The short answer
Capture the ad click ID on every form, call and chat, carry it onto the intake record, and send an offline conversion to Google Ads and Meta when intake qualifies the lead and again when the retainer is signed. Send the click ID, the time and a set value. Case facts never leave the firm.
Why track the signed case instead of the call?
Most personal injury campaigns bid on a call that lasted past a set length, or on a form fill. Both are easy to count and both reward the platform for finding people who make contact, not people with a case. A wrong-number call, a property damage question and a caller already represented by another firm can all count as a conversion.
The outcome that pays is recorded in intake, often days or weeks later: the lead qualifies against the firm’s criteria, then signs a retainer. Until that outcome reaches the ad platforms, they cannot tell a signed case from a hang-up, so they keep buying more of whatever is cheapest to produce.
Step 1: Which intake stages should the ads learn from?
Two stages usually carry the weight. Qualified means intake has confirmed the lead meets the firm’s case criteria. Signed means the retainer came back executed. Each needs a status in the intake system, a date it was set, and a link back to the original lead.
Write the qualified criteria down
The same definition for every intake specialist and every shift, including an outside call center if the firm uses one. If the definition lives in people’s heads, the conversion will drift with staffing.
Record the signed date, not the settlement
The retainer is the conversion. A settlement can be years away and is not a signal a campaign can learn from.
Record why a lead was rejected
Not for the ad platforms. For the firm, so it can see whether a campaign is buying the wrong case types or intake is losing good ones.
Decide which stage bids first
Signed cases are fewer and slower. Many firms start with qualified as the primary conversion and track signed as secondary, then move to signed once the volume supports it.
Step 2: How does the click reach the intake record?
Google Ads adds a click identifier (gclid, or gbraid or wbraid on some iOS traffic) to the landing page URL when auto-tagging is on; Meta adds fbclid. The whole job of this step is to get that value from the URL onto the record intake will later mark as signed.
Web forms
Store the identifiers in first-party storage on arrival and write them into hidden fields on every form, including the short form in the site footer and any chat widget that creates leads.
Phone calls
Most PI leads call. Call tracking with dynamic number insertion can tie a web visitor’s click ID to the call; calls straight from a call ad are reported by Google on its own path. Either way, the call record has to land on the intake record, not in a separate call log.
Outside call centers
If an answering service or call center takes the first call, confirm it creates the lead in the firm’s intake system with the tracking number or call ID attached. This is where most click IDs are lost.
Intake software fields
Lead Docket, Litify, Filevine, Clio and similar systems can hold custom fields. Map each identifier to one, and confirm it survives when a lead is converted into a matter.
Repeat contacts
The same person often calls, then fills in a form, then calls again. Merge on phone or email so one person produces one lead with the earliest paid click attached.
Why the click ID so often dies between the website form and the CRM record.
Step 3: How do you send signed cases to Google Ads?
Create one import conversion action per stage
For example, Qualified lead and Signed case, each an import from clicks. Keep names neutral. Check Google Ads Help for the current setup path.
Give each stage a set value
A consistent figure the firm chooses, so bidding can weigh a signed case above a qualified lead. Not an estimate of what the case will settle for.
Upload daily, with a unique order ID
Each row carries the click ID, the conversion name, the time with its time zone, the value and an order ID. The order ID is what lets the firm retract or restate a conversion later, within the window Google allows, if a signed client withdraws.
Mind the 90 day limit
Google does not import a click conversion uploaded more than 90 days after the click. A case that signs later than that cannot be imported against its click, which is one more reason to send the qualified stage as well.
Step 4: How do you send them to Meta?
Through the Conversions API, as a server event from the intake side. Use a neutral event name, attach the fbc value built from the stored fbclid and hashed contact details, and send it when the stage changes. Meta rejects events whose event_time is more than seven days in the past, so the send has to run as the status changes, not in a monthly batch.
Leads that came from a Meta lead form are a separate case. Meta’s CRM integration for lead ads matches on the Meta lead ID stored with the lead, and has its own required fields. If the firm runs lead ads, store that ID from the first moment.
What must never be in the payload?
The ad platforms need to know that a conversion happened, when, and roughly what it was worth. They do not need to know anything about the case, and nothing about the case should be sent.
- Injury type, accident details, medical treatment or any fact from the intake questionnaire.
- Case type in the event name or in a custom conversion name.
- Liability notes, insurance details or expected settlement value.
- Free-text fields from the website form, which browser tags can read unless they are configured not to.
How do you read the result?
Cost per signed case, by campaign, is the number the work exists to produce. Read it with the lag in mind: a campaign that looks expensive this week may simply not have had its retainers come back yet.
Keep intake and advertising apart when a number moves. If qualified leads rise and signed cases do not, the problem may be intake speed or follow-up rather than the ads. The rejected-reason field from step 1 is what lets the firm tell the difference.
Common mistakes
- 01
Bidding on calls over a set length
Length is not quality. A long call about a case the firm does not take counts the same as a signed client.
- 02
Letting the call center keep its own records
If the first contact is logged outside the intake system, the click ID never reaches the record that gets marked signed.
- 03
Sending the expected case value
It is a guess, it varies wildly, and it is case information. Use a set value per stage.
- 04
Waiting for signed volume before building anything
Send the qualified stage first. It arrives sooner, inside the platforms’ upload windows, and gives bidding something better than a call to learn from.
Straight answers
What we will not promise
- A number of signed cases or a cost per case before the campaigns have run.
- That a setup meets bar advertising rules. That is the firm’s and its counsel’s determination.
- Intake performance. The work shows where leads are lost; answering and signing them is the firm’s.
Questions
What if a case signs more than 90 days after the click?
Google will not import that conversion against the click. That is why most firms also send an earlier stage, such as the qualified lead, which usually happens well inside the window.
Can we send the case value to Google Ads?
Send a set value per stage that the firm chooses, not a projected settlement. It gives bidding a way to weigh a signed case above a qualified lead without sending case information.
Does this work if an outside call center answers our phones?
Yes, if the call center creates the lead in the firm’s intake system with the tracking number or call ID attached. If it keeps its own records, that handoff is the first thing to fix.
Which intake systems does this work with?
Any system that can hold the click ID on the lead record and report the qualified and signed dates, by export or by API. Lead Docket, Litify, Filevine and Clio can all hold custom fields; the setup is checked in each firm’s account.