Spam to Real Leads: Google Ads Turnaround
$300→$82
2.5x
~0%→90%
Osric Digital took over a probate law firm's Google Ads account that was generating almost exclusively spam leads at $69 per conversion. After a full audit and overhaul — excluding junk traffic networks, cutting 69 underperforming keywords, rebuilding ads, and implementing call tracking — cost per qualified lead dropped to $82, with 90%+ of leads now genuine prospective clients. The firm scaled monthly ad spend from $600 to $1,500 with confidence that every dollar was driving real business.
A probate law firm’s Google Ads account appeared to generate 8 conversions per month on approximately $600 in ad spend, but nearly all leads were spam submissions from Google’s Search Partner Network. The account had a bloated keyword list (69 of 79 keywords had never converted), deprecated ad types still running, Search Partners and Display turned on, and no phone call tracking.
.png)
Bloated keyword list — In January–March of 2025, 69 keywords out of a total of 79 enabled keywords had not converted and spent >10% of the search campaign’s cost:
.png)
Most keywords running had not generated any clicks, indicating low volume or low relevance compared to the 10 enabled keywords generating conversions:
.png)
Search Partners and Display were turned on, which for lead gen almost always drives low quality or even pure spam leads. Conversions from these networks were also more expensive than conversions from search:
.png)
Display campaigns on Google almost always work better as retargeting campaigns or with a more qualified cold custom segment audience. They also need to be optimized not to target YouTube, mobile apps, game sites, etc., which can generate significant cost:
.png)
Phone call tracking: The client had a prominent phone number CTA on the landing page, but was not tracking calls from Google Ads, losing visibility into campaign effectiveness.
The engagement drew heavily on the diagnostic findings in the initial audit and on Osric Digital’s proven methodology for scaling Google Ads accounts for professional services.
Network Exclusion: After confirming that most leads were spam, the first action was to exclude Search Partners and Display network placements, directly addressing the spam issue and rapidly improving lead quality.
%20(1).png)
Rigorous Keyword and Search Term Optimization: We paused 69 out of 79 enabled keywords that had not delivered conversions or clicks, and pivoted to exact match targeting to focus only on high-intent queries likely to drive actual law firm inquiries.
.png)
Negative Keywords Layering: Frequent, systematic updates to negative keyword lists ensured ad budget was protected from irrelevant, low-quality traffic. We increased the negative keyword list to 113, including broad-match negatives for free or irrelevant legal work, informational queries, and out-of-state searches.
Regular search terms monitoring and maintenance further prevented wasted spend.
.png)
Ad Copy and Headline Pinning: Ads were rebuilt as Responsive Search Ads to replace the deprecated Expanded Text Ad type, with messaging aligned to desired search intent and landing page content, including experimentation with headline pinning.
.png)
In this version, the offer “Free Probate Consultation” is pinned as the first headline:
.png)
In this version, headlines are allowed to cycle through freely:
%20(1).png)
Call Tracking Implementation: Robust call tracking was put in place to measure qualified leads and attribute conversions accurately. Monitoring phone call length in CallTrackingMetrics allowed us to verify the percentage of phone call leads that translated to qualified inquiries.
.png)
Device Optimization: Optimization of mobile experience allowed us to drop cost/conversion from mobile to be in line with desktop costs.
.png)
A probate law firm’s Google Ads account appeared to generate 8 conversions per month on approximately $600 in ad spend, but nearly all leads were spam submissions from Google’s Search Partner Network. The account had a bloated keyword list (69 of 79 keywords had never converted), deprecated ad types still running, Search Partners and Display turned on, and no phone call tracking.
When Osric Digital first took over, the firm was acquiring leads at a cost of $69.32 per conversion, but these were almost exclusively spam, offering no real business value.After the account overhaul and implementing strict quality controls, lead quality dramatically improved.
The cost per real conversion initially surged to $300 as only legitimate legal inquiries were counted and call tracking was not yet implemented.
Through persistent optimization—refining keywords, tightening targeting, improving tracking—the cost per lead steadily dropped, reaching just $82 in October 2025.
.png)
This nearly matched the original (spam-filled) cost, but now every lead was a genuine prospective client. With the vastly improved lead quality, the firm confidently scaled their monthly Google Ads investment from under $600 to $1,500 per month, fueling well-qualified growth rather than wasted spend.
