, speed, and relationship — when their marketing doesn't hide them.
Brand saturation — TV, radio, wrap ads, billboards
Channel-specific precision — LSAs, geo-gated PPC, localized SEO
Casts wide across metros and charge types
Hits specific jurisdictions + charge types by keyword
Generic intake script, call center handoff
Attorney-routed calls, same-day consults
Funnel hand-off to junior associate
Direct relationship with the named partner
Quarterly media review
Weekly test cycles, daily LSA adjustments
If you're the firm on the billboard, you don't need us. If you're the boutique whose reputation should be louder than it is, we'll make sure the right people find you at the right moment.
24/7 Intake Is Not A Feature. It's The Product.
Of your next month's signed cases will originate between 9 PM and 6 AM.
Attorney-On-Call Routing
Leads don't route to an answering service. They route to your on-call attorney's cell, with context: charge type, jurisdiction, urgency.
After-Hours Live Answer
Optional 24/7 live answer integration. When your team is asleep, a trained legal intake specialist picks up, captures the case, and warm-transfers critical calls.
SMS Auto-Response
Within 30 seconds of form submission, an SMS goes out with your booking link and a direct line. Because most CD leads can't talk on the phone right away.
Intake Triage Scoring
Auto-scoring on charge severity, jurisdiction, and urgency. High-severity cases route first, low-intent inquiries get nurtured, not dropped.
You can't win cases you don't answer. We make sure you answer every one.
Every Channel. Rewritten For The Way Criminal Defense Clients Actually Search.
Generic campaigns get generic results. Here's how we tune each channel specifically for CD buyer behavior.
Google LSAs — Top-Of-Page, Pay-Per-Lead
LSA placements dominate "DUI lawyer near me" and "criminal attorney [city]" searches. We manage Google Screened verification, review velocity, and bid pacing — you get only leads you pay for.
PPC — Charge-Type Keyword Precision
We build campaigns around charge-specific intent: "third DUI Florida," "federal indictment attorney," "drug trafficking lawyer Miami-Dade." No wasted spend on broad-match vanity terms.
Local SEO — Map Pack + GBP Optimization
Criminal defense is won in the 3-Pack. We optimize your Google Business Profile, build jurisdiction-specific location pages, and drive the review velocity Google rewards.
SEO — Sub-Practice & Jurisdiction Authority
Long-tail content clusters built around charge types, courthouses, and process questions ("what happens after a DUI arrest in Florida"). Positions you as the authority clients research at 3 AM.
GEO — Winning The ChatGPT & Perplexity Era
More clients are asking AI assistants for attorney recommendations. We structure your content so ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews cite you as the local expert on DUI, drug crimes, and federal defense.
Social Ads — Reach, Not Just Retarget
Meta and TikTok are where your next client's family searches first. We run Bar-compliant creative targeting demographics likely to need a referral for a loved one — not just clicks, but signed retainers.
Every Charge Type. Campaign-Ready.
We map keyword coverage, creative, and intake routing to each of your sub-practices. No generic "criminal defense" campaigns — every dollar is charge-type specific.
DUI / DWI
First-offense, repeat, refusal, aggravated. Campaigns tuned to urgency and severity.
Drug Crimes
Charge-severity-based intake routing. State vs. federal case flagging at form-level.
Violent Crimes
High-severity intake with immediate attorney escalation. Bar-compliant messaging.
White Collar
Executive demographic targeting. LinkedIn + high-income zip code geo-gating.
Domestic Violence
Discreet call handling, anonymous contact options, rapid restraining order response.
Federal Crimes
Specialized keyword targeting for federal-level intent. Separate campaign from state work.
Juvenile
Parent-targeted creative. Education-forward messaging that addresses fear and process.
Theft & Property
Volume-keyword coverage with charge-severity scoring to route high-value cases first.
From Arrest To Retained — In Under 30 Minutes.
Criminal defense intake doesn't get second chances. Here's how we compress the path from form submission to signed retainer.
Form submission, LSA message, or direct call. All routed through unified intake system with charge-type tagging.
Call routed directly to on-call attorney's cell — not an answering service. Full context pushed via SMS before the call connects.
Either immediate consult for urgent cases (arrest, arraignment, bail) or same-day/next-morning slot for non-urgent inquiries.
For qualified urgent cases, retainer sent electronically with signature-on-mobile flow. Case opens in your CRM before you hang up.
Keyword Coverage. Across Every Charge Your Firm Handles.
Here's the ranking posture we typically build for a Criminal Defense firm after 12 months of coordinated SEO + content + GEO work. Tier 1 = top 3. Tier 2 = page 1. Tier 3 = actively ranking and climbing.
Rankings vary by jurisdiction, firm age, and starting backlink profile. Representative of typical 12-month performance for Florida-based CD firms running our full-stack program. Past performance is not a guarantee of future results.
Signed Cases. Real Firms. No Names (By Request).
Criminal defense clients don't love being named in marketing. Every firm below gave written permission for anonymized metrics.
Boutique 2-attorney firm. Launched LSAs + geo-targeted PPC + 24/7 intake. Went from 12 signed cases/month to 59. Cost per signed case dropped from $2,104 to $873.
Federal white-collar firm competing against 3 AmLaw 200 branches. GEO + SEO + LinkedIn-targeted social ads drove 276% growth in retainer revenue without raising rates.
Solo practitioner taking every charge type. Rebuilt intake + killed underperforming PPC + added LSAs + shipped 24 sub-practice pages. Same lead volume, much cheaper — and higher close rate.
Every Campaign. Florida Bar Compliant.
Criminal defense advertising in Florida operates under some of the tightest lawyer-advertising rules in the country. Florida Bar Rule 4-7.13 prohibits inherently misleading communications. Rule 4-7.14 restricts potentially misleading content. Rule 4-7.16 governs what counts as presumptively valid. We don't test the line — we stay well inside it. No outcome guarantees. No misleading past-result claims. No testimonial copy that implies future results. Every piece of creative goes through a Bar-compliance review before it goes live.
Criminal Defense Marketing, Answered.
Will you run ads for violent crimes, sex crimes, and federal cases?
Yes — with the right creative and compliance layer. Google Ads and Meta have policies around some legal verticals, and we know them cold. We've run campaigns for violent-crime firms, sex-crime defense firms, and federal-only practices without account strikes. The key is Bar-compliant copy, verified landing pages, and proper Google Screened verification.
How do you handle leads who won't leave their name?
Anonymous inquiry is a standard pattern in CD — especially for domestic violence, sex crimes, and federal cases. Our intake forms accept pseudonymous submissions, we route them through secure channels, and we coach your team on anonymous-to-retained conversion scripts. It's a meaningful percentage of high-value cases.
Google Ads has restrictions on bail bonds. Does that affect us?
No. Google's bail bond restrictions apply to bail bond services, not criminal defense attorneys. We've never had a CD campaign flagged under that policy. If your practice bleeds into bail-adjacent territory (e.g., arrest-night family inquiries), we'll structure keyword and ad copy to stay clear of the policy zone.
Do you integrate with our CRM?
Yes. We build directly into Clio, MyCase, LEAP, Practice Panther, and Rocket Matter — plus Lead Docket and CallRail for intake-specific workflows. Leads land with charge-type tags, urgency scores, and full campaign attribution so your intake team knows what they're picking up before they dial.
How fast does a signed retainer follow a 2 AM lead, realistically?
For urgent cases (active arrest, arraignment, bail), we've seen retainers signed within 30 minutes of form submission. For non-urgent consults, 24–48 hours is typical. The 24/7 intake infrastructure matters because the difference between a 90-second callback and a 4-hour callback is often the difference between signed and lost.
How long until we see results?
LSAs and PPC typically produce qualified leads within the first 2 weeks. Local SEO and Map Pack movement start in weeks 4–8. Full SEO ranking posture for the tier-1 keywords in our heat-map is typically a 9–12 month build. We report monthly on all of it — not vanity metrics, signed cases.
We're a one-person shop. Are we too small?
No. Our CD client roster ranges from solo practitioners to 12-attorney boutiques. Solo shops are actually some of our best fits — you make decisions fast, your reputation is your product, and you feel the ROI in your own calendar. Big firms move slower and often don't need what we do.
Ready To Answer The Hardest Call?
30 minutes. Your market, your charge types, your jurisdictions — mapped against what we see working right now. No commitment, no sales script.