Cost Per Signed Case Calculator
Cost per signed case = CPC ÷ click-to-lead rate ÷ lead-to-signed rate. At a $150 CPC, 7% and 33%, a lead costs $2,143 and a signed case about $6,494.
Google Ads: Avg. CPC
Clicks → calls or forms
Leads → retained cases
Fees to the firm per case
$150 ÷ 7% = $2,143 per lead · ÷ 33% = $6,494 per signed case
Each signed case returns four times or more what it cost to sign. There is room to spend more at this efficiency.
Next: compare it with Local Services Ads → LSA vs Google Ads for lawyers
Each signed case costs about $6,494 in ad spend against a $50,000 case value (7.7x). See which funnel stage is costing you most: free 47-point ad audit, five business days, no sales call.
Get my auditThe cost per signed case formula
cost per signed case = cost per lead ÷ lead-to-signed rate
Most reporting stops at cost per lead. Carrying it one step further, through intake to a signed retainer, is what shows whether the campaign pays for itself.
| Step | Example | Where to find it |
|---|---|---|
| Average CPC | $150 | Google Ads: Avg. CPC |
| Click-to-lead rate | 7% | Calls + form leads ÷ clicks |
| Cost per lead | 150 ÷ 0.07 = $2,143 | Calculated |
| Lead-to-signed rate | 33% | Your intake or case management system |
| Cost per signed case | 2,143 ÷ 0.33 = $6,494 | Calculated |
| Case value multiple | 50,000 ÷ 6,494 = 7.7x | Against average fees per signed case |
These are illustrative inputs, not benchmarks. Legal CPCs vary widely by practice area and city: LocaliQ puts the average search CPC for attorneys and legal services at $9.87 across all practice areas (LocaliQ, 2026), while competitive personal-injury terms run far higher. Use your own account's numbers.
How to read your number
The calculator marks a result strong when average case value is four or more times the cost to sign it, workable between two and four times, and thin below that, because overhead and contingency risk still have to come out of the fee. If a signed case costs more than it is worth, the result reads underwater.
The weakest link is usually intake, not ad spend. Before cutting budget, check how fast new leads are called back. To see how this compares with pay-per-lead Local Services Ads, read LSA vs Google Ads for lawyers, and to size the budget behind a target number of cases, use the Google Ads budget calculator. Our law firm PPC page covers how we run these accounts.
Cost per signed case questions
How do you calculate cost per signed case?
Divide your average CPC by the click-to-lead rate to get cost per lead, then divide that by the lead-to-signed rate. At a $150 CPC, 7% click-to-lead and 33% lead-to-signed, a lead costs $2,143 and a signed case about $6,494.
Why not just track cost per lead?
Because two firms with the same cost per lead can sign very different numbers of cases. Cost per lead stops before intake, so it hides the step that decides whether the campaign is profitable: how many leads become retained, signed clients.
What should average case value include?
Fees that reach the firm per signed case, not the gross settlement. On contingency work, use your expected fee after the share and costs, averaged across cases that resolve, so the comparison with acquisition cost is honest.
Which stage should I fix first?
Usually intake. A firm with an average click-to-lead rate but a fast, well-run intake team often beats one with cheaper clicks and slow follow-up. Check how quickly new leads are called back before cutting the budget.
Built by the iClick team · Reviewed by Eric Mascarenhas, Founder & Lead Strategist · Updated
